PBIS OLD NORTH

 

Classroom Management

Recommendations for Old North Academy

Wesley A Morgan (Art Teacher)

This is a response to Assistant Principal, Ms. Todd’s request for input on Classroom Management. I’m encouraged that the administration is asking for input from teachers and staff. The overall atmosphere in the classroom must be a positive one and one that allows our learners to become scholars in earnest. My input is relative to my 10 years as an educator (SPED and Art) and informed by my first year as an Art Teacher at Old North Academy (2023-2024).

I’m not a fan of rules for the sake of rules. I am however, in favor of treating each other as we expect to be treated (The Golden Rule).

My two cents:

1. Let’s reinforce our PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) pillars of Respect, Responsibility and Safety (Each of these areas represent ways that make our commitment to TEACHING and LEARNING truly a credible statement of our WHY.

2. Respect for each other includes iron clad rule of NO BULLYING under any circumstance. This would include name-calling, teasing, social media, pushing and shoving, Let’s note strongly that horseplay and “play fighting” can lead to bad feelings and cause escalation in some. Let’s get in the habit of saying we are sorry to our teachers, staff and our classmates when we show any kind of disrespect (real or perceived).

3. Responsibility includes showing up on time and with an eagerness to work. Let’s recognize students that help out in the classroom and in public spaces. Let’s honor those who manage to arrive on time and use their time wisely while in school.

4. Safety might be the most important pillar of our PBIS program. Accidents happen and acts of nature happen. We must treat all drills with a level of thoroughness that makes sure everyone involved understands the safety is paramount. Intruder Drills, Fire Drills, Tornado Drills of course are critical but let’s remember that danger is everywhere. The school grounds and adjacent areas must be safe from all potential harm.

Classroom routines assure the best chance of managing an orderly learning environment. Specials and dedicated content area concentrations must be opportunities to grow as human beings (teachers, staff and students), Let’s consider a culture of helpful assistance, It is no secret that behaviors are minimized when students in smaller groups have adequate adult supervision. Specials with 20+ kids can create an opportunity for play and poor choices. Let’s lower the numbers or at least increase the adult to student ratios. 

PHOTOS - Just blocks away from Old North Academy are some sad buildings unused, abandoned or in disrepair. A view down the main hallway showing what students and visitors see inside,

 

Plein Air Old North

 

Sarah Lorentz said she planned to paint Saturday August 24, 2024 while the Old North Saint Louis Chess Club played matches in the Chess Pocket Park near 2711 14th Street. Sure enough, at 8:00 a. m. Sarah parked her Crown Victoria on 14th and greeted Jeffrey Zollmer as the chess clubbers set up tents, sign-in table and prepared for competition. 

Sarah had already prepared her oil pallet with an array of colors. Quickly observing angles she sketched a strategy for her composition on her cradle frame wood plane. She began painting almost instantly. She made a quick course correction as she noted the intensity of two players facing off over a chess board. That match turned out to be a draw. 

Capturing the environment and details such as background green space and large mural on a wall, her composition took shape. She worked her canvas for more than 3 hours. Sarah made time to visit (with me) the Saturday opening of Central Print at 11 a.m. I pointed out the bandstand plaza across from Crown Candy and the future headquarters of the Old North Restoration Group and the windows of the US International Foods location. 

   

The day was sunny and warm. There was a a lot of activity in the neighborhood. Instructional coach Wells said hello and introduced me to her husband Isaiah. I was able to visit the home on Saint Louis Avenue of Juan William Chavez and chatted with his partner about their workshop for SLPS teachers with indigenous people about climate, land and varieties of bees. I kept an appointment with Central Print to produce my artful holiday greeting card. 

Needless to say, it was a full, fun and productive Saturday. 

By Saturday September 21, 2024 the painting will be on display in the window at Central Print. The artist will sell it for $450.00. Old North will be busy on Saturday with house tours, an art fair and music on the plaza across from Crown Candy. The Saint Louis Old North Chess Club will be at the Chess Pocket Park off of 14th street.

The Play is the Thing

 

Plays (the theatrical productions I mean) are significant reference points in my life. 

The Deadly Game (Lakewood Little Theater circa1965) - I was 9 or 10 when I saw my mom on stage in a powerful performance as the end of the show. She joked that her full length mink coat helped her get the role.

The Women - My mom performed a reading from this play with her friends from the Three Arts Club (sometime before 1965). I recall here character delivering a key line "jungle red Sylvia" while they rehearsed in our living room.

The Taming of the Shrew - The Great Lakes Shakepeare Company circa 1977. They asked my mom (after she completed her Masters of Dramatic Arts at Case Western Reserve University) to speak to a group of theater goers prior to the show. I didn't realize until years later that a young actor named Tom Hanks had a part in that show, He was Gumio.

Hamlet - Also at Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival - Mom not only provided my ticket but a detailed explanation of the story or the Prince of Denmark. 

Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern are Dead - Playhouse in Cleveland.

Hamlet - with Dame Judith Anderson, a woman, playing Hamlet. I think this was at the Hanna Theater. 

Good Evening - at the Hanna with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. I shared recorded bits with college friends circa 1975-76 notably the sketch where a one legger man is applying for the role as Tarzan. The sketch was eventually a part of a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live.

At Clague Playhouse where mom was director in residence: Man of La Mancha, Roar of the Greasepaint - Smell of the Crowd, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (in which my mom stepped into the role of a teacher/nun when the actress in that role got sick - My mom flawlessly played the part of a nun!)

Oklahoma - Mom fearlessly played Aunt Eller (including singing) at LLT. 

West Side Story - at Saint Edward High School. She was asked to direct this HS production and found the magic of that musical but was careful to show in the end the story of Romeo and Juliet is a Shakespearean tragedy.

Veronica's Room at LLT mom won best actress honors for her performance.

Cactus Flower, Where Did We Go Wrong?, Mary Mary, Any Wednesday. at LLT (She always delivered. I remember her practicing just how the secretary/assistant would answer the phone in the Cactus Flower - "Doctor Winston's Office" with a perfect officiousness. 

Laugh In - Mom directed this play at Wildwood Lake Playhouse. 

She had some raving fans among those she taught at LLT and those she relied on as collaborators (musical director, casting etc.).

Working in New York, I was thrilled to catch Dustin Hoffman in Death of a Salesman. I saw productions of Glenn Garry Glen Ross, Les Miserables. I saw a great production about Groucho in New York too.

Recently in St. Louis I saw a brilliant production of Red about Mark Rothko and he interacted with his assistant while struggling to complete his commission for the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram's Building in NYC. 

This is just off the top of my head. Plays I've seen and remember the association and memories they trigger. Theater is a great way to reflect and dive into feeling.  

 

P.S. And more recently I saw Noises Off at the Beck Center, Girl from North Country in Cleveland, Funny Girl, Rain (Beatles tribute band) at St. Louis Fabulous Fox Theater (and I have plans to see Hamilton there the day after Labor Day 2024). 

  

 

How I Feel Now

It’s Sunday and the national news is bad.

My head hurts from the night I just had;

What a year it has been;

I’m thinking of you again.

 

Content with peace of mind;

And yet like insanity as it is defined;

Same thing again and again;

Alone with family and friends.

 

This love is as strong as any cult;

Cannot expect a different result;

Baffled in the grocery aisle;

The black tea makes me smile.

 

Cherish the moments and what it really means;

And there you are in distressed blue jeans.

I keep showing up and so do you;

Oh it’s real! And it’s true.

 

OK Go

 

OK Go is an amazing group of rock musicians from Chicago, now based in LA that are innovative artists. I was fortunate enough to catch as an invited guest of Integrity, a web solutions company in University City. Thanks to Lisa Grimm of Integrity for having me. (It was a great show and a wonderful distraction from the TV news follow-up of the Assassination Attempt at Donald Trump's campaign rally in Pennsylvania 7/13/24).

OK Go is composed of lead singer/guitarist Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, and Andy Ross (who joined them in 2005 replacing original guitarist Andy Duncan.) The band is known for its quirky and complex music videos which are often elaborately choreographed to be filmed.The original members formed as OK Go in 1998 and released two studio albums before Duncan's departure. The band's video for "Here it Goes Again" won a Grammy for best  Musc Video in 2007.

The show at the Pageant featured powerful performances by opening acts Mirthquake and Forever Winona. OK go lead singer Kulash engaged the audience and entertained the crowd, encouraging people to visit the "merch area and buy stuff because we're all going to Nashville next. If you don't and the bands still have stuff, they'll talk about you saying 'Aw, Saint Louis Sucks' so buy the stuff". This was one example of how Kulash connected with the fans. He invited questions from the audience and talked about everything from music videos, Japan, the Muppets and the set list.

 

L

Lawton and Lindsey Visit

The amazing Lawton (above), just about a week before visiting Saint Louis. He's almost 8, going on 28. He is a reader, a golfer, a marshall artist, a sailboat captain, and a theater goer (among other things). He and his mom schedule a trip that includes a picnic and production of The Barber of Seville from the St. Louis Opera Company for May 31, 2024. 

May 31, Friday Airport pickup at Terminal 2. Roadwork and closed parking lot creates a little chaos but flight is on time and the fun begins.

Laumeier Sculpture Park mega tour with Lawton and Lindsey includes trail past Trova by Fire Station. The Eye and Tasset's Deer and more. 

Saint Louis Art Museum on a post card perfect day. Lawton is drawn to ancient artifacts and anything with a digital touch screen interface - like the egyptian mummies on the 1st floor (downstairs where he gets a peak at Andy Goldsworthy's Stone Sea). 

The Saint Louis Opera Theater which begins with a Chicken Salad Chick box lunch on the grounds at Webster's Loretta Hilton Theater of Performing Arts. The restless traveler Lawton was treated to intermission sparklers. The comic opera Barber of Seville is wonderful as it features Andrew Morstein at Count Almaviva. (Love wins in the end.) 

Saturday was a full day. Beginning with Missouri History Museum. The Spirit of Saint Louis replica of Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic and the celebration and images of the 1904 World's Fair and relief map. Then at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation we visited the for magnificent Richard Serra Cor-10 steel sculpture Joe in the courtyard between the Contemporary Arts Museum and the Pulitzer. 

We traveled to Old North's Crown Candy for a short break before showing up for activities and a celebration of Ten Years in business for Central Print. We travelled to met Andrew and his parents, and sister for Pizza Champ in Maplewood - outdoor dining on Manchester Road.  

Lawton and Lindsey stop into my bachelor pad long enough for Lawton to show his skill in crating a mosaic Cardinal.

Sunday morning tickets to the top of the Gateway Arch bring us downtown and that's close enough to add sculptural highlights at City Garden. We visit Jim' Dine's Pinnochio, Haring, di Suvero and more.

June 2, 2024 Sunday - Sugarfire and putting green at Creve Coeur Golf Course before heading back to the airport. What a sweet weekend.

 

Art Work

 

 

Everyone is an artist;

Or so says the teacher;

The object is to become a better artist;

At the risk of sounding like a preacher.

 

Van Gogh had a lust for life;

In spite of his mental health;

Ultimately succumbing to his strife;

His brother and the market could not generate a timely wealth.

 

Perhaps Picasso is the greatest of all time;

The GOAT takes his rightful place;

The art world concurs with Gertrude Stein;

Wherever he puts eyes and nose on a face.

 

Popular culture by Andy;

The things we see and do every day;

In a gallery context – it’s a dandy;

See the ordinary in a different way,

 

Super real, surreal, sublime,

Salvador can blow your mind;

Dali curling his trademark mustache;

An enduring style that is sure to last.

 

Abstract, color field, contemporary, Haring, Banksy, Basquiat;

On display for all to admire or eschew.

Graffiti is an origin – believe it or not;

You can decide if it appeals to you.

 

What will you do and how?

Study, imitate, or break new ground;

What will be the next new thing now?

Practice and work your process for what may be found.