Towanda Area School District -

So We Never Forget

Submitted by Kyra Brown, Towanda Jr. Sr. High School Public Relations

On Tuesday, May 15, the current Towanda Jr. Sr. High School Holocaust Literature class as well as some past classes went to the Teen Symposium on the Holocaust at Marywood University's Sette La Verghetta Center for Performing Arts.

The Teen Symposium presented the causes and the effects of the Holocaust. It also gave students an opportunity to meet survivors of the Holocaust and get their insight or "living history" through their firsthand testimony. The students had two brief introduction sessions followed by a film, Children Remember the Holocaust. Then they broke into small groups to speak with survivors of the Holocaust in individual classrooms. They also had lunch together before the final session with the keynote speaker, Alan Moskin, a U.S. Army veteran who helped liberate Gunskirchen Concentration Camp, a sub-camp of Mauthausen.

Science in Motion

By Trevor Gowin

Although it started off on a bumpy road, because of mechanical flaws in the remote control cars, Clayton Weaver's Towanda Jr. Sr. High School Science, Technology, and Society course is having a highly successful end to a project newly added to the curriculum. Over the last 12 weeks Mr. Weaver bought the remote controlled cars and the class fixed and raced them every Friday.

These cars, Traxxas Slash two wheel-drive models, are larger than the average sized remote control cars and they come with electric motors and suspensions much like that of an actual car. The class was designed around the hands-on learning idea to teach the students about car suspension and motors, for example. The students challenge each other's cars in drag races, hill climbs, tug of wars, and more, and as they do they learn about the mechanics that go into constructing almost any kind of vehicle. Friday afternoon, the class races to test their science experiments. They see if their modified actions and theories make for the fastest time on homemade courses around the outside of the school. The racing course is the equivalent of a miniature cross country course, weaving through trees, going over bumps and tree roots, and testing the cars' power on every up and down hill.

May 11, for example, they cheered as they urged their cars around every corner and over every root. All students were enthusiastic. They said the class was "fun", "different", and "interesting." They also agreed that "it's more fun to learn this way, than just out of a book." Mr. Weaver definitely hopes to continue and expand upon the project in the years to come or as he has said, "If you let them build it...They will learn."

A Children's Play With a Little Différence!

"It was a true children's play, a play for children and with children." That's how Phyllis McNeal, Towanda Jr. Sr. High School French teacher described what her students had been working on these last weeks of school. On Friday, May 11, THS French III and IV students went off to J.A. Morrow to teach second graders a little more French, through drama. They started teaching French mini-lessons on May 3 to the second graders in Ted Foust's, Melinda Miller's, Kathy Minard's, and Ashley Roy's classrooms as well as Sue Christian's at St. Agnes. And they finished big: with a French version of Le Vilain Petit Canard or The Ugly Duckling last Friday.

"The costumes were all dress-up-box-type creations, ones a child could imagine making himself. We had yellow firemen's hats turned duck bills, pink paper and pipe cleaner pig snouts, and even a black prom dress made into the villainous cat's costume with the addition of a tail!" McNeal added. The intention of the project was to present a teaching program that allowed the second graders to use the French they had learned in the classroom as they watched the play.

Do It "For The Kids"

Bon Appétit! Thursday, March 29th is the 11th Annual Frank Joyce Memorial Spaghetti Dinner. It will be held from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. A delicious serving of spaghetti, salad, a roll, and a choice of desserts will be served, but why?

This dinner is in memory of Frank Joyce, a former teacher at Towanda High and a beloved friend to many. He was an inspiration to students and other people in the community, and he would have been proud that his name is part of this effort to help all students in the Towanda School District who have lost a parent during the previous year.

Donations and raffle items are available to raise money for the "For the Kids" fund. Losing a parent is hard on a family and a child at any age. It's emotionally devastating and financially exhausting. The dinner helps raise money for children who have lost a parent in the current school year.

"It gave me a sense of comfort; and the money I was given was put away immediately. I am extremely grateful," says a Towanda student who lost a parent in a previous year and who was invited to the dinner. Frank Joyce will be remembered for not only for who he was, but for what he is still doing for the students today.

Submitted by Jamie Homet, Towanda Jr. Sr. High School Public Relations Class