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School News - Tip Sheet - 6/25/2008

Youth Take Advantage of TPS Arts Camps 

6/23/2008, 8:30 a.m.

As the dog days of summer drift by Tulsa youth are taking advantage of summer arts programs offered by Tulsa Public Schools. The Kravis Arts Camps began June 16 and runs until June 27.

Spread out at three different locations—Salk Elementary, Thoreau Demonstration Academy and Booker T. Washington High School—the camps are designed to help children “develop self-esteem through the arts,” according to TPS Fine Arts Coordinator Ann Tomlins.

On one recent morning at Salk, little hands belonging to budding artists participating in the “Ubuntu: the Sprit of Africa” class were working glue, scissors and colored strips of paper to weave kente cloth, a fabric originating in Ghana.

The exercise “develops their motor skills and helps them appreciate colors and patterns used in Africa,” said art instructor Janet Lefler.

Camp hours are 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Salk; 8:30a.m.-3:30 p.m. BTW; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thoreau.

 

TPS Teachers Head North to Alaska 

7/1/2008

The incredibly diverse cultures and ecosystems in Alaska have long fascinated researchers and scientists. It’s the largest state in the union, home to 100-degree weather swings, where it’s broad daylight at 2 a.m. during the summer and you can toss a cup of hot coffee outside and watch it freeze before it hits the ground in winter. Now two teachers from Oklahoma—Nimitz Middle School Library Media Specialist Robin Leach and Leslie Brown, an Arts Resource Teacher at Addams, McKinley and Remington elementary schools—have been tapped to receive a 2008 grant award for $10,000 to pursue the Road Scholar program fellowship project.

They’ll be heading to the Great White North on July 1.

“We’re looking at alternative sources of energy and climate change,” Leach said. “We’ll be studying wildlife and Leslie is bringing a tape recorder to make sounds of the environment.”

Students of Leach and Brown will also benefit as the two teachers plan on blogging about their travel experiences and incorporating what they’ve learned in lesson plans.

The Road Scholar program is a not-for-profit service of Elderhostel, an organization providing trips with educational value. Go to www.roadscholar.org/ fore more information.

 

BP Employees Spruce up Carver Middle 

7/2/2008

The 24th annual BP Classic is took company employees to Carver Middle School on a unique landscaping project.

The BP Classic began in Texas City in 1985 as a friendly softball game between workers at two refineries. By 1994 the event was attracting large numbers of employees, retirees and families from locations around BP. This year the Classic is in Tulsa.

“We want to foster pride and team-building among employees, so the Tulsa Pipeline Control Center is happy to continue the legacy of the Classic,” said Control Center Manager Dan Spangler.

Part of the Classic is Volunteer Days, with employees from Oklahoma and all over North America worked on community projects at the Tulsa Garden Center and Carver Middle School during the first two days of the event—June 25 and 26.

“We’re putting in a literary garden with granite stones, benches, doing some landscaping and building a plaque containing quotes from George Washington Carver himself,” said company spokesman Steve Smith. Smith said the garden area will be a place where teachers and students can gather outside for classes to enjoy reading and the arts.

This will be the second time company volunteers have worked at Carver Middle School. In 1998, the BP Classic received one of Oklahoma’s highest awards for historical restoration for their work at Carver Stadium.

 

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