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The following was originally published May 2, 2010 at http://sciencelivesatvj.blogspot.com/2010/05/edquardo-and-every-living-thing-are.html Greg brings in Edquardo from my truck and lets me use his phone for a picture.



He joined our classroom community, which really extends to the whole school on Thursday. I looked up at break and there were thirty kids in my room giving him a greeting and the office staff, janitors and other teachers trickled in all day to meet him. Thank you, Edquardo, for helping me realize once again my mission to enjoy the wonders of this world and share them with others. I may be able to teach more content and influence more high achieving students in another school but nowhere on this earth could I have more fun than here at Velma Jackson where:

• One of my promise kids actually took up my challenge and sent an email to me to express interest in a weeklong summer camp (where I have been offered a scholarship for someone just like her) • A student who failed my biology class last year brought 18 farm fresh eggs from her grandmother for the cookies I bake each day • A shy big kid slips me a note to order five of those same cookies (chocolate chip) 4 2 morrow • One student from my most rambunctious class who would not even listen long enough one day to hear about putting Lady down heard from another class who did listen and stopped me in the hall to say how sorry he was • Another student fusses at me each day I do not get there early enough for her to check the rain gauge to enter onto the national network (www.cocorahs.org) • Another student is making an artistic card to thank the Minks for donating Edquardo and needed another day to get it just right • A star football player who has a great eye for spotting caterpillars helped plant planters for the nature trail and talked about how much he loved working in the greenhouse and wishing he had known this in middle school • That same student is also one of the best caretakers for Benita (and kept her at his home over the spring break while I enjoyed my “eight days”) • The Velma Jackson Foundation awarded me a grant to purchase two beautiful blue pots with golden bloom euryops plants to embrace the greenhouse entrance and begin and end the nature trail for which they awarded me another grant



• The 1.5 miles plus 117 meter nature trail around the campus will have beautiful planter boxes with different flowers carefully selected by me and my botanical consultant, Cindy Lu, at Home Depot at each 400 m (about quarter mile) mark on the trail • Kids carefully put earthworms from the soil tended and tilled for flowers and vegetables around the oasis into little cups to be put into earthworm farm • Students painstakingly gather flowers from the greenhouse and put them in the flower press to later be put on bookmarks that are given to each new classroom visitor • Students grew tomatoes from seed and sold them in 1.00 and 2.00 varieties to their grandmothers, teachers and community members to total about $75.00 to purchase more potting soil and plants for the greenhouse and oasis



Grandmother will like these.



Mr. Cotten, our attendance officer, makes his selection.

• Students carefully pitchfork compost from old plants and pots and a star baseball player digs a posthole and sets a recycled post from the Dwelling Place and another puts up a lattice screen to soften it from my old dog enclosure



• Students design and put together hot air balloons from tissue paper and launch them from the front lawn of the school with great enthusiasm and then sit attentively (for a change) to learn about Archimedes and his principle that describes buoyancy of balloons and little rubber duckies in the bathtub and pseudo-gold Eureka crowns. . • Students worry me to death about when we will have our next science club meeting and field trip • Students still wear their DNA bracelets with the three bead tRNA codons match the letters of their name on their wrist weeks after we completed that unit (http://www.genomicseducation.ca/educationResources/activities/)

This is where I live and move and have my being as a teacher confirmed and see quite to my joy one of my best academic students getting her hands dirty and planting merigold, milkweeds grown from seed by another one of my students (who almost threw away his senior year because of an impulsive fight), and zinnias and bachelor buttons.



Signing off to go to get energized at Wells and then to water the plants and feed the animals and every other new flora and fauna that is welcomed into the VJ fold.