What a day to learn about Antarctica!  Looking at icy videos helped to cool our brains at least!  Today we had the honor to hear from a former DES student, modeling ROCKS for us in his life.  Jim Gealy returned to his beloved school to share his knowledge as well as a clear vision of how to grab hold of opportunities in life.

As part of his graduate studies, Mr. Gealy joined two two-week-long physics expeditions to Antarctica this year.

We know where to find Antarctica.

It was pretty hilarious to see our volunteers dress for below zero weather while we were all sweltering!

Mr. Gealy taught us about the seasons in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

These are terrible pictures taken in the dark, but you can see we had the opportunity to view videos of traveling to Antarctica, the landscape, the animals, and some of the scientific equipment Mr. Gealy used there.  Fascinating!

The sweetest moment of the assembly was during question time.  A student asked if Mr. Gealy had seen many polar bears on his trip, and he explained that polar bears are found at the North Pole.  A dear kindergartner blurted out in an awestruck voice, “With Santa?”  

The most touching moment was when Mr. Gealy showed us his picture of all of DES when he went to school here.  He complimented Mrs. Sprague’s cooking too!  It makes my “teacher heart” happy to see one of our students thriving as a lifelong learner who remembers our precious DES so fondly.

The fourth graders look forward to corresponding with Mr. Gealy during our literacy unit on Antarctica later this year.  All of us look forward to seeing many of our DES graduates return in a similar leadership role, character shining for all to see.

(Curious about Antarctica?  Find out more here.)