PRESS RELEASE: Arthur Ashe Charter School Featured in National Report on High-Performing, Expanded-Time Schools

Report Shows How Effective Use of Expanded Learning Time Boosts Student Achievement

NEW ORLEANS, LA, Friday, September 30, 2011 – Arthur Ashe Charter School is earning national recognition for its success in using expanded learning time to boost student achievement.  It is one of 30 schools from across the country featured in a new national report that examines effective practices for improving teaching and learning at expanded-time schools.  The report is set to be released at an event with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Washington, D.C. today.

"We are proud to have been nationally recognized as a successful model for expanded learning time,” said Sabrina Pence, School Director of Arthur Ashe Charter School.

The report, Time Well Spent: Eight Powerful Practices of Successful, Expanded-Time Schools, from the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), outlines how high-performing, expanded-time schools implement one or more of eight different practices to help improve student achievement, including allocating time towards focused goals; individualizing learning time and instruction based on student needs; and using time to assess student data in order to continuously strengthen instruction.

Arthur Ashe Charter School

The mission of Arthur Ashe Charter School is to prepare all students academically while developing their character so they will excel at a high school with rigorous academics and graduate from a four-year college.

FirstLine Schools

The mission of FirstLine Schools is to create and inspire great public schools in New Orleans.  We do this by directly operating open admissions public schools and by developing training programs for teacher and school leaders across New Orleans.  FirstLine operates four K-8 schools and one high school in New Orleans: Arthur Ashe Charter School, John Dibert Community School, Langston Hughes Academy (through a management contract with NOLA180), Samuel J. Green Charter School, and Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School.

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LHA hosts its first Open Garden Day!

You are invited to the very first
Open Garden Day
at The Dreamkeeper Garden of Langston Hughes Academy
3519 Trafalgar St.
New Orleans, LA 70119

THIS Saturday October 1, 2011
10:00-1:00pm

Edible Fun for the Whole Family!

Please join us for a day of weeding, planting, bed building, and more as we prepare The Dreamkeeper Garden for the fall!

All volunteers are welcome and asked to bring a water bottle and wear comfortable gardening clothes.

Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.  
           

Special October Garden Guests:

Junior League of New Orleans
ReLeaf of Tulane School of Medicine
TIDES of Tulane University
New Orleans Outreach


Interested in volunteering at The Dreamkeeper Garden of Langston Hughes Academy on a regular basis?
Please contact Kelly Regan kelly@esynola.org to learn more about our volunteer opportunities.

Clark Prep Freshman Academy goes to the Ivy League!

Jude, Sada, Jattir and Jules ask questions of the Stanford Dean of Admissions.

This Wednesday, Clark Prep Freshmen had a unique opportunity:  in conjunction with the National Association of College Admissions Counselors conference being held in New Orleans, ABAFAOILSS, the Association of Black Admissions and Financial Aid Officers of the Ivy League and Sister Schools hosted a mini college fair for minority students at Lake Area New Tech Early College High School in Gentilly.

Milena learns more about what Princeton can offer.

College Counselor Ms. Landreneau brought 8 freshmen as part of the Early College Scholars program.  Freshmen got to have an intimate conversation with admissions directors from Dartmouth and Cal Tech about what they should do in 9th grade to prepare for an Ivy League career, then got to speak with admissions counselors from esteemed universities including Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Penn, Mount Holyoke, Wesleyan and more!  The attending freshmen will prepare a presentation for the rest of the Clark Prep Freshman Academy as part of CPFA's program of intensive college preparation.

Say Goodbye to the Food Pyramid; Say Hello to MyPlate!

Eat to Learn, Learn to Eat

You may not know, but MyPlate replaced MyPyramid this past June as the USDA’s new food icon. First Lady Michelle Obama, whose Let’s Move campaign is aimed at fighting obesity, helped unveil the new design. As you may notice from the picture, it’s an easy to understand tool that shows how to build a healthy meal based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. It utilizes the plate to show 5 components of a healthy meal - fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy, in sizes proportional to how much you should eat in each meal. We all know that what we eat matters and this is a great tool to help make healthy choices. Check out this short video for a brief overview of MyPlate or visit http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ for more information. Some key points to remember from MyPlate are to make at least half your grains whole grains, make half your plate fruits and vegetables, get calcium rich foods, go lean with protein, focus on fruits and vary your veggies. Other key points to remember are to find your balance between food and physical activity as well as keep your food safe!

Excited to learn about MyPlate!

The past couple weeks in the Edible Teaching Kitchen at Green Charter, our 3^rd and 4^th graders have been learning more about the new MyPlate icon. They’ve written poems, created MyPlate collages, and even made a MyPlate snack of crackers, peppers, pears, hummus and almond milk. Not only are these children learning about MyPlate and healthy habits in the Teaching Kitchen, but these lessons translate into our Cafeteria where a variety of options are offered in accordance with the new MyPlate recommendations. As I’ve noted before, all of the Firstline School Cafeteria’s offer a daily salad bar with fresh vegetables and fruits. More than half of the grains served during mealtimes are whole grains, which include brown rice and whole-wheat dinner rolls. We’ve cut out red meats, offering a variety of leaner protein options in place such as chicken, turkey, and a variety of bean dishes. We believe that through the integration of education, such as the MyPlate lessons, and real life application of these principles in the classroom and cafeteria, we can change our children’s habits. By creating demand from the ground up, our school-based food and snack programs now incorporate our food values of “wholesome, nutritious and delicious” as well as the USDA recommendations from MyPlate – fueling our children in the mind, body and spirit towards healthy lifestyles.

The MyPlate Snack

Placing foods in right food groups

MyPlate Bulletin Board in Green Charter Cafeteria

 In other news, our first set of Tulane University Dietetic Interns started yesterday. They’ll be with us for the rest of the week and are working on some really exciting projects. To enhance our cafeteria environment, they are working on menu cards for each table, allowing the children to have a sneak-peak for the next day’s menu. They are also assisting in some studies, collecting data in the cafeteria as well as creating newsletters about MyPlate. Make sure to check back next week to find out more!

Happy Watermelon Day!

Direct from farm to school.

It's that time again!  At Ashe Charter School, Dibert Community School and Green Charter School, Thursday September 15 was Watermelon Day!  Farmer Ben from Mississippi visited campuses with a truckload of sugarbaby watermelons, and kids at all campuses got a taste of the sweet, cool fruit that is synonymous with summers in the South.  Farmer Ben has been delighting Green and Ashe with his annual watermelon visit for four years, but this is the first watermelon day for Dibert and LHA.  Check out the photos of Dibert primary students enjoying their treat.  Langston Hughes Academy hosts their first watermelon day tomorrow, Friday September 16.

Eat to Learn, Learn to Eat

Making Life By What We Give
-Winston Churchill
 

This past Saturday, Samuel J. Green Charter School hosted its first Open Garden Day of the year! It was a great success, with over 100 volunteers showing up to help our edible garden grow and make our neighborhood beautiful! The new members of the Louisiana Delta Service Corps started at ESY NOLA earlier this month and made their big debut at Open Garden Day, assisting volunteers with pruning trees, composting, seed collecting, and plenty of weeding. Some volunteers also did a great job in the kitchen, chopping tomatoes and cubing feta for the watermelon salad!

In true Firstline Schools tradition, I’d like to give a shout-out to Junior League New Orleans, Boys Hope Girls Hope of Greater New Orleans and Tulane University’s Society of Young Black Public Health Professionals for their dedication to our program along with all of the families and friends that showed up to help out! We couldn’t have made this day happen without you guys! Also, I would like to give a special shout-out to Langenstein’s for partnering with ESY NOLA, sponsoring all of the ingredients for lunch and helping make this day even more special!

Today I would like to introduce you to the team that helps bring our mission to life and who will be frequently referenced in this blog. As I mentioned last week, all 5 schools serve meals made almost entirely from scratch as well as a daily salad bar. In order to make these healthy meals available and changes happen, it takes more effort, energy and a dedicated staff. As we can see with the participation at Open Garden Day, it takes a village to make our ideas come to life, from café staff members to ESY food educators, to parents and community volunteers giving their time in our café dining commons and garden.

Chris Van Vliet is Firstline Schools’ Chef/Director of Food Services, overseeing all 5 school cafeterias. He’s been at Firstline since November 2010 and has been working in school food service for about 10 years. Ernishia Calvin is our new Food Service Administrative Assistant. Chris and Ernishia are both based out of Joseph S. Clark Prep High School, the newest FirstLine school. We work with Sodexo as our food service management company, so we can utilize their buying power to provide fresh, healthy meals for our school children. Van Cao is our Sodexo General Manager who coordinates and provides good, safe food for our school cafeterias. Juan Rodriguez is our Sodexo Area Manager that works with Firstline Schools, as well as Louis Edmond who also is a Chef/Trainer at our schools. Our Kitchen Managers across the network include: Joyce Renfro at S.J . Green, Cheritta Watts at John Dibert Community School, Kathleen Bush at Langston Hughes Academy, Jaunita Blakely at Arthur Ashe, and Shemeko Johnson at Clark Prep. All of these people help make our mission to provide good, healthy school food possible.

As for ESY NOLA, our staff has grown to 20 members across all Firstline sites and new positions, such as mine as the In-house Dietetic Intern, have been added to bring more of a health and overall wellness focus to our work. Our staff is continuing to grow and bios will be up on ESYNOLA.org shortly.

Next week, find out what our third and fourth graders plates have in common with the First Lady’s plate!

Edible Schoolyard Teachers and Volunteers are WWL "Quiet Heroes"!

Edible Schoolyard volunteers and staff featured on WWL's "Quiet Heroes" segment.

Leading Educators Video features FirstLine LE Alumni

Check out this video from Leading Educators featuring many FirstLine educators! Leading Educators' mission is to support and develop teacher-leaders at open enrollment urban public schools to ensure high academic achievement and an aspirational culture for every student.  This two year program provides management training, visits to schools that are closing the achievement gap, and assessment tools to develop the skillfulness of department chairs, vice-principals, Deans of Students, team leaders, and other teachers in mid-level leadership positions.  Leading Educators was founded in New Orleans in 2008, and became an independent non-profit in 2011, thanks in part to funding from several national foundations, and is expanding to other US markets, starting with Kansas City in fall 2011.

Leading Educators Video from NOVAC on Vimeo.

PRESS RELEASE: Langenstein’s Announces Partnership with Edible Schoolyard New Orleans

New Orleans, LA, September 1, 2011 -- Langenstein’s, a 90 year old specialty foods market located in Uptown and Metairie, announced today an exciting new partnership with Edible Schoolyard New Orleans, to “change the way kids eat, learn and live” by sponsoring field trips and community garden visits. 

Edible Schoolyard NOLA was founded in 2006 as a way to promote a sense of pride and responsibility among local children for fresh, seasonal foods. The program reinforces social and environmental stewardship for more than 2,000 students at five public charter schools in the FirstLine Schools network.  ESY NOLA's specialized grade-level programming provides experiential learning through hands-on kitchen and garden classes and seasonal events that promote the food traditions of New Orleans.

 “We are extremely proud of our program and have always made enriching, hands-on experiences that are practical and educational for the kids a top priority,” says Edible Schoolyard NOLA Executive Director Donna Cavato. “We’re so happy to have a local, home-grown grocery sponsor to reinforce our values and to show our children the full cycle of how food gets from the garden to the store.”

In addition to hosting field trips in their Metairie location where students will learn from the butcher, produce and seafood managers, Langenstein’s will provide lunch for volunteers at all Open Garden Days through 2012.  Open Garden Days are open to the wider community to learn how to garden and compost, and has helped to care for the expansive garden at Samuel J. Green Charter School.  This year, the partnership will allow ESY NOLA to expand its Open Garden Days to Langston Hughes Academy Charter School for the first time.

“Langenstein’s is known for carrying local, fresh vegetables and fruits, in addition to the highest-quality meat and seafood in New Orleans,” says Trey Lanaux, fifth-generation of Langenstein’s. “We are also proud to support local nonprofits like Edible Schoolyard NOLA, and fully back their mission to teach kids how to live a healthier lifestyle.”

The Langenstein’s and Edible Schoolyard partnership will kickoff on Saturday, September 10, 2011 for Open Garden Day at Green Charter. Additionally, students from Green and Arthur Ashe Charter schools will be visiting the store later in the school year.

About Edible Schoolyard New Orleans

Created in 2006, the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESY NOLA) serves more than 2,000 public school students across the FirstLine Schools network, at four (4) Kindergarten-8^th grade schools and one (1) 9th-12^th grade high school.  Children learn how to grow and harvest their own food in ESY NOLA’s edible teaching gardens.  The flagship site, an expansive 1/3-acre organic garden at Samuel J. Green Charter School, includes composting and worm composting (vermiculture), outdoor classrooms, a green living roof, native plants, a wetlands area, a citrus grove, row crops, and a butterfly garden.  The Edible Teaching Kitchen at Green is a hands-on classroom that brings abstract concepts from the classroom to life.  Grade-level cooking and seasonal food tastings incorporate ingredients from our very own garden and local farms.  ESY NOLA is the first replication of the original program founded by chef and food education activist Alice Waters in Berkeley, California. ESY NOLA helps children find a place at the table, and in the world, by nourishing their minds and bodies, building community, and creating a beautiful environment that stimulates students’ curiosity and desire to learn about the natural world, as well as the food traditions of New Orleans. www.esynola.org

About Langenstein’s

When Michael Langenstein and his sons, George and Richard, opened Langenstein's supermarket in 1922, their goal was to carry the best meat and seafood in New Orleans. Based on the suggestions of customers, the business slowly grew into the gourmet arena. In the 1970's Langenstein's began offering prepared food using old-fashioned family recipes. Now, almost 90 years later, Langenstein's is a 5th generation owned and operated business, proudly holding true to its original ideas, while still adapting to the needs and suggestions of loyal customers. www.langensteins.com

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