Susan King, the Supervisor of magnet schools and programs, talked about the Urban Teaching Academy interdisciplinary project. There are three urban teaching schools, one at Blake High School, one at Hillsborough High School, and one at Middleton High School.King introduced Theresa Windston, the lead arts teacher at Blake High School. She received a grant for $3,000 from J.P. Morgan Grace to incorporate the arts into the curriculum to particularly improve writing skills.
“I chose 9th grade students at the Blake Urban Academy, under the direction of UTA teacher Ms. Gwen Williams. Can you believe that this photography was done by 9th grade students? It’s just amazing,” said Windston.
She talked about the grant and its purpose to promote learning.
“The project is called Tampa Bay Treasures. Students connected to the history of Tampa by taking fieldtrips to historical places,” Continues Windston. “Each student was assigned a camera and a location to take pictures. They then picked their favorite picture and wrote about it in their journal.”
Teresa Windston wanted the board to consider continuing funding the arts departments of Hillsborough magnet schools. Three students from the program came to talk at the meeting. They were intelligent and persistent. They did not know a lot about what the meeting was about, they just knew they wanted to keep their program and that they had a voice.
Their presence there made it hard for the chair members to say no to the grants. The students showed us examples of their photographs that they took at The University of Tampa, The Columbian Restaurant, and The Tampa Theatre. The work of these 10th graders was amazing. The photographic capabilities of the students took me by surprise. The project brought the students together, and it brought them closer with the community and history.
One student said, “People walk around The University of Tampa like it’s a regular school. For me, it was a place where I could take pictures.” The students were able to expand their knowledge and creativity, which proves that the program is effective. The students combine their visual creativity with their writing creativity.
An article was written by Courtney Cairns Pastor on TBO.com about the program.
“The Hillsborough County School District is training future teachers through a new magnet program that introduces students to the education field in ninth grade. If the students do well, they can get college paid for and, maybe best of all, possibly jobs in Hillsborough schools when they complete their degrees,” according to Pastor.
APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION must be filled out by the students and gives them an opportunity to improve on their writing skills.
In the application is states, “Students will complete three levels of exploratory field experience electives in grades nine, ten and eleven (respectively); then, as seniors, students will participate in a culminating experience called a Clinical Internship. Students will be paired throughout the program with practicing master educators recognized as highly qualified by the No Child Left Behind guidelines. These master educators, in most cases, will be qualified to serve as adjunct professors at partner institutions which enables students to connect theory with practice.”
And finally The St. Pete Times also covered this story back in January of 2008. Just click on the link and the article gives you some insight on the wonderful program.
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/13/Hillsborough/Reaching_deep_for_tea.shtml
So out of the entire meeting, why did I JUST talk about this program? First, the students that were there had greatly impacted me. To come to a meeting and plea with the board members to continue to fund their program, is pretty impressive to me. Education is so important and for these kids to learn that at such a young age, it gives me some assurance that our future leaders will have a strong head on their shoulders.
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