These are a couple of photos of Mrs. Yakey's classes. We took these pictures today during Mrs. Yakey's going away party. She made us promise to behave ourselves while she is gone.

My classmates and I gave Mrs. Yakey a going-away party today. She leaves for Japan on Sunday. My name is Cobi and I want to tell you about it. We surprised Mrs. Yakey with lots of good snacks. Then, she took picture of all of us. We also wrote her messages on the board. Finally, we got to watch a video all about Japan.

This is a picture of me standing next to one of the bulletin boards that Mrs. Yakey made for our classroom. She hopes to bring back lots more pictures and posters of Japan.

Hi! My name is Brett and I want to tell you about sports at Northview Middle School. My favorite sport is basketball. The season starts in late October and goes through January. I hope to play on the 8th grade team as a forward. Last year I played every game and sometimes I got to start. We won one game with the score of 86 to 16. During the season we usually play about 18 games.

I also play shortstop on the baseball team. Last season I got 30 "outs" and got on base almost every game. We won more games than we lost. Baseball season is shorter than basketball. We play approximately nine games.

At Northview a student must get good grades in order to play sports.

The computer lab at Northview is very cool. It is clean and nice. It has over 30 computers in it. We visit the lab when we have special projects that we have to work on that require a computer. This is a picture of one of our labs. We have three in our school. My name is Esequiel and I like going to the lab.

My name is Latashiona and I want to tell you about my science class. When I was in 7th grade I really liked my science class. It was a lot of fun. In the spring the science students went on an overnight field trip called Reach Out. We spent the night in cabins and during the days we explored our environment. We saw snakes and frogs. We hiked, fished, and canoed. We were sad when we had to leave.

My name is Mr. Powers, and I am the aide in Mrs. Yakey's room. I really enjoy helping all the kids out and working with them. They are a great group of kids, but they often tease me about how small my car is. In this picture, they have tied my car up to the ceiling and I am trying to figure out how it happened and how I can get it down. Okay I am just kidding about that. I really do not know what I am doing in this picture. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Hi! My name is Tamra. I am 15 years old and I come from a big family. I have nine brothers and seven sisters! In my free time I like to talk on my cell phone, go shopping at the mall, and go to movies. My favorite thing to do at school is sing in the choir.

Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes make a great pair of running backs for the Indianapolis Colts. Addai, a rookie out of Louisiana State University (LSU), and Rhodes, a 4-year veteran out of Midwestern State University (MSU), have combined for 237 yards in 70 rushing attempts, for an average of 3.4 yards per carry, and two touchdowns - all in just three games. You couldn't ask for a better pair of running backs.

My name is Schuyler and I am one of Mrs. Yakey's students from Northview Middle School. I want to tell you about the Indianapolis Colts. They are a National Football League team. Peyton Manning, their star quarterback, has been outstanding the past few years. He has had five seasons in a row where he has passed for 4000 yards. In addition, he threw a record 49 touchdown passes in 2004.

I went to the game yestersday. The Colts won! They are now 3-0 for this season.

Hello, my name is Brittney. I am actually new to Northview Middle School this year. One of the things in this school, to me, that really stands out are all of the flags hung up from different countries all over the world. Northview Middle School is lucky enough to have many students with different cultural backgrounds. In this photo, there are many flags from different countries. To me, this represents the diversity Northview has. The flags are hung up high so everybody can acknowledge them. There are precisley 32 flags hung up. That number represents all of the different nationalities that students have. The flags are meaningful to many of students here. The flags also add a nice touch to the school. They are colorful and very inviting. Overall the flags, here at Northview, are very significant to what this school has to offer.

We ride big, yellow school buses to school each day. The buses pick us up at bus stops near our homes. It only takes me about five minutes to get to school. The buses do not have air-conditioning so they get extremely steamy when it is hot outside. Fortunately, the buses are heated during the winter months. We are not allowed to eat or drink on the buses. In order to stay safe, we are prohibited from sticking our limbs or heads out of the windows. We must stay in our seats as well. It is a privilege to ride a bus. If a student misbehaves he is no longer permitted to ride the bus and his parents must drive him to school.

My name is Mark. I like to sit near the front so I can visit with the bus driver.

This is a photo of our cafeteria. It is empty in the picture but you should see this place during lunch! Three hundred 8th graders eat in here every day. A staff of cafeteria workers makes us good lunches. My favorite meals are pizza, hamburgers, nachos, and burritos. We can also choose from a variety of fruits, salads, and drinks.

My name is Rico and I hope they are serving something good today!

Almost every student at Northview takes gym class. We do all kinds of fun things in this class. Some of the games we play are dodgeball, gaterball, basketball, and run races. We warm up every day doing exercises before we start playing the games. My favortie day of the week is "free day." On this day we can choose to do what we want. Some students hit tennis balls, others play flag football, and still others play volleyball. This is a picture of our big gym. We have a smaller gym too. Outside we have many tennis courts, a football field, a soccer field, and a running track.

Submitted by William.

My name is Cobi and I want to tell you about the music programs at Northview. We have a band, an orchestra, and a choir. Students can choose to take these as classes during the day. I am not in the band, orchestra, or choir but I still love music. My favorite kinds of music are Hip Hop, R and B, Pop Rock, and Gospel. I wonder what kind of music teenagers listen to in Japan.

My name is Stephen. I am one of Mrs. Yakey's 8th grade students. I want to tell you about the vending machines that we have at our school. We have Coke machines and vending machines where we can buy bottles of water. In the cafeteria we also have a vending machine that sells all kinds of candy. That machine is always busy. It is very popular with the students.

I am glad we have vending machines at school. However, one day the Coke machine took my dollar and did not give me my drink. That made me sad.

I wonder what kind of vending machines they have in Japan.

Hi! My name is Joseph and I am 14 years old. This is a photo of me writing a composition at the computer in my English class. We have computers in almost all of our classrooms here at Northview.

Every day after school I practice with my cross country team. The team has about 20 runners from grades 6, 7, and 8. Girls practice with us but only compete against other girls. We have cross country meets a couple of times each week in the fall. Cross country runners race 2 1/2 miles at meets. My best time is 13 minutes and 22 seconds.

Mrs. Yakey is trying to involve us in her Japanese adventure by decorating her room with Japanese fabrics, lanterns, books, maps, and colorful bulletin boards covered with photos. She also invited each of us to create a scrapbook page that she will take with her to Japan. We were each given a camera to take pictures of our homes, family, and friends. These photos, along with a letter introducing ourselves, were slipped into a plastic sleeve. Hopefully, some teenagers in Japan will want to look at the scrapbook pages that we made and will want to write us using the self-addressed envelopes that we included.

Our teacher, Mrs. Yakey, is leaving for Japan on October the 1st for a 19 day adventure. She is traveling with 200 teachers from all over the United States through the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Scholarship Progam. She will meeting many Japanese students and teachers. Hopefully, some of them will want to learn more about us and will read this blog.