Happy 2013

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

2013 is in full swing and we're as busy as ever. Read on for information about this week's field trip, FACTS class, conferences, and the silent film festival.

First, I'd like to welcome Natalie to our class. If you see her in the hallway, please introduce yourself and welcome her to the Cascade family.

This Friday is our January field trip. Students will need to be at school at 8:00 in their regular uniform with a healthy lunch. We have a bus reserved, which will take us to Medical Teams International for an 11:00 appointment and then on to Camp Withycombe at 2:00. We will be back at school in time for carline. If you would like to join us, please let me know as soon as possible.

The Real. Life. Exhibit at Medical Teams International is a very powerful way for students to discover what is happening in the world around them. We will be focusing on what we can do to make a change in the world in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday.

The REAL. LIFE. Exhibit is a walk-through, multi-sensory exhibit that allows people to experience what REAL. LIFE. is like for children affected by disaster, conflict and poverty.

Tigard Exhibit visitors step into eight places where the volunteers of Medical Teams International serve with our local in-country partners:

• A medical triage clinic at the New Orleans Convention Center after Hurricane Katrina.
• A room with a 25-foot tsunami wave, along with stories and drawings made by children who survived the tsunami.
• A Ugandan camp for people displaced by a terrorist group that abducts children and forces them into their “army.”
• A Haitian earthquake site and a tent camp where homeless Haitians are living.
• A Mozambiquan village compound where HIV and AIDS has ravaged the community.
• A Mexico garbage dump, where people live and scavenge for their livelihood.
• A Guatemalan community where children die from easily preventable illnesses.
• A burn unit in a Moldovan children’s hospital.

Portland REAL. LIFE. Exhibit visitors experience not only the real need but also the REAL. HOPE. that Medical Teams International provides. They see the “before” and “after” scenes of places that have been transformed by the volunteers of Medical Teams International.

FACTS Class: FACTS class was scheduled for this coming Saturday. Due to scheduling conflicts with Northwest Family Services, it will need to be rescheduled for the future.

Conferences: Student led conferences will be on January 26th. Student led conferences are an opportunity for your child to sit down with you and review their current progress and set goals. This typically takes aproximately 20 minutes. I will then join you for about 10 minutes to share their report card and MAP scores. This is the time to celebrate your teen's success. This is the time to make goals to improve areas of concern. This is the time to recieve MAP scores and your child's report card. This is the time to check in with the specialists about participation in those classes. It is not the time for in depth discussions with me. If you have concerns, I'm more than happy to schedule a seperate time for us to sit down and talk through those.  The classroom will open from 9:00 - 12:00 and 1:00 - 4:00.