Frank Allis ES: National Youth Art Month is celebrated each year at Frank Allis / NuestroMundoSchools. Art teacher Steve Hurst installed a 166 piece student art exhibit, kindergarten through 5th grade, for the month of March at the Pinney Branch Library. Mr. Hurst also submitted 52 fifth grade Federal Junior Duck Stamp designs from Frank Allis students to compete in the State Competition in Necedah, WI.

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Toki MS: The Student Council at Toki hosted its first annual Spaghetti Dinner in early April. Student Council members posted flyers throughout the entire Toki neighborhood. Proceeds supported initiatives of the Student Council including: the food drives for Good Sheppard/Allied Drive Food Banks and school improvement activities like Mix-It-Up Day and Spirits Days.

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Jefferson Middle: Joan Shahrani, 6th grade teacher at Jefferson MS, has been awarded a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council along with The Endowment for the Arts. The grant will incorporate the understanding of world religions into her social studies curriculum. One of the objectives of this curriculum is to provide students with an understanding of the impact and interconnection of religion and culture.

As the 6th graders study Ancient Civilizations, students will look at how each religion's beliefs and practices developed in the ancient world. They will also look at how several of these ancient religions are practiced today in Madison and South Central Wisconsin.

A critical and innovative component to this curriculum is the emphasis on direct knowledge and cultural exchange. Students will make on-site visits to several places of worship during the month of May. Studentswill be visiting a mosque, synagogue, Buddhist Temple, Greek Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, Native American Indian Mounds, Hmong Shamans and a Hindu celebration.

However, before the field trips during the month of April students will be trained how to be ethnographers. The students will be learning the skills of an observing, interviewing and recording information. The students will need these skills to collect information as they travel to the different places of worship throughout Dane County.

In May students will also be trained by professionals on how to correctly take video footage and still pictures during field trips. This footage will then be edited to be used as an educational tool for other teachers and future 6th grade classes. Students will be trained and able to complete this editing in a professional computer lab.

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Sennett Middle 'Lightens Up': Staff members from Sennett Middle are participating in Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation Lighten Up Wisconsin program. 27 staff members make up three teams who are supporting and encouraging each other as they make small, realistic changes in their dietary and exercise habits that will last a lifetime. Staff are excited to set healthy examples for the students and each other.

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Lowell Elementary: Juan Felipe Herrera, a well-known Latino poet and author of several dozen books, recently visited Lowell Elementary as part of aresidency co-sponsored by the UW-Madison Arts Institute and the UW-MadisonCenterfor the Humanities.

Mr. Herrera is a pioneer of the Chicano spoken word movement. He is a poet, performance artist and professor of Creative Writing at the Universityof California, Riverside. He is known as one of the finest, innovative, and most challenging Chicano poets today. He started writing poetry as a child and has written books for both children and adults.

Growing up in California, Herrera traveled with his migrant farm worker parents from harvest to harvest. Many of his bilingual picture books are expressions of heartfelt experiences as a Latino living here in the United States. In Super Cilantro Girl (2003), Herrera writes about a little girl whose mother, an American citizen, is wrongly detained when returning to the U.S.after a visit to Mexico.

Under Mr. Herrera's direction, two 2nd/3rd grade multi-age classrooms at Lowell Elementary Schoolused drama to explore the language and themes of Super Cilantro Girl. The story provides the reader with a different perspective of news like the recent immigration sweeps where undocumented parents are shipped off to deportation centers while their children wait at schools and daycare centers to be picked up. Mr. Herrera's message speaks to the painful problem of families being separated by immigration issues. It is his hope that one day all families will be able to be with loved ones in our global world.

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Sennett Midde: On April 2nd, two sixth language arts grade teachers from Singapore visited Sennett Middle. These educators were interested in the school's model, and they engaged in professional observation and discussion with administrators, staff and students. It was enlightening to hear their comparisons about staff-student relationships (e.g. "Everyone is much more respectful here!"), our curriculum (e.g. "I saw a teacher teaching THREE books at the same time in her classroom!"), and school experiences (e.g. "Boys would never be seen sewing in Singapore!"). After they visited language arts classrooms and toured the school, they met with school administrators, who shared the structure, demographics, curricular expectations, etc. of a "typical" American school. The visitors were presented Sennett memorabilia (e.g. key chains, t-shirt), who in turn gave Sennett a plaque, pens with mini-calculators, an invitation to an international conference in Singapore, and lifelong memories. (Pictured from l-r: Sim Chen Hon Kelvin, dept. chair, and Madame Lim Geok Choo B, school principal, of Innova Junior College [= our high school] in Singapore, and Sennett Principal Colleen Lodholz and Learning Coordinator Lori Hillyer.)

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Sennett Middle: Literacy Morning Success
On the morning of April 16th students sprawled themselves across blankets and pillows on their homeroom floors — dressed in PJs and other comfortable clothing —with reading materials in hand. Walls sported colorful signs crying out shocking statistics about people unable to read in America. Doors revolved with guest readers from our community: the First Lady, the Mayor, the founding president of 100 Black Men of Madison, the Mallards Coach, various Board of Education members, media personnel, former MMSD staff, UW grad students / athletes, and many of our district's Teaching and Learning staff members.

For the entire 4 ½ hours of this early release day, students were involved in reading activities that encompassed the four areas of literacy: reading, writing, speaking and listening. To capture the latter component, an engaging and heartwarming video was shown that encompassed the points we wanted to make to students: a) the importance of literacy, b) the possible detriments of illiteracy, and c) the options people have at ALL ages to combat illiteracy to make life easier.The primary goal of this day was met by all: to promote the value and enjoyment of reading. When asked how the day could be improved, the collective answer was that students wanted MORE time to free read...music to our ears!

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Randall Elementary - Yoga Class
Fifth grade students at Randall Elementary have embarked on a new journey into the world of yoga. Kristin Faber, Karen Kampa and Lisa Lockwood wrote a PTO grant to ask for funds to cover the cost of two classroom sets of yoga mats.

Their wish was granted and Thursday afternoons took on a new state of mind. Fifty-one students and three teachers transform the Randall cafeteria into their own yoga studio. They eagerly unfurl their red yoga mats, take off their shoes and socks and let the relaxation begin.

Jules Wolf-Stenzel, a Randall parent and local yoga instructor/owner, offers her professional guidance and wisdom to the students and teachers. Each week, the adults are amazed at the continued progress of the students' poses, ability to focus, and appreciation for the art of yoga.

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Allied Learning Center: On March 5, Links, an African-American women's service group, gave 50 books and 35 DVDs to the Allied Learning Center. This is the third donation in three years bringing the total to 800 books. Pictured: Diane Crear, former MMSD Administrator, and Jackie Rodman, Links President, deliver donated books.