Student photos. Emerson Middle School Art Department.

Teacher boxes. Emerson Middle School Art Department.

Imagine the Possibilities is an ongoing collaboration between the Emerson Middle School Art Department and the Park Ridge Cultural Arts Council.  It supports the District Strategic Plan to integrate service learning into the curriculum.  PRCAC is a local arts organization whose mission is to promote, develop, and support the performing, visual, and literary arts in Park Ridge.  This is done through an annual grant program, events sponsored to promote connections and collaboration between local arts organizations and the community and benefits to raise funds for the grants and events.

Over Thanksgiving weekend PRCAC had its first Winterfest Gift Gallery fundraising event.  Several 8^th grade photography students from the fall trimester committed extra time in the darkroom to create photographs for the sale: Mike Chrisos, Anna Campbell, Claire DeRosa, Isabel Diaz, Megan Senf, Jake Roppel, Alicia Gubarev and Olivia Vela.  Many student images were identified by the teacher as “having excellent saleable qualities,” such as globally appealing subject matter and excellent composition.  Students that decided to volunteer their work for the Council recognized that their work had to be printed with excellent contrast and craftsmanship, otherwise it would not sell.   Students mounted the photographs to mat board and they were placed into a plastic slip cover for the sale…very professional!  Several prints were sold and those that were not will be retained and sold at future fundraising events.

Students enrolled in Photography classes at Emerson will continue to have the opportunity to create black and white silver prints, beyond what is required for their regular class work, and donate them to PRCAC.  Through this process, students will discover the potential of their own artistic abilities and outreach as artists in their community.

In addition, a primary part of the fundraiser was an invitation from the Arts Council to local artists to paint wooden boxes with unique surface designs and donate them for the sale, proceeds to benefit the Council.  Emerson art teachers Sonja Dziedzic and Cindy Davies both painted boxes that were sold during the Winterfest fundraiser.   Davies and Dziedzic also volunteered their time to paint an attractive window dressing to attract shoppers to the sale.  It was a great opportunity to help out in our community and support the arts!

This article provided by Mrs. Dziedzic and Mrs. Davies, PREA members at Emerson Middle School. Mrs. Dziedzic is an Art teacher and Curriculum Specialist in District 64. Mrs. Davies is an Art teacher.

District 64 Superintendent, Dr. Bender, leads Field School students and staff in singing the Star Spangled Banner.

Music teachers, Jenny Johnson and Joani Heavey, Art teacher Michaela Sorensen, Foreign Language teacher Maryann Arsenijevic, and Physical Education teachers, Maureen Borowski, Samantha McDaniel and Jason Mata successfully worked to combine their enrichment programs, the social studies curriculum, and the district’s civil behavior initiative, by honoring a remarkable day in our country’s history. All of these teachers are members of the Park Ridge Education Association.

The picture of 600 children, standing silently on the beautifully landscaped front lawn of Eugene Field Elementary School, with their tiny hands over their huge hearts, in a demonstration of respect for their school, community, and country, filled onlookers with great pride. The “Celebrate America” flag raising ceremony held on Friday, September 9^th, 2011, was a memorable moment and a meaningful learning experience for each and every student.

Among the honored guests were Park Ridge Mayor Dave Schmidt, Aldermen Sweeney and Maloney, Police Chief Frank Kaminski and Senator Dan Kotowski.

Fifth graders began the ceremony with spirited voices singing, “This is America!”, by Teresa Jennings.   The list of patriotic music also included dramatic songs such as “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin.  Mrs. Heavey proudly commented, “To learn all the patriotic music for this 9/9/11 event, the entire student body worked extra hard from the first day of school!” She added, “The fifth graders did an awesome job as role models and leaders for the all-school singing.  They also performed, “Celebrate America,” a song that I wrote nine years ago for the one-year anniversary of 9/11.”

Lt. Duane Mellema and the Park Ridge Police Honor Guard, respectfully led the procession of fifth graders, Sophia Post, Margaret Edsey, and Matt Herguth, who carried, and then hoisted “old Glory” to it’s rightful place of admiration.

The highlight of the program was a solo rendition of The Star Spangled Banner sung by District 64 superintendent, Dr. Philip Bender.

Field School Principal, Susan Walsh, said in her speech, “Today we honor the heroes who serve our community and our country”.  Mrs. Walsh encouraged all Field School students to notice the heroes around them every day and to find the hero in themselves.

The special subject teachers look forward to a future filled with hope and honor and many Field School heroes.

As part of this unit, Ms. Sloan integrates the historical aspect of this war with language arts.  About 10 years ago, Ms. Sloan knew that in order to study a war, she would have to do something special for her students.  She had visited the Marine Recruiting office in Chicago located across from Lane Tech High School.  There, she met Sgt. Aguirre and he gladly came out to speak with all the 8^th grade in 2002.  He brought along some females as well.  Since then, she has contacted the Mt. Prospect office.

The first part of this study is to enlist/get drafted.  All of her students watch a recruiting boot camp video.  After it’s completion, students have to write a friendly letter home reflecting on three experiences they had while in Parris Island, South Carolina.   Their last paragraph had to include some historical facts about the war including the students’ own personal feelings.  The turbulent study of the 60’s was also briefly explained in class.

Then, it’s off to war.  The second letter home was written after her students viewed the movie “Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam.”  In this movie, students viewed segments of the actual footage of this war.  While take notes during this segment of the unit, her students no only gathered facts and statistics about this war, but also understood many of the emotional turmoil these marines had to go through.  The requirements for this letter again had to include three episodes of what it was like to actually “fight” a war.

In the midst of this study, the P.E. department at Emerson gladly gave up often times two gym periods to accommodate this unit.  After brief introductions, the marines had the students exercising as if they were in boot camp, responding very quickly to exercise commands that were given.  Though many students complained about the aches and pains of the  physical demands made of then, they really enjoyed meeting and responding to them.  After class, often times these marines gave the students some souvenirs of the US Marines.

In addition, Ms. Sloan also invited some Vietnam Veterans to speak to the 8^th grade.  One vet, Bob Probst, who was on the ground patrol in Vietnam. spoke about the torrential rain and heat many of his marines and post traumatic stress  disorder (PTSD).  In fact, Ms. Sloan sent samples of the students writing to Bob and he was so impressed that he said, “ Your students wrote what some of the vets were feeling but couldn’t at the time.”

Furthermore, Bud Jones, a US Marine pilot, also came to speak.  He had a different perspective as his 26-month enlistment encompassed flying planes and helicopter missions.  From him, students learned about what it was like from the air.

Integration of a unit through language arts, social studies, and  PE is something that these 8^th grades will always remember and students have a more thorough understanding of the subject matter.  Many students have returned and they often speak about this experience.

-This article was prepared by Ms Abby Sloan, Emerson Middle School teacher and PREA member.

Mexico's Diego Rivera at Washington School

Thanks to the generosity of the PTO for funding the Diego Rivera Traveling Exhibit, it was a huge success!  This two-week exhibit inspired great cross-curricular learning in various specials classes.  Three large Diego Rivera murals were brought to Washington and hung in our hallways.

All students in grades 2-5 Spanish class spent two lessons learning about the life of Mexican artist, Diego Rivera and the messages he tried to express through his murals and paintings about Mexican history and culture.   The lessons sparked natural conversation in Spanish on subjects that Rivera liked to paint.   Each morning, Mrs. Nasshan or Mr. Ophus would ask Diego Rivera trivia questions based on the lessons learned in Spanish class.

After looking at the exhibited murals and paintings of Diego Rivera, all the Washington students are taking part in creating one large school mural inspired by Rivera’s Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park.  The process involves two steps; first they painted a mural background with trees and various landscape, and now the students are creating themselves in the style of Diego Rivera using simple shapes and bright colors.  Look for it in the hallway, coming soon!!

As a way to connect the cross-curricular lesson into P.E., students in select 4^th and 5^th grade P.E. classes learned to dance “la cumbia” to the tune of “La Cumbia de los Muertos”–a famous song known in Hispanic culture which is popular during Mexico’s famous holiday, el Día de los Muertos.

Overall, the experience in learning about Diego Rivera gave an opportunity for students who have never visited an art museum or who have not been exposed to Mexican art to see beautiful murals and paintings up close.   Connecting various specials together brought about an integrated learning experience where students used prior knowledge learned in one area and applied it to another.   Muchas gracias a la Organización de Padres y Maestras (Thank you very much Washington PTO!) We look forward to the next exhibit on Pablo Picasso………coming in January!!

This article was prepared by Ms Tricia Nagel, foreign language teacher at Washington School and PREA member.

Lincoln folklore history, as told by Mark Thomsen tells the tale of our Math Lab course being created by a husband and wife team. The husband Richard was an industrial technology teacher, and the wife a math teacher our very own Marian Nowak.  So Math Lab literally was a marriage of math and industrial technology. The course consists of math manipulative puzzles that the students solve on MWF and then on T. TH. the students play games that have a math emphasis i.e. chess, Othello, cribbage etc.  The math manipulative puzzles were thought up by Mrs. Nowak and many were created in industrial technology labs by Mr. Nowak.  Many of the math manipulative puzzles and even some of the Tues Thursday math games were made fifteen to twenty years ago. Steve Senf and Keith Liddell also made many of the math manipulative and math games when they were teaching industrial technology at Lincoln Middle School fifteen years ago.

Given the fact that middle school students are not gentlest with  manipulatives and the fact that they are used  in math classes throughout the school year, it stands to reason that they needed to be remade and repaired When the interest in playing older beat up  math games on Tues and Thursday was waning for some students,  I decided to play the differentiation card, and have some of the students remake some of the beat up puzzles  The students really liked the idea of solving the puzzles then remaking new puzzles out of plastic or wood and then resolving them again The concept of solving a math puzzle,  and making a new a math puzzle became a big part of the class. On MWF students would decide which puzzles to make and solve the puzzles they wanted to recreate in the industrial technology lab. Then on T.TH the students would remake the puzzle out of plastic or wood. What was even more interesting was that we started doing this before Mark Thomsen told me the history of Math Lab.  It was almost although the marriage of math and industrial technology was returning to its roots.

About two week before the end of the trimester Mr. Pancini brought us brand new math games and the students were off playing, enjoying and solving.  Despite the fact that the idea of solving a puzzle and then remaking the puzzle in the industrial technology lab took a backseat to Mr. Pancini’s shiny  new math games, I did see the students playing and solving in their own traditional, “gentile” middle schooler ways.  So, I think as long  as  we have Math Lab and as long we have middle schoolers, we will have the marriage of math and industrial technology for years to come.

This story was prepared by Lincoln Industrial Technology teacher and PREA member Mr. Tim Moore.

Learning On Stage performers educate while they entertain.

On Tuesday February 23, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at Emerson Middle School who take Spanish and Music classes participated in an interactive presentation about Latin Rhythms performed by musicians from the Learning On-Stage company.  This band performed music and instructed students in the diverse rhythms, songs and dances that make up Latin music.

Students had a global experience as they learned about the variety of instruments and sounds from different parts of the world that are combined in Latin music.  The African origins of the rhythms were explained and students were taught and practiced a call and response song in the Yoruba language.  The room vibrated with sound as students heard percussion instruments originating in Africa including the conga, bongó, claves and cajón.

The performers highlighted the fusion of African percussion and European wind and brass instruments that are used to create the rich and diverse sounds and tempos that makes up Latin music.   Students enjoyed

Students have fun getting into the groove and dancing in a conga line.

listening to the Rumba, Santería, Salsa, Calypso, Bossa Nova, Tango, Bolero, Afro-Peruvian and Cumbia.  The languages of the songs students were taught to sing include Yoruba, French, Spanish and Portuguese.  Individual students were invited to play the percussion instruments and dance on stage while all participated in singing and dancing.  Students were excited to join in the fun and added their own flavor to the performance, such as the conga line and sways to the rhythms.  This performance brought to life culture lessons that are taught in the Music, Social Studies and Spanish curricula.

-This article was prepared by Ms Rebecca Navez, Foreign Language teacher and PREA member at Emerson Middle School.

Participating students asked their families and friends to pledge a donation for completing math problems in a Mathathon Funbook.  Tina Gomez, Mathathon coordinator stated, “By working together our teachers and students have done a fantastic job helping St. Jude’s again this year. We are very proud of these efforts to help kids who are battling devastating diseases.”   Emerson teachers and students have participated in the Mathathon for a number of years and have raised over $20,000 for St. Jude’s since 2005.

-This article was prepared by Ms Tina Gomez, teacher at Emerson Middle School and PREA member.

The district’s five elementary schools (Field, Washington, Roosevelt, Carpenter, Franklin) take part in a unique program called Parent Playdates.  Retired District 64 physical education teacher, Holly Gansz, started this award-winning program.  These playdates were designed to allow parents and community members the opportunity to observe and participate along with their children during PE classes.  The playdate activities vary per visit, by grade, and by school.  The first grade playdate activity, at Field School, is participation in a challenging obstacle course while the fourth grade playdate activity has parents line dancing and moving to salsa music.  Doubles yoga has also been a successful, stress relieving playdate at Field School.  Washington School invites parents and community members to play volleyball with their fifth grade students.  The other elementary schools also participate in Parent Playdates incorporating a variety of interesting, interactive activities for parents and community members.

At the middle school level, parents and community members are involved in several ways.  During Open House, Emerson Middle School students perform their choreographed routines to demonstrate the skills mastered during the Rhythmic Gymnastics Unit.  In addition to Open House, there are Open Gym Nights where students and parents engage on a social, emotional, and physical level participating in sports like badminton, volleyball, and archery.  Both Emerson and Lincoln Middle School are fortunate to host guest speakers who provide students with information on topics such as self-defense, sports injuries, and illegal drug use.  Lastly, a group of athletes from the Maine South Advanced Dance Class perform for students to promote the continuation of physical education and dance beyond middle school.

It is evident that the Physical Educators of District 64 work diligently to involve parents and community members.  PTO Volleyball (Field), Teambuilding (Franklin), and Track-A-Thons (Carpenter) are additional activities that promote the physical education curriculum throughout the district.  For further information, please contact the PE Department at the school of your choice or check the district web site.

-This article was prepared by Ms Lisa Nelson, PREA member and District 64 Curriculum Specialist in Physical Education.

Teachers Carolyn Borta, Catherine Cain, Caroline DiMaso, Kathy Erlandson, and Natalie Longmuir planned a day of crafts, games, and activities which immersed the students in the various Native American cultures and traditions.

The day was a huge success, as the children could be overheard saying, “This was the best day ever!”

-This article was prepared by Ms Kathy Erlandson, a PREA member and teacher at Eugene Field Elementary School.d by

Photographer Michael Watson.

Emerson Middle School photo students received a great motivational boost to shoot pictures and a glimpse into the world of professional photography on Friday, December 18—just before the holiday break. Michael Watson of Watson Art Studio and Judy Langston, fine artist photographer and professor at Oakton Community College shared their images through a presentation during all four photography classes taught by Mrs. Cynthia Davies and Mrs. Sonja Dziedzic. Students were fascinated with the many ways photography could lead to a career.

Mr. Watson shared his promotional presentation of photos that ‘tug at the heart’ so that people will be inclined to want them and perhaps purchase them.  His images reflected individual and family portraits that chronicle important times in one’s life.

He spoke to the students about the best time of day to shoot—looking for those great shadows and choosing how much of the subject to shoot—close up details of the image, or the ‘big picture.’ He said that sometimes a small detail of a subject “said” more that the whole subject.  He also encouraged them to think carefully before they shot their pictures—if the image has emotional appeal to them, then there would probably be some appeal for others. Students were curious as to how long a photo shoot might last and how many pictures a photographer might have to take to get several good ones to sell.

Judy Langton’s presentation focused on photography as fine art—a personal statement that an artist might create to illustrate, teach or make people think and ‘know more than when they came to the show.’ Another aspect of her presentation involved her role as a professor at Oakton Community College.  Over several years, Judy has led Oakton students on photography trips to New Orleans in order to document the damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and raise awareness and funds to help people reclaim their lives.  Students selected several charitable organizations as benefactors of the several thousands of dollars in funds that were raised by selling photographs taken by the students.

This year, 8^th grade Emerson photography students are participating in a service project, with a grant funded by the Park Ridge Cultural Arts Council, in which their own photographs will be available for sale during the Hodges Park Father’s Day Art Fair, June 2010.   Grant money was awarded to purchase extra black and white film, photo paper and other supplies to set up a booth at the fair.  The presentations by Mr. Watson and Ms. Langston helped to focus the students on what it takes to shoot photographs that will be marketable at the fair. The students will be selling their work along with other artists and with the support of the Park Ridge Art League.  The classic, black and white darkroom photography class at Emerson is quite a popular 8^th grade art elective. Surely there will be lots of fantastic student photos to be purchased on Father’s Day weekend!

This article was written by PREA member and Emerson Middle School art teacher Cynthia Davies.