Pride in Being Regular, I Want a Baobab, & Class Update

On the topic of poo, I'd like to offer this announcement, about which I am enormously pleased:  

I AM REGULAR!  

Walking around the neighborhood, as we did yesterday and today, you come across the occasional boabab tree.  They are quite majestic, difficult to fit into the frame of my camera, even with a wide-angle lens.

I want my own baobab tree. They sell them just down the street, little baobabs in small planter pots, perfect for the classroom.  They're so cute.  My own Little Prince tree!  

I am aware that a wide variety of traditional medicines come from the baobab tree.  It's a goal of mine, in the near future, to interview a vendor of plant medicines in Dakar, and make a collection of the plant products.  What a fun unit:  The natural history of the baobab.  A very generative topic!

School is well underway now, as we enter into the fourth week.   We've begun a study of the English writer David Almond (author of Skellig and Kit's Wilderness), focusing on the themes of transformation and empathy.  We've also begun our first major Inquiry Unit, entitled The Scientist & the Historian, focusing on the nature of the two disciplines.

I'm pleased to announce that the ISD-ROV Team has completed its first working frame, courtesy of 6th grader, Derek B.  Next week we'll spray paint Derek's frame, and begin wiring the lights and thrusters.  I imagine we'll have it in the water in the next several weeks. 

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