Zach Mills, left, and Rose Hart, right, are recognized by school board chair Sally Southard.

Three Salem seniors were recognized for participating in 2008 Summer Residential Governor’s Schools. The highly selective programs are financed both by the state and the students’ school districts.

Two Salem teachers were also recognized for their summer travels-one in- and one out- of country. (their pictures are below)

Rose Hart attended the Program for Visual and Performing Arts, specializing in vocal music. In her master class, she had to bring two prepared pieces, one of which had to be in another language, sing in front of the group, and be critiqued by her peers. “It’s something I’ve never experienced.”

Zach Mills attended the three week Governor’s Foreign Language Academy for German, a highly selective immersion in language-”one girl was kicked out for speaking English,” Mills said.

John McElmurray attended the Governor’s School program for Math, Science, and Technology. He wasn’t able to come to the school board meeting.

Click here to read a previous post about Mills attending the German academy.

Two Salem teachers were also recognized for their summer travels.

Judith Painter traveled to Ecuador, and was surprised to experience that “your balance and gravity is completely different on the equator.” Along with hiking up a 15,900 ft. active volcano, visiting a rain forest and a jungle, and visiting a brocolli plantation (only to find that the good brocolli all goes to Japan due to their high standards,) she also saw the PanAmerican railway. She brought lots of great information back to her students at Andrew Lewis Middle School.

Donald Barbour lived life as one of the 24 re-enactor/volunteers with the Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation for the Summer Teacher Institute. It was like a 14-15 hour a day bootcamp for teachers. They helped set up the museum before opening and after closing, they did interpretations and demonstrations in Jamestown throughout the day, and they got to see the archaeological dig.