Last year, North Babylon School District was awarded a grant through the PEACE Project (Partners in Education, Arts and Community Empowerment) and the Patchogue Arts Council. It is a program that empowers educators in Suffolk County middle and high schools to make more effective use of the arts through College, Career and Civic Readiness and Culturally Responsive-Sustaining education.
The grant allowed North Babylon School District to collaborate with a professional artist to combine a project with academics and social-emotional learning. On May 18 and 19, the sixth graders in Ms. Janelis and Ms. Calvert’s classes at Robert Moses Middle School participated in a two-day class poetry/social emotional learning project.
Students participated in a writing workshop called, “Finding and Sharing Our Voices Through the Arts,” on cultural identity, belonging and self-exploration led by Adriana Devers of Cuentos de Triadas. The students explored the creative process and learned how to find their own voice through culture. They listened to poetry and wrote their own poems by using art as a bridge to cultural understanding.