Archive: Around Town

Students and teachers across the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) are learning about West African culture, history, music and life through Sulley Imoro's workshops this month.  Jonathan Keefner, music teacher at Enfield Elementary School, is the lead teacher for the programming in eight schools reaching over 800 students through "Introduction to West African Drum and Dance", an Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) Connecting Classrooms Grant.

In addition to the school-based activities, Imoro and his daughter Ayisha will be featured Sunday, April 17 at 3:00 p.m. in the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School Library for a free and open to the public "African Drum and Dance Celebration Concert". M'Bangba Culture Trupe, Moxie Kumba and Ithaca College Drum and Dance Ensemble will also perform.

ICSD teachers Christopher Bell, Karen Cushman, Jennifer Kivisild, Gregory McQuade, Ross Mizrahi, Dorothy Preston, and Brandon Reyes collaborated with Keefner to host the Imoros and support their workshops at Belle Sherman Elementary, Enfield Elementary, Caroline Elementary, Beverly J. Martin Elementary, Northeast Elementary, South Hill Elementary, Fall Creek Elementary and DeWitt Middle School.

Keefner explained, "The series was designed to give as many students in the district as possible the opportunity to interactively learn about traditional Ghanaian drum and dance practices, and the cultural context of the material, rich historical information on each dance, and how music plays a part in daily life in Ghana." Collaborating teachers are gaining the necessary resources and understanding to include an African drum and dance unit in their curriculum beyond this year in their "world music" section of the arts curriculum.

In addition, Keefner said the goal is for every student who participates to gain an understanding of a specific rhythm including the movements, accompanying songs, and historical context. Students will also leave understanding the cultural information associated with the rhythm so they can use what they have learned. "Each grade level will participate in a workshop that is age appropriate and will allow for building on the knowledge that is gained. Teachers will be able to include this work in their existing curriculum and progressively build student knowledge each subsequent year," expressed Keefner.


IPEI's Connecting Classrooms Grants build on the not-for-profit organization's successful models for encouraging and supporting innovative teaching and deeper learning. "Our intent is to be the catalyst for ICSD staff to seek and develop innovative collaborative partnerships between teachers within a school, across grade levels and/or between schools," according to Connie Patterson, retired ICSD teacher who is now an IPEI board member and the Grants Committee chair. "It's about working together," said IPEI Executive Director Christine Sanchirico. "This is really our guiding principle for these grants."

IPEI initiated Connecting Classrooms Grants using funds IPEI received from generous community members who donated to its Our Children * Our Schools * Our Future campaign. One of the capital campaign's three goals was to expand programs and grants. IPEI's other grants programs are funded by the Annual Fund and Adult Spelling Bee.

IPEI has allocated significant resources for Connecting Classroom Grant recipients to plan, develop, and implement their visions that are aligned with the grant criteria. Connecting Classrooms Grants criteria include: internal collaboration among ICSD staff; identification of overall promise or potential of project aligned with school and district goals; plan encourages active learning and student engagement; realistic, thoughtful outline of process; proposed budget aligns with project goals and intended outcomes; potential for academic impact; and process for effective evaluation of the project. "IPEI is pleased and excited to support these fantastic proposals that find new ways to get students actively involved in learning and discovery. Each project is created by a group of educators who have chosen to focus on scientific content while incorporating language arts, math, and technology. We are impressed with the teachers' vision and commitment!" said Patterson.

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