Archival article — originally published in The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere, December 1995. By Betsy King.
Archival date note: only the issue month or season is established. The first-of-month date used for chronological indexing is not a verified publication day.
The faculty at Hamilton Elementary Community Education Center is pleased to announce that Hamilton has been selected as a site for the first round of the Dr. Samuel Shepard Oratorical Contest, which will be held on April 23, 1996. This contest is for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. Each elementary school in the district will have one student performing an interpretive reading and another student performing as an original orator.
On November 22, 1995, Hamilton welcomed Ms. Roseanne Bennett from the Women's Self Help Center at 2838 Olive St. Ms. Bennett had a booth set up during parent teacher conferences with literature available about helping agencies for abused women, about dealing with anger, and about Project H.A.R.T., which promotes Healthy Alternatives for Relationships among Teens.
This month's spotlight is on Room 201 and Room 202, two fifth grade classes that have participated in noteworthy activities. Room 201, Verline Jackson's class, spearheads the “Wee Deliver” program, which was started at Hamilton last year. Room 202, Sharon Ware's class, participated in a program with the Coro Fellows. This service and leadership organization is made up of male and female college students of ethnic diversity from across the United States.
Wee Deliver is a program that was designed by the U.S. Postal Service. It is intended to help students to improve their writing skills by involving them in letter-writing. At Hamilton, each classroom and each office has an “address” and a mailbox. All Hamilton students are taught the correct format for writing letters. “We have to put the heading, the greeting, the body, and the closing,” said fifth grader Ivan Wilson. The students must also address the envelopes correctly, with the mailing address for the addressee, their return address, and a stamp. The stamps for Wee Deliver were designed by the fifth graders.
Ms. Jackson's students serve as letter carriers, sorters, and stampers for the postal service. Several times a week, they collect the outgoing mail from each mailbox and bring it to the “post office,” a corner of room 201. There, the postal workers inspect the mail to see if it is properly addressed. If it isn't, the letter is stamped “Return to Sender,” and is returned to the mailbox from which it was collected. If it is correct, it is sorted by address and delivered by the letter carriers. August Taylor, another fifth grade student, said, “Being a letter carrier is a privilege. We have a mail bag and wear a special shirt. I get to do it a lot.”
“I have learned how to write letters better this year,” said fifth grader Herberto Rendon, who often serves as a postal worker. “Maybe now I can write a letter to my grandmother in Mexico.” In addition to promoting good writing skills, the Wee Deliver program has increased communication between members of the faculty and student body.
Sharon Ware's fifth grade class had the opportunity to participate in a workshop given by the Coro Fellows. The presentation was based on the changes in farming over the past 75 years, and what changes may be expected in the future. The Coro Fellows divided the students into three groups to discuss the past, present, and future of farming and agriculture. The students, prompted by the Coro Fellows, brainstormed about the farming implements used in each of these times. Then, each group presented their discussion to the rest of the class through a pantomime of the farming methods.
“In the past, the farmers had to get up real early,” said Doniece Turner. “They worked by hand and only had a few tools. They had to milk the cows and get eggs before they could even make their breakfast. They had to do it every day because there was nowhere to store the food and keep it cold. They didn't have any tractors, so they had to plant seeds with a hoe.”
“Now the cows are milked by machines, but the farmers still have to get up real early to get the machines going and to feed the chickens,” added Shameika Morris. “Tractors do the work in the fields, and before they drink the milk they pasteurize it. Before they just drank it right when it came out of the cow. They also have a machine to check the chickens for healthy eggs so they don't have a disease.”
“In the future, they won't have to go out and turn on the machines,” said Clinton Barker, “because computers will do it. More milk will be produced because the machines will run independently. They might also get satellites to keep the bugs off the vegetables and to get more sunshine for the crops. The crops will be better in the future.” All of the students agreed that the presentation by the Coro Fellows was informative and interesting.
Hamilton has many volunteers performing community service this school year. High school students from Westminster Christian Academy and DeSmet Jesuit High School are working with Hamilton students in the first through fourth grades in order to fulfill their community service requirements. Also, Taquincy Smith, a neighborhood middle school student, comes to Hamilton every day when she gets off the bus and assists three of the kindergarten teachers, a first grade teacher, and the librarian.
In addition to benefiting from service of these young volunteers, Hamilton is a site for Americorps, the domestic service organization initialed by President Clinton in 1994. It promotes public safety and student success. This year, two Americorps workers are at Hamilton, working in the school and the community. Errick Moorehead concentrates on the school success aspect by leading fourth grade students in activities that promote service learning. His colleague, Amy Gronquist, focuses on public safety by working with Operation BrightSide, COPS officers, the Neighborhood Stabilization Officers, and the Hamilton Council.
The Hamilton faculty invites neighborhood residents to visit or volunteer at Hamilton any time.
Read the original newspaper issue: Archive reader · Direct PDF fallback. Originally published in The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere, December 1995, pages 5.
