Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Boston Globe article


Here is a link to the Globe article about our project in yesterday's science pages.
And here is the link to the blog article, which has a picture:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2008/05/a_small_margin_change.html

Thanks to Beth Daley for helping us get the word out.


Tuesday, May 13, 2008

NEWS

We just received a call from the IT department in Malden, MA. Anthony Rodriguez of the IT department called for our student, Courteney and left a message saying that he will be telling all Malden city departments to follow 4th grade's advice and change the margins.

Soon after our phone message we received a personal letter from Deval Patrick congratulating us
and saying he would be considering the idea to Change the Margins. Less of a committment than we had hoped for but exciting just the same.

You will see copies of the Governor's letters and letters from State Representatives Corey Atkins, Alice Peisch and State Senator Tolman in the hallway outside the classroom.

And Tamara Krinsky is pitching our "curriculum " to Hewlett Packard as a HP contest school idea.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Mayor of Cambridge takes up Change the Margins















We thought we were going to lobby Mayor E. Denise Simmons during her open office hours BUT, Jeff Walker, her chief of staff had 2 copies of engrossed* versions ( gold stamp seal, hand signed by the Clerk and in leather folders) of the resolution R-51 from the City Council of Cambridge. This resolution was read by the Mayor to our students and then presented to Eli and Mark, Cambridge citizens who wrote the letters that initiated this action by the Mayor. School Committee member Nancy Tauber, was also present. The resolution recognized the Atrium 4th grade class for their efforts and the Change the Margins
idea as a very important one. The Mayor promised to work to implement this change throughout Cambridge. And Ms. Tauber said she would spread the word to the schools.

This is a huge boost to our campaign! Great work class and especially, Eli and Mark!

In other news, the Mayor's office of Malden has promised to bring Courteney's letter to a department head meeting:
We are in receipt of Courteney’s correspondence.

Please be advised that Mayor Howard is planning on presenting Courteney’s proposal to our department heads at a meeting he has scheduled for next week ...
We’re hoping that these efforts will result in saving paper and a better environment.

If you have any further suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact this office.

Thank you -
Maureen Taylor
Office of Mayor Richard C. Howard
Malden Government Center


Great work Courteney! She has, along with Ilana, Sophie, Asha, Eric, Christian, Harriet and Isabel, been making follow up phone calls. And thanks to Alie and Shayna, Eli Cole and Mark who have been making displays for the bulletin boards.

* engross: To write or print the final draft of (an official document).
[Middle English engrossen, to collect in large quantity, monopolize, from Old French engrossier, from en gros, in large quantity : en, in (from Latin in; see in-2) + gros, large; see gross. Sense 3, from Middle English engrossen, to make a finished copy of a legal document, from Anglo-Norman engrosser, from Medieval Latin ingrossre : Latin in-, in; see en-1 + grossa, a copy in a large hand (from Late Latin grossus, thick).

More pictures here:

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

HOMEWORK May 6th 2008

MATH: p 42
SPELLING: sheet with reverse spelling exercise
READING: independent reading for 30 minutes minimum.

Sorry for delay.
Norah

Thursday, May 1, 2008

May 1st news...

Fyi, Ilana's letter was published in the Watertown Tab. I'll get copies of the print version, but here's a link to the web version.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/watertown/news/opinions/letters/x914622164
Tim
AND
This from Tamara Krinsky at Change the Margins:
Norah -
A recent comment on the blog from an exec at HP. Feel free to share with your students to show how they are immediately making a difference and inspiring others to do the same!

Best,
Tamara

Subject: [Change the Margins] Alison submitted a comment to '4th Graders Take Margins to Beacon Hill'
To: changethemargins@gmail.com

A new comment from "Alison" was received on the post "4th Graders Take Margins to Beacon Hill" of the weblog "Change the Margins".

Comment:
I am in LOVE with this idea. What a total AHA! moment. I wrote about it in my blog post and included a link to your blog, which I hope will drive some additional traffic and interest your way. In the meantime, I'm going to both of my children's schools to see about putting a program together with them to get kids on the bandwagon. You're right -- starting with kids is a terrific idea -- and let it roll from there. In addition to changing their margins, companies can save tons of paper by setting their printers to the automatic duplex mode -- so they automatically print two-sided. Thanks so much for what you're doing. Best, Alison