CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Jason Chuong leads Jenks Bucket Drumming Ensemble

  

"So please give a hand for the Jenks Bucket Drumming ensemble!...During the school year I start the kids with learning technique, with learning how to read music, music literacy and at the end of every period I have an enrichment section, lesson. They learn bucket drumming or they learn drum set, improvisation, composition. And basically the kids do bucket drumming. We compose pieces together, we improvise ….. I got an idea from the University of the Arts. I attended the University of the Arts. We started an experimental bucket drumming ensemble there that kind of took off. And now it’s developing all over the city. I have seven ensembles in the city that I started and it’s just taking off! That’s what we do here at Jenks. Each bucket is about two dollars and thirty seven cents. And it’s immediate gratification for the kids. So instead of spending months learning fingering and armature and technique for a saxophone or clarinet, you pick up a pair of sticks and immediately play and you sound OKAY." Philadelhia School District Music teacher with the J.S. Jenks Middle School bucket drumming ensemble at the winter concert.

Watch video here.

Going door to door for college financial aid

“My name is Anice Austin and I am a culinary arts student at Montgomery County Community college. I am going door to door to ask for a donation to help me pay for my tuition. I am trying to be a chef in Philadelphia and surrounding areas as best as I can. I have thirty-three credits toward my goal. I need thirty more. Here’s a letter from the KEYS Program validating that I am enrolled in the college. Here is my roster for the classes that are needed in this program. I am encouraged with culinary because I feel that during the recession period it’s hard for people to get by. So I figured if I pick a major that’s recession proof- food- it’s hard for people not to eat and survive.” AND HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH THE COLLECTIONS? “I’m doing pretty good. I’ve gotten so far a third of the way there. I have also tried the scholarship programs but being as I enrolled so late, I missed the deadline.” WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO COOK? “I like to cook everything. My favorite is Caribbean foods. So I’m good with the curried chickens and the oriental meals. I really like everything- baking, cooking, pastry chef. Those things cover a lot of territory. So for me, that’s my baby.” Anice Austin of Germantown, going door-to-door in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Watch video here.

Took 7 years but got her G.E.D.

SO WHAT ARE YOUR CAREER GOALS? “My career goal is to be an adult education instructor and director of a non-profit organization /program in the future. I feel I can make a difference with adult learners. Like them, some of them, I have a G.E.D. So I feel I can really implement real life experiences that coincide with what I went through when I got my G.E.D. And I feel like I would be a motivator to encourage them to progress with their learning. And that’s why I want to be an adult educator. AND HOW DID YOU GET YOUR G.E.D.? WHY DID YOU GET YOUR G.E.D. AS OPPOSED TO BEING IN HIGH SCHOOL? It’s a long, long story. . . The very short version: I got my G.E.D. at the age of 25. I had been pursuing it for seven years prior. And I didn’t get a chance to finish high school. So I decided I wanted to go back to school and get a G.E.D. And it took quite a while to do it. I was having some difficulty with the math portion of the test. And I passed the other tests but that posed to be a really big problem so that’s why it took me seven years. And when I finally did it, I said ‘wow, if I can do this I can do anything’ So, I’m really confident.” Crystal Cox, North Philadelphia. Watch video interview here.

Time between screams down black hole

This is an illustration from a kids’ course on black holes. I’m teaching black holes in elementary school now and some kid did an illustration of a guy falling in. What happens when you fall into a black hole is that you slow down or you seem to slow down. This is your first scream, second scream, third, fourth, fifth, and it’s taking more and more time between each scream . . .So we think we understand something about time . We think we know something about quantum mechanics and we have no idea how to fit the two together. John Ashmead, “Time and Quantum Mechanics.” From his blog entry of July 11, 2010:"Spoke at noon yesterday (July 10th, 2010) at the Chestnut Hill Book Festival; in spite of heavy rain a nice crowd. This was my Balticon Time & Quantum Mechanics talk, adjusted for a general (rather than a science fictional) audience. I covered over a hundred years of physics in less than an hour — a lot — but the audience survived & even seemed to prosper, asking some good questions!"Click here to see video excerpt from talk and 9 second interview.

Home schooling parent switched from public to cyber charter

I KEEP ON RUNNING INTO PEOPLE WHO ARE HOMESCHOOLING THESE DAYS. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IT AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT? “I’ve been doing it for four years and I found out about it through my cousin. Actually, I home-schooled [my son] through public school the first year, cyber charter for the past three years. Public school wasn’t good for home schooling. WHAT DO YOU MEAN PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR HOMESCHOOLING? “I went through the public school. I got his books and everything from the public school. They were still getting funded for him but they would just give me the books and let me teach him at home and he would go to public school for testing. They weren’t good. Now the cyber school- they have a lot of support…he has a special ed teacher, a regular teacher and specialized teachers.” Tameica Lawrence of Mount Airy. Watch video interview here.

Stuffing Newsletters for OMC

"[We are] promoting this year’s Spring Soiree, Saturday April 10th (Buy your tickets now!) and the value of our parish school, what a good place our parish school is.” Mia Grogan, Our Mother of Consolation (OMC)Parish School volunteer.

Nancy Peter and Mom work at the Carver Science Fair

“This is the 31st anniversary of the Carver Science fair. It is one of the oldest, urban, city-wide science fairs in the country and each year 250 kids in 4th, 5th and 6th grade and over 600 kids in 7th through 12th grade compete in the citywide science fair….And let me introduce you to my Mother. She’s one of the special award givers. She and her colleague, Marilyn Young, who used to teach at Jenks give out a special award that honors team projects.” Nancy Peter, Special Awards Chairperson, G.W. Carver Science Fair, with her mother, Marian Darmstadter. Watch video interview here.

Geography Teacher Luigi Borda Gets Around

The book is called “Andiamo- Let’s Go!” and the series is called “Luigi Gets Around dot com” And the first book is called “Luigi discovers Philadelphia” I’m Luigi and this is the Philly “Phiat” and it’s the true story of me coming over in my car from Calabria Italy in 1969 on a boat like a lot of immigrants came to this country. We came to New York. We didn’t like New York because of its too fast-paced style and the truth of the matter is my cousin’s family lived in Philadelphia so we followed him to Philadelphia and there goes the skyline, our beautiful Philadelphia skyline. We settled here but it was real rough at first so we wanted to go home because people made fun of my name, Luigi. But then we started to run into people in Philadelphia. We ran into Danny and his Dodge. He told us to go the Art Museum Then we ran into Tracy my wife and her Triumph She said you got to check out Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and learn about Philadelphia before we go back to Italy. And then we fell in love, me and Tracy. We started a family. Our first daughter is Angie and her Audi and she told us about the Mummers Museum which is a German tradition and my daughter’s half German. And then we ran into Veronica and her Volvo and she brought us to the American-Swedish museum. Show’em your blue eyes, Ronnie. Look at Ronnie, now look at her in the book! That’s Veronica and she gave me tickets to a Phillies game because Luigi loves baseball.” Masterman geography teacher and author, Luigi Borda.

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TV Broadcaster Natasha Brown Visits J.S. Jenks Elementary for Career Day