2013-531 Arts - Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School for Fall 2013- Art Grant Agreement $1,500

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Did you observe a particular "a-ah" moment with a student/s, parent or staff when s/he/they learned a new concept or particularly benefitted from the project? If so, please describe: An "a-ha" moment for me this year was realizing how important it is to offer students a chance to tell their stories. In a classroom drenched in high academic standards, rigorous thinking, and standardized testing, educators often fail to acknowledge the most important teaching tool we have: our students. Spoken word poetry has no limits. With spoken word, students are encouraged to write what matters to them and they are supported in sharing stories without judgment. This is not to say that spoken word does not provoke rigorous thinking, it does. Extended metaphors, vivid imagery, strong language, and other high level thinking skills are promoted in a spoken word workshop. However, the tone of the classroom changes with spoken word. The classroom is no longer about the teacher pumping out information for students. Rather, it is about an exploration, a place where there are no right or wrong answers but instead, an analysis of ideas and perspectives. It is this environment that I strive to provide for my students with or without spoken word poetry. One cannot teach effectively without building trust in the classroom, and this project helps us to initiate a space of assurance, communication, and reverence. How could this project have been improved? One of our biggest challenges at PAHS is our low student attendance. I would like to use the PAHS Arts Program as an incentive to get students to improve on their attendance. For example, if we use the Arts Program as part of our PBIS (positive behavior intervention support) program, our students may strive to come to school every day in order to participate in the workshops. An improvement for the project would be to offer some sort of reward for students that complete the workshop series without missing a single day. One of the frustrations that both the workshop facilitators and I had was that we would rarely have the same group of students from day to day. A student may have missed Monday's workshop whereas a different student missed Wednesday's workshop and so on. If we can come up with an incentive to get our kids here to participate, it would make everyone's time and investment in the project worthwhile. How did you share the implementation and/or the results of the grant with your colleagues and/or additional students? Students that were not enrolled in ELA courses had the opportunity to join the PAHS poetry club. Poetry Club meets one to two times a week during lunch in my classroom. Many of the activities we do in poetry club are similar to what we learned in the workshop series. Students that have had classroom workshops take the reins in poetry club and offer leadership to the group. Additionally, Students and staff members participated in a school wide performance by the Sacrificial Poets.A handful of PAHS students will be participating in the 5th Annual Word Rilvery Poetry Slam at the end of the month.