Having completed today such an extended, in-depth project, I am, of course, contemplating your ELF essays and presentations.

First off, congratulations to the students in Periods 2 and 7 whose projects received the most points in today’s voting. In Period 2, the winning idea is to create a school store, which, while it is a good idea, was not the only good idea presented in that class. In fact, creative ideas abounded in all my Grade 7 ILA classes, and the administration has asked me and Mrs. Mangino to simply pass along some of the non-winning good ideas in order to evaluate whether they can be implemented without grant funding from ELF.

In Period 7, the winning idea is to have installed a type of water fountain that specifically fills plastic water bottles, quickly and mostly free from germs, to persuade people to reuse those bottles, which, according to the group’s presentation, are so prodigiously discarded among humans that they could, if connected, circle the Earth several times or so. Again, that was not the only good idea in that class. I particularly thought the composting idea had merit, and intend to pass that idea along to administration, and was saddened when I saw a student in that group vote not for his group’s idea but for another idea that clearly was lacking in several areas.

In Periods 3 and 6, several students still need to vote, and once they do I will announce the winners. In Period 3, in particular, there are many good ideas, and it is a shame that only one “winner” will emerge from that class.

I will have graded your projects in the coming days and intend to have graded your essays by week’s end (I have a grad-school research paper and a comprehensive exam this Saturday that have been vying for my outside-of-school time).

Finally, important news for the winners: you will present your ideas before Superintendent Josefsberg on April 21 and, if willing, before the Easton Learning Foundation on April 24 in the evening in the media center. Good luck!