Summer Break Plans

The final days of school were such a blur it is surprising to find myself on the other side with summer break already started. Reviewing and updating grades, then preparing finals, grading finals, accepting makeup work, participating in graduation, and then jumping into Memorial Day weekend was . . . exhausting yet satisfying. 

I attended a Rotary Club luncheon with a student from my advisory who received a scholarship, recognizing her hard work. She set her mind on a goal to graduate this year in spite of several obstacles, and she did it!

Congratulations, Destiny!

Destiny & Mrs. Borchers at the Rotary Club Luncheon where
Destiny received her scholarship award.

Alex, Destiny, and Aaron participated in the graduation ceremony ceremony at the Nutter Center on Thursday night. 

The graduation ceremony was amazing.

It took a lot of THIS . . . 

On the teacher's last day of school (your first day of break), I was at Fairmont until 9 p.m. helping to clear out a room in West Unit so it can be deep cleaned before it is transformed into a special needs sensory room. Members of Boy Scout Troop 236 from the church across the road from the school helped get this big job done in one day.

. . . to end up with an empty room like THIS. Great job, Boy Scouts

On the Saturday before Memorial Day, I did the following: handed out water and fruit to runners at Rocky's Run for Freedom, placed flags on graves at the VA Cemetery in Dayton, then welcomed home veterans who toured their memorials in Washington, D.C., at the Honor Flight Homecoming held at the Dayton International Airport. 



I finally made it to the EDGE garden to discover the plants are growing and producing really well. The snow peas will be delicious on a salad; so will the tomatoes. If you want to contact me at my school email, I would be happy to share them with you. Just let me know.

Snow peas

Delicious strawberry 

Cherry tomatoes

What have YOU been doing so far this summer? Sleeping in every day? Working at a job? Fishing? Taking care of siblings? You can post comments to this blog entry, so please do.

No weeds, for now

 Thank you, students, for spending time in our garden to weed and water it. The E.D.G.E. garden looks great. The tomatoes are full of blooms, the strawberries are producing fruit, the snow peas are climbing, and the flowers are full of orange color bursts. 

Delco Park Picnic: a Huge Success

 We had BEAUTIFUL weather for our end-of-year picnic at Delco Park. The food was delicious, the fishing was fun, and nobody fell in the water!

OK, at least two people fell in the water, but we're going to focus on the positive. . . . . 

Texas Hold 'Em was popular w/Tony, Greg, and Mr. Parker

Hamburgers and hotdogs were the main course

For some reason Mrs. Borchers chose Taco Bell over our delicious picnic food

Mrs. Borchers appears jealous of Mr. Blevins choice of food

Destiny can see graduation just around the corner!

Sarah and Alex enjoyed cards with Miss Mattox

Thanks for cooking again this year, Mr. Parker!

Great ending to a GREAT day!

Miss Mattox's Amazing Blonde Brownies

• 2/3 c. melted margarine
• 2 c. packed brown sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 to 1/4 c. chocolate chips

Bake in a 13" x 9" greased glass pan at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Our Class Garden Has a Name: EDGE Garden!

During several class periods the students have finally decided on a garden name: The EDGE Garden. E.D.G.E stands for the Exceptionally Designed Garden Experiment. They learned about gardening, looked up the frost-free season start date for southwest Ohio, chose plants based on how long it took them to produce fruit, and decided they wanted to include flowers to encourage pollinator visits. 

Jacob used his computer skills to lay out a planting plan so the flowering plants would maximize pollinator visits. Then he supervised the outdoor portion when the container garden was transplanted into our current raised bed in the Fairmont Unity Garden. 

Daily visits to check progress, break up soil, weed, and water have paid off, and the EDGE garden looks great. The tomato plants are flowering, the strawberry plants are flowering AND producing fruit. The snow peas are vining and will need supports soon. The flowers continue to bloom as we remove the dead heads and make room for new growth. 

During the summer students can check in to this class blog so they can watch the garden grow ... literally. In the fall returning and new students will begin to take ownership of this blog so THEY can report on class activities and upload photos and artwork to share information with their family and show off to their friends.

Unity Garden Plot

Today the sixth period students were able to complete both long-term projects. Tasting the pickles they had made, most were surprised that they liked the taste. Ethan was NOT a big fan, but at least he tried them. Those who wanted to were able to take home a ziplock bag of the pickles to share with others. We did get a thumbs up from Mrs. Borchers, West Unit principal, who enjoyed her taste test.

One group of students put the extra pickles in bags while another group transplanted the container garden into our official Unity Garden plot. It took a good deal of work, and Jacob made sure we maintained his original plan which integrated pollinating flowers within the vegetables and herbs to encourage bee visits this summer.

6th Period Pickle Project !

Students in the Daily Living Skills have been working hard to maintain the worm composting bin, start the container garden, and . . . make pickles.

After soaking the cucumbers in boiling water for

four days, Hannah cut them up to soak them in the

pickling solution.

Jacob checks on the the flowers and plants in our 

container garden will be transplanted into our class

plot in the Unity Garden before the end of 

the school year. The garden will be ready 

to harvest by the middle of the summer.

This is the recipe we followed while making our pickles. We did NOT follow the canning portion, but everyone had the opportunity to taste the pickles and to take home a small ziplock bag of the final product. 

Gardens and . . . Worms

Students in the Daily Living Skills elective are learning how to go about planning for and starting their own garden. This involves fertilizing the soil, so they researched and constructed a worm compost bin. It is still early, but there is hope the snow peas will germinate, the strawberries will bloom, the geraniums and lavender will continue to smell fantastic, and the tomatoes will produce some cherry-sized fruit.