COOL Schools 2012-2013 Report Now Available
Posted Sunday August 25 2013 at 6:20 pm.
Used tags: cool, education, kids, student, teacher, vsa
The air is crisp, school supplies are arriving on store shelves and the VSA MA team is gearing up for another great year of transformation through the arts in our COOL Schools program. During the summer we have the opportunity to reflect on learnings from last year and to celebrate successes both for individual students and for school communities as a whole. As we read through teacher reflections, our mission was reaffirmed in the words of the teachers.
A teacher working with high school students in an institutional setting saw the power of the poetry and spoken word to build self expression and engagement in writing. She explained that, "Some [students] were reluctant to express and share their thoughts and feelings at first but all became proud of what they accomplished and we saw significant emotional growth and self-awareness in all, plus-writing became a positive experience! (Many hated writing at first)." As we continue to work with these students next year, we hope to see their comfort with writing increase and the artist within each of them grow.
Another teacher noticed a broader impact through our inclusion programs at a Boston elementary school. She explained, "The growth that stood out for me was with the typical children who became more comfortable with students with intensive special needs. In particular having the children greet our students in the hallway and use their names when saying hello. There is truly a marked change in attitudes; a sense of community and acceptance, of the children in wheelchairs, that occurs following a COOL program." Replacing fear and isolation with community and acceptance is central to the work we do here at VSA MA. Attitudes and culture take time to shift, but we are seeing steady progress in our COOL School program. A more in depth look at our COOL programs from 2012 – 2013 is now available.
This year we are excited to see our ongoing collaborations grow to reach more students and happy to announce five new school partnerships. We welcome Ellison/Parks Early Elementary School and Young Achievers Math and Science Pilot School in Boston and three institutional programs with the Department of Mental Health, Transitions and Connections in Worcester and Merrimack in Tewksbury, to our COOL School cohort.
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