Fifth Grade Trip to St. Louis

Your generosity will support the first fifth grade class at West End School and their promotion trip in May 2018.   This is my eleventh year working in the field of education and my fourth year teaching this same class.   I had the privilege of returning to the classroom this year as a teacher after spending two years in administration at West End School.  People are shocked that a principal of an elementary program would return back to teaching.  That's just how special this group of scholars is to me.  Every student has become like family to me and we all want our children to receive the best possible education.

Just like every employee receives extrinsic rewards for their work, this trip to St. Louis is a reward for their hard work the four years I have taught them.  Every student who started with me in kindergarten is reading on grade level.  Of the 15 scholars, ten had the Honor Roll or Principal's List for the first trimester of the school year.  The five who did not have set personal goals and are working hard to improve.  Each Friday when they take assessments, they are eager to do their best.  This hard work should be rewarded.

We are going to St. Louis because some students  have never taken a vacation and I was able to choose places to visit that are affordable and engaging for the class.  Your donations will help fund many things.  We will stay for three nights at The Drury Suites by Forest Park, which will allow us free breakfast and a snack in the late evening, a central location in St. Louis, and meeting space to continue our chapter book challenge for 45 minutes each day.  We will pack our days with several places over three days.  We will start our trip at the St. Louis Science Center, in which we will engage in a Dream Big-Engineering Our World experience since two students are determined to become engineers.  Later on Wednesday, we will attend the Griot Museum of Black History to learn more about the cruelties of slavery, events that led to the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and black inventors and entrepeneurs.  Our Thursday will begin with the St. Louis Zoo and the students cannot wait to see species that they have studied and wrote informational pieces about.  Some of these include species not found at The Louisville Zoo like tree kangaroos and cheetahs.  Later that day we will go stand at the steps of the Old Courthouse, which was the famous site of the Dred Scott Supreme Court case they have learned about, tour the campus of Washington University in St. Louis to see the difference from the University of Louisville, and attend Epic 6 to challenge their physical ability and develop team building skills on a Ninja Warrior Course.  Friday, we will start the day off at the City Museum in which we will take our homemade parachutes with different masses attached and climb to the top of the highest structures and drop them to test out Newton's Second Law (f=ma).  Later in the day, we will continue our investigation of science at Coco Key Water Resort as we use our bodies in the second largest force in the world, water.   Of course, food, gas, and transportation will be an expense throughout these three days.  We need your help to make this happen.

 There is not one day that I regret the decision to teach this elite group of scholars that love to learn.  Every day is an opportunity for me to develop their integrity while teaching them English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, and the Arts.  Every success is a chance to point out the reality that there is greatness in each of them.   Every mistake they make is a teachable moment that allows them to mature and grow as brothers. I stand firm behind my belief that they will change their community when they become adults.  As the community stands behind them now with their financial support and time they are learning that it will be important to reciprocate this behavior.  The generosity of this campaign and the consistent donations from the community for field trips, class sets of books for our thirty chapter book challenge, snacks, and project materials have taught these  gentlemen that philanthropy will be a definite part of their bright future.   Thank you for sowing seed into fertile ground that will bring forth abundant fruit in the future.  It means so much to our fifth grade family!