For Black History Month, Robert Frost focused this year on the many contributions made by African Americans throughout the country’s history, including inventions, scientific innovations, entertainment, literature, politics and sports.

Continuing an annual tradition, teacher Lynne Connors and a committee of volunteer students created an informative display case in the main lobby that depicts a history rich in struggle and achievement.

During each day’s morning announcements, volunteer students are reading a list of “Do You Know?" facts to raise awareness of the accomplishments made by African Americans and the obstacles involved with achieving those accomplishments. Music that connects with the morning readings is played during afternoon announcements.

At JQA, teacher Ricardo Carter – dressed up as Abraham Lincoln – and his kindergarten class celebrated Presidents Day by learning about the nation’s notable past presidents. Carter and his students enjoyed learning about Lincoln’s famous qualities. The kindergartners then shared what they would do if they were president, mentioning such qualities as kindness, fairness and patience as well as being organized and keeping the peace.

English language learners at JQA have been delving into nonfiction as part of a “Learning About the World” reading unit, including books about penguins. In order to deepen their learning about the birds, the ENL students and teacher Marcella Biordi used Google’s Augmented Reality to bring them to Antarctica and study penguin ecology.

“The students were able to notice the environment and think about why and how the penguins might live there,” said Biordi. “At the end of the lesson, the students shared a fact that they learned and talked about why and how this fact was important.   

Deer Park’s Dress for Success, recently held on two separate days at John Quincy Adams and May Moore primary schools, introduced career exploration to the district’s youngest students while stressing the importance of working hard in order to achieve academic and career goals.

The initiative was prepared by the district in compliance with the state’s Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks. A lesson plan, video and assignment were provided to the students to help connect educational achievement and a strong work ethic with career success. Kindergartners through second graders were encouraged to dress for the career that they want, and during lunch periods, students were able to pose with career props in a mini photoshoot.

Districtwide counselor Angeline Ramos, who organized the Dress for Success initiative, created a puppet video for the students to view that showed the progression of two characters, Hard-Working Harry and Laid-Back Larry, throughout different stages of their life. Throughout each stage, Harry stressed the importance of studying, doing homework and working hard towards his goal of becoming a doctor. Larry did the complete opposite and pushed everything off. The video started off in elementary school and ended with Harry obtaining his career as an adult while Larry remained regretful that he didn’t work as hard.

“My absolute favorite part of Dress for Success was when students told me that they wanted to be like Hard-Working Harry rather than Laid-back Larry,” said Ramos. “I was happy to see that students made the connection of working hard. I also loved seeing the creativity of everyone’s outfits. None of this could have been pulled off without the inspiration and creativity from parents and help from all staff and faculty.”

 

JFK third graders in teacher Ann Bullis’ class showed heart when they made special Valentine’s Day cards for 104-year-old veteran Bill White. While serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, White was awarded the Purple Heart. He has been creating scrapbooks of events in his life and the Valentine’s Day cards will become part of his collection.