Our Third Motivational Tribute! TEAMWORK

Todays tribute is really fitting for the day. The staff here at ALTC is an incredible team of professionals who go above and beyond the "jobs" for which we are assigned! For example, today, everyone chipped in and made a dish (or two or three!) in order for our students to enjoy a delicious full course Thanksgiving Dinner! Teamwork is encouraged everyday! There is no better way to accomplish things while feeling good about helping others!

Thursday at the Androscoggin Valley SPCA

On Thursdays, it our now with great excitement that we are volunteering at the SPCA on Strawberry Ave. in Lewiston. Each week, five kids and two staff will be going over and cleaning pens, cages and the such. What a great amount of pleasure the kids and staff had last week making a differences in these animals lives, as well as the lives of the employees there! Thank you for having us!

Individuality

Dream - Our First Motivational Tribute

Motivational Posters

Last week, the staff and students made some of our own motivational posters. Each week I will post a picture and how the staff and students decided we do it here at ALTC. This was a great motivational activity and showed the kids just how much we learn here at school. Everyone participated and enjoyed this activity! Two hours of cooperative learning - there is nothing more positive!

Reading is alive and well!

This morning, I saw one of the most wonderful sights and needed to take a picture of it. How often do you see a high school aged boy reading to his teacher. The picture speaks for itself.

The results are in

The results for both of the science experiments were very interesting. Tyler decided that the food coloring the was very concentrated killed the flowers. They did absorb some, but ended up dead prior to the ones with the less concentrated food coloring. The less concentrated ones ended up alive and conintinued to absorb the color.

Roger and Ian's experiemtn with the leaves ended up as they expected. The water inthe bowls changed the color that the leaf was, wither brown, yellow or orange. The leaves in thedye did coninute to rely on the water, as the veins of the leaves did change tothe blue color!

Nice work on these self-guided experiments. They are already planning somenew ones!

Chemistry Science Project

Ian and Roger, two of our chemistry students, have designed an experiment.

First, we went over the scientific method:

1. Ask a question.

2. Conduct research.

3.Construct a hypothesis

4.Test your hypothesis by conducting an experiment.

5.Analyze the data and draw your conclusions

6. Communicate your results!

They have asked the question of "will water change color if you place cut-up autumn leaves in it?"

They researched and have found that according to several websites, decomposing and decaying leaves can change the color of water, usually to a reddish-brown color. This is usually caused by the chemical and minerals such as carotene, which gives the leaves their natural orange/yellow color.

They have hypothesised that all of the water will change color, although only slightly.

For this experiment, they went out and collected several different colored leaves, and made score marks in them prior to placing them in the bowls of water. They will check for color change in 24 hours.

Also, as a challenge experiment, they have placed food coloring in two bowl to see if the leaves will continue to absorb water even though they have fallen from the tree. They have placed two maple leaves in blue water, on by the stem, one fully submerged. They think that the water will be drawn into the leaves.

Biology science project

Today, we went over the scientific method in class. We reviewed the following steps:

1. Ask a question.
2. Conduct research.
3. construct a hypothesis.
4.Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment.
5.Analyze the data and draw a conclusion
6.Communicate your results.

Today, our biology student Tyler started his experiment by asking the following question.

Will higher concentrations of food coloring placed in water make the carnation placed in the colored water change color faster?

He researched and found out that it will take from 1 to 24 hours for the flowers to showsomechange in color.

Tyler has hypothesized that the higher concentration of food coloring will make the carnation darker and change color quicker.

Tyler disolved the food coloring in the water at different levels of concentration, and then placed the white carnations into the water. He will check for results beginning in one hour.

PSATs

I would like to thank the three wonderful, hardworking students who completed thePSATs this morning with minimal complaints. They worked hard for the two-and -a-half hour test block and were rewarded with delicious lunch from The Gridiron, one of our favorite restaurants in town! Thanks boys! Great Job!

Thank you!

Thank you to those parents and students who came to our Open House last night! It was a very excellent opportunity to have some personal time with each of you who came! We would like to thank the Becket House at Litchfield and especially Cathie for the amazing food, including the most excellent chili! The whoopie pies were to die for, as were the homemade brownies with chocolate ganache deliciously placed upon them! If you were unable to attend and would like to schedule a time to come in and visit our facility and staff, please call 207-344-6226! Thanks

Open House!

On Thursday, October 8th, ALTC will be having our Annual Open House from 4:00 to 7:00pm. Feel free to stop by and say hello, meet our outstanding staff and our new director, John Fulp! There will be food and lots of goodies! Hope to see you there!

Apple Ridge Farm

Today, for those students who were on the appropriate level, we went to Apple Ridge Orchards in Auburn, ME. It was a beautiful day for a trip to the farm! When we arrived, they taught us about the storage and refrigeration process. They actually seal up the room and suck all of the oxygen out of it. That leaves only nitrogen, which helps to preserve the apples. Oxygen will speed up the deterioration process, so that is why it is removed. Then, we were given some bags to go pick some apples. The macs and cortlands were delicious! After that, we returned to the farm and got some fresh pressed apple cider. You would be hard-pressed to find any better cider! It was yummy! They gave us some feed for the farm animals and we went over to visit them. There were goats, pygmy goats, baby sheep, a couple of cows, silky chickens, turkeys and ducks. We then headed back to the school to go home for the weekend!

Trip to the Farm!

We had the best trip to Pineland Farms. We experienced the Moo to You program and the Cheese Making operation! It was awesome! We had a blast! We started in the manure pit (and no other name was acceptable) We learned how this went in a cycle from the land to the animal into by-products that go back to the land! We walked through the heiffer barn and got to pat some of them. When we were in the calf barn, we learned how they name the cows. The "P" names are handed down from the mother of the calf, and the names that start with "P"are traced back all the wayto the herd in England when they arrived back in the 1700's! Amazing! Next we went to the hay barn and threw the hay to see how far we could go! Then we saw the milking parlor and how that works, and got to touch udders and teats (which was a little wierd!) Anyway - the best part was going to the cheese company! We saw them making fresh cheese, and got to taste cheese curd, cheddar, colby, pepper jack and many other types of fresh cheese! We went to lunch at the Pineland farms Cafeteria and enjoyed each others company!

Welcome Karen Desjardins!

We would like to welcome Karen to the staff at ALTC as our Social Worker! We are very excited to work with her, as are the students! Good luck!

ALTC Welcomes John Fulp

The Becket Programs of Maine is proud to announce its newest administrative addition and transplant, John R. Fulp. John has worked for nearly 8 years with the Becket Family of Services of New Hampshire as a Program Director of 4 separate at risk youth facilities and as the Principal of a Special Education day school called The Life Centered Learning Institute in Tilton, NH. John brings with years of experience and capabilities to manage all aspects of leading, operating and evaluating educational institutions.
Along with his M.Ed. in Educational Leadership, he has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Law. He holds both Special Education Administrator and Teaching Certifications in NH and is in process to gain his Maine State Special Education Administrator certificate.
“I pride myself on the supportive and collaborative leadership style I have evolved, which fosters a safe and growth oriented aura. My teachers and students know that they have the room to be creative and grow yet the structure to ensure that all faculty and students receive the opportunities and educational experiences they deserve.”

We are very excitedto be under John's leadership. We wish him the best of luck here in Maine!

For more information on these Becket programs and others, visit http://www.becket.org/.

Tie Dye and Geocache for Experiential Friday

This week for "Experiential Friday" we did several awesome things! First, we went to search for some Geocaches in the Lewiston and Auburn Area. We went for a walk up behind Ingersol Arena in Pettingill Park, where we found one that was in an Army Ammunition Box. Tyler and Ian were so excited. It was great. After this, we went to Cold Stone Creamery and had Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt with one mix-in. Yummo! It was delicious. Earlier in the day, we had completed our tie-dye activity. The shirts came out awesome. Everyone had a very successful week! We are looking forward to our two new students joining us this week and the adventures they will bring with them!

First School Day of 2009-2010 School year!

What a great first day of school! We were very happy to have a nice day. As the kids arrived today, we had prepared a very delicious breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and Lewiston's own Mailhot Sausage cooked on the grill. It was delicious! We then discussed our new schedule, talked about some improvement coming to our already awesome program, and went to check out our geocache we placed at Beaver Park in Lisbon. We came back to school, had lunch and the kids were dismissed as Wednesdays are our half day workshop days! We are excited to have a new director joining us soon, as well as two new students starting next week! We would like to wish all the other schools out there the best of luck this school year! We look forward to working with you all!

Chris, Jane and Zac

North Pond Canoe Trip

We had the best time canoeing, kayaking, fishing and swimming at North Pond in Smithfield. We did not find any lean generation pigs, though! Everyone had a blast - The pictures speak for themselves!

Service Learning Trip

This week we took the students over to The Good Shepard Food Bank to volunteer. The kids experienced helping those less fortunate than themselves, and also practice their sorting skills. As they sorted through the boxes, they needed to pick out the stuff that was not good, and repack the good items into new boxes that will be stacked and stored on the really high shelves! They worked really hard. Mrs. Williams said she had many moments of pride today! Good work guys. Mr. Ivey really wishes he could have gone with you, but he was busy giving a tour to the most wonderful and supportive parents.

Canoeing in Smithfield

Ian

Mrs.Williams and spider

This week we went to Smithfield, Maine for a wonderful canoe trip on beautiful North Pond. The kids and staff canoed out to the island and had lunch, swam a little and canoed back to shore. They had so much fun, they want to go again next week for an extended stay! Sounds like a plan to me! Mrs. Williams even pretended to eat a spider! Talk about shock factor! Ian also had fun floating in his lifejacket. A special thanks goes out to Mr. Wentzel for picking up the canoes in Belgrade! Thanks!

Good-bye Devan!

We would like to wish the Deschaine family well as they move to their new home in Florida. Devan has been at our school since it opened in 2007! We will definately miss him! Good Luck Darren, Marisol and Devan!

More Smalls Falls Pictures!

Smalls Falls

Today, we had a really long trip for a really awesome field trip. We went to Smalls Falls, which is up and over near Rangely, Maine. We drove through Farmington, Weld, Strong, Avon, and Phillips to get there. One there, we alked up the trail (kinda) and found the perfect hole for swimming. The water was cold! But that is what you get when it comes straight from the mountain! The Sandy river twists it's way down through the falls and comes to a rest at the bottom with a nice swimming spot for younger kids, and a fifty foot cliff that people were jumping from into the pool below. It was scary to watch them jump - it really got the adrenaline going in everyone who was watching! We had a nice lunch and some s'mores and then went in the water again. We drove the two hours to get home and Mr. Ivey drove everyone to their doorsteps! What a great day!

Range Pond State Park

Bocci Ball is so much fun, especially in a lawn full of canadian goose poopies. Ick. We had fun swimming in warm water this week and enjoying the company of everyone. It was a fun day!

Zac - That is not the meaning behind Beaver Park!

Mr. Ivey, the "fun guy"

Beaver Park - Service Learning

Beaver Park, a nature preserve in Lisbon, Maine is one of our favorite haunts, Fishing, swimming and hiking are activities that we access almost weekly! We have a blast just having fun and learning with each other. This week, we went and cleared the trails of brush so that Verla, the Ranger, could mow the walking and hiking trails. Within two hours we had completed quite a bit of the park and had fun conversing while we did so! We had a great cook out and continued working the trails in the afternoon! Thanks Beaver Park!

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