Room 613 Talk

Elephants on Parade.

I came across this story from Newinpress.com.  Same world, but different places have different problems. For example,  the local issue in Kathasirisi, Bhola, and Saluadahar,  India is explained below. 

Elephants attack villages, destroy houses

Monday July 18 2005 00:00 IST

BARIPADA: In the dead of night when people were fast asleep in their village homes in Mayurbhang district in Orissa, the elephants came calling, pulling down houses and devouring paddy and rice stored therein.

The elephants, including some tuskers, destroyed four houses and damaged five more as they rampaged through three villages - Kathasirisi, Bhola, Saluadahar - near Deuli forest range in the district last night.

Two persons were injured when the walls collapsed on them.

The police said that the herd, comprising seven to eight elephants, continued their dance of destruction all through the night. After apparently being satisfied, the pachyderms entered the Monda forest, adjacent to the villages, this morning.

The elephants were believed to have come from the West Bengal side of the forest range, forest sources said.

A section of the armed police reserve force has been deployed in the area to chase the elephants across the Orissa-West Bengal border by this evening, the sources said.

Summer Fun and Vacation Stories!

I will be will be visiting Italy, Greece and France later this summer and I am counting down the days until the trip.  I will update you  on some of the details and post pictures when we return or sooner. Until then, I'm keeping busy by planning for next year, doing yardwork, teaching chess at the camp on Tuesday mornings, coaching my son's Jaycee Courant Prep League team (Monaco Ford 1) and biking at least 15 miles every other day.  I hope all of you are enjoying your time off from school. You were a great 6th grade class and I miss you all.  If you have any summer vacation stories, feel free to  share them here in the comments section.    See you in late August!

****UPDATE - I will be posting pictures from our trip as we travel at Flickr.com  starting around the 5th or 6th of August.  Just click on the following link to share in the adventure. ******

*****UPDATE from the island of Mykonos, Greece August 9 at 5:38 PM Our time == 7 hours ahead of CT****  It is beautiful here in Mykonos.  Blue water, clear blue skies, friendly people and unbelievably good food! The Calimari (squid) is the best ever.  So far we have visited Pompeii in Italy where we walked through the ancient Roman city covered in 79 A.D. by volcanic ash. Fasinating.  I have hundreds of pictures that I will post to the flickr.com site when I return.  The internet connection that I'm using on the ship (the Celebrity Galaxy) is VERY VERY SLOW, making it impossible to upload the pics. I hope to find a faster connection later in the trip, maybe in one of the other port cities or in Rome. Our ship last night had trouble starting the engines, so we ended up in Mykonos an extra day and will miss Santorini... Not good, but Mykonos is not a bad place to get stuck.  Not stop will be Sicily. Bye for now******  Mr. H.

Japanese Haiku

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry.  A Haiku consists of three lines.  Each line is limited to the following number of syllables.  Line 1 - 5 syllables.  Line 2 - 7 syllables.  Line 3 - 5 syllables.  Most Japanese Haiku are concerned with  nature or emotions.

You can post your own Japanese Haiku's for all to see.  Let's see your best work!

Would you like to visit INDIA?

India is a country  very different than the U.S.  What are your thoughts about India.  What do you find interesting about that country?  If you find some additional information about India, post your link and share it with your classmates.

Welcome Greenridge Secondary School - Singapore

   

This thread is for our new webpals from Ms. Kwek's class located in Singapore. Welcome to our discussion board.  You certainly have a very nice school. Please tell us a little about yourself so we can get to know you.  Once you introduce yourself, feel free to join in some of our other discussion threads.  Welcome from your webpals here in Connecticut, USA! 
You can visit our school at http://www.hwporter.org

Thoughts on Kemal Ataturk - The "Father of the Turks"

Many of you will conduct on-line research on Kemal Ataturk while preparing your Ataturk Letter assignment.  Here is your chance to show off your research skills and share your findings with the class.  Don't forget to include your "informed"  opinion of the man who was called "Father of the Turks."

Channel 3 Country Camp (Poll)

What is your favorite animal?

 

Do you have a favorite animal? Tell us about your favorite pet, jungle animal or fictional four legged creature.

Places where I've been; Places I'd like to visit.

Sometimes we are fortunate enough to leave our hometown and explore other places.   Tell us about your favorite vacation spots, or places that you would like to explore in the future.

Thoughts on Block Scheduling

This year the middle school at Porter changed to a block schedule for the core classes of Math,  Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.    Do you like the block schedule, or would you prefer shorter classes and seeing each teacher every day?

 

Comments on the Tsunami in Indonesia

As you probably know, there was a terrible tradgedy in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other Far Eastern countries over the holidays. If you would like to comment on the tsunami that hit the region, you may do so here.

Book Reviews

Have you been reading a great book? If so, why not tell the world about it? Use this topic thread to write short book reviews about your favorites.

Favorite Sports or Hobbies

Tell your classmates about your favorite sport or a special hobby that you enjoy.

Welcome! - A few rules!

Welcome sixth graders! This is your chance to share your thoughts and ideas with your fellow students. Later this year I hope to open these discussion groups to one or more classes from another part of the world. Here are a few rules that you are expected to follow:

1. For safety considerations, only list your first name and homeroom (6H, 6E, 6V, or 6L) when you post. You may list your last initial if there is more than one person in your homeroom with the same first name as you.

2. Please be appropriate. Remember what you post here will be read by other Porter students, your teachers, many of your parents, and eventually students in other classrooms around the world. This weblog is an extension of our "LEARNING COMMUNITY." Inappropriate posts will be deleted and the responsible parties will be held accountable.

3. Practice your best writing when you post. Write in full sentences, use correct grammar and punctuation, and do your best to produce writing that you can be proud of. Type out your post on Microsoft Works or Word and run grammar and spellcheck. Only after you have you have checked and proofread your writing should you add it to the Weblog.

4. Stay on topic.

5. I will post a number of Social Studies related TOPICS here on our Weblog. Some will be required to be addressed and will count as a homework grade, others will be optional and will count for extra credit. In addition, if you as a student have a suggestion for a new topic (social studies related or other), please let me know and I will try to post as many of your "student suggested topics" as possible.

Have fun!
Mr. Hetherington