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Kids discover fun new summer activity

[JULY 8, 2002]  Cathy Hawkinson, a third-grade teacher at Jefferson, has once again tapped into her passion for gardening to promote children’s excitement over reading.

Her integrated teaching and gardening ideas began with a butterfly garden put together by her 1999-2000 class. In 2001 her dream of an 1850s-style garden with book-themed plots landed the school a $6,800 grant from Barnes and Noble through the Illinois Literacy Foundation.

Now the garden, across Sixth Street from Jefferson School, boasts several book-themed plots, such as the "Petunia Goose" and the "Charlotte’s Web" plots, as well as a sunflower house where classes gather for special outdoor book-readings, a prairie garden, a butterfly bush, a rainbow garden and several raised gardens surrounded by even more flower beds. Also in the garden, a log cabin built by Pete Fredericks houses the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz" and gardening tools. For the supplies, Hawkinson found many generous donors within the Lincoln community.

She approached the Lincoln Public Library about bringing their summer reading program to the Jefferson School Children’s Garden. As a result, children and parents gather on Wednesday mornings to sit and read for an hour in the shade of the garden.

 


[Photo by Trisha Youngquist]
[Debby Simpson takes time out of her day to sit and read with her daughter Katie. Katie has read more than 400 books this summer!]

Assistant children’s librarian Linda Harmon brings a box full of books from the library and spreads them out on the grass. Kids glance over the books and hurriedly find a square of carpet to sit on and read. And when they have finished one book, they quickly find and devour another. The entire hour is spent reading one book after another. Parents who accompany their children sit while their children read aloud to them.

State Farm Insurance sponsors a midhour drink break. Agent Rick Hamm also brings safety programs to the school during the year.

 

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The library program extension allows children who live in the neighborhoods near Jefferson to participate in the reading program, since the school lies within walking distance. Already this summer 15 kids have participated at the location and filled out reading logs.

Kids write down in their reading logs all the books that they read and use it to keep track of their reading goals. Children set their own reading goals in this program that has over 500 participants.

 


[Linda Harmon awards Amanda McCray a "Reading Rocks" T-shirt for meeting her reading goal.]

Rewards encourage them toward their personal goals. When a child reaches his or her reading goal, the reward is a red "Reading Rocks" T-shirt. Weekly prizes for children who have read the most during the week are also given out. Area merchants have donated hundreds of prizes for the weekly honors. An anonymous donor supplied the prizes for the summer’s top readers.

At the library, charts on the walls reflect individual progress as well as progress by school. Schools compete in most books read for a trophy. Jefferson has never won the trophy, but this year they appear to be strong competitors, vying closely with Washington-Monroe for first place.

As Linda Harmon was quick to point out, though, it would not be possible without Cathy Hawkinson. "She’s the impetus behind the whole thing. I just bring the books."

[Trisha Youngquist]


Kids get exciting peek
at careers in aviation

[JUNE 18, 2002]  Eighteen central Illinois students, who had just finished their school year, went back to school at Heritage in Flight Museum during Aviation Careers Week, June 3-7.

Brennan Boss, James Cosby, John and Kelsey Dallas, Brittany Dickson, Andrew Dugan, John Martina, Ryan Miller and Christopher Sandborn attended from Lincoln. Bianca and Logan Ramos and Alex Sellers made the daily commute from Mason City, while Kyle Farmer came in from Middletown. Sangamon County was represented by Aaron Bender of Springfield and Aaron McGee of Chatham, and Neal Reed and Keith Underkoffler came from Bloomington.

After welcoming the students to Heritage in Flight Museum, Milt Underkoffler pointed out that there are careers in aircraft manufacturing, aircraft maintenance, aircraft operations, aircraft safety enforcement, and the design and operation of aviation facilities. He stressed that while some of these require only a high school education, many of them require a college degree.

Curtis Fox then discussed the categories of flight and the rules and privileges of the various Federal Aviation Administration certificates. The three-hour session included a discussion of airframe and power plant mechanics certification and the training and function of flight controllers. The requirements for positions at airports, airlines and aircraft manufactures were also discussed. The first afternoon concluded with a discussion and a listing of the pay for the various aviation careers.

Tuesday was military day, and the arrival of an Army Black Hawk helicopter started an afternoon of discussion of full-time military aviation careers, part-time military careers and how the military experience can advance civilian aviation careers. The Black Hawk departure brought cheers as the pilots demonstrated their capabilities. After the Black Hawk departed, pilot Curtis Fox was able to give most of the cadets an orientation flight in a fixed-wing aircraft.

 

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Wednesday, United Airlines Captain Scott Blickenstaff, who had just returned from a six-day trip to Hong Kong as a pilot on a Boeing 747, answered questions in three one-hour sessions. Scott told the cadets how he advanced from a charter pilot for the fixed base operator at the Bloomington Airport to a captain for United Airlines. Scott also told them about changes that had taken place at United Airlines since Sept. 11.

On Thursday airport designer and manager Neil Ralston told the cadets how he had prepared to be an airline pilot and then decided to redirect his career toward airport management, design and construction. The three-hour session ended when parents arrived to take home their recently trained computer-generated airport plan designers.

On Friday Jim Cunningham, a certified ground school instructor, brought his Cub Arrow from Bloomington to serve as the centerpiece for a mini ground school course. He talked about and then showed the systems of his airplane.

Ryan Wells acted as HIF sergeant-at-arms throughout the week. He gave rides in the jeep, led students through the Huey and Corsair II, and provided general assistance and direction for the cadets and instructors.

The 18 cadets who started and finished the Aviation Careers Week included students with ambitions to become a pilot of Air Force One, an astronaut, an engineer and one intending to become an airline owner.

"We will preserve the picture board of the class of 2002 pictures at the Heritage in Flight Museum so we can follow their careers," stated Underkoffler.

[Milt Underkoffler, educational coordinator,
Heritage in Flight Museum]


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