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Photos and Stories from Around the MMSD
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O'Keeffe MS: Earlier in the year, students in the 6th Grade at O'Keeffe Middle held a coin drive to benefit the Dane County Humane Society. Homeroom classes competed against each other, and, after only two weeks, students collected $966.71! Students in Ms. Burdick's homeroom collected the most money. When they learned that the total collected was close to $1000, Ms. Burdick's class voted to donate funds that would have been used for a celebratory pizza party to the total. Pictured here is Ms. Burdick's class, 6th Grade Student Council, four "special project organizers," Kara Moore and Gayle Viney from the Humane Society. Also pictured is Lyle the dog, who is available for adoption. The check is for $1,000.
Lincoln Elementary Concert 2008 - Unity in the Community: This year Lincoln did something a little different for its spring concert. Students performed four different stories and created one act plays. Each of the stories revolved around the idea of building a community. The students each had the choice to be a narrator, instrumentalist, actor or behind the scenes helper. For the more popular parts, students auditioned and their classmates voted on who should have the part. Sound effects were added with instruments and chose one song that correlated with the story. In art class the students created back drops and costumes along with a lesson on how are we a community. The stories are as follows: 5th graders and 4/5 classroom: Kokopelli Drum in Belly adapted by Gail E. Haley (pictured)
MMSD Students "Shape Up" Marquette ES: On Wednesday, May 7, schools from all over Wisconsin participated in 30 continuous minutes of aerobic activity as part of "Shape Up Wisconsin Kids". Marquette students did a 30-minute circuit around the school block and although wet ground didn't allow for ground activities there were stations for jumping jacks in addition to the running and walking.
Sherman Middle School students participated in an All-School Walk for Shape-Up Wisconsin Kids Day, May 7, 2008. Shape-Up Wisconsin Kids is a program designed to promote physical activities for youths.
Sandburg ES: HerzingCollegehas gifted all new technology including 30 Dell workstations with 512 MB Memory and 20 GB Hard drives to Sandburg's computer lab. They also donated 30 matching 15" Flat Panel Monitors and power cords. Herzing College is currently working with the Foundation for Madison's Public Schools "Adopt-A-School" program. The foundation is dedicated to sustaining and extending Madison's Public Schools. The Adopt-A-School program is a partnership between businesses and schools working together to improve student achievement. HerzingCollegehas adopted SandburgElementary Schoolon Donald Drivein Madison. Students from Kindergarten through 5th grade will use the new computers to work on Word processing skills, graphic arts, technology awareness and troubleshooting. There are 19 sections of students that use the new computer lab and library computers throughout the day. Principal Michael Deignan guided Herzing staff on a tour of the new computer lab and library. Sandburg teachers are accessing the computer labs more frequently and the upgraded operating systems are helping the students learn at a faster pace.
MSCR Health Self Olympics: MSCR held the annual Healthy Self Olympics on Monday, May 19 at MarlboroughPark. Children played hula-hoops, skipped jump rope, ran obstacle courses and kicked soccer balls. The Healthy Self program began in 2003 by Group Health Cooperative, the MadisonMetropolitanSchool Districtand MSCR. About 200 children in MSCR's after school programs at Glendaleand Falk elementary schools and the Allied Learning Center participate in the program. With the expertise of pediatricians, dieticians, school nurses, and recreational specialists, children learn that being healthy and active can also be fun. Children learn good nutritional habits through cooking projects that use different types of foods and kid-friendly recipes like Banana Jungle Pops and Fruit Smiles. They also partake in fun fitness activities like boot camp, basketball lightening and relay races. Participants are rewarded as they understand these "healthy self" skills and apply them in their daily activities. The Olympics event is the program's year-end celebration.
Lake View ES Student Senate Ends Successful Year: A round of applause for the 36 Lake View third, fourth and fifth grade students who worked together to make Lake View, and the world, a "great place for learning," On June 3rd Senators and Alternates will be honored for their dedication: giving up lunch recess once or twice a week for thirty five weeks, composting our lunches, volunteering for bake/fruit sales, organizing school and community service projects and visiting classrooms to make sure all students had a say in what the Senate was working on. Lake View Student Senate was designated an "O Ambassador" Program by the Oprah Winfrey Angel Network this year. Students received training in identifying global problems that effect children in Asia, Europe and Africa and chose to help a school in Tanzania. Below is a list of some of the activities our Student Senate/O Ambassadors accomplished in 2007-08:Organized School Spirit Days — PJ/Stuffed Animal Day, Game Day, Weird/Wacky Day and Earth Day; Gathered one ton of food for the Channel 15 Annual Food Drive; Raised $500 toward the Lake View playground; Held all school Read Across America-Dr. Seuss's b-day w/ student, Cat in Hat Readers; (readers pictured with Principal Kloos) Visited all K-3 classes as the Be A Buddy Not A Bully Players once a month for five months, helping students see and talk about ways to resolve conflicts peacefully; Held Annual Earth /Youth Service Day Warner Park Clean Up w/ students, families staff; (Pictured: Mayor Dave helping with tree planting at Warner Park) Planted pink crab trees along Tennyson and flowers in our Lake View Memory Garden; Celebrated Staff/Volunteer Appreciation Week with a banner signed by students; Collected donations from local businesses and held a Fresh Fruit Day, making sure every child in the school got to eat some wonderful fresh fruit; Helped the PTA hand out Healthy Snacks from local farmers each week; Held fundraisers to send $250 to Borodyanka, Ukraine Child of Chernobyl After School Program and $300 to the Bibi Jann School, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to support the health & education of children orphaned by AIDS raised by grandmas (bibis.) Students created counting & ABC books and a School in a Box for the students at Bibi Jann School.
Shabazz HS: Project Green Teen is Shabazz's outdoor environmental Service Learning class. It is intensive and rigorous and occurs across multiple curriculum subjects. It culminates in a week long trip of hands on science learning opportunities and multiple service learning projects which benefit many communities and the environment as a whole. On June 5th an open house was held at Shabazz to inform the community about the project and celebrate this fabulous class. A forum held during the open house allowed students to make personal presentations demonstrating growth and achievement and provided an opportunity to thank the generous sponsors of the project. Now completing its fourth year of growth this class has proven to have a profound impact on students. Academic achievement has increased while engagement has progressed to the point of being darn near possible to keep up with. Students enrolled in this integrated cross curricular class are tuned in and turned on. They become unstoppable and have a new view for their futures which include new possibilities and greatness. This statement is not educational rhetoric.
Allis ES: Art Teacher Steve Hurst submitted the artwork of the 4th grade students of Ms. Ponzer and Ms. Preuss in the "Going Green WI. 2008 Art Contest." Both classes won 1st place together! This event was held at the Alliant Energy Center in early May The students' art exhibit was viewed by thousands of people and helped bring about energy awareness and conservation messages along with ideas about new energy sources. The event was sponsored by WOLX 94.9, 105.1, and 105.5 Triple MMM FM. Jonathan and Kitty's morning show on radio station Triple MMM recorded a CD dedication to the fourth grade students and art teacher Steve Hurst along with a song from Kermit the frog. The students successfully created energy conscious poster style green artworks that used 50% reused, recycled, organic and earth friendly materials. Each student received a Triple MMM sticker, a certificate award plaque for both classrooms and the art room. Congratulations to Mr. Hurst and his 4th grade students for representing our MMSD district with artistic excellence and environmentally conscious artwork.
Fair Trade in a Nuestro Mundo Classroom: Third Grade students at Nuestro Mundo were visited by Jitzy Ruiz, a coffee farmer from Nicaragua. Jitzy belongs to La Fundación Entre Mujeres (La FEM) which, when translated to English, means the The Women's Foundation Cooperative. La FEM is a fair trade women's cooperative of coffee producers around the city of Esteli in northern Nicaragua. Members of the La FEM cooperative harvest coffee from lands they own themselves, from the shrubs they have cared for organically, and then sell the harvested bean to fair trade coffee roasters such as Madison's own Just Coffee. In fact this visit was made possible by Lori Mathews, the Educational Outreach coordinator for Just Coffee. Jitzy took a few minutes to share what life is like in rural Nicaragua, highlighting education, coffee farming, and the empowering effects that La FEM has had on its members. She then answered dozens of questions from our students about coffee and life without electricity, as well as food and wildlife of Nicaragua. Lori Mathews from Just Coffee designated different children to represent the different steps through which coffee passes from farm to cup. The students observed how ten dollars paid by the consumer passed through all the hands involved in the standard coffee trading process, which left the farmer with very little even though he or she did the most intense and the most amount of work. After that activity the students observed the same activity but through the fair trade coffee process. Immediately the number of players involved in shipping and distributing the coffee were cut in half, and as that same ten dollars passed through the chain of commerce, there was more left over for the coffee producer. At this point it was the children's turn to show Jitzy a little bit of what a typical school day looks like at Nuestro Mundo. Jitzy was invited to play math games with the kids. She loved the idea of kids learning through playing and had a good time interacting with them As you might imagine, this activity and the experience of meeting someone on the coffee producing side of this huge commodity, lent itself to a discussion and an excellent, genuine learning experience for the students. Jitzy was presented with a Nuestro Mundo coffee cup and a shirt for her daughter, but the knowledge and experience of fair trade she gave the students will hopefully help galvanize a new generation of citizens committed to promoting this aspect of social justice around the globe.
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