Something more fun

Yesterday, I had two things going on that took me from 7:45 to 22:00 to complete. First, I had a meeting with the state 4-H director and curriculum specialist from Bozeman regarding my grant at Pretty Eagle Catholic Academy. The grant staff and myself (with student leaders) took the state personnel on a tour of the school and explained some of the Crow culture, we introduced them to the kids participating in the grant, had the kids show off their short films (the long ones aren't completed yet), and met about next year's grant. We are trying to incorporate a few more technologies into the grant next (possibly GPS/GIS) and we are writing in a field trip to Bozeman so that the kids can see PBS studios and see the MSU grad students' studios. This is such a fun project, sometimes it is hard to believe I am getting paid for this stuff!!! I hope to get these kids to present their films to the county commissioners (I talked to them about it this morning), our 4-H Council, Tribal Council, 4-H Fair, and any other venues that I can put these kids in front of. We are going to need to have a session on presentation styles and etiquette soon (this is a weakness of the kids right now...we are going to change that)!!!

After I got back to the office from that adventure, I went to help our exchange trip kids bake and deliver pumpkin pies. We made 144 pies last night and we made nearly $800.00 on the event! Two months ago, I wasn't sure we were going to make this trip a reality, but I reserved our train tickets last week and we are slowly but surely making the money needed to travel! I am thinking of requiring these kids to each do a "research project" on one of several topics relating to Virginia prior to going and presenting their projects at fair next year (I am really pushing "indoor" projects this year). I think that I will give the kids the choice of: crops of Virginia, history of Virginia, or geography of Virginia as topics to choose from...any other suggestions?