Week Two

Week Two is already over. That would be 20% of the first marking period completed already. Time does not seem to be dragging on. This might be because we have been so busy.

Every morning students watch CNN 10, a down the middle new program for students, and answer questions based on the daily news. Friday's CNN News also includes a "week-in-review" news quiz.

The morning routine also includes The Pledge of Allegiance. The Green Team - the students are split into two academic groups - has also been studying flag etiquette. The Green Team presents the flag and folds it after the Pledge to the flag.

During the day, students participate in Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, and Life Skills. Other activities include group meetings and gym class.

Size Mismatch?

On Friday, some of the students volunteered to help with the set-up for the kick-off meeting of GO Mount Carmel. GO Mount Carmel is a community revitalization initiative in partnership with Bucknell University. Check out the story at - https://www.bucknell.edu/about-bucknell/communications/bucknell-magazine/fall-2017/stoking-hope-in-a-coal-town.html.

Compass 2019 - Week One

Children from the Little Friends Day Care had a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny thanks to the efforts of students from Mount Carmel’s Compass Academy.

Students at the Academy were challenged to find a way to give back to the community. One of the ideas was to organize an Easter Egg hunt. In preparation for the event, the teenagers filled plastic eggs with candy and toys, made “bunny baskets” for the children, and acquired a bunny costume. The teens also cleaned up the town park the day before the event.

Children from Little Friends Day Care followed, from a distance, a very shy Easter Bunny. The walk ended at the town park. After sitting quietly, the children were able to coax the Easter Bunny over to them.

Students from Compass explained to the kids how to participate in an egg hunt, handed out bags to collect eggs, and then helped lead the children to find the eggs. Several eggs held coupons for larger prizes. After the egg hunt, the youth from Compass Academy provided other activities, including face painting and taking portraits with the Easter Bunny.

Mrs. Gidaro, the teacher supervising the Compass Academy students, said, “I’m very proud of the students. They worked very hard to put everything together for the kids. And I think everyone had a good time.”

Brandi McDowell, a senior at the academy, was a face painter. When asked what she had learned out of the whole experience she said that, “It required a lot of patience, I really enjoyed watching the kids smile and have a good time.”

Creating The Class Oath - A Student Perspective

This school year at Compass Academy we decided to create an oath to become better, more positive students. The high school students helped create it and make it a great oath. We started on the first week of school and it is now in play. After eighteen rough drafts, we finally have a neat, nicely worded oath.

We worked on the oath every day until it was fully complete. It took us about a week to collect all the information. We went through the oath and corrected all of our mistakes. We pledge to this oath daily. The reason we pledge to the oath is because it is very important. We can learn a lot from it.

Why are oaths important? If you follow these simple rules you can become a great/successful student. Our school oath we practice every day. By reading it daily we will understand it better.

Oaths are very important.

Brandi M.

Student Oath

One of the tasks given to the Compass Academy students at the beginning of the school year was to create a student oath or creed. This is not a simple process. Each day during the first two weeks of school, at least one period was spent in creating their oath.

The first few days were spent in group discussions about the importance of having goals or principals to use as benchmarks for measuring our success as students. Other Oaths and Creeds were read and examined. The Athenian Oath, The Boy Scout Oath and Law, Essays by Plato and Aristotle, and Charge of the Light Brigade were some of the written words examined.

Brains packed with knowledge, the students broke into small groups to start creating potential oaths. Drafts were read and shared. Merging of drafts led to a functional oath. The unified draft went through another week of heated debate. Motions were made. The importance of each word was discussed. Phrasing was debated. Votes were taken and the oath was sent back to the writers for further revision. It was an arduous process.

The process ended with a student meeting in which a unanimous vote was made to ratify the Student Oath for the 2016/2017 school year. Student's signed the new document and committed to try there best to meet the ideals set forth in their new oath.