Latest news with #MonteVistaElementarySchool
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Whale watching tour off Newport Beach gets rare visit from ‘phantoms' of the Pacific
A whale-watching excursion off the coast of Orange County got an up-and-close visit by a pair of friendly and 'extremely curious' minke whales. The encounter happened Tuesday morning between the whales and a Davey's Locker Whale Watching tour just miles off the Newport Beach coastline. Video shared with KTLA showed the normally shy and flighty marine mammals approach the packed boat, circling it several times and surfacing several feet away. According to Jessica Rodriguez, the Education & Communications Manager at Davey's Locker Whale Watching, encounters like this are exceedingly rare. 'Typically shy and swift, Minke whales are often known as the 'phantoms' of the Pacific due to their brief surface time and quick movements,' Rodriguez said. 'This encounter was a heartwarming reminder of the deep connection that can occur between humans and marine life when we take the time to observe, respect, and protect our ocean environment.' Among the passengers to be treated to the rare display of interspecies diplomacy, was a group of students from the local Monte Vista Elementary School. For more information about tours like this, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
High schoolers in Jordan School District install ‘Buddy Benches' at elementary schools
SOUTH JORDAN, Utah () — Elementary school students across the Jordan School District received Buddy Benches this month, which were a gift from older students in the district. The Buddy Bench is a place to help make new friends if you are lonely at recess. A group of seniors in the Jordan School District know first-hand how the benches work, so they designed and built benches for their younger friends in the district. was at the party at Monte Vista Elementary School when the students received their gift. It was an assembly where the school was surprised with their new recess accessory. 'Somebody notices:' Kindness classes taught at Utah State Correctional Facility boost community A group of welding, construction management, and education students from the Jordan School District's Academy of Technology and Careers teamed up to not just design the benches, but build them and then introduce them to the schools. Makayla Bird is a senior at Mountain Ridge High School. She was part of the student group. Makayla explained, 'We are focusing a lot on inclusion and not really focusing on the fact that bullying is bad; but really focusing on the positive reinforcement and really focusing on kids being kind to others.' Makayla didn't build the 18 benches being distributed across the district, but she did work with classmates to make sure the benches didn't just support the students — she made sure they learned how to use them. That was the goal of the assembly. Makayla continued, 'We did it all together, and we planned what we wanted. We knew we wanted to focus on things that were real problems within the schools, so we came and talked with the principals with the schools — so we knew what our targeted audience was needed.' This project was important for each of the students involved, not just because it was an important task, but because they know a Buddy Bench can work. Makayla explained, 'A lot of the welding students had their own experience with buddy bench in elementary school and they saw the positive impact it had.' Blair Jensen teaches the welding students. He was the one who got the idea going, but he said it was the students who made it happen. Jensen said, 'It was designed by the students. It was built by the students. The prototype was made by my welding students, then came the teacher education students and construction management. It's three programs working on it together.' After the assembly, they installed the bench outside the school — a gift for the younger generation and a step forward for the older students in their futures. Jensen explained, 'My focus is to getting them successful in a career and I think stuff like this having an impact in your community, that's crucial for being successful.' If you know of Acts of Kindness in your community, we want to share their stories. Please email us at . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
