Steve McCarville teaches computer technology and junior high geography in Omaha NE–41 N, 96 W. He has led grassroots geo-advocacy efforts in Nebraska for three years as a Public Engagement Coordinator for My Wonderful World.
 
**Last month we took a field trip to the Jewish Community Center to see a production of Hana’s Suitcase. The book tells the story of how a Japanese museum curator used an artifact from Auschwitz to discover the identity of a young Holocaust victim from Czechoslovakia. We used Google Earth and the Holocaust Museum Web site to look at her hometown of Nove Mesto, the camp at Terezin, and the infamous Auschwitz.

**We are finishing up Asia right now and will move on to Africa, which will be interesting as we have students and faculty from Sudan and Ghana. We will use the National Geographic lesson on God Grew Tired of Us! (for grades 6-8 and 9-12).

**Geography is always timely! In Nebraska we have five seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter, and construction. Our state tree is an orange road construction barrel and the nice thing about construction is, when it starts, you have to practice your geographic orienteering skills. You have to learn a new way to the ballpark, a new way to the grocery store or a new way to work.

**We have had a new visitor in our town. George Clooney is filming “Up
in the Air,” a movie about a man who makes his living firing people. He
filmed at the airport already and also in the “Old Market,” which is
the old Omaha warehouse district that has been rehabbed into condos,
shops, taverns, and cafés.

**Omaha recently received a new tourist from San Diego. Unluckily, he
was confirmed as suffering from the “swine flu” or H1N1. I started
class every day for a while tracking the virus and the facts–not the
rumors. School does not always have to be strict: I had a couple of flu
masks and I realized that one would fit very well on the skeleton in
the science lab. I guess the science teacher was really excited to see
how “safe” Bones will be. I assume there will be payback!

Steve McCarville–PEC from Nebraska
St. Pius X/St. Leo School
Omaha, NE  68104
www.spsl.net

Images courtesy University of Texas libraries, National Geographic, Uncyclopedia.