Farish Street Finale

Thursday, March 26, 2009, was a day rich with music, drama, art, and celebration at Casey Elementary. The JumpstART project was featured during the annual Casey Arts Festival and at the PTA meeting later that night.

Jesse Robinson, local blues musician, visited the school in the morning and had children, teachers, and guests clapping and swaying to his music. On their field trip to Farish Street in February, third grade students had met Mr. Robinson and invited him to visit Casey.

At the PTA meeting later that night, third grade students presented their original plays about living in Jackson. Each student wrote short descriptions or stories about their favorite places in Jackson. Mr. Howell took these vignettes and pieced them together into three plays. The plays were dramatic collages of what our children love about our community. During the performance, the actors led the audience through Starbucks, the library, Casey Elementary and a magic show, New Stage Theatre, the YMCA, malls, The Planetarium, churches, movie theaters, The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the zoo, parks, Gattitown, and their homes.

After viewing a slide show put together by Mr. Miles about the JumpstART project, the multimedia panels depicting the past, present, and future of Jackson's Farish Street were displayed for everyone to see. Each class worked on one canvass or panel. Mrs. Wilson's class made the blue panel about the past. Ms. Gee's class collaged the yellow panel of the present. Mrs. Pepper's class pieced together the red panel of the future.

The slide show below is the Farish Street Finale and features photos from March 26, 2009, of student art related to JumpstART, Mr. Robinson's visit, student performances about Jackson, and the multimedia panels made by Mr. Miles, Mr. Jones, and third grade students.

As a parent of a third grader, I am grateful to the artists, the teachers, and the community members who made JumpstART possible. Thank you to Ask4More Arts and Parents for Public Schools of Jackson for funding and coordinating this project. Throughout the last two months, I witnessed joyful teaching and learning about Farish Street, Jackson, and "community." Artists learned how to work with teachers and students. Teachers learned how to work with artists, and students learned from real artists and about a real street with a past, present, and future. They photographed, drew, acted, wrote, thought, painted, cut, glued, and created.

I can't wait to learn more about other JumpstART projects across the district. I would love to hear from other parents and students about their thoughts regarding the JumpstART project. Please comment below.

Garden Surprise!

When students and staff return to Casey after spring break, they will find a surprise in one of the courtyards. A small group of parents and students gathered to remove dead plants from last summer's planting, pull weeds, work the beds, and replant some of the beds with herbs, flowers, and spring vegetables. Green Oak Gardening Center generously donated the herb plants, marigolds, and some vegetables. Melanie Allen, Casey parent, also brought some radish and spinach seedlings that she had started at home. Mrs. Allen is working hard to secure grant money and find donations for the gardening project. Because of her work, we also have some plant donations on the way from Burpee Seed Company!

Last summer, Serenity Luckett (another Casey parent) organized the creation of the garden through a partnership with Rainbow Whole Foods Co-Operative Grocery. Carl Allen built the garden boxes one very hot day in May. Many Casey families, staff from Rainbow, and a few Casey teachers gathered in June to haul dirt and plant vegetable seeds. The Allens, the Lucketts, and several other Casey families met each week during the summer to work in the garden, record observations, and do art activities related to the garden.

The entire gardening project has been coordinated and managed by Casey parents. We hope Casey teachers will be able to do some gardening activities this spring, and we hope to offer another gardening experience this summer. If you are interested in getting your hands a little dirty, please comment below!

All photos from last summer's gardening project may be viewed here:

Thank you to everyone who is making this gardening experience possible for Casey students and families!

JumpstART at Casey is. . .

Writing and imagining our futures. . .

Teachers working with artists, artists working with teachers. . .

Listening to music. . .

Researching the past. . .

Creating together. . .

Reflecting alone. . .

Interacting with artists, albums, magazines, books, canvasses, paints, glue, brushes, thoughts, paper, instruments, cameras, mosaic tiles and mirrors, pencils, scissors, photos, dreams, history, and each other. . .

Concentrating. . .

Artists learning with students, students learning with artists. . .

Making community and having some fun along the way.

The following slide-show includes every photo (330!) that I took during JumpstART and photos taken by Bonnie Bowley and my daughter on the field trip to Farish Street and downtown Jackson. There is also a short video at the beginning of the slide show. During the video, you can hear music in the background from Mrs. Wilson's room. The photos are in reverse order from latest taken to oldest.

Friday, March 13, 2009, was the last day that Mr. Miles and Mr. Jones worked with third grade students and teachers at Casey. Their JumpstART Project will be presented at the March 26th PTA meeting. A special meeting for third grade parents will start at 5:30 pm. The PTA program about JumpstART and dramatic interpretations about the city of Jackson directed by Mr. Howell will begin at 6:30 pm. Will you join us?

Celebrate Arts Education Month!

After-school ballet class with
Ballet Mississippi instructor, Julie Moran

March is National Arts Education Month!

Top 10 Suggestions for Celebrating Arts Education Month

1) Ask your child every day about what arts activities he/she did in school.

2) Observe your child's classroom during an arts integrated lesson.

3) Visit a music, drama, art, or library class at Casey.

4) Write a letter to our school board, a newspaper editor, or the state legislature in support of arts integration.

5) Thank our Casey teachers and administration for their creative ideas.

6) Support your child in their creative pursuits.

7) Tour a local museum or attend a cultural or arts event in Jackson.

8) Offer to help a classroom teacher with an arts project or arts integrated lesson.

9) Help your child learn about a new author, artist, musician, poet, actor, or dancer.

10) Save the date for the Casey Family Arts Festival on May 2, 2009!

What other ideas would you like to share? Please comment below.

Blooming Flowers, Art, and a Special Award

The trees around our school are in full bloom reminding us that spring break is on the way! I like to think that there is always something blooming at Casey-- minds, hopes, creativity, art, and community.

Mrs. Chicosky's students used colors and shapes to create this beautiful sunflower garden that is posted just outside the second courtyard in which parents and students started a vegetable garden last summer. Parents and teachers hope to get the garden growing again soon!

With district 9 weeks testing underway, the JumpstART project was limited to Mrs. Pepper's class today. Students joined the artists in the hallway to piece together their mosaics from glass and mirrors. Grouting will take place next.

Photos from in and around Casey on Thursday, March 5, and Friday, March 6, 2009

Congratulations to Mr. Howell, Casey Arts Facilitator and Drama Instructor, for being named the Thad Cochran Distinguished Arts Educator for Arts Integration by the The Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education. Mr. Howell will be recognized at a special luncheon at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian, Mississippi, on April 2, 2009. Please join me in expressing our joy to Mr. Howell for this special honor!

Good Idea for Home

Just in time for Arts Education Month. . . a music video for Tanya Davis' song "Art" by Andrea Dorfman.

I found this video link today in a blog post by Amanda Blake Soule on her blog that I check every day for creative ideas of artsy/craftsy things to do at home. On this post, titled "in the morning," she put out paper, paint brushes, and watercolors after her children went to bed so that they would find them on the table, ready for creativity, when they woke up in the morning.

I think this is a wonderful idea for a "staycation" or weekend activity, and I plan to do this with my own children over spring break since we are having a leisurely week at home. Maybe they will let me sleep-in a little if they are busy making things at the table in the kitchen, and I'll have a mini art show waiting for me when I wake up.