GA HS Sports: Carver-Columbus & Baldwin HS

Carver-Columbus & Baldwin HS
Beyond the Game

Friday night is Football night for most Georgia high schools. Georgia Public Broadcasting and Score Atlanta are collaborating to cover the 2009 high school football season from the first game to the season championships at the Georgia Dome. Check out the Football Fridays in Georgia website for stats, interviews and live streaming of the game. We are all proud of our student athletes and their accomplishments on the field each week. Here are some facts and programs you might not know about our featured schools.

Georgia Washington Carver High School

3100 8th Street
Columbus, GA 31906

http://www.carverhighschool.com/

On Fridays, the "on the field focus" is on the student athletes and the game they play. Mr. Christopher Lindsey, Carver Principal, asked Georgia Graduation Stories to focus on Carver's Math, Science, & Technology magnet program for our Beyond the Game feature. Thank you to Ms. Joyce Lee for providing information on the Integrated Math, Science & Technology Magnet Program (IMST).

Begun in 1991, Carver's IMST program was designed to serve students who exemplify a strong interest and aptitude in Math and in Science combined with an emphasis on Technology. Students with a strong interest in Math, Science and Technology move through a hands-on curriculum in those areas. In addition, the program offers a well rounded, individualized curriculum for all students. To qualify for the IMST program at Carver, students must successfully complete Advanced Math and maintain a cumulative average of 3.0 or higher in all Math and Science courses. In addition, prospective students must present a letter of recommendation from both a Science and a Math teacher, acceptable scores on standardized tests and an interview with the Principal or Lead Teacher. Magnet School students are required to balance accomplishments at the school with those in the community. For school, each student develops and completes an in-depth research project and a senior seminar. In addition, each student is required to volunteer a minimum of 20 hours annually toward Service Learning and must participate in various Math and Science competitions.

Listed below are just a few of the accomplishments and success stories of the students at Carver's Integrated Math, Science & Technology program:

* 100% pass rate on all portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Test on the first attempt

*Presidential scholarships to major universities

*Recruitment of graduations by such post secondary institutions as University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn University, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame and Tuskegee

*Student appointment to the United States Military Academ at West Point and to the United States Naval Academy

*Winner of Sony Student Abroad Program in Japan

*Regional and state winners at Science Fair and at Math competions

Baldwin High School

110 North ABC Street

Milledgeville, GA 31061

http://baldwin.schooldesk.net/

Mr. Lyn Chandler, Principal, provided background information on Baldwin that describes a High School that is working hard to support and focus on the education needs of all the students in the school.

Educating Everyone Takes Everyone

Educate to Graduate

This philosophy describes the approach the faculty and staff use to educate the approximately 1,400 Baldwin students. Indications are that their approach is working. There has been an upward trajectory in Baldwin's graduation rate, including a marked increase in 2008 (69.3%) and 2009. These statistics are matched by a corresponding decrease in the student dropout rate.

Milestones for Baldwin High School include:

*Govenor's Challenge Cup Award for Gain on the SAT

*Georiga Work Ready Grant

*II-D ITEE Grants in Science & Math

*Enterprise Small Learning Communities Grant

*GLRS SPDG Project (Georgia Graduation / Dropout Prevention Project

Athletics, particularly Football and Basketball, are an outstanding feature at Baldwin High School. Another point of pride for the BHS community is the school's Visual and Performing Arts program. Baldwin High School is one of the few Georgia high schools with a program that students can follow to earn a Fine Arts Endorsement on their diploma. Students can participate in Band, Choral, Dance and Theater as well as Visual Arts and Gallery work. Fame, the Musical is scheduled to be the Theater Department's fall '09 production.

The big news is that Baldwin High School is renovating and building a new Fine Arts Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, complete with a 1,000 seat auditorium. Thank you to Mr. Lyn Chandler, Baldwin's Principal, for the images of the soon to be Fine Arts Center.

See more pictures in a slide show format.

Grady HS Art Students Create Dinosaur Feet for GPB

Grady HS Art Students & GPB Collaborate on Dinosaur Project

Is it a bad dream or have you been seeing dinosaur feet all over Metro Atlanta? You are not dreaming. The feet are as real as possible for being the appendages of creatures long gone from earth. The feet are 4' tall; one pair organge; one pair green. They have been spotted on top of cars, at soccer games, church parking lots, at a children's museum and at other dinosaur friendly locations. They were created to draw attention to Georgia Public Broadcasting's Dinosaur Week, September 13-18, 2009.

Students in both the set design and sculpture classes at Grady High School, under the leadership of Art Chair, John Brandhorst, crafted the feet. Sophomore Iris Schaer took a leading roll in the initial phases of the project. The feet were sketched out, carved and molded from styrofoam then painted and treated with two coats of urathene to create a resilient surface.


Mr. Brandhorst accepted the commission from Georgia Public Broadcasting in order to provide his students with a real and connected project that mirrors industrial design projects in the real world of work.

Check out the slide show to see complete process for making dinosaur feet.



The structures are modeled after the feet of characters Buddy and Tiny from Dinosaur Train, the new PBS pre-school program created by the Jim Henson Company. The show combines a child's love of trains and dinosaurs while encouraging basic scientific thinking and skills along with learning about natural science, history and paleontology.


Check out the great offerings from GPB Television, Radio and Education as we all celebrate Dinosaur Week!





Thank you to John Brandhorst for the photographs documenting the creation of the dinosaur feet by the Grady HS students.

Georgia Fine Arts Standards Open for Public Comment

Georgia Department of Education Invites Public Comment on the New Fine Arts Standards

August 13, 2009, Georgia's State Board of Education approved Draft Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) for Fine Arts Education. These standards were developed in the spring and summer of 2009 by Georgia Arts Educators, School Administrators, Teaching Artists and Community Leaders under the guidance of the Georgia Department of Education.

Review & Comment

October 12, 2009: draft standards for K-12 Dance, Music, Theater Arts and Visual Arts are posted for 60 days of public review and comment.

Time Line for Implementation

November 5, 2009: draft standards currently scheduled to be presented to the State Board of Education for approval

February, 2010: training for Administrators and Fine Arts teachers begins

For questions or more information, contact:
Pam Smith, Curriculum and Instructional Services Director
404.463.4141
PamSmith@doe.k12.ga.us

Student's Art for an Important Cause

Georgia Student Wins Contest to Prevent Youth Gambling Problems

Cedric Brown is the 1st place winner in a contest sponsored by The Pathelogical Gambling Project sponsored by the social research lab at Georgia State University. In a drawing using acrylics, Cedric spoke to the idea that gambling is a destructive influence. Because he is interested in a career in visual arts, Cedric felt it was best to take advantage of this opportunity. He also said that since he is now a high school graduate, he is no longer eligible for as many opportunities available for young people. Hearing about the opportunity to participate in billboard campaign, Cedric said he "would take my last shot". As a first place winner, Cedric received a cash prize and will see his artwork on display on four billboards located throughout Georgia.

Followers of the Georgia Graduation Stories blog will recognize Cedric as one of the seven young people who traveled to China in 2008 as part of the Metro Atlanta's Boys & Girls Clubs' (Youth Art Connection) Beijing Program. Check out the posts under the Beijing Program labels.
You can also see the online version of the recently released China Book.

Cedric is a 2009 graduate of DeKalb County's Redan High School, and he will be attending Georgia Perimeter College this fall.

THE CONTEST

The Billboard Campaign on Youth Gambling Prevention was one strategy of the Pathological Gambling Project at Georgia State to prevent early onset of gambling problems among Geogia's youth. The Project used social marketing networks to address the fact that young people are at high risk for this problem.

The Project has the support of Gov. Sonny Perdue through his annual proclamations issued the 1st week of March on gambling prevention. MARTA message boards in their train stations and college radio stations are other outlets for this important message.

For more information, contact
Ayana Perkins, MA
Intervention Coordinator
GSU Pathological Gambling Project
404.663.1506
asperkins7@student.gsu.edu


Follow Georgia Graduation Stories on Facebook.

Jazz Residency for HS and MS Students

Atlanta Public School Students Participate in Julliard Summer Jazz Residency

The partnership between APS and Julliard, the performing arts school in New York City, is in its second year. In mid-June, Middle and High School Students attended master classes, private, ensemble and theory lessons along with viewing and listening sessions in a week long residency held at North Atlanta's Center for the Arts. The culminating activity of the week was a recital held at Jackson ES.

View the Atlanta Public Schools press release for complete details, pictures and student quotes.



ContactL David Lee Simmons
APS Print and Digital Writer
404.802.2849
dsimmons@atlantapublicschools.us

The Nation's Report Card: Arts 2008

Report of 8th Grade Achievement in the Arts First Since 1997

On June 15, 2009, The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)released The Nation's Report Card (report) on the performance of 8th grade students in music and visual arts as measured on the NAEP assessment administered January-March, 2008 to 7,900 students nationwide. The results were compared to the last time NAEP administered the arts assessment in 1997. Student and school background factors as related to arts achievement are also included in the report.

Students taking the assessments in music were asked questions that required both responding and creative and critical thinking. A sample response question was to ask students to identify the instrument featured in a solo piece of music.

Students in the visual arts were asked to identify the similarities between two self-portraits. They were also asked to add a project to the tasks being measured by including the creation of a self-portrait with materials that were supplied.

The full assessment that includes grades 4 and 12 was not included due to budget cuts. Dance and Theater were not assessed due to the small number of schools that offer all four arts.

The 2008 NAEP arts assessment indicates a decrease in student achievement and a decrease in student visits to museums and other cultural institutions. View data, full report and archived webcast of the NAEP news release event.

The purpose for conducting an assessment in the arts is to provide evidence based practices to guide arts education instruction and make these practices available to all educators and students.

Picturing America to Picture Success in Muscogee Co. School District

Muscogee County School District & the Picturing America Best Practices Institute

When students leave school for the summer vacation, teachers and administrators can be found still hard at work, refreshing their skills and learning new approaches to support student success. On June 3 and 4, 2009, teachers from Muscogee County School District gathered for a two day workshop inspired by Picturing America, a program of the National Endowment of the Humanities. The group included K-12 teachers in music, visual arts, Spanish, social studies, language arts and media specialists and was organized by Robbie Holt (Director of Arts & Humanities) and her team.

Muscogee County School District, an award recipient from the Picturing America Program, had portfolios of posters on great American art. Many teachers have been using these poster sets as tools to introduce students to the best of American arts and humanities. An example is pictured here: Thomas Hart Benton's The Sources of Country Music. The art work was a catalyst for a robust discussion among the teachers that led in directions as diverse as American History, history of American song, origin of musical instruments, transportation, social & economic influences, etc.

The skills teacher's used for this type of responsive and creative analysis were honed by the presentations, demonstrations and activities offered to the group by the three guest instructors. Object-based learning, literature and music as a focus for a sense of place, art and artifacts for increasing observational skills are some examples of the work the group undertook over the two day period.

The major assignment for all the educators attending the Best Practices Institute was to assemble a piece of art or personal artifact that told a family story. The collection of objects created an instant cultural museum and allowed the whole group to become deeply engaged in the applied lessons from two days of intensive work.

The W.C. Bradley Co. in Columbus, Georgia served as the host and location for the Institute. The building that began as a cotton warehouse in 1885 is now a whole block on the National Historic Register and in the second century of adaptive re-use. Susan Wiggins, Vice President for Stakeholder Relations, gave the group of teachers an overview of the history of the company and the buildings. She pointed out the historic photographs on the walls and artifacts (including Mr. Bradley's desk) throughout the building. The highlight of her presentation was the background and guided tour of the W.C. Bradley Co. Centennial Art Collection. After an extensive national search, 21 artists were commissioned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the company by using their art to "document a company, a place, a people, and a place in time." With the historic structures, artifacts and art collection, the W.C. Bradley Co. was the living symbol of the work teachers were undertaking in the Picturing America Best Practices Institute.

About the Instructors

David Johnson is Professor Emeritus from Columbus State University in creative writing and American literature. He is know as a poet and storyteller . His work has been published nationally in juried periodicals and journals.


Kristen S. Hansen is Associate Professor of Music in the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University. Dr. Hansen holds the DMA and the MM in Horn Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. She previously received the degree of Bachelor of Music summa cum lunde from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She plays second horn in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. At Columbus State, Dr. Hansen is an active teacher and site director with study abroad programs in Paris and Oxford. She is currently engaged in writing a music theory text for undergrduate music majors.

Anne R. King is a veteran museum educator, who most recently has focused on developing interpretive guides and web-based interactive learning sites for museum collections and exhibitions. Her interest in American art and culture and in interdisciplinary learning grew through years of programming and interpretive work at the Columbus Museum.


View Slide Show

MetLife 2009 Ambassador in Education Award for Arts Educator at North Atlanta High School

Georgia Art Educator Recognized for Community Service

MetLife's Ernest L. Foster and National Civic League President Gloria Rubio-Cortes present the 2009 MetLife Foundation Ambassadors in Education Award and a $5,000 check for the school to art educator Natalie Brandhorst (center).

Natalie Brandhorst was recently recognized in a ceremony at North Atlanta High School for the work she has done with her students to build bridges between the school and community. View the Georgia Graduation Stories blog for April 14th and the Atlanta Public Schools press release for May 13th for more details on the MetLife Ambassador in Education Award and the accomplishments of Ms. Brandhorst and her students.


Thank you to Joe Manguno, Media Relations Specialist for Atlanta Public Schools, for supplying the photograph.

The Soloist: Preview Event at Georgia Public Broadcasting

Meet the Georgia Soloists

Communities in Schools and Georgia Public Broadcasting are hosting an empowering evening of student achievement. Preview exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage with host Chuck Faush from the movie, The Soloist.* Students will perform and receive recording masters of their performances gifted by GPB and nContrast. Pictured at a recent session at the GPB Performance Studio is Ramon Perez from CIS' Marietta City Performance Learning Center.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
6:30 Students' Red Carpet Entrance
7:00 Program
8:00 Reception

Click here to RSVP
by
Monday, April 13

*From The Soloist website:
The movie, staring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr., is based on a true story of a disenchanted journalist's transformation odyssey through the hidden streets of Los Angeles, where he discovers and builds a most unlikely friendship with a man from those same streets, bonding through the redemptive poser of music.

Americans for the Arts Hosts Arts Education Webinar

Americans for the Arts Hosting Arts Education Webinar

Steve Seidel, Director of Harvard’s Project Zero and Director of the Arts in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will present the completed findings of his Wallace-commissioned study, Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It.

December 17, 2008 at 2:00 PM EST, 1:00 PM CST, 12:00 PM MST, 11:00 AM PST (90 minutes)

http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/afta/session.php?id=1799

Many children in the United States have little or no opportunity for formal arts instruction so access to arts learning experiences remains a critical national challenge. Additionally, the quality of arts learning opportunities that are available to young people is a serious concern. Understanding this second challenge – the challenge of creating and sustaining high quality formal arts learning experiences for K-12 youth, inside and outside of school – is the focus of a recent research initiative, The Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It, commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The study focuses on the character of excellence itself and asks three core questions: (1) How do arts educators in the United States—including leading practitioners, theorists, and administrators-- conceive of and define high quality arts learning and teaching? (2) What markers of excellence do educators and administrators look for in the actual activities of art learning and teaching as they unfold in the classroom? And (3) How does a program’s foundational decisions, as well as its ongoing day-to-day decisions, impact the pursuit and achievement of quality? In this webinar, we will share the findings of this study and introduce some of the tools developed by the research team for use by practitioners committed to examining and improving the quality of the arts learning experiences they provide for young people.

http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/afta/session.php?id=1799

Get in touch with any questions.

John Abodeely
Manager of Arts Education
Americans for the Arts
T: 202.371.2830 F: 202.371.0424

Metropolitan Opera Project

Opportunity for Georgia Educators and Students

The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD returns this fall with eleven live, high-definition transmissions scheduled for world wide distribution during the 2008-2009 season. The season opens on Monday, September 22. The Met Opera website provides the season schedule and a synopsis of the operas.

Georgia Music Educators can be part of an exciting musical experiment that merges live performance with digital technology. Georgia Public Broadcasting and Georgia Music Educators Association collaborate to provide an opportunity for Georgia educators and students to participate in a project that combines the best resources of one of America's finest cultural institutions with new technology. GPB Education and Radio are offering complimentary sets of tickets to GMEA members and their students to attend the high-definition performances throughout the season at selected movie theaters in Georgia. Participation in the project supports Georgia's State Curriculum Standards.

Educators and students will have the feedback, reactions and pictures that they send to GPB posted on the Georgia Graduation Stories blog. Madison County High School students are featured in the picture above. Go to the April 17, 2008 post to learn more about the opera project that Music Educator Shirley Dillard designed for these students."> GMEA Choral Chair, Renée Wilson-Wicker, along with friends Aubrey, Abby and Victoria, attended The Metropolitan Opera's HD simulacast of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in 2007-2008 season. Ms. Wilson-Wicker reports that this was the first opera experience for our young ladies, who enjoyed the experience immensely. Renée Flemming was the hostess for the production and took the audience backstage to learn about the costuming, set design, makeup, orchestral work and interviews with the performers during the opera intermissions. Ms. Wilson-Wicker said that she was amazed at the incredible learning opportunity provided by The Metropolitan Opera through this program and encourages educators to take advantage of the ticket program offered by GPB, GMEA and The Metropolitan Opera. She concludes that the experience is the next best thing to being at Lincoln Center and seeing it live!
Questions about this project should be sent to bobrien@gpb.org.

GPB's Opera Chat

In honor of Metropolitan Opera Project, GPB Radio will air a new program, Opera Chat, around the time of the monthly opera broadcasts. Opera Chat features Midday Music Host, Sarah Zaslaw, and Ms. Wilson-Wicker in conversation about the history, music and singers of the featured opera.

More Opera Information

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is an excellent source of information on Opera in Georgia. Another must see resource is GPB's own State of the Arts program and website. Be sure to check out the following segments:

January, 2006 Opera 101: GSU's Harrower Summer Opera Workshop

January, 2008 Leah Partridge: Rising Opera Star from Georgia












May, 2008 Atlanta Opera: Cold Sassy Tree

Atlanta Youth & International Art Exhibit in Beijing

Metro Atlanta Youth Attend
Art Exhibit Opening at the
Millennium Monument Museum

Linden Longino and International Paint Pals provided the exciting news about The Beijing Program and student success:

On June 1, Youth Art Connection's art exhibition for the Olympic Games ("Peace, Friendship, and Goodwill through the Olympic Spirit") will open in Beijing's Millennium Monument Museum. Children from 65 countries (1/3 of those in the world) sent us paintings. Works by two (Rashad Sherman and Cedric Brown) of our Boys & Girls Clubs traveling kids are in the exhibit, and all members of our youth group will participate in the opening ceremonies along with Chinese kids.

Our partner, the Beijing Youth Federation, has invited Chinese government officials, Olympics officials, and ambassadors from participating countries to attend the event. June 1 is also National Children's Day in China.

Check out the place where we will open the exhibition on June 1 - Beijing's Millennium Monument Museum.

You can review other posts in this blog to learn more about the preparation and activities of The Beijing Program.

It's Not Over Until the Fat Lady Sings - or Dies

First row (L-R): Maribel Montgomery, Dylan Brooks, Kayla Brown, KayC Wilson, Kristen Pickren, Mark Lawson, Vinny Edwards, Whitney West, Terri Greene.
Back row (L-R): Steven Beam, DeLucus Moore, Wes Seabolt, Alicia Duncan, Meggan Pierce.

Report by Shirley Dillard

MCHS Choral Students Re-enact Operatic Death Scenes

Madison County High School choral students were treated by Georgia Public Broadcasting to free passes to see the "Live from the Met" broadcast of Manon Lescaut at a local theater. Relative novices to the world of grand opera, the students commented on the length of time the heroine, dying of thirst on a plain in Louisiana, was able to sing. Their director Shirley Dillard capitalized on their interest by creating a project that timed the dying scenes of heroes and heroines in opera. Teams were instructed to find a synopsis of an assigned opera to find out who died, how and why they died. They then listened to the death scene and timed how long it took the character to die. The students arrived at a subsequent class ready to "die as their character died" for the above photo.

The mortally wounded characters, the means of their death and the length of their death scene in the first row (L-R) are Isolde (broken heart, 23 mins. 2 secs.) with Tristan (sword fight, 3 mins. 25 sec.); Suor Angelica (poison, 3 mins.); Manon Lescaut (dehydration, 20 mins.); Silvio in Pagliacci (stabbed, 40 secs.); Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites, (guillotined, 9 mins. 41 secs.) In the back row (L-R) are Werther (self-inflicted gunshot, 13 mins. 19 secs.); Carmen (stabbed, 1 min.); and the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel, (immolation, 32 secs.).

And the winner is…. (drum roll, please)…. Isolde, who takes a full three minutes longer to die than does Manon Lescaut.

Project Description

From the Metropolitan Opera website:

The Met’s experiment of merging film with live performance has created a new art form,” said the Los Angeles Times of the groundbreaking series of live, high-definition performance transmissions to movie theaters around the world. The series enjoyed box office success, reaching an estimated audience of more than 325,000 viewers. In 2007-08, the Met offers its second season of international HD transmissions…

Click here for more information on the Metropolitan Opera.

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) shared a set of 10 tickets for each of the Met’s High Definition performances at selected theaters with interested Georgia music educators and their students. The Georgia Music Educators Association through the current Chair of Choral Music ( Renee Wilson-Wicker) collaborated on the coordination of this opportunity.

It allows the Georgia educators and students to benefit from a project that combines the best resources of one of America’s finest cultural institutions with new technology.

Participation in the project supports the QCC Fine Arts Standards and GPS Viewing Standards.

Click here for more information on the Georgia Music Educators Association.

Georgia Youth Create Art

Visit A Virtual Gallery Highlighting the Art of Georgia Students

For the third year, Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) and the Georgia Art Education Association have collaborated to turn the Capitol Art Exhibit into a virtual gallery once the annual display at the Twin Towers in Atlanta is dismantled. GPB assigns a photographer to take pictures of the selected work submitted by students from all over Georgia and their art teachers. The photographs are then added to GPB's Digital Library along with the artist's name, age, school and the name of the art teacher. In this way, the annual Capitol Art Exhibit lives on beyond the one month it was on view in Atlanta. A virtual gallery allows students, parents and educators to view these special creations in an on-demand setting.

Click here to connect to GPB's Digital Library. You can click on the thumbnail to create a larger image of the work.

The Capitol Art Exhibit is an annual event cosponsored by the Georgia Art Education Association and the Office of the Secretary of State and is the premier event of Youth Art Month. The purpose of the exhibit is to share with Georgia legislators and the public the exceptional creative ability of Georgia's students.

Click here to learn more about the Georgia Art Education Association.