Last month, HHA introduced its premiere Black History celebration! Huge thanks goes out to all those involved, including our Black History Month working party, school substitutes, staff and students who participated in our door decorating contest and the Family Academic Night planning throughout the month.

Special thanks are due to Kim Rice and Alyssa Davis for their advocacy and engagement throughout this process. Also, thank you to everyone who attended the celebrations.

It’s been incredible to see not only staff and students, but also school partners, neighbors and friends from our community at these events.

The theme of this year’s Family Academic Night was, “Black Wall Street: Embracing the Richness of Black Culture.”

In the early 1900s “Black Wall Street” was located in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood was home to many African Americans due to residency laws and restrictions on where black residents could shop, work, and go to school.

There were at least 600 businesses in Greenwood owned and operated by African Americans. Greenwood had its own public school system with middle schools that taught Latin, chemistry and physics, two newspapers, a public library serving 11,000 black residents, 21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores and two movie theaters.

Tragically, all of that came to an end on June 1, 1921 due to violence against the city that led to a wide spread fire that burned through the entire town. Hundreds of residents were mortally wounded. Although the town attempted to rebuild, it was never the same.

Our first annual black history event turned that tragedy into triumph by honoring the town and residents of Greenwood. Black History Month 2020 is already being planned.

Wolfe Street Academy was happy to welcome Kathie diStefano, co-founder of Avalanche Arts, on February 26, 2019.

The visit was made possible by a partnership with Baltimore-based nonprofit Young Audiences.

Ms. Kathie presented "Seagull Mamma: A Performance Piece about Trash and Recycling."

 

During the interactive show, she took students on a journey through the eyes of a mother seagull (played by Ms. Kathie) who mistakes trash for fish while hunting for food for her little babies (played by four very talented students.)

Ms. Kathie focused on the importance of recycling and cleaning up trash. The show also engaged students in learning how to separate recycling to keep our city and school clean.

The show ended with everyone singing the “trash song” together. Ms. Kathie led the song while dancing in her clogs.

About Kathie diStefano

Ms. Kathie is an American/Dutch performing artist who has been living and working in the Netherlands for most of her career. She has taught drama and theater arts in Dutch public schools for many years, pioneering the concept of using performance arts to enhance required curriculum studies. She co-founded Avalanche Arts in 1986. Current programs focus on using creative arts to teach students, young and old, to throw trash away where it belongs and how important recycling is for our future. For more information visit: http://kathiedistefano.com

Schools are welcome to contact Young Audiences at https://www.yamd.org/ if they are interested in booking this show from October - November 2019, when Ms. Kathie will be returning to Baltimore City. Young Audiences has subsidies to help make arts programs affordable for Baltimore City Schools. 

The Socratic method is a teaching technique in which students answer a series of questions posed by the teacher. These questions stimulate critical thinking about a topic and draw out the ideas behind the students’ answers.

Unlike many traditional teaching techniques in which students are told what to think, the Socratic method helps students make their own conclusions about complex issues and use reason and logic to think through big ideas.

In Dr. Lee’s social studies and English language arts classes at City Springs Elementary/Middle, the students are utilizing the Socratic Method to discuss everything from the impact of historical events to the themes of novels.

For example, the students recently started reading a historical fiction novel called “Bud, Not Buddy” by Christopher Paul Curtis. The story revolves around an orphaned boy named Bud Caldwell who lives in Michigan during the height of the Great Depression.

Bud struggles against racism, poverty, and mistreatment at the hands of people who should be taking care of him, but he perseveres through it all and emerges triumphant over his difficult circumstances, eventually asking people to call him “Bud” instead of “Buddy” because he sees himself as a beautiful flower bud that is opening up to the world.

During their Socratic seminar for “Bud, Not Buddy”, the students were asked a series of questions to help them start a discussion about the novel’s themes. “What does Bud’s new name represent for him?” and “Why are different opportunities opening up for Bud?” are examples of some of the questions that the students were asked to explore.

By discussing these questions, the students engaged in an intellectually stimulating conversation, and learned to express their opinions politely if they disagreed with each other’s statements.

Ms. Shannon and Ms. Jasmine go to school at Loyola University and they come to Dragons After Dismissal to teach us radio. Every Wednesday, we come in and read a story that is incomplete, it is our job to finish the story.

Our story today was about The Talent Show. A girl named Daisy went to a talent show and her friend, Kelly, played an instrument. Kelly played the drums better than any drummer she knew.

We had to use our imaginations and complete the story. After we finished the story we recorded it for the radio.

About Loyola Radio's "What Happens Next?" Program

WLOY’s weekly children’s program What Happens Next?, founded in June of 2009, has won national awards. Our goal is simple: entertain children while helping them grow their imagination, reading, writing and communication skills. With more than 50 children involved in the program, we’ve done just that.

What Happens Next? begins with the simple premise that children love to tell stories. We provide the beginning of a story for the participants and they create their own endings. When they’re done we let them record them for this broadcast. Children from 4-12 have participated in the program, which is recorded live at WLOY every Friday. The program is open to home schooler, public and private school kids.

Learn more about "What Happens Next?" and listen to some of the stories written and recorded by Govans Elementary students at: http://wloy.org/shows/what-happens-next/

"What Happens Next?" is offered as part of BCP's 21st Century Community Learning Center After School Program at Govans Elementary, which is funded by a generous grant from the Maryland State Department of Education.