Miranda Adkins | So Salem

The clippings included items from Glenvar Elementary and The Roanoke Times & World-News.

The last time Doug Hubert laid eyes on his bucket, it was 1984 and the school was digging up another time capsule that had been buried May 23, 1976. Glenvar Elementary school unearthed the 1984 time capsule on Thursday morning, May 28, 2009.

"It was wet, too, like this one when we uncovered it," Hubert said. Only, the older time capsule had very few legible items. "The only thing I can remember [in the 1976 time capsule] was the comic strip from The Roanoke Times," he said.

This time around, Hubert has two children attending GES, and the results were a little better: a lunch menu of favorite foods, magazine clippings indicating 1984 fashion sense, laminated Roanoke Times & World-News articles, news about Michael Jackson, and other soggy, mostly paper, mementos from 25 years ago.

Former principal Fred Dixon and former assistant principal Dot Mundy were on hand to talk with former colleagues like retired second grade teacher Sue Williams and bus driver Charlotte Robinson.

"I don't remember anything except we put it in plastic," Mundy said. She worked at Glenvar Elementary for five years and in Roanoke County for a total of 38 years. "Didn't think I'd be here 25 years later to look at it," she said.

Rebecca Russell-Robinson and her husband Brian Robinson, 1995 GHS grads, were both in the first grade when the capsule was buried. They don't remember much about it, but their story together starts at the elementary school when they rode the bus together. Robinson's mother, Charlotte Robinson, drove the bus that took them to school.

For more photos, visit The Notebook on sosalem.com

Sinkler honored by school board, General Assembly

William Sinkler, school board member for the city of Salem since 1993 and educator for over 40 years, was recognized by the city of Salem schools during the May 12 meeting. He was honored by the Virginia General Assembly in a resolution commending him for his dedication to students of all ages in Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Salem. His longtime friend, Roanoke delegate Onzlee Ware, initiated the resolution endorsed by delegates Morgan Griffith and William Fralin, and Senators John Edwards and Ralph Smith.

"One of the things that I've always believed and is certainly a rule you live by is that there are really only two kinds of people in this world: those that are humbled and those that are about to be humbled," said city spokesman Mike Stevens, citing Sinkler's "quiet, yet incredibly effective leadership."

To read the commending resolution, visit The Notebook on sosalem.com

Salem Montessori collects 'Pennies for Peace'

Although most of them aren't even five years old yet, the students at Salem Montessori School are taking big steps to help kids on the other side of the world. They collected $472.57 for the "Pennies for Peace" campaign based on the books "Three Cups of Tea" and "Listen to the Wind" by Greg Mortenson.

"That book told us that in the other countries they didn't have any money to buy the things that we have here," said Alex Smith. Mortenson's work is based on a promise he made to a group of children in Korphe, Pakistan, while he was recovering from climbing K2, one of the highest peaks in the world. According to the website, he found them writing with sticks in the sand instead of going to school. He promised to build them one.

The idea of the campaign is that for every penny, a pencil can be bought in Pakistan or in Afghanistan, where Mortenson has dedicated his life to helping build schools in rural areas, especially for girls who wouldn't normally have any opportunity. According to Salem Montessori mom Connie Parsell, the money that the school raised is enough to provide a teacher's salary for one year.

Glenvar Middle School's guidance office nationally recognized

Glenvar Middle School applied for and received the American School Counselor Association's Model Program Designation and was recognized at the May 14 Roanoke County School Board meeting for the award. "That recognition shows that we're using data and diff accountability strategies to make sure that we're meeting all of the students' needs here at Glenvar," Kristen Moran said.

The program uses surveys to gauge students' feedback on the guidance office. It took about two years for the school's office to get equipped to apply for the recognition, valid for the next three years, which they applied for this February.

To read more about the award, visit The Notebook on sosalem.com

Glenvar Middle students go bowling

The eighth-graders at Glenvar Middle escaped the school and the rigors of SOL testing to strike up some fun at Hilltop Lanes in North Roanoke on the morning of May 27. The AMF-affiliated bowling center gave the group a good rate on shoes and two games and let the students keep on bowling.

"We try to give the schools a break and give the kids a break," manager Jerry Foutz said. "If kids don't get into bowling, in a few years there won't be any adults in bowling."

AMF is encouraging youth bowling this summer by offering a "Kids Bowl Free" pass this summer for children under 13 years old. It entitles each kid to two free games every day all summer. Registrating for the pass is online at www.kidsbowlfree.com. The pass also allows adults in the family to purchase an accompanying pass for under $25 that entitles them to two free games per day all summer, too.

Eighth-graders at Andrew Lewis Middle School took a walk through local history at East Hill Cemetery on Friday morning, May 29, and their teachers incorporated math, science, social studies, English, and even physical education into the lesson.

"I think they were probably kind of puzzled about what we were going to do," said Brian Hooker, the eighth-grade World Geography teacher. They started the unit after their World Geography SOL test. "I didn't tell them any specifics. The teachers and I made the sheets up and I didn't pass them out until they got on site."

In the cemetery, students were given a worksheet and searched through their assigned plots -- questions about the headstones' weathering and which stones might last longer dealt with science. Math questions entailed finding the youngest and oldest occupants of the graves -- as well as figuring average ages of females or males.

Social studies questions dealt with indications of social standings and religious faith, the cemetery's location, and places people came from before dying in Salem. English queries included finding interesting epitaphs and how they indicated things about their owners.

It all started with the end of their World Geography lesson on May 21. Hooker's inspiration was the book "Salem: A Virginia Chronicle" by Norwood C. Middleton.

"I used it as a main resource to talk about local history, and I learned a lot. And I'd like to say that my students learned a lot, too," he said. They started out at the Indians, and by May 30 they were in the Civil War, Hooker said.

A quick chat with students Jordan Dixon and Josh Carr proved that the knowledge was sinking in.

"You were more distinguished if you had a bigger stone," said Dixon. A memorable epitaph for her was that of David Bittle's: "Faithful unto Death."

Carr learned that Andrew Lewis isn't just an obscure mention that Salem has held onto -- he realized that Lewis is actually buried in East Hill. Another famous family he noticed was that of Nathaniel Burwell.