Jason: Arthur Ashe Community Day

The rebirth of Arthur Ashe Charter School in its new building in Gentilly has been profound. Their success was made clear at Ashe’s first Community Day this past Saturday.

The Community Day event drew in a crowd of volunteers (families, students, staff and community members), who were divided into two jobs. Half shelved nearly 3,000 books in Ashe’s gorgeous new library. Another contingent transformed the garden area from a pile of soil into a grassy lawn streaked with prepared vegetable beds and spaces for aquatic gardens. Young scholars joined the effort happily, digging with shovels and building sandcastles in their spare time.

In another part of the school, families were painting a mural – no artistic experience necessary. Christine Richtofen, Ashe’s art teacher, provided small slabs of wood and paints, and assigned each painter a swatch of the mural to complete. Soon, the squares of wood will be hung on a wall to reveal a collaboratively created portrait of Arthur Ashe. For those who wanted to be painted on, Ashe teachers decorated the faces of passing youth with whiskers and spirals and little pictures of all kinds.

When much of the work was done, the community gathered in the cafeteria for a hamburger lunch with a side of cookies. Looking through the full-length windows, we could see a determined set of landscapers finishing the garden project.

Of course, Community Day was only the beginning. The Ashe family has a lot to look forward to this year. Chef April Neujean, our Health & Wellness Manager, is busy promoting various Wellness initiatives happening at Ashe and across the FirstLine network. Make sure to attend one of the free cooking or exercise classes, or even join the Wellness Committee at your school (or network)!

Finally, every parent at Arthur Ashe Charter School should consider involvement in our parent organization, the Ashe Aces. Last night’s first meeting was a huge success with standing room only. Sivi Domango, Ashe’s co-director, gave a rousing presentation on the power of parents to impact student success. Parents, we depend on you! The Aces will meet on the third Wednesday of every month, so we look forward to seeing you all.

Jason Lacoste is the AmeriCorps VISTA K-8 Outreach Coordinator for FirstLine Schools.  

Kathleen: This Week at Clark Prep

Let's go Bulldogs!

It’s another busy, bustling week at Clark Prep! A week of new activities and familiar ones, from implementing Wellness Wednesdays to kicking the plans for Homecoming into full gear, I hardly even remember that Hurricane Isaac came at all. The Health and Wellness Committee met for the first time this Thursday to begin discussing plans for the year. One healthy and fun initiative, Wellness Wednesdays, got off to a great start with Tulane Instructor Kara who taught Hip-Hop with the students!

From 4:00-5:00 or 4:30-5:30 every Wednesday there will be an Instructor at Clark Prep working with students in the Gym. Each week is something different. This Wednesday was Hip Hop and next week is Boot Camp.  For all FirstLine employees, there will be a class following the student one, from 6:00-7:00.

All of our Athletic and Enrichment Programs have been meeting after school and have shown great talent and improvement. TODAY, 09/21 at 7:00 p.m. is our first District Football Game against Isidore Newman at Newman.  Their address is 1903 Jefferson Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70115.  Come show your Bulldog Pride and cheer on our amazing team!

From health education and athletic involvement to academic rigor, we’ve been pressing on energetically. And with academic rigor comes academic success: a big congratulations is due to Brittnay Green and Dasha Richard! They are part of the New Orleans Hornets Youth Leadership Academy, which is presented by Royal Engineering Consultants. This is an awesome, selective opportunity that integrates leadership development, promotes education with college visits and job shadow days into their program.

So many of Clark Prep’s students are involved in after-school programs and opportunities. We are excited about what we have already begun doing and what we will continue to do.  The deliberations at the first Health and Wellness Committee meeting included looking into healthy initiatives for the year, and we can’t wait to see what unfolds! 

Kathleen Duffy is the AmeriCorps VISTA Outreach Coordinator for Clark Prep High School. 

Jason: A Star-studded Day at FirstLine Schools

In the ESY NOLA Garden at Green

“Dan still has a good arm!” James “JB” Brown – host of The NFL Today on CBS – announced with a laugh. “You need that to work in the garden.” He was talking about Dan Marino, once quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, now analyst for The NFL Today.

Mr. Brown and Mr. Marino are touring the city with a bus full of volunteers, making Samuel J. Green Charter school their last of 16 stops. The volunteers come from all over the country, here for AARP’s Life@50+ National Event. This year, for the first time, the Washington, D.C. organizers decided to make community service an integral part of their convention.

Hands were shaken, weeds were pulled, and, according to Denise Richter, “The volunteers got worm castings, saved flower seeds, and helped prep production rows.”

But Green wasn’t the only FirstLine school with a visiting sports star today. Langston Hughes Academy attracted a gym full of media attention when Hornets shooting guard Eric Gordon walked in with a message of love for New Orleans.

After speaking, #10 refereed a quick 1-on-1 between one of the third graders and an eight grader. Gordon finally jumped in and set up a screen when the younger competitor found himself overwhelmed. When it was over and prizes dispensed, the scholars chanted from the stands: “Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” Gordon obliged with a lesson in perseverance, sinking a three pointer on his third attempt.

Enjoying the Bookmobile

And because no story is complete without a good book, the Hornets player led a line of 3rd grade scholars out of the gym and into the Bookmobile parked outside. Scholars climbed into the little painted bus in groups to receive a free paperback from the star.

While Eric Gordon didn’t help in the Dreamkeeper Garden, LHA did get an assist from Dillard University. The new partnership between Dillard and LHA, called “From Seed to Table,” kicked off today. Funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Impact Grant, it creates the opportunity for Dillard University students and LHA scholars to utilize the Greenhouse located on Dillard’s campus as an educational facility twice a week. 

In Dillard's Greenhouse

As part of the project, vegetable seeds will be started in the greenhouse and then transplanted to the LHA Dreamkeeper Garden. This allows ESY NOLA at Langston Hughes Academy to move forward with its new Family Supported Agriculture (FSA) program, bringing fresh school-grown food to students and their families.

It’s been a star-studded day at FirstLine Schools, but in the end our focus remains on the health and success of the scholars who depend on us. Thanks to everyone for your support, and don’t forget to visit the new Arthur Ashe campus – at 1456 Gardena Drive – for Community Day this Saturday from 10am to 2pm! 

Jason Lacoste is the AmeriCorps VISTA K-8 Outreach Coordinator for FirstLine Schools.  

Jason: This Week at LHA

Nothing sounds so sweet as a bustling school community, and this week at Langston Hughes Academy has been busy.

In celebration of a love for reading, LHA held its annual Book Fair this week. In preparation, scholars watched a video of authors stressing the importance of books and describing the literary process. Afterwards, they shopped around the shelves looking for their favorite superhero, animal, celebrity, or just a fantastic story. If students were unable to afford a book, Ms. Sergio – who organized the Fair – encouraged them to pick their favorite and write it down as a “wish.” Who knows, maybe some generous benefactor will make a wish come true!

The week culminated at LHA’s Open House on Wednesday night.

Coinciding with the event was a Health & Wellness Fair. Ms. Carolyn Trask organized the event, bringing in seven health providers for parents to learn about. “The mission,” she explained, “was to show our parents that there are services out there for them in the community.” She intends to organize another such Fair before the holidays. Next time, scholars will be invited to receive free health services right on campus.

Wednesday night also drew much attention to the Dreamkeeper Garden, just finishing its recovery from Hurricane Isaac. Amy Zellweger, Lead Garden Teacher at LHA, shared information with attendees about the benefits of fresh, healthy food. She is also spearheading a project to provide school-grown produce to the families of Langston Hughes Academy. This Family Supported Agriculture (FSA) will offer a portion of food grown at the school to families for free. Already, seventeen families have signed up to receive the produce from 1300ft of garden space planned for this year. “Production is ramping up,” says Edible Schoolyard NOLA Network Gardener Denise Richter.

Tonight is the first of many Family Connection meetings, a space for the parents of LHA to become involved in their children’s education and to learn about available opportunities. This year will bring with it many adult education initiatives, designed to improve the lives of our community members and to strengthen the parent organization throughout FirstLine Schools. Make sure to be there for the next meeting!  

Questions?  Leave them in the comments and we'll get back to you!

Jason Lacoste is the AmeriCorps VISTA K-8 Outreach Coordinator for FirstLine Schools.  

ESY NOLA and Arthur Ashe Charter School

The new Arthur Ashe Charter School

Over 200 Lutheran teen volunteers from across the country gathered at the new Arthur Ashe Charter School site, 1456 Gardena Drive, on July 18 to help transform the facade with a colorful array of florals, sunflowers and cypress trees, in anticipation of the first day of school, August 6.  Ashe officially moved  over the summer, from its temporary Uptown location, to its permanent, newly constructed building on the Bienville Elementary site in the Lake Park neighborhood of Gentilly. The new site includes a garden-science classroom, a teaching kitchen, a fully-equipped cafeteria kitchen, and plans for several themed gardens, arches and pathways,  and a one-acre production garden. 

Volunteers on July 18, 2012

ESY NOLA will continue to provide school-wide tastings, Food ABC's with the Kindergarten classes, as well as these new programs:

• Daytime parent cooking classes
• Student kitchen classes 
• Student garden classes
• Open garden days
• Junior kitchen and garden apprentice classes
• Junior service learners 
• Family Food Nights

Keep checking back here for more information on these great new programs at Ashe!

Press Release: FIRSTLINE SCHOOLS BLENDED LEARNING CASE STUDY RELEASED TODAY

NEW ORLEANS, LA, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 – The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is releasing a series of case studies that examine five school and charter management operators’ implementation of blended learning.

As the education reform landscape evolves, blended learning is becoming more and more relevant to schools across the country. “Blending learning has the potential to support teachers in delivering individualized instruction to students by combining traditional face-to-face classroom methods with computer-based activities,” according to Cheryl Niehaus, program officer at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. “These case studies can serve as an information source for schools that are interested in learning more about this type of blended learning model.”

Five charter management organizations across the nation participated in the case studies: Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, Firstline Schools, KIPP LA, Rocketship Education, and Summit Public Schools. The studies examine each organization's instructional and operational approaches to blended learning, and offer a high-level overview of each model's potential financial implications. They also look at a number of other factors, including how each school chose its method of blended learning, and the major success factors and lessons learned from each implementation.

There are many different approaches to blended learning, and it can take on many shapes or forms, depending on the teachers and students involved. The schools that participated in these studies each utilize what is known as a “classroom rotation” or “station rotation” model of blended learning.

In the coming months, the foundation will also release a quantitative impact evaluation of the schools’ impact on students. “As there is still much to learn about the potential for blended learning models to improve outcomes for students,” said Niehaus, “I am also excited for the second part of this project, which includes an impact evaluation of these same schools during the 2011-12 school year.”

The foundation commissioned SRI International to conduct a one-year, quasi-experimental evaluation of these schools’ impact on students' learning. After the evaluation period, the foundation retained FSG to prepare the case studies about each of their models so that the learnings could be shared with the public.

The case study introduction, along with the case study on KIPP Empower Academy, is now available at www.msdf.org/blendedlearning. In addition, a series of blog posts from the five operators and the authors has begun on the foundation’s blog, www.blog.msdf.org. To be notified when the other four case studies are released and when the related blogs are posted, please follow the foundation on Twitter at @msdf_foundation. 

About the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (www.msdf.org) is dedicated to improving the lives of children living in urban poverty around the world. With offices in Austin, TX and New Delhi, India, and Cape Town, South Africa, the Dell family foundation funds programs that foster high-quality public education and childhood health, and improve the economic stability of families living in poverty. The foundation has committed more than $825 million to global children’s issues and community initiatives to date.

FirstLine Schools

The mission of FirstLine Schools is to create and inspire great open enrollment public schools in New Orleans.  FirstLine currently operates Samuel J. Green Charter School, Arthur Ashe Charter School, John Dibert Community School, Langston Hughes Academy, and Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School.  For more information please visit www.firstlineschools.org. 

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All FirstLine Schools Reopen Following Hurricane Isaac

Now that power has been restored to all five FirstLine Schools campuses, all schools will be reopened as of Wednesday, September 5, 2012.  Arthur Ashe Charter School will be open on Wednesday, FirstLine confirmed on Tuesday evening.

The other four FirstLine campuses (John Dibert Community School, Samuel J. Green Charter School, Langston Hughes Academy and Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School) reopened on Tuesday, September 4, 2012.

Press Release: ARTHUR ASHE CHARTER SCHOOL TO REMAIN CLOSED THROUGH TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

Four FirstLine schools to reopen September 4

NEW ORLEANS, LA, Monday, September 03, 2012 – Arthur Ashe Charter School will remain closed on Tuesday, September 4, 2012.  We plan to have the school open on Wednesday, September 5, pending restoration of power.

The other four FirstLine Schools public charter schools will reopen on Tuesday, September 4, as planned.  FirstLine’s schools are: Samuel J. Green Charter School, Arthur Ashe Charter School, John Dibert Community School, Langston Hughes Academy, and Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School. 

Additional updates will be released to the press and can also be found on FirstLine’s website (www.firstlineschools.org).

FirstLine Schools

The mission of FirstLine Schools is to create and inspire great open enrollment public schools in New Orleans.  FirstLine currently operates Samuel J. Green Charter School, Arthur Ashe Charter School, John Dibert Community School, Langston Hughes Academy, and Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School.  For more information please visit www.firstlineschools.org. 

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