Exciting News!
Carver High School made the greatest improvement of any school in Sacramento City Unified School District for the 2009-2010 school year. The gains were made in every group of students as measured by NCLB. This is fantastic news to show the success of our students in our very first year. We look forward to continued success and achievement for all our students.
The Sam Mazza Summer Arts Academy 2009 offered performing arts to students interested in drama, music, and poetry. Carver's after-school program director, Shannah Dieckmann, worked with teachers Scott Embrey-Stine and Mme Jennifer Fain to bring several special events to the students. Dahlak Brathwaite offered students a chance to work in the spoken word, in dramatic recitations of original poetry. A few of his students competed for honors in a national competition in Chicago. We were honored to have Nate Hall and Charday Adams perform their competition piece at our showcase for the parents and the community. In cooperation with the Music Circus and their arts education outreach, students were able to go to a performance of Altar Boyz and hear from a performer about his work. Another opportunity came from the Harlem Dance Company, and students were able to hear from two of the principal ballet dancers in the country after seeing a video of their work.
Another innovation for this summer was the help of our Sacramento Waldorf graduates, who worked as recreation assistants, Elise Ali, Sean Embrey-Stine, and Kevin Langham. These young adults worked with students in dramatic exercises, script writing, and acting, as well as music. The assistants led the morning warm-up activities, daily singing, and directed the students in the original play, "Rumplestiltzkin". Working with the gifted song-writer, Ariel Heim, Sean helped Ariel and Brianna Price refine and rehearse Ariel's song, "Teardrops and the Rain", which was performed at the showcase event.
Mme Fain, for many years the drama teacher at the Sacramento Waldorf School trained several students in the art of acting, and they performed A.A. Milne's The Ugly Duckling, a one-act play about a prince and a princess. All of the students worked on other arts as well-- form-drawing and perspective drawing, as well as the work on the set for the two plays. Students new to George Washington Carver School of Arts and Science had an extraordinary opportunity to meet other students, experience the joys and stress of performing, as well as get an introduction to Waldorf methods for the school year to come.We continue the work of the Arts Academy in the Waldorf Core classes for ninth and tenth grades. Plan to attend the summer program next year.