LESSON REVIEW # 32A... Something To Aim For..

                              Cleophas Mike McAlpin......Tutor

                              Marci Rodriquez.............Tutor  

Lesson Review....May 7, 00

It was time for field trips again. Our lessons on the Spanish language and computers lasted for only two hours. It was then on to the field trips that are covered in our section on "Field Trips". Click on this hyperlink for all of the places that we visited on this very pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Marci Rodriquez gave the Spanish lesson. She focused on telling time and how to sell items. Some of the students will be selling Black figurines as a fundraiser and Marci reviewed them on the proper Spanish words to say when asking customers to buy our merchandise. The merchandise was donated by Cleophas McAlpin of Grom Wholesale. Grom Wholesale is a company that specializes in Black figurines, swap meet items and gold jewelry. See .

The Chief Tutor, Cleophas McAlpin, set up two Apple Computers that had been donated by another nonprofit organization. The computers were 10-years old and did not work correctly. The students took the computers apart and identified the hard drive, "A" drive, power supply, mother board, cooling fan, and other computer components. It was a timed exercise to see which students could take the computer completely apart and put it back together again. Jarrell and Michael did an excellent job.

The Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to play the Phoenix Suns at 3:00PM and I had to get the students to Burger King for hamburgers in Carson and the La Brea Tar Pits in West Los Angeles for a field trip. The students ate the hamburgers and I made it to the Tar Pits in good time. The game had just begun when I took the students into the Page Museum. I gave a brief lecture and then retired to the van and the television to watch the Lakers devastate the Suns. The students enjoyed the La Brea Tar Pits and learned a few things about the Los Angeles area some 40,000 years age. See photos in the "Field Trips" section.

After the Tar Pits, we toured Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills. That included the Sunset Strip. We looked at million-dollar homes and million- dollar stores along Rodeo and Canon Drives. We climbed high into Hollywood Hills to see the home of Johnny Mathis and other notable entertainers. We marveled at the jewelry stores and clothing stores along Rodeo Road. The students were highly impressed with all of the luxury. It was some to aim for.

We then ate at a McDonalds at Sunset and Western. Then it was on to the Griffith Park Observatory for a night view of the Los Angeles basin. I had hoped that the telescope would be open but it was out of service. Too bad, I wanted the students to peer out into deep space for a look at Saturn.

The driving gave me a chance to talk to one of the students one-on-one. We talked about grades and teenage problems. I believe we had a meeting of the minds on the need to make good grades in school and the need to put troubling teen problems behind and focus on the tasks ahead. I believe the counseling is just as important as teaching the sciences and mathematics and counseling sometimes take precedence over both.

I dropped each of the students at his or her home and returned to Dominguez Hills at 9:30 PM.

It was a good day that gave all of students.....something to aim for.