The Schoolhouse Log: August 2011

Jack's composition piece this month is the backing track he wrote for a Waterford Crystal promotion, as part of his Berklee Film Making class.
This div will be replaced by the JW Player.

This month began with our final workshop at The Library of the Chathams, but this one was a family affair. In fact Jack led it, as he gave his "Writer's Journey" workshop, and he spoke to a large group of parents and children about how he came to write his book "Terror of Porridge" and how they could self publish themselves. It was very well received, and Jack's speaker fee went to benefit "America's Grow-A-Row", to whom he donates 10% of the profits from the book. In fact, Leena from Grow-A-Row, was in attendance, did a great job presenting the work undertaken by Grow-A-Row.
Archery:
The month also began with our final archery session, which despite the mixed weather was very well attended.

More Photos available on Flickr: June 29th, July 6th


Jack entered two contests this month, one was a NASA art contest, and the other was for Adventure Novel in Year. We have our fingers crossed for both.

Phil, Jack and myself attended a Rain Barrel Workshop by Alana Roberts of PPL. It got us thinking about how much water can be saved from a roof and used for the garden. We also attended several other environmentally aware workshops as part of this year's NOFA Summer Conference in Amherst, Mass. Jack loved the teen conference, but also branched out into some of the adult workshops with another friend. Phil and I ran our "Gravestone Art" class for the older children, to pay for our tickets; we had a small, but attentive group. The highlights of the weekend were, of course, the excellent workshops, but also attending the Farmer's Fair on the Saturday, catching up with friends Susan, and her daughter Christine, and with Linda and Michael, in whose driveway we parked our Airstream trailer.


Jack completed his Teen Writing Workshops at the Northeast Branch of the Warren County Library. The workshops were led by author Bill Mesce. There was a reception to mark the occasion, where the students were presented with a book of the pieces they had written. We had a chance to talk with Bill, and he encouraged Jack to continue his writing and develop it further.

Maria, Ed, Christina and Andrew joined us for a meal towards the end of the month and we all enjoyed some amazing gluten free desserts. Maria's cake was wonderful.


The next day we took a walk in the Delaware Water Gap with Danielle, one of the students from the energy project. We hiked it in double quick time, because we knew a thunderstorm was coming in. However it didn't stop us from seeing some amazing mushrooms, which were in abundance due to the amount of rain we had been getting all month. We especially enjoyed seeing and identifying the highly poisonous Destroying Angel.


Jack and Hunter were interviewed by a representative from the EPA Energy Star program, after they submitted a two minute version of their video for the EPA Energy Star Video Challenge contest. You can view it by taking the link to the Energy Story Page. Jack joined the EPA Energy Star Twitter Party, and was in conversation electronically when we experienced the earthquake. The Energy Star team were running the workshop from  Washington DC, and they cut it short to rush outside and see what was going on.

Although the project has come to end, and Shellene is taking on the Free Union Homeschoolers, Lorna has continued to teach, but this time for money. She taught three students over the summer, and will continue to teach several children each week through the new school year. Her training in teaching children with Specific Learning Difficulties/Dyslexia has come in very handy.

After the earthquake, there followed Hurricane Irene. We got off lightly - we lost power for about 36 hours, but other folks in tpwn were without power for over a week. A lot of trees came down, and the flooding was extensive across the state because the ground was already saturated. The day before the storm, Lorna, and friend Joanne, enjoyed a "marblizing on paper" workshop at a local library. On the eve of the storm we ate dinner with Joanne and her husband John. They left early as the storm arrived, but not before sampling Phil's mead, which is starting to taste pretty good!

Jack continued to work on turning "Terror of Porridge" into a movie, assisted by Rachel, who mentored the students for their "Journey of Energy" movie. Jack started this process in July with Rachel, and it looks like being a mammoth undertaking. He plans to release the movie on YouTube when it is completed, and to use it as an advert for his book.

The month finished with a new student orientation evening at Warren County Community College. Jack is so looking forward to starting part-time at the beginning of September. He is also now planning to graduate from high school in January 2012, and attend full-time at the college starting in January.

Photos from our Honeymoon on the Isle of Arran