It was very fitting that the ACPTA city-wide Reflections Art Fair was held the weekend leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Winning entries surrounding the aptly titled theme, “Diversity Is…” were in full abundance Saturday at the new Vuka Co-op on West Monroe in South Austin. It was great seeing all the entries around the walls and on tables, as well as our own 2 Scottie entries now headed to state competition. Third grader Lenny Chen’s musical composition International Sonatina was available for recorded play in one area of the upstairs section. His proud parents tell me that though Lenny is able to read music, he also has the gift of being able to play a piece from memory after hearing it 2-3 times. Quite impressive. Fifth grader George Guckenberger’s poem about diversity was also on display and one of many artistic bents George demonstrates – I hear he is also quite the film director. The last line of his poem summed up the meaning of the day most aptly – “We are who we are, we are different, yet we are alike”. Dr. King would concur I have no doubt.
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| Lenny and his Sonatina playing in the background |
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| George and Ms. Workman in front of his winning poem |
Extremely busy week at HP. Various staff and/or I were involved in several activities related to the creative classroom, both on and off campus. Tuesday, our Any Given Child Leadership team met with other pilot school teams at the Bob Bullock museum for a full day training on arts integration within content areas. We participated in a very engaging activity with a CEDFA rep related to movement/expressions and a science lesson on magnets. Along with my partner Mrs. Guenther and other participant pairs, we learned about and then demonstrated properties of attract and repel; all with some fun body movements and facial expressions showing such things as surprise, happiness, and sadness. I know I will certainly remember the old adage "opposites attract, likes repel" as it relates to science concepts and I also know students who participate in this type of creative teaching activity would as well - that’s the point! These creative strategies give teachers another tool in their toolbox to engage students in the learning and to further their understanding of content concepts. 'Cause we all learn in different ways. Fun and powerful.
Wrapping up arts planning this week, just have to mention the meeting on Thursday with The Kennedy Center reps and Any Given Child arts steering committee. Listening to the in-depth thinking produced by this varied group from across our community at large, not to mention their passion for the arts and its importance to all AISD kids, never fails to impress me. I always come away humbled by my time with them. Great things ahead for this initiative and for our district’s students as they look at next year and the years beyond.
After school on Thursday, Grade 2-5 teachers participated in an overview of the new expository writing component on the 4th grade STAAR writing test this year. The takeaways from the training centered on a few key points – consistent use of the “4 Square” planning protocol at all grades (ask a teacher for specifics if interested!), the importance of students knowing and using concise, effective language in their writing, as well as the value in having teachers score compositions besides their own student pieces in order to help build inter-rater reliability among scorers. Good, solid training materials provided from our district and some great conversation surrounding all things writing at HP.
In case you didn’t know, children’s singer/songwriter Ben Gundersheimer, aka Mr. G, was on campus Thursday as well, entertaining our K-1 students and staff. Thanks to music teacher Maria Satterwhite and parent Julie Berwald for arranging this musical performance. Mr. G sang songs, played the guitar, and engaged kids through hand and body movements to build active participation - loved the section where all Scottie bullfrogs jumped! He managed to also get in a few lessons as well (discussion of his songwriting process and the performance of a really cool song about cleaning up pollution to name a couple). Great reviews from those in attendance, me most especially. Check out the event on our HP website or Mr. G’s website at the following link. http://www.mistergsongs.com/index.html
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| Mr. G rockin' the house! |
Finally, look below for something we’ve been waiting for a long time. Yes, the staging for the Aquarena Springs shade structure installation has finally happened! Exciting, exciting, exciting - did I mention it’s exciting? Be on the lookout for future developments as we improve the front of our school. Can’t wait.
