November 2016 Edition of Envision Equity

October 31, 2016 JCPSDEP 0 Comments


We hope you enjoy the November 2016 edition of Envision Equity. We hope that you will submit articles that celebrate and demonstrate diversity and inclusion. To submit an article for future Envision Equity editions, email Catherine.collesano@jefferson.kyschools.us 
or Abdul.sharif2@jefferson.kyschools.us.

As a reader, you will have access to photos from events that embody the purpose of this newsletter. Please feel free to peruse our Flickr account, which is posted under the cover page. 
We hope you enjoy, share, and contribute to the newsletter. Lastly, remember to envision equity.

Click the Image below to view the e-newsletter.



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2016-17 Parent Involvement Series

October 20, 2016 JCPSDEP 0 Comments



Above, Dr. Toetta Taul facilitates the 2016-16 Parent
Involvement Series
The first Parent Involvement Series was a success. It was held at Rangeland Elementary School, and we had 22 parents attend. The parents were energetic, inquisitive, concerned, and receptive. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is dedicated to engaging families and making sure that they have the tools they need to navigate through this massive organization. 
Dr. Taul, an administrator from Moore Traditional School, was poised and ready to give the parents everything they needed. One of the most moving parts of the night was a parent who asked how can she advocate for a child who is not hers. Although she admitted to struggling with understanding all she needed to know in order to help her own child, she saw a need to advocate for another child as well. In addition, a parent asked pointed questions about parent-teacher conferences and how to enroll her child in before- and after-school activities. She received the answer she needed and has already set up a meeting to enroll her child in the enrichment opportunities that will enhance the child's learning.


We must get more parents involved! There's absolutely no way around it. The research clearly shows that if we align, engage, and inform our parents, student outcomes will improve. The Parent Involvement Series seeks to do just that. Please join us for the next topic. You will leave with great information and navigation tools. (Food and childcare are provided).

With the first topic being engagement, Dr. Taul and guest speakers shared personal experiences (some good, some not so good) of parenting and working with teachers/schools. In turn, it appeared to evoke other truth-telling stories from parents. To that point, the discourse was heartfelt. 

In each session, Dr. Taul will base her topic on our well-known First Task Is to Ask sheets. You can see all of the First Task Is to Ask sheets here. Please feel free to use them yourself and with school staff. 

Dr. John D. Marshall
JCPS Chief Equity Officer

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Menassiance Program at AMPED

October 05, 2016 JCPSDEP 0 Comments

My mother introduced me to reading at an early age. Her understanding that I must be able to read and write well, has probably saved me more times than I know. Even though I despised assigned reading while in school, I learned to master the  art of skimming for information; though I’d never allow myself  to become completely submerged in a piece of literature. Poetry and Prose gave me that opportunity. I finally got to connect a classic novel to my life and my worldview.
                 
It's this worldview that is experienced by so many, but sometimes having little time and an even narrower space to share their to  story in relation to the story assigned for a grade. My school (in)experience and inability (not all of which is my fault) to see the circumstantial similarities between characters like Huck Finn, Hester Prin, and Don Quixote,  caused me to miss or not receive great life lessons.

This camp was redemptive. Remembering how I felt having to read certain books,  I was granted the opportunity to do something I’d never done before; relate a popular book to not popular or publicized sentiments. For two weeks, I joined a group of high school freshmen and sophomores, in an attempt to analyze William Goldings’ Lord Of The Flies. Our goal was to find commonality in the books characters and situation. I was charged to connect urban vernacular, events, feelings, and understanding to the novel.
              
On the second day, I realized that I too was understanding that the island the characters were stranded on, is symbolically the island the island that so many of our boys feel they are on. We talked about being put into situations, by no fault of your own, and finding ourselves trying to survive in a place that offers no straight answers and challenges you at every turn. One student said,  "It's easy to turn into a beast if you're left alone with no guidance. Surviving  is better than dying." Unpacking topics like: surviving, power, violence, friendship, police brutality, and much more together, we journeyed through the book that I repelled when I was their age. As a poet, actor, and mentor my role leader and facilitator became blurry. Both myself and Shauna Evans revisited our internal islands and shared and learned with these magnificent young men.
         
Every day at eight o clock in the morning, these young men dragged themselves into the Portland based Neighborhood House. Jet lagged from their dreams, the young men arrived consistently throughout the two weeks. Each ready to discuss and debate each event featured in the books various chapters. Each day they offered a new level of introspect. These young men came to conclusions that could’ve been expressed by later versions of themselves.

With the wisdom of common sense and the logic of old men, we found ourselves immersed in daydreams and nightmares. Each chapter helped these young men delve deeper into themselves. The developed their personalities, learned what type of sensibilities they shared, even created a sense of brotherhood; all the while reading and comprehending a book that was written far before their time.
           
Mrs. Evans’ innovative and engaging curriculum, gave voice to these newly discovered feelings. With these voices our group developed poems, songs, and prose that explained their thought processes and displayed their situational understanding of different power dynamics in the book. In returned we learned about the various power dynamics in our everyday life.
     
I was truly honored to be a part of such a deep, funny, fearless, and inquisitive group of young men. I finally got the chance to apply actions and creative thinking to assigned literature and in the end; I can’t remember reading the book, but I remember every lesson the book taught me.
    
Something happened to me while working these boys. I realize that all is not lost, but there's much to learn. And some of the lessons must come from the kids. The reason they jumped into Lord of the Flies, is because they were not asked to jump out of their worldview.  They got to drop their guard, share their understanding, agree, disagree, and traverse their own island. Spread Love.

-Lance G. Newman II, Founder of SpreadLovEnterprise, an Art Education Company.

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Literacy & Chess At California Community Center

October 04, 2016 JCPSDEP 0 Comments


Spring break ends this weekend for JCPS students and some of them chose to spend their time off reading and playing chess.

The literacy and chess program was held this week at the California community center in west Louisville.

For the past five days, 18 elementary and middle school students read books and competed against each other on the chess board.
Superintendent Donna Hargens and Mayor Greg Fischer stopped by Friday to check out the action.
Fischer says it's important for students to exercise their minds when they're away from the classroom.
“Anytime that you stop learning you start forgetting we seeing it especially a problem over the summer, we call it summer melt,” said Fischer. “Every day that you can learn something new it keeps your mind sharp.”
The literacy and chess program was a success this year.
School officials plan to host the event again next and hope even more students come and check it out. 

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LMPD & DEP Host Ride-Along Professional Development

October 04, 2016 JCPSDEP 0 Comments

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- School may be out for JCPS students Friday, but class was in session for some teachers.

"I thought that this would be a good opportunity to get to find out more about our homeless population and how we can better serve them," said Cindy Hardin, a preschool teacher. "I hope that it gives me some more information to better serve the children."

Hardin is one of roughly 30 teachers who got to ride along with LMPD School Resource Officers to learn more about the communities their students come from and the issues they may be dealing with.

"I think they are going to learn that you know some of these children are dealing with homelessness, and domestic issues and maybe some violence in their neighborhoods and just you know that effects the way they learn. So, you know, if they haven't had anything to eat or if they are coming from a violent situation sometimes algebra or something like that might not be the best, the most important thing to them at that time, so I think it’s important for them to learn that," said LMPD Sgt. Jeff Artman.


"It’s a very innovative way of providing support for our teachers and our staff. Basically, it came from the idea that we have to educate the whole student. We have teachers and anyone working in direct contact with students and helping them with their education they need to understand where our students are coming from, they need to understand their community, the barriers that they face, they also need to understand that there is value in every single community," said Giselle Danger, Coordinator for Homeless Education at JCPS.

School Resource Officer Paul Hixon who works at Westport Middle let us ride along with him, explaining why he thinks this training is important.
"Hopefully the teachers will be able to see some of this and understand then that there is a reason that maybe this person seems a little tired in school all day, it’s because they weren't able to get a night's sleep the night before or why their clothes look so disheveled or you know it appears like they hadn't taken a bath in two days or three days, or whatever, it’s because they don’t have the facilities to do that," said Hixon.

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