ASSIGNMENT: INTERVIEW A PERSON AND WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT THEM.
The conflict crew
At Dee School one day, two kids were going to fight at lunch recess.The fight
started like this.There was a boy named Tom.Tom told a boy named Fred that his dad was ugly.''HE IS NOT!''shouted Fred.''He is too,''said Tom.Then Fred hit Tom in the nose and made it bleed.A kid in a yellow shirt that said "Conflict Crew" came by and said,''Do you need some help?'' Fred and Tom told him yes.The Conflict Crew member said to the boys,''Let's go to the restrooms and wash the blood off your hands and face.Then we'll talk it over.''So the three boys talked it over.After that the two boys were friends the rest of the year.
The Conflict Crew goes where there's trouble and helps kids resolve their
conflicts. And that's what what the conflict crew does.
AN INTERVIEW WITH SHERRYL HEALY, COUNSELOR AT DEE SCHOOL
1.Where did you get the idea Conflict Crew from?She went to a big meeting in
Salt Lake.2.Do the kids need to be on good behavior?YES.3.What do you like
about the conflict crew?She likes the idea and fun kids.4.What don't you like
about the conflict crew?Just a few mistakes.5.What is the conflict crew?A
group of kids to help others solve prolbmes.6.Do you think the conflict crew
helps Dee School?YES.(And How)Kids are trying to solve problems without
grownups.7.How did you train the conflict crew?We meet and play.8.Do you think other schools shood have conflict crew?Yes.9.Have there been any fights between you and the kids?Not really.10.Why did you start the conflict crew?It
sounded like a good idea.
By Santina Garrison and Jodi Day
DEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FOURTH GRADE
Mr.Thomas.
THE STORY OF MR.ANDERSON
One day in 1964, Vance Anderson was lifting weights at Ben
Lomond High School. He was a wrestler there. He was lifting
320 lbs. Mr.Anderson lost control of the weights. They were
slipping off his shoulder. Because there was a little girl in
the way, he didn't drop the weights. With the weights still on
his shoulder, he fell to the ground and broke his spinal cord.
When the spinal cord is broken, a person is usually paralyzed.
He said his legs felt like they were asleep with needles
sticking in him. He was paralyzed from his waist down. They
said he was going to die. He had an operation. He was in the
hospital from March until September. Then he was in a rest
home for almost a year. His Motto is, "Can't is a four letter
word. Amer-I-can." It made him a better person to be paralyzed
because he had to overcome adversity. Mr.Anderson now is
married and has two children. He works for Ogden Mental
Health. He drives a yellow Ford X2P with hand controls. He
also races in a wheelchair going 26 miles, because the doctor
told him to exercise for high blood pressure. He has done
races in Japan, Switzerland, and Germany. He has done the
Boston Marathon four times. He said he is ranked in the top
three wheelchaair Marathon racers in America. Mr.Anderson is
one of the best athletes in the wheelchair racings in the
world, because he said, "Can't is a four letter word."
BY JAMES RIOS AND BEN SIMMONS
FOURTH GRADE
DEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
DAVID M. THOMAS, TEACHER
February 4,90
The following essay won an honorable mention award in the Standard-Examiner's
"Personal Portrait" Contest. It was published in the Standard-Examiner on
March 5, 1990. The year after she wrote this essay, in 1991, the author was one of four fifth graders at Dee selected to receive Kiwanis' "Hope of America" award.
A PLACE OF DIFFERENCES
In Louisana, Mrs.Alice Glenn lived in a world of diffrences.
She lived where pople would judge you just because of the color
of your skin.
Alice Glenn could only do certain things.
"I couldn't sit any place I wanted to on a bus,train or
taxicab," she said.
"I couldn't eat in a public eating place."
When buying clothes or shoes she had to be waited on at the
rear of the store.
"Some places wouldn't let me try on clothes " she said.
Once a year the state fair would come to her city for two
weeks. Blacks were only allowed to attend the last day.
"I couldn't attend public libaries".
Blacks couldn't be buried in the same cemetery as whites.
"However, I was never to feel less than other people. I'm as
good as anyone." I asked if she was involved in the Civil
Rights Movement. "No, I left Louisiana just before it
started." She came to Utah after she graduated from Booker T.
Washington High School."
Last year, the YCC presented her with the Northern Utah's Woman
of the Year Award in Classroom Education for 1989.
Mrs. Glenn is now a second grade teacher at Dee Elementary
School in Ogden.
She has come a long way from a time when Blacks couldn't use a
public library.
Dani Vine
Fourth Grade
Dee Elementary School
Mr. Thomas
Jesus Cortez
Jesus Cortez liked it in Mexico but he came to the United
States when he was 21years, old. He was a farmer in Mesa,
Arizona. They paid him 45 cents an hour.He paid $1.50 for room
and board. He worked from 6am to 6pm for 1 year. Then he went
to parts of California as a fruit picker. He made more money
picking grapes.In 1946 at the age of 22 he went to Roseyille
Calfornia to work on the railroad for 5 to 6 years. Then he
worked for as a miner in Gaps, Nevada. He was mining for a rock
called florish powder. It is a pretty rock of many colors. He
did this for 5 years. Then he had an accident. He hurt his arm
and was off for three months. After that he was better. He went
to New Mexico to mine for uranium. Mr.Cortez liked all of his
jobs here, but he liked the railroad the best.He has two dogs
named Chata and Brandie. He has three brothers and four
sisters,two sons and one daugter. Mr. Cortez said he loves it
here in America, and that he liked all of his jobs.
Jason Maestas and Frank Rubio
DEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Fourth Grade
Mr. Thomas
Summer Migrant School
In the summer, three big school buses come and pick up kids
from all over Weber County. The bus driver gives them candy.
Then he drops them off at Dee School. The children travel with
their parents from all over the country and from Mexico to live
with their families.They come and work at the farm and at the
fields.
The Migrant Summer School helps students learn more. Mr. Julio
Cortez is a fifth grade teacher at Dee School during the school
year. He is a principal in summer school. Mr. Cortez likes to
help other students. They do dances and sing. They have lots
of fun. They wake up at 7:00 for summer school. They learn
math and find times when it's very easy when you know how.
Sometimes they play games. They do math and readings. They
read and write stories. They make up stories to tell.
Mr. Cortez said that he likes to work with children and let
them have a summer vacation. He said he hates to do paperwork,
and he hates fights. In summer school, it is fun because Mr.
Cortez lets them go to Wildwaters, Lagoon, and the Nature
Center. Between 233 and 330 kids in all attend Summer School.
They have festivals and snacks. Kids go swimming every single
Friday. The program gives tests to help them learn more. The
program is very good because Mr. Cortez runs it. The classes
are small. They try to have only twelve kids in each class.
There are teachers and staff assistants in each class to help
kids in their math and reading.
KRISHA FAVILA AND MELINDA JARAMILLO
DEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FOURTH GRADE
MR.THOMAS
Officer Tony Fox
Officer Tony Fox of the Ogden Police Department and his partner
had the criminal handcuffed in their police car on Washington
Boulivard.
The criminal reached up and hit Tony's partner.
The car was spinning and they wrecked into a curb!!
Tony hurt his hand but his partner was O.K..
Then Tony and his partner took the suspect to jail!
That's just one of the things thats happened to Tony Fox.
He's been a cop for one year.
He became a cop because he wanted to be one.
Tony is 5 feet, 10 inches tall. He has sandy blond hair and
blue eyes. He says that being a cop is ok. He doesn't like
their busy nights very much because there isn't time to rest.
by Mandi Cook
Mrs. Betty Slack
A handicap is anything that holds one back or makes one's life
more difficult. After the singing assembly last week at Dee
School, Mrs.Slack gave some awards out to the team who won the
basketball game. The gold medal looks like a big gold coin on a
ribbon. Mrs. Slack got in the Special Olympics because when
her son was handicapped she wanted to help him and train him to
be his best. The Special Olympics are for people with
handicaps who cannot compete with regular athletes. Mrs. Slack
trains the Special Olympians in playing games like basketball
and baseball. Mrs.Slack said that one of her girls in the
Olympics was running about 200 meters and fell. She skinned her
knee, but she got up and still went on running to the finish
line. When Hank Aaron came to the summer games in Provo, he
spoke to the Olympians. Mrs. Slack's son came over to Hank,
stuck his hand out, and said, "HI, HANK!" like old buddies.
Because of Mrs. Slack these children have any oportunity to be
in sports.
THE END
SIYONG YIM
DEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
FOURTH GRADE
MR. THOMAS
THE ELEVENTH HOUR RESEARCH PROJECT
Death row is for people who have been convicted of crimes.
They are sentenced to death. They are allowed to go outside
but they get to play games that are not fun. Mrs.Barbara Lopez
is involved in a project called the Eleventh Hour research
project. They go to work and make a list of women that have
been executed. She has traveled and has met three women. The
three women's names are Dee Castolo, Judie Burno, and Lois
Thackir. They're on death row for murder in Florida and in
Indiana. Mrs. Lopez helps them get information. I asked Mrs.
Lopez what her project does. She said it helps the women
understand their reality. Asked how she felt about the death
penalty, she said, "I am against it because it is a bad example
for the state to kill people that they don't know what to do
with."
STARLA FRAZIER
DEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Fourth Grade
MR. THOMAS
The following essay won an honorable mention award in the Standard-Examiner's
"Personal Portrait" Contest. It was published in the Standard-Examiner on
March 5, 1990.
THE LIFE OF A REFUGEE
What is a refugee? A person who leaves their own country and goes to
other countries for freedom or to live. Si T. Le is a refugee from Vietnam
who came to America because Vietnam is a communist country. Mr. Le was 12
years old when he left Vietnam. When he arrived in America he was 13 years
old. He has been here for six years.On the trip Mr.Le was scared because he
couldn't see land at all.
Refugee people usually don't like to leave their country that much, but
they have to,to find freedom, or to save their lives. Mr. Le said, "The
reason I left my country is I wanted to find a bright future for myself.
Refugee people, they would pay anything they had, even lose their life, to
find freedom and a better life." Mr. Le became a refugee when he was young,
about twelve years old. He was starting sixth grade, and the communists
wouldn't let him go to school any more, because before 1975 his dad had fought for freedom. The communists wouldn't let any of the soldiers' children go to school. "My dad thought about leaving Vietnam to find a country with freedom, where I could go to school," said Mr. Le. "A couple months later we left Vietnam by boat. It took me five days to travel on the ocean. On the ocean, I was so scared. I couldn't see land beside the water. I prayed that I could be on land. The last day on the ocean, we met an American ship."
The ship helped them and took them to a refugee island. His parents lived on that island for three months, waiting for the U.S. missionary to come, so they could get accepted to go to America. After they got accepted by the U.S. missionary, they left the island and went to another refugee camp. Mr. Le lived in that camp to study English. Time went by, and six months later he and his parents had their names on the list for coming
to America.
"I came to America when I was 13 years old," said Mr. Le. I started to go to school the week I got to America. I started in the middle of eighth grade in
1984 in Kaysville Junior High. Mr. Le went to Ogden High School and graduated in 1988. He started to go to Weber State College when he was a senior in high school. This is his third year in college. Most of the classes he is taking are general classes and medical classes. Mr. Le likes karate and soccer. In 1985, 86, and 87, he won first place in the Utah karate tournament.
Mr. Le said, "I'm so glad that I came to a right country, where I can go to school and where I can build my future." Now he is a staff assistant at Dee Elementery School, helping fourth graders. When he finishes college, his dream is to be a part time teacher and an engineer.
