Writer, Professor and Speaker D. Watkins delivered an inspiring keynote speech at the City Springs Elementary Middle/School eighth grade closing ceremony on June 7, 2019.

During his speech, Mr. Watkins shared the following nuggets of wisdom from his Grandmother:

In May, Mr. Watkins visited City Springs and eleven other city schools to share his new book,“We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America.” This book provides an existential look at life in low-income black communities, while also offering a new framework for how we can improve the conversations occurring about them. 

Mr. Watkins brought free copies of his book, lunch, and a group of East and West Baltimore residents to share their stories of success.

When a City Springs seventh grader asked Mr. Watkins what inspires him, he replied: "You inspire me. I was once your age and trying to figure out the world like you. I needed big brothers and homies to look our for me. Sometimes I had that, and sometimes I didn’t."

“When I have rough days, I know there’s kids running around the city who are being inspired by the work I do so I have to keep going. When you see a young person and you look out for them and they start to succeed — when they are smart and get into great colleges and start their own companies — that is the biggest blessing.”

City Springs and BCP would like to thank Mr. Watkins for sharing his story and wisdom with our students.

About D. Watkins

D. Watkins is Editor at Large for Salon. His work has been published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications. He holds a Master’s in Education from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore.

He is a college professor at the University of Baltimore and founder of the BMORE Writers Project, and has also been the recipient of numerous awards including BMe Genius Grant, Ford’s Men of Courage, and named by Richtopia as one of the 200 Most Influential Writers in the World. Watkins was also a finalist for the Hurston Wright Legacy Award and Books for A Better Life. He has lectured at countless universities, and events, around the world. Watkins has been featured as a guest and commentator on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN’s The Erin Burnett Show, Democracy Now and NPR’s Monday Morning, among other shows.

Watkins is from and lives in East Baltimore. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America and The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir.

For more information visit: https://d-watkins.com/

The word “symmetry” describes an object that is the same on both sides when it’s divided into halves. For example, if you perfectly cut an apple vertically down the middle, it will be “symmetrical”—the same on both sides.

Symmetry is an important concept in both math and art, two fields that people don’t often think of as being related. However, our Urban Teacher resident Ms. Hornbeck recently taught an engaging geometry lesson to Ms. Smith’s students that mixed math with art and invited students to create artwork displaying mathematical symmetry. 

Inspired by artist Kehinde Wiley (who painted former President Barack Obama’s presidential portrait), Ms. Hornbeck began by printing out pictures of his paintings and asking students to identify and trace the lines of symmetry found in his pieces.

The students quickly noticed one of his reoccurring artistic themes, identifying his use of repeated symmetrical patterns in the decorative backgrounds of many of his paintings. Next, they discussed creating their own artwork with a symmetrical pattern background, and then used materials like isometric dot paper, graph paper, or plain white paper to help them plan out their own symmetrical artwork. Once everyone had finished their designs, Ms. Hornbeck duplicated the background on a computer and took pictures of the students. Finally, she digitally cut each student from the photo and placed them in front of their symmetrical backgrounds.

When asked why she designed this math-meets-art experience she responded: “It is very important, especially in math, for the students to feel invested in what they are doing. By creating a self-portrait, a lot of the kids were thinking about non-math related things, like ‘what pose am I going to do?’ or ‘what color is my design going to be?’ But, they had to integrate math into their pieces for it to be acceptable and meet the design criteria. When it was time for the students to take their geometry unit exam, symmetry was a breeze!” 

This open-ended activity required a lot of work for both student and teacher, but it was worth it. It allowed students to tap into their imagination and creativity while demonstrating a basic but important mathematical concept. In the end, Ms. Hornbeck couldn’t be happier: the kids had fun while improving their math skills. Thank you, Ms. Hornbeck, and good job students!

Baltimore City Schools CEO Sonja Santelises visited Frederick Elementary on May 24, 2019 to read Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt to third graders.

The collection of poems written by Patricia McKissack tells the story of the quilt-making community in Gee’s Bend, Alabama

According to soulsgrowndeep.org, "the women of Gee’s Bend—a small, remote, black community in Alabama—have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating from the early twentieth century to the present."

Dr. Santelises engaged students in a lively conversation about the poems and commented that she was impressed with the students' background knowledge and participation.

Shortly after the visit, Dr. Santelises informed the school about an exhibit at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum featuring photographs of the Gee's Bend quiltmakers. The exhibit, entitled "Linda Day Clark: The Gee’s Bend Photographs," is on display until September 1, 2019.

Coincidentally, the school was already planning a trip to The Lewis, sponsored by Bon Secours Community Works and Kaiser Permanente. Students in grades one through five who had recently been selected as students of the month visited The Lewis on April 3, 2019.

The photographs in the visit captured the richness of the rural landscape as well as the strong sense of community forged by the women who are carrying on the quiltmaking tradition in Gee’s Bend.

In addition to the photographs, students had the opportunity to view the actual quilts and make their own pieces. Some of the third graders who had learned about the quiltmakers from Dr. Santelises shared their knowledge with other students.

"We greatly appreciate the CEO for her support of our reading initiative, and her general support for FES," said Principal Harold S. Henry, Jr.

"From initially making time in her schedule to visit and participate in our learning community, followed by the thoughtfulness shown in alerting us of the Lewis exhibit after the fact, we take pride in believing that we made an impression on her with the work that we've done in our first two years of charter conversion."

"Our students were able to visit the exhibit through our partnership with Bon Secours Community Works and Kaiser Permanente; and they remembered the readings from their morning spent with the CEO. I am truly grateful for leaders who are partners and demonstrate their care for our learning community like Dr. Santelesis."