Alpine Adventure - Session 2

The weather this summer in Switzerland has not proved to have as many sunny days as it usually does. Nonetheless, we spent a lot of time outside with the campers. 

This is a photo of a full sky double rainbow after an evening thunderstorm in Leysin over the Alps.

On family afternoon it was raining, but our faculty family proceeded to have a campfire and roast marshmallows

And then there was Zermatt....in mid-July....Good thing I had a carrot in my bag. You never know when you'll need it for a snowman nose. Ovomaltine cookie eyes, carrot nose and balisto bar smile for this guy!

The construction

July Snowman at Gornergrat

We are from Switzerland, Ireland, USA, Japan, UK and Poland

Faculty Family at the Gornergrat

Hiking in the snow

Looking for the Matterhorn

It was easier to slide down on our bums

And then the Matterhorn came out from the snow and clouds...

....so I took a selfie with it.

And then there's dorm night....the kids all get the same supplies and have to dress the staff in anyway they see fit for the Mr. Leysin contest..

Boys dorm on dorm night

Mr. Leysin

 And then there's the overnight hut trips. We had 17 kids on our overnight to the Lac du Taney hut.

A Ukranian and Russian boy hold the Ukrainian flag

This is what we deal with

Hut dinner

Campfire at the hut

Looking down on Lake Geneva

Snack time for the staff

Mighty Math - Second Session

My classes were much larger during second session this year (but much smaller than my public high school classes). The biggest challenge this session has been trying to explain Mighty Math in French to my period one class! Many students in that class were French speakers with no English. My French math vocabulary has certainly grown.

Working hard on their books

I asked them to show me how much they love Mighty Math and here was their response...

KenKen puzzles

Making her own fractal

Tessellations were a new addition to Mighty Math this year! The kids LOVE them!

Period 1 working on Pascal's triangle...shading in all the odd numbers makes the Sierpinski triangle!

The session 1 class Sierpinski triangle made a nice classroom decoration for us!

Example pages for the Mighty Math book!

Fractal Cards!

Period 3 hard at work

Inspired to make unique fractal cards!

The Japanese boys engineering

Not quite enough time to get to 256 tetrahedrons!

...but Period 2 added to it....

....and then we had 256 marshmallow-toothpick tetradedrons

Fibonacci in pinecones!

Working on their Mighty Math books!

Swiss National Day

And then came August 1st...Swiss National Day! It begins at 6a.m. with the firing of cannons and the local band playing tunes that echo through the mountains.

Something else happens this day....a running race. This is no normal running race. It is a half marathon 21.1km distance. The first 16km (10 miles) race up from the valley to the top of the ski resort in Leysin. The elevation change is 1650meters (5413feet). It only gets worse from there because the next 5km (3miles) is all downhill dropping 800meters (2624feet) in elevation. I was up early to take the cog to the valley to endure the pain of this race for second consecutive year.

10km into the race...

They were so excited to cheer

...I was greeted by all the campers...

Here's a little video clip from the race as I rounded the corner to head up the Prafandaz climb. The kids made up cheers for me..."L-A-U-R-A, let's go Laura, Allez! Allez!"

My Vermont (and AA) colleague, Dennis ran too!

Approaching the finish line after the descent

Ready to be done

My fans met me at the finish!

Crossing the finish line, 3 hours and 2 minutes later

Using my prize, a chair....

...waiting for Dennis it finish

We survived!

After a nap and some food, it was time for the evening festivities. The children are the town parade. We give them paper lanterns with candles (lit) inside. They march through the town chanting. 

There's real fire in those latners

Group shot!