Tribute to the Class of 2020

A video tribute to the Senior Class from Ms. Weichman - Enjoy!

Hey Seniors!

I was thinking about you all today and how it must be difficult to be away from campus and your friends during the end of your senior year. I admire your courage and your ability to forge ahead despite the circumstances.  I decided to make this video as a tribute to all of you and all the hard work that you have put forth. Please know that I am thinking of you and sending you virtual hugs. I hope you enjoy the video!

~ Ms. Weichman

How's It Growing? Week 3

Let’s Talk Lettuce

Its fresh, its crunchy and you can grow it indoors or outdoors.

Here is a timeline of Lettuce from seed to plant. Growing from seeds can be easy and fun and you can see the results sooner rather than later.

Seed sprouted March 31, 2020

Seed planted March 23, 2020

Lettuce is ready April 23, 2020

Read More

Lesson Plan for growing lettuce indoors

General lettuce information

How's It Growing? Week 2

GARDEN SUCCESS

The Harbison family shared photos of their garden’s bounty with us after our call for photos in last week’s Volt. They are successfully growing corn and eggplant with more to come from their garden.

Photo: Shane DeGannes

PLANT OF THE WEEK: Amaranth

Plenty of Amaranth seeds are available at the Seed Bank on the car deck of VIMSIA. This very easy to grow plant can be eaten raw and they’re delicious sauteed too. Enjoy planting these seeds in pots and/or your outdoor garden.

Read more here about tips for growing Amaranth.

Happy Earth Day #VIMSIAGreen

VIMSIA celebrated Earth Day this year by inviting students to take action around their home or to raise awareness for an environmental cause they care about.

Caroline, a senior in the PGIA says, “Living on a beautiful island with pristine beaches really helps me to remember how wonderful our earth is. Although my Earth day awareness photo is focused on something or someone smaller. BEES!! Although these little guys may seem minuscule they immensely aid crops with reproduction which assists us in our agricultural system. Also, they pollinate our flowers that add more beauty to our world. However, many bee species today are endangered and face extinction. Go bees!”

Kira focused her Earth Day thoughts towards the sea, “On this Earth Day, I hope everyone remembers how important our beautiful Earth is and makes conscious decisions, remembering that every choice we make has an impact on the planet.”

Her painting represents the “damages ocean acidification has on our marine animals.” Kira reminds us that, “Ocean acidification is damaging to our oceans and the species that live in it, but luckily we can help to prevent ocean acidification by cutting our carbon pollution. Go to this website to find out how you can help prevent ocean acidification.”

Students in the 8th grade share their drawings and reflections on Earth Day.

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day

image from NASA

The pandemic slow down has made many of us look more thoughtfully at the world around us. It’s the perfect time to celebrate Earth Day! Go on a neighborhood safari with your children, create from recycled materials, or take action to help the planet. NASA also has amazing resources. Find all these ideas and more in our Earth Day 2020 Collection.

More Books in the Giveaway + Celebrity Storytimes

The print book giveaway continues with an infusion of lots more books for teens, and plenty now for adults as well, including popular fiction, literature and nonfiction. Now is your chance to read Dune before the new movie comes out – there are several copies available!

In the online world, you may have seen that Michelle Obama is the latest celebrity to be reading aloud to children. Check here to find more author and celebrity storytimes.

Upcoming Virtual College Admissions Events

Coalition for College Virtual College Fair
Thursday, April 23rd, 4 – 6 p.m. or 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Hear from admissions officers –“Tips on Creating Your College List”
Behind the Scenes: How Admissions Decisions Are Made”
Then virtual “rooms” where representatives from more than 40 colleges will share an overview of their schools and answer your questions, live.
http://coalitionforcollegeaccess.org/april-2020-virtual-fair.html

College Block Party
Tuesday & Wednesday, April 28th & 29th, 6 – 9 p.m. EST
This is a FREE, two-day, after-school online event for high-school students from all grade levels, parents, and counselors. Drop-in, whenever you can, to get your questions answered.
Participating Colleges Include: Colgate University, Smith College, University of California Berkeley, Emory University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Tufts University!

How's It Growing?

Welcome to “How’s It Growing?” VIMSIA’s online community of dirt lovers. We are hoping that “How’s It Growing?” will give us all the opportunity to share our successes in the garden, yard, farm, balcony pots, wherever you find your dirt. With the Stay at Home focus, many of us have taken to the dirt - to tend long-neglected flower beds, start herb gardens, focus on our fruit trees. Whatever your dirt passion is, let’s all share our stories and tips.

Seed Bank

One aspect of this effort includes a “Seed Bank” box at school. Please feel free to come by the car deck and take some seeds that others have gathered from their growing efforts. The seeds are in some kind of container in the Seed Bank box, and pretty well labeled. Take what you need and go get dirty.

We would love to hear from you and your kids about your efforts to grow. Please send any photos and stories to Coach Nurse - sdegannes@vimsia.org. We will post them on the Blog weekly.

Plant of the week: Papaya

Thank you to Paul Perkins, who donated a bunch of papaya seeds to our Seed Bank. These tropical trees are very easy to grow and are often “volunteers” as Ms. Morrison used to day. That is, they may end up popping up just about anywhere - as the seeds are easily distributed by the winds and the birds.

Here is a great link for growing Papaya.

Papaya have a ton of health benefits - and are a great meat tenderizer!

Photo credit Tropicalperaculture.com

Emotional Support: New Resource Collection

Ms. Samantha Kaffenbarger, VIMSIA’s Guidance Counselor, has a new collection within our Digital Library. These resources cover topics ranging from anxiety to self-care.

Guidance Counselor Resources

Missing The Library? The Book Giveaway is Open!

Please help yourselves to the many books available at the “No Backsies” book fair located on the car deck. There are hundreds of books for children, many new or gently used, and also some well-used ex-library copies. If you are stopping by to pick up a packet from a teacher, that’s a great time to take home some new reading material as well.

Rules:
-Use the hand sanitizer provided before touching the books.
-Take as many books as you like.
-Do not bring any books back.
-Please do not bring your own books to share. We can have a community book swap in the future when germ spreading is less of a concern.

Happy Reading!

Green Body & Home - What is Argentyn 23?

This week we are going to focus on Argentyn 23 from Natural Immunogenics, a bio-active silver hydrosol, a professional-quality immune booster that the whole family can use.

There has been some negative things said in the past about "colloidal silver", however this is due to products that were contaminated by the presence of salt, protein, compounds and stabilizers. All those things can degrade the silver while making it potentially toxic.

Argentyn 23 has no added salts or proteins. You'll only find pure silver in pharmaceutical-grade water that is then bottled in amber glass to maintain purity.  The below article from Dr. Hirt, MD, from The Center for Integrative Medicine explains why this supplement is something we might want to have at home for both prevention and during an active infection, as Dr. Hirt states, it "Kills the "worst of the worst" pathogens".

https://www.drhirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ARGENTYN-23.pdf

The “Green Body & Home” blog posts are brought to you by the PTA. They provide general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.

Campus is Blooming!

While campus is not teaming with students it sure is blooming! Our outdoor work spaces have received a lot of attention over this past week. The garden by BEC had a complete face-lift. The Montessori Pond by the library has a new lily and the desert roses are also sporting new buds

BEC Outdoor area gets a revamp!

What’s New in the Library?

We continue to add more collections of resources which you can find through our virtual library. New additions this week include health information from Coach Nurse, elementary science experiments from Ms. DiFrancesco, and a collection of online safety and digital citizenship resources.

Ms. Schlesinger will soon be offering zoom information sessions for families on how better to utilize the library and its resources. Stay tuned for dates and times.

29 Easy Things to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

As you are in the mode of changing life styles please consider the attached article.

Stay Healthy! Michael Bornn, Head of School

29 things you can do for a lower carbon footprint that will hardly change your day

Climate change is real, and there are ways to mitigate it. Here's what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint without changing your whole life.

PGIA Dance Showcase Wows Entire School

Students in Pre-DP and DP dance classes put on a energizing Dance Showcase to display the dances and in some cases props and costumes they have been working on all semester. The entire VIMSIA community came together on Friday March 13th, to support their fellow classmates and students. After the show one staff member said that, “All the performances  were amazing and they  became more incredible with each age level. It was truly inspirational and showed us all how life is a celebration regardless of circumstances.” The entire audience was absolutely delighted and wowed by what they saw on stage.

A recording of the performance can be found here!

And we invite you to be wowed as well.

9th and 10th Graders perform the Salsa to - Vivir Mi Vida by Marc Anthony

Diploma Programme dancers perform the Greek Karagauna

Are you drowning in a tsunami of information?

image from DC Library/flickr

For help taming the firehose of resources out there, Ms. Schlesinger is continually adding and updating collections of favorite websites and activities through our library. There are selections for kids browsing, and for parents looking for resources to use at home. Warning: you may lose track of time if you start exploring Virtual Museums & Field Trips!

VIMSIA Student's Artwork Displayed in Youth Art Month VI Student Art Online Gallery

Virgin Islands Student Art exhibition that was supposed to be held at the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts has this week has moved online. VIMSIA students Sofia Kappel, Zia Gibbs, and Deja Marie Simon both have art on display.
Please take a few minutes to browse the online gallery, and show your support for these creative children. Find it in the Facebook group: Youth Art Month VI Student Online Gallery 2020

Green Body & Home - What is Biocidin?

This week we are sharing information on Biocidin.  Biocidin is potent broad-spectrum botanical that has been thoroughly researched and documented in regards to it's antimicrobial benefits, as well as the support it offers in the face of viral, bacterial, fungal or parasitic challenges.

Biocidin was developed in 1987 to assist physicians in addressing opportunistic infections.  In a laboratory setting, Biocidin was tested against pathogenic organisms and found it was "the most powerful inhibitor of pathogenic organisms" that  the lab (Genova Labs) had tested, and it was "equal or more effective than traditional therapies".  Physicians and practitioners across the country began reporting in with outstanding clinical results that have continued for over 30 years.   (Shared from Biocidin's facebook page)

Biocidin is a combination of a number of a different herbs sourced from the United States and Europe.  The quality of the herbs as well as the ratio used in the formula are what makes this product work so well and powerfully.

Ingredients

Bilberry extract (25% anthocyanosides), Noni, Milk Thistle, Echinacea (purpurea & angustifolia), Goldenseal, Shiitake, White Willow (bark), Garlic, Grapeseed extract (min. 90% polyphenols), Black Walnut (hull and leaf), Raspberry, Fumitory, Gentian, Tea Tree oil, Galbanum oil, Lavender oil (plant & flower), Oregano oil (plant & flower).

Other Ingredients: Vegetable Glycerin, Alcohol Less than 5% (potato and or cane source). Product contains no allergens such as milk, eggs, yeast, corn, soy or wheat. Free of any synthetic ingredients, colors, additives or excipients. No animal testing. 100% vegetarian/vegan formula. Certified Organic or wild-crafted sources used whenever possible.

Read more on the VIMSIA PTA Facebook group to learn more about Biocidin.

Further sources of information:

https://thedr.com/biocidin/

https://biocidin.com/

The “Green Body & Home” blog posts are brought to you by the PTA. They provide general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.

Staff Work Week

Since Monday, the entire VIMSIA staff has been hard at work preparing for March 30th.

We have been discovering and mastering new technologies, such as ZOOM and Google Classrooms. We have also been completing some important projects in our physical classrooms.

ZOOM meeting with PGIA Staff courtesy of Samantha Kaffenbarger

This week VIMSIA students in the 7th through 12th Grades began using the ZOOM video conferencing platform to connect with their peers and teachers.

Ms. Jessica Di Francesco is practicing her ZOOM skills.

We also have been sanitizing and organizing all spaces on campus! Ms. Gribble took this opportunity to tackle the storage space under Ms. Summer Classroom and give it a overhaul with Ms. Duncan.

Most importantly while we are working we have been practicing social distancing.

Green Body & Home - The Importance of Building Immunity - Vitamin D

Last week we introduced the benefits of Vitamin C. Hopefully, you have all added more to your daily regimen for yourself and your children. This week we'd like to highlight another crucial vitamin for you that actually is more of a hormone than originally realized but very crucial for our overall health and well-being. From our immune system to our mental state and skeletal strength. Vitamin D is an often ignored star of the show.

Vitamin D: Since we are all spending more time indoors as we practice social distancing we have to be even more mindful of our Vitamin D levels. If you can find some time to get out and grab some sunshine please do! There is a free app available on most phones called Dminder.  You can use it to track the approximate amount of Vitamin D you are getting when you are outside based on your skin tone, location and how much clothing you are wearing. This is very useful to find that delicate balance between beneficial sunlight and sun damage. You can also get Vitamin D from multiple food sources such as fatty fish, mushrooms and eggs to name a few.

Vitamin D supplementation has been shown to cut the risk of infection with respiratory illnesses by 50% in people that were vitamin D deficient and by 10% in people with normal vitamin D levels.

According to the endocrine society, blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D below 20ng/ml are considered deficient, less than 30ng/ml is inadequate. People with levels between 30-60ng/ml are considered adequate. Meta-analyses have shown that people with serum levels between 40-60ng/ml have the lowest all-cause mortality. Studies have also shown that supplementation with 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day can raise serum levels by ~5 ng/ml.

If you are part of our older population or caring for someone please be aware that a 70-year-old may be up to 75% less efficient at producing vitamin D than they did in their 20's

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/02/study-confirms-vitamin-d-protects-against-cold-and-flu/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3738984/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4971338/  

Read more on the VIMSIA PTA Facebook group to learn more about Vitamin D. 

The “Green Body & Home” blog posts are brought to you by the PTA. They provide general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.