Winton Train Guest Speaker - Elly Evans

Thomans Graumann with
Christina Classen and her 2 children,
Jordan and Issac.

Yesterday morning we had the joy of being able to listen to Thomas Graumann about his survival of the Holocaust. Thomas was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He grew up with his mom, dad, younger brother and later his step dad. His family was jewish but they didn’t practice, they only lit the candles at Honoka. When Hitler started his wrath against the Jewish people, Jews were forcibly converted, expelled from more than 
80 cities, and killed.

Hitler’s Plan

• Identify the Jews 
• Isolate them 
• Emigrate them 
• Finally Exterminate the Jews

Jews were killed by shooting, hanging, CO, CO2, and Zyklon B.On November 10th, 1938 when Thomas and his mother were going to a play they saw horrible things happening in the streets. Buildings were being burned, businesses were looted and people were killed. People know this night as “Kristallnacht.” Thomas then spoke about the day that his mother put him on the Winton train that would take him to Scotland. His brother was ill and was going to wait for the train that would come next month. 

When that day came for the next train they found out that there wouldn’t be a train because the borders were sealed. Thomas was safely in Scotland, learning English by then with a good christian family. He started to become a follower of Jesus Christ and taught people to read and write. Thomas was 3rd to last on the final train. His number was 652. He is thankful every day that he could be on that train. 

Thomas has been happily married for 52 years, with his two adopted children and his 10 grandchildren. “I was saved.” Thomas spoke these words as he spoke about how all the remaining family that stayed in Czechoslovakia had been killed in the concentration camps. “If you think a dead Jew is better than a living Jew placed in a Christian home. That’s your problem not mine.” One of Thomas’s favorite quotes is one by Winston Churchill, “Never, Never, Never give up!”

As the last projectile flew, the crowd grew silent. Could it set a new record, or would it be doomed to splat on the ground? It splatted on the ground. However, with 6 teams competing the team of: Matthew Bowden, Logan Linder, Noah Smith, Samuel Beggs, and their team name: "Vulgar and Inappropriate" won, with a stunning distance of 93 feet! All the teams had lots of fun that day, and got to see Mr. Buch bend a piece of solid rebar (Not on purpose). In the future we hope to have more competitions that pit one team's engineering skills against another's. Thank you to all teams and parents who helped with building and getting supplies.

An Upper Classmen's Perspective - John Paul Kreft

I support Mosaic 100%. Having spent time in Mosaic for nearly 4 months I can say what I've seen has impressed me. Granted, in the beginning many students took their opportunity for granted but as time went on, things got better and better. I think what the teachers have done for these students is amazing. 

Allowing a student to apply their knowledge to the real world is invaluable and quite frankly, something I wish I had when I was a freshman. There are a few sophomores in Mosaic who have already completed the majority of their school year and we're only 4 months in, That's pretty impressive. Many people outside Mosaic are under the impression that they kids here do not do anything, but I've seen first hand the exact opposite.

JP Kreft is a senior in the LGC academy whose plans are to attend CU Bolder and study business and marketing.

Introducing the Badges Program - Amanda Kerr

A popular saying among the Mosaic staff is "Work, don't be a jerk". We want students to be using their time in Mosaic to change the world, create something useful or to pursue their interests or passions. Sometimes in order for this to happen, we need to spend some time discovering just what we are interested in or in cultivating skills.

To that end we have introduced the idea of "Purposeful Play" with the creation of the Maker Badges Program. Students were given a rough run down of what the program entails and its purpose and already several student have hopped on board to start adding to their portfolio and earning badges.