Baltimore Curriculum Project April 2018 Newsletter
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In this issue:
- Are You Smarter than a BCP 5th Grader?
- Support the BCP Summer Training Institute for New Teachers
- Chef Cindy Wolf Hosts City Springs Students at Charleston
- Future Baltimore Partners with Frederick Elementary for Legislative Day and Health Fair
- New Govans Elementary Facility Scheduled to Open in Winter 2021
- Exelon Launches Computer Club at Hampstead Hill Academy
- Wolfe Street Academy and WE Schools Embrace the Community
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BCP would like to thank the following businesses for sponsoring
Are You Smarter than a BCP 5th Grader:
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Support the BCP Summer Training Institute for New Teachers
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Tomorrow night 5th Graders from the BCP Schools will be competing with the Baltimore "Big Shots" at Are You Smarter than a BCP 5th Grader.
The 5th Graders have won almost every year. (One year they tied.)
How did our 5th Graders get so smart? Great teachers play a critical role in the success of our students.
Tomorrow we will be raising money to support BCP's Summer Training Institute for New Teachers. Our goal is $5,000.
The Baltimore Curriculum Project prides itself on the intensive professional development and academic coaching we provide for teachers. We make sure that new BCP teachers are not left to "sink or swim" when they enter the classroom for the first time.
One of the ways we do this is by running a week-long Summer Training Institute for all new BCP teachers. Teachers learn about effective instruction, classroom management, and Restorative Practices.
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Chef Cindy Wolf Hosts City Springs Students at Charleston
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BCP and
City Springs Elementary / Middle
would like to thank Chef Cindy Wolf, Executive Chef of
Charleston
, for providing 29 City Springs students and four staff with an engaging lesson in the culinary arts and a fantastic lunch on April 3, 2018.
Chef Wolf taught students about healthy eating, etiquette and over thirty kitchen tools including a cherry pitter, biscuit cutters, and a cake cutter. She taught students about a variety of ingredients including saffron and truffles. Students had the opportunity to pass around a $100 box of saffron.
The students asked Chef Wolf if she wanted to be on the Food Network tv show "Chopped" and if she knew Duff Goldman. She replied that she had competed on "Beat Bobby Flay" and preferred cooking in her kitchen to appearing on tv. She also said that she gave Duff Goldman his first job in a restaurant and considered him to be a wonderful person.
The delectable lunch included a mini beef empanada and pureed artichoke soup for an amuse-bouche; a mache and frisee salad with goat cheese, pomegranate and aged sherry vinaigrette; corn bread; pan-roasted sea scallop with cauliflower puree, saffron and white wine cream; and lemon cheesecake with blueberry compote and raspberry meringue.
This is the third year that Chef Wolf has brought City Springs students to Charleston for a culinary arts demonstration and lunch. The students came away from the visit full of knowledge and delicious food.
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Future Baltimore Partners with Frederick Elementary for Legislative Day and Health Fair
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Bon Secours Community Works (BSCW) and Kaiser Permanente have partnered to form the
Future Baltimore
initiative, which seeks to address the socio-economic and health needs of some of West Baltimore’s most vulnerable residents in the zip-code 21223 through intergenerational programming.
The
Future Baltimore
vision is that West Baltimore will transform itself into a thriving, safe community with opportunities for economic advancement and quality education.
This partnership began in July 2017 with a $1.7 million commitment from Kaiser Permanente to advance eight BSCW flagship programs and build a new community resource center.
Frederick Elementary, of which BSCW is the community school partner, participated in the first
Future Baltimore
Legislative Day in Annapolis on March 15, 2018. The event, co-hosted by the Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic Community Health Team and Bon Secours Community Works, embodied the project motto: Nothing About Me Without Me. With the support of state Delegate Keith Haynes, a formal presentation about Future Baltimore was made to delegates while students from Fredrick Elementary toured the state capitol.
On March 18, 2018,
Future Baltimore
hosted a Family Health Fair at Fredrick Elementary. In addition to their Mobile Health Van, several community health partners staffed the event. Highlights included the Colgate Smiles Dental Van, the Pratt Mobile Job Van, and GymGo. Dozens of families took advantage of the day to get teeth cleanings, flu shots, housing and financial advice, and much more.
The key component of the
Future Baltimore
project will be the renovation of the long abandoned 31 S. Payson Street Library into a thriving community resource center that will serve youth and adults with economic, health and social services, supported by an array of local partners. The partnership between Kaiser Permanente and Bon Secours Community Works will work to support the establishment of new businesses, a decline in the zip code’s unemployment rate, and availability of new mental health services for residents.
Frederick Elementary has benefited greatly from the
Future Baltimore
partnership and the support of the Baltimore Curriculum Project. Since the fall of 2017, Bon Secours Community Works has served as the Lead Community School Agency for Frederick, thanks to a generous grant from the Family League of Baltimore. Sabrina Wiggins serves as the full-time, on-site Community School Coordinator for Frederick Elementary and manages a variety of programs and services for the school including a food pantry, Walking School Bus, fresh fruits program, adult learning workshops, a volunteer program, and a weekend food backpack program for homeless students.
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New Govans Elementary Facility Scheduled to Open in Winter 2021
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Govans Elementary students, teachers and families will set foot in a brand-new facility when they return from Winter Break in 2021.
USA Architects and Keller Construction firm have been approved as the architectural firm and construction team for Govans Elementary School respectively.
USA designed Frederick Elementary and Govans will be Keller’s first school in the program.
GOVANS BUILDING CONCEPT DESIGN MEETINGS ON JUNE 6, 2018
When: Wednesday, June 6, 2018 | 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM
Where: 5801 York Road, Baltimore, MD
Join the 21st Century School Buildings Program and USA Architects for a presentation and feedback session on the concept design for the new Govans Elementary building.
This is the first of four building design meetings to include: Concept Design, Schematic Design, Design Development and Final Drawings.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Staff, parents, students, community members, and more are encouraged to attend to share feedback during this phase of the design process.
For more information e-mail bcpinfo@baltimorecp.org or call 410-675-7000.
Registration is appreciated, but not required. Children are welcome.
21st CENTURY SCHOOLS PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS GOVANS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
In their January 2017 report, the 21st Century Schools Program highlighted the Govans Elementary as an example of developing the Best Design for Students While Honoring Neighborhoods:
"The Govans Core team is made-up of 20 staff, parents, partners, and community members that meet regularly to review updates and project timelines. The core team developed its own engagement strategy to get more stakeholders involved in the building and community schools planning process. The team reached out to approximately 1,000 households and solicited input from parents, staff, and partners of Govans. They also helped to collect feedback from neighborhood residences that may have a stake in the building design but ordinarily wouldn’t attend a meeting at the request of City Schools alone."
"Through these coordinated efforts, City Schools, Baltimore Curriculum Project, Family League and Strong City Baltimore, and York Road Partnership produced a standing room only meeting with a diverse set of stakeholders. That set of stakeholders produce a wide-range of interest for the 95% Feasibility Study meeting. However, many of those interests were known and identified prior to the meeting; allowing time to work through these issues with the architect team in advance of the meeting."
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Exelon Launches Computer Club at Hampstead Hill Academy
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Hampstead Hill Academy
’s new computer club seeks to introduce young minds to the ever-growing world of computer science.
Matt Mericle, a passionate software engineer working at
Exelon
Corporation, took the initiative in the development of the computer club. He became interested in the idea while learning about Exelon’s previous volunteer events at HHA that were led by Sa'ad Raouf, another Exelon employee.
Matt engaged fellow Exelon engineers who had previously volunteered at the school’s Hour of Code and it became apparent that the idea of a computer club would be enthusiastically received by the HHA student community.
Together with his fellow engineers the details of the computer club were developed and pitched to the HHA administration. After a positive reception by the school, the Hampstead Hill Academy computer club was finally a reality.
Over the span of the academic year, the Exelon team, organized by Matt, orchestrated over 15 coaching sessions, meeting every Monday after school. Up to a dozen students participated in the computer club every week.
Students began the academic year learning the basic coding concepts, such as loops, conditionals and variables, from modules found on
Code.org.
After student feedback, the Exelon team shifted to teaching students the fundamentals of HTML in January. Students are now engaged in developing their own personal websites.
The HHA computer club is coached by Matt Mericle, Sa’ad Raouf, Will Bradshaw, Heather Fleischmann, Aaron Brown, Bird Chana, Ian Lindsley, Guy Kemo, and Matt Lipshultz.
"The partnership with Exelon continues to thrive every year," said Larry Schugam, BCP Executive Vice President. "From the first Hour of Code in 2016, to the Exelon headquarters field trip, to the Lego Club, and now with the Computer Club, Exelon continues to be a valuable partner to the Baltimore Curriculum Project."
The essence of a large Fortune 100 corporation is evident in its commitment to the community, which can be clearly seen in the support that Exelon provides its employees and their volunteer initiatives.
BCP, and Hampstead Hill Academy would like to thank Exelon and the wonderful volunteers for supporting our students. We look forward to working with Exelon over the coming school years.
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Wolfe Street Academy and WE Schools Embrace the Community
By Tiffany Judy, Director of Out of School Time Programming, Wolfe Street Academy
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Wolfe Street Academy (WSA) students participated in a variety of servic
e learning projects this school year using through the WE Schools program.
WE Schools provides helpful resources for educators and exclusive learning opportunities for students, including AP with WE Service and Indigenous programming. WE Schools also gives educators the opportunity to host perspective-changing speaking engagements in their classrooms.
In addition to engaging older students in the WE Schools program, WSA teachers and students were very excited to put their minds together to adapt the WE program initiatives to a younger audience.
During brainstorming exercises, many of the younger students expressed interest in working with the older students, working in the community, and helping others.
WSA partnered with their WE Program group leader to cre
ate a mentoring program where fourth and fifth grade students had the opportunity to work with the kindergarten and first grade students. The students would meet on a weekly basis and work on a variety of activities.
The fourth and fifth graders read stories to the younger students, then challenged them to describe the beginning, middle, and end of the story. The younger students worked on their Public Speaking skills by presenting the research they conducted during their STEM lessons to the fourth and fifth graders.
In order to help students learn about the goal of helping others, they focused on the concept of humanitarianism. During the week of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the students learned about the life of Dr. King. They were challenged to think about the qualities that made Dr. King a humanitarian.
The students were then asked to think of members of their community who express these same qualities. They designed trophies and honored persons in their community who demonstrate caring for the well-being of others. Then they presented the honorees with the challenge of nominating someone else and continuing the cycle of encouraging others to be involved in the global community.
The students also focused on strengthening rapport with the community. They designed holiday cards (including Christmas and Valentine’s Day). They decided to present them to people in the community in an effort to spread kindness throughout the community. The students also partnered with 2nd grade to create kindness rocks in an effort to beautify the community. Kindergarten went for a community walk and engaged with residents and local businesses. They asked about some of the wildlife we seen regularly in our community. And they asked for ideas of what we can do to make sure all living things are sharing the earth fairly.
We plan to finish out the year by supporting the WE Program’s canned food drive as part of the WE day experience. We also want to create a program that will keep our food pantry stocked year around, by partnering with local businesses.
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Baltimore Curriculum Project | 410.675.7000 | bcpinfo@baltimorecp.org | www.baltimorecp.org
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