In mid-November, the Los Feliz campus was pleased to welcome Mrs. Claudie Pion, a College counselor employed by the French government to work with French Schools abroad. Mrs. Pion held a conference in the Los Feliz library for students from 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.  The goal of the conference was to explain the complex French university system to our students and answer any questions they might have.

She also met individually with the 11th and 12th grade students in 20 minute interviews to give students an opportunity to speak with her about both short and long-term goals.  She in turn was able to tell them about what opportunities they could find in France to help them meet these goals.

LILA strives to help students make an educated choice about where to go after high school; visits such as these really help give students more information about what is out there, both locally and abroad. 

Orange County campus 6th graders got together afterschool and worked on a project to help educate members of the LILA community about the importance of recycling.  They designed and created a website from scratch together as a group and have launched a campaign to have families log onto their site where they provide valuable tools that we can all use to do our part to save the Earth. The website address is:

http://www.lespetitsrecycleurs.webs.com

They work very hard on their site and are constantly feeding new information.  I sat with the group in March and they gave me a web tour.  I have prepared a very short video to give people a chance to meet our dynamic 6th graders and get a feel for their project.

November 13^th was set on the calendar as the great shake out.  LILA campuses participated in full force in this very important preparation.  Here is a little taste of what happened at each site….

West Valley Campus Director Stephane Plancke explains the concept and procedure for us:

 
“We did the Earthquake drill simultaneously in all classrooms at 10:00 am sharp and then evacuated to the safe areas of our campus.

We talked about having to stay 2 to 3 days on campus in case of a big earthquake and checked our survival kits.”

Los Feliz Director Deborah Thornburg breaks down the preparation and work that went behind this day:

“At Los Feliz we had a detailed and very organized Earthquake Sahakeout Drill which was scheduled for Thursday November 13, 2008 at 10 am.  All teachers and staff were warned in advance that there would be a drill.  Classroom teachers were given specific instructions to follow and share with their students.  Johan also worked on an exit map that was color-coded based on where on campus a person might find themselves. These maps were placed in each classroom and reviewed in person with instructors themselves.

Administrative staff was also informed of their exit pattern.  

In preparation for the event, we checked our earthquake kit rations, and made sure that administrators had flashlights that will be used in case of an actual emergency.  At Los Feliz we had 100% participation in this effort and all went very well.  Kudos to Johan Gamble, Safety Coordinator for LILA Los Feliz who designed and spearheaded this project on our campus.  Because of it, we have now opened a dialogue about earthquake preparedness and we are all on board to make sure that we are where we should be in this regard.  Johan is working on a report that will go to all staff and teachers in follow up to this activity.”

Pasadena Director, Philippe Detzen, gives us a taste of the day:

“At 10:00am this morning our bells rang at the same time the Pasadena city college loud speaker called for “drop, cover, hold”

All of our 110 students with staff dropped under a table, took cover and held tight.

Some young students after the drill made interesting comments:

-          I did not feel anything

-          What does an earthquake look like?

In 5^th grade the teacher (Nordine Bouriche) pretended that he was wounded and one student (Lucas) crawled towards him with his backpack over his head to rescue him. He was the class hero.”

Orange County Director, Pascal Stricher, gives us a cute anecdote to cap the report off…

“Operation went smoothly despite some fears expressed by some elementary students for whom it is not easy, despite all our explanations, to understand and believe that a drill is not reality but an exercise.

Mathis, a second grader had a good question: will our school be shacked for good by a machine during the drill?”