This school year and next, Groton students will have to opportunity to do something truly unique.  We are building an Earthship permaculture system in Freeville!  This fall we'll be putting the finishing touches on the Earthship barn, which will be vital for livestock, storage, and rainwater collection.  The barn could not have been completed without the help of Mr. Filzen, Mr. Wiech, Mr. Giroux, Mrs. Hume, and Ms. Bassette who stopped in periodically over the summer to help out and lend equipment.  

Today we had a mini workshop to learn how to build with garbage.  Here, seniors, Alex and Quinn work on making bottle bricks for a can wall.  Bottles are cut 4" and duct taped together in various color schemes.

10th graders, Cali and Nick start work on the final wall of the Earthship barn loft.  The nails and lath strips secure the wall to the wood structure.  The barn boasts recycled plastic shingles, locally-cut hemlock boards, old reused windows, and incorporation of over 2,000 aluminum cans and discarded glass bottles.

On their way to 12 pints of Salsa. No carbon was emitted in the transport of the major ingredients. Sweet!

Josh and Daymin set up their initial slug experiment to test whether slugs prefer the sweet taste of melon or the neutral taste of lettuce.

Sam S. takes her scientific observations pretty seriously. So how do slugs taste, Sam?

We have a huge class this year but the members of Food, Land, and You all managed to fit into the GCS garden today. We harvested tomatoes, hot peppers, onions, and a ripe melon.

Slugfest '11

Xavier takes down some detailed observations of the common garden slug.  Next week we'll be designing experiments to test the food preferences of slugs.

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year.  11% of the 21st century is now over.  That being said, how many of you feel you have a good grasp of 21st century skills like cloud computing, virtual collaboration, or currently maintain a website or blog other than Facebook?  Do you check Twitter feeds or read a book from a Kindle?  What was the last podcast you listened to?  Would you feel comfortable if an employer needed you to use Photoshop, Microsoft Excel or Google Docs on a regular basis?  Do you feel prepared to enter college and a workforce with other young people from Germany, Asia, and India?  How has Groton done so far preparing you for the last 89%?

Last year was the toughest year to date for me, personally and professionally.  After losing teachers like Syracuse, Giroux, Toyama, Varga, etc. - in most cases because the school and Board of Ed. cut them - I have had to reflect deeply about these losses to Groton and about this profession in general and how we need changes in US education. We need changes in public attitude towards education, changes in education law and unions, changes in school leadership and teachers, changes in school-day structure and changes to what politicians think you need to learn in school.  

Every student in Groton should have learned last year that they can no longer take education and their teachers for granted. This was my favorite picture from last year in 7th grade... students staying after school in preparation of acting at a Board of Education meeting.  It is now time to stand up and demand the changes mentioned above because NOTHING will change if you sit back and let the adults around you try to change things for you.  

This year I invite you to "go rogue" with me.  Lets change the school and world together and not worry about what others think of us along the way!

Congratulations GCS class of 2011! This group was my first cohort at Groton. Here is a picture of some of them during a spring Adopt-a-Highway cleanup many years ago.  I look forward to seeing them do wonderful things in their adult lives.

Friday marked the last day of the school year. I really enjoyed working with this year's 7th grade class...my last at Groton Middle School. The good news is that I will see them again in 10th grade and look forward to these students that have blossomed over the past year.

Have a good summer guys and remember to be good role models as 8th graders next year. Keep in touch!

The ecology unit means spending some time in the outdoor classroom. Yesterday we read a section from the book The Last American Man and made observations along the GCS Nature Trail.

Today we played "Hungry Birds" in class. Not every member of this species was equal though. Variations in beak structure gave some an advantage to illustrate the process of natural selection.

Taking temperature and pH readings from various depths of Cayuga Lake.

Two great days on the Cayuga Lake floating classroom! Here, a group gets ready to collect aquatic insects in Salmon Creek.

Today, some members of the middle school environmental club participated in the annual Adopt-a-highway cleanup. What great weather as well! Thank you Courtney, Austin, Luke, Sam, and Colton. You helped make Groton more beautiful.

We finally got some good weather and mud-free banks on the Owasco Inlet to let our Browns go. We released them this morning in the midst of a midge hatch...nature's reassurance that our little guys will be properly fed! We're all looking forward to the upcoming Floating Classroom trip on May 19 and 20.

Today in class we will be learning more about genetics and DNA.

Step 1: Open another tab in explorer. Run though this groovy animation about apples. Please pay attention and read the descriptions carefully.

Step 2: On the same tab bring up this website.

Step 3: Now, tour the six animations at the top of this page.

You're done for the day.

In between rain, we've been planting trees that were donated to the school from the DEC and Baker-Miller Lumber. Here, members of 1st period plant pine trees next to the track.