Flame Rocks Needham Schools
In October 2011, FLAME rocked the town in a musical kick-off of Disabilities Awareness at Broadmeadow, Eliot, Mitchell and Newman elementary schools. An international touring success that has released four CDs and been featured in PEOPLE and on Good Morning America, FLAME is a band of musicians with disabilities spanning autism, blindness, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. To advocates of disabilities awareness in Needham, FLAME is a living example of the program’s message: That people with disabilities can live rich and productive lives doing what they love to do.
Says Martha Cohen Barrett, a coordinator of the disabilities awareness program at Eliot School: “Our goal is to demystify disabilities and show children that people with disabilities can do many of the same things that people without disabilities can do.”
“We call these programs ‘disability awareness,’” says Jacquie Sherman, who with Barrett, helped bring the program to Eliot, “but they are really about ‘diversity awareness’.”
Funded by a $5,000 grant from the Needham Education Foundation (NEF), the Needham Commission on Disabilities and the PTCs of the schools on the tour, the FLAME performance both energized and inspired Needham students:
“They taught us that if you want to do something, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t!”
“When they were young, they were told they could never play an instrument or sing and now they are in an amazing band!”
“They put us into a “dancy” mood and it was one of the best bands I’ve ever seen!”
“I forgot they had any disabilities… they were just great musicians.”
“I loved hearing how they overcame such difficult things in their life.”
“It felt awesome to dance…it felt like we were celebrating with them!”
“At 10:45 it had to end. The band had to board the bus, the students and teachers returned to class. However, in a mere 45 minutes, four hundred of the Mitchell family made the journey from curious to anxious to amazed to appreciative to inspired. We saw wheelchairs and crutches. We saw people who looked different. We saw people who couldn’t see us. But, we also heard from the experts – people who persevered against odds, people in the know – who knew that fears can be overcome, courage is there for the taking, hope is free, and dreams are meant to be real. We also heard a whole lot of great music.”
–Excerpted from Letter from Michael Schwinden, Principal, Mitchell Elementary School
NEF Brings Month-Long Chinese Cultural Celebration to Broadmeadow School
Close to 400 Broadmeadow elementary school students will participate in a Chinese Cultural celebration lead by award-winning teacher and professional dancer, Chiao Bin Huang of Carlisle. The dynamic program for kindergarteners up to third graders enriches social studies, geography and physical education through a series of workshops in January. It culminates on February 2 with a hands-on, student-performed Chinese New Year performance.
By engaging students directly in Asian customs, the Chinese Cultural Celebration explores similarities and differences between Asian and other cultures. Huang uses kinesthetic, music, drama, discussion and other mind/body experiences to teach students about the Chinese New Year and common Asian practices.
Hands-On Workshops and Performance Immerse Students in Asian Culture
Through collaboration with Broadmeadow’s second grade teachers, Huang will conduct four, 30-minute workshops in each of the four second grade classrooms on January 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 12:30 to 2:30pm. One classroom will learn the lion and gold ring dance; a second, traditional ribbon dancing; and a third, martial arts. The fourth classroom will perform a play about the Chinese New Year. All second graders will learn to sing a song in Mandarin.
The lessons taught during the workshops will come together in a 45-minute Chinese New Year Celebration performed by second graders for kindergarteners, first, and third graders on February 2 at 1:30pm. The grand finale is an audience sing-along of a Chinese New Year tune sung in Mandarin and using hand gestures.
NEF Grants Support Fine Arts and Cultural Awareness
Funded by a grant from the Needham Education Foundation (NEF), Huang’s fine arts and cultural awareness program complements two previous NEF grants awarded to Broadmeadow. The first, in 2004, funded “diversity book bags” containing multicultural books, games and music. A 2006 grant brought content from China’s Silk Road to fourth graders.
About the Artist, Chiao Bin Huang
Chiao Bin Huang is a professional dancer, choreographer and fine artist with over 20 years of experiences teaching dance, paper arts and Chinese in schools, theaters and professional venues throughout Massachusetts. Her Chinese New Year Celebration for the town of Carlisle earned the Gold Star Project award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2006. She is a graduate of the dance department at the Chinese Cultural University in Taiwan and holds a Masters of Arts in Theater Education from Emerson College. Huang has performed with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road project residency as a Chinese paper-cutting artist and dancer.
NEF Presents “Let’s Talk: Keys to Your Child’s Academic Success”
The Needham Education Foundation (NEF) is bringing groundbreaking research in children’s education to the Needham community on Wednesday evening, February 24, 2010.
“Let’s Talk: Keys to Your Child’s Academic Success,” will be presented by Harvard Associate Professor Nonie Lesaux and members of her research group. For her trailblazing work, President Obama bestowed the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) upon Lesaux in July 2009.
Dr. Lesaux will focus on the critical importance of higher level vocabulary and dialogue in children’s education, presenting results from a large‐scale study of middle school students in San Diego, California. Analysis of the data from year one of the study is soon to be published in the top reading research journal, Reading Research Quarterly. Lesaux and her colleagues, Perla Gamez and Joan Kelley, will present these findings as well as the latest information from year two, highlighting the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading achievement, and discussing how the results support the need to build children’s vocabulary at home and at school.
The NEF requests those interested in attending, RSVP to info@nefneedham.org by February 17, 2010. Admission is free and the program will run from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Milas Hall at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Light refreshments will be served before the discussion and a question and answer session will follow.
Lesaux, Gamez and Kelley will explain that encouraging your children to read is essential, but it is only a piece of the academic puzzle. Their research concludes that children need exposure to academic vocabulary and practice using academic words in order to read and understand middle school and high school textbooks, and ultimately achieve in school.
“Challenging our children with rich dialogue is integral to their school success,” said Lesaux. “My research team is going to address what constitutes the kind of dialogue that has an impact on children’s learning, and how parents and caregivers can infuse meaningful, educational conversation in today’s fast‐paced family lifestyles.”
“For example, we’ve all heard we need to have dinner as a family but what needs to take place while we’re sitting at the table together? Our discussion will offer ideas for having conversations with your children that will have them thinking about new concepts and ideas they’ve never contemplated before. With innovative thinking comes higher level vocabulary and comprehension that then crosses over into children’s studies.”
“This is the first time that NEF has sponsored this kind of event,” said Frank Fortin, co‐president of the NEF. “It is rare for professionals of this caliber to present their research to the general public and even more unusual for this research to be shared before publication.” Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Kathleen McCartney has said Lesaux’s work is “already changing education policy in the United States, and making an impact on the training of many education professionals.”
Watch a video news story of the program, produced by the Needham Channel: