Wednesday, May 13, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
15
sisters Country birds — BBs hires new head teacher
western tanager
By douglas Beall
Correspondent
The western tanager
[Piranga ludoviciana], can
be seen in many environs.
Around Sisters it frequents
mostly pines, junipers, hem-
lock, and firs and can be
viewed bathing and drinking
by streams and occasionally
in backyard birdbaths. The
western tanager migrates
at night to spend the winter
months in Central America
and returns in early May
to Oregon and nests in the
higher elevations.
While most red birds owe
their redness to a variety of
plant pigments known as
carotenoids, the western tana-
ger gets its scarlet head feath-
ers from a rare pigment called
rhodoxanthin.
Unable to make this sub-
stance in their own bodies,
western tanagers probably
obtain it from insects in their
diet. Termites, beetles, grass-
hoppers, crane flys, drag-
onflies, ants, stinkbugs and
wasps are the foods of choice
during their breeding sea-
son. They also are fond of
many fruits found in Sisters
photo by DouGlas beall
Western Tanager.
Country: elderberries, black-
berries, hawthorn, and ser-
viceberries. Often you can
enjoy watching the tanager
flycatching his meal from a
branch in the forest.
Black Butte School has
announced the hiring of
Delaney Sharp to serve as the
school’s head teacher. Sharp
will replace retiring head
teacher, Carol Dixon.
Sharp grew up in Hood
River. After graduating from
Oregon State he lived and
taught outdoor education
and skiing in many beauti-
ful places around the West.
Most recently he has been
living in Astoria and teaching
Social Studies at Astoria High
School. In a letter to the com-
munity, Sharp summed up his
excitement about the upcom-
ing school year: “I am eager
to combine my skills and love
for outdoor education with
my classroom experience to
carry out exciting place- and
project-based programs at the
Black Butte School.”
The Sharp family plans
to move to Camp Sherman
once the current school year
concludes.
The school also announced
that beginning with the 2015-
16 school year, the curricu-
lum will include an inte-
grated, hands-on, project- and
place-based STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering,
M at h ) cu rr i cu l u m . D r.
Michael Giamellaro, from
OSU Cascades, has been
photo proviDeD
delaney Sharp and his family are headed to Black Butte School in Camp
Sherman.
assisting the school’s efforts and combining them with
in exploring contextualized the latest educational think-
STEM learning.
ing to truly differentiate the
Sharp will partner with educational program for our
seven-year-veteran Black students.”
Butte School teacher Ethan
The historic Black Butte
Barrons to further refine the School is a public school
school’s new enhanced cur- located just steps away from
riculum over the summer.
the Metolius River in Camp
“Camp Sherman and the Sherman. The present-day
Metolius basin offer so much two-room schoolhouse, dedi-
in the way of experiential cated in September 1950, is
learning, and that has always home to 25 students in grades
been a big part of the student K-8 who are educated in two
life at Black Butte School,” mixed-aged classrooms that
said Marti Dale, school board allow for plenty of individu-
chair, “but this new cur- alized educational opportuni-
riculum will be about lever- ties, experiential projects, and
aging those natural assets mixed-age collaboration.
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