Have a Witty Holiday!

Please extend a hearty "Welcome Back" to our After-School guest-blogger, Judy Danielson! Judy's kiddos have been hard at work getting ready for the holidays at Mills Elementary. Here's a sneak peek at what they've been up to this month:

Last week was another week of adventure and learning in Thriving Minds After-School Program at Mills Elementary. On Monday, fourth and fifth graders worked on their team building skills. All of the students have been writing their own short plays and are doing an outstanding job. Kindergarten and first grade made turkeys from oranges and felt pieces. Second and third grade had Mad Science on Wednesday and learned about optical illusions. The children have been earning tickets for good behavior, following directions, being a good leader, being kind, etc. On Friday we had our Reward Store, where my office turns into a Chuck E. Cheese-like store where the children can exchange their tickets for prizes ranging from candy to pencils to stickers to Hot Cheetos! For some, it's the only time they have their own "money" to spend and the decision-making process can be brutal. It is a great incentive and in a roundabout kind of way, a math lesson to figure out how many prizes you can get for your tickets.

On Saturday evening, I gathered some friends and we headed off to Barneys New York at NorthPark Center to see the "Have a Witty Holiday" window art. Our afterschool students at Mills participated in a project with Barneys to provide art for their Holiday Windows. Under the direction of artist and instructor Junanne Peck, the children painted canvases of the funniest person in their lives, or the person who makes them laugh. The visual presentation of the children's paintings is outstanding. The kids all did such good work and Barneys has done a fabulous job displaying their work.

I am so proud of my kids, and people were stopping to look in the windows! How cool is that? Of course, like any proud Mother Hen, I let people know that my afterschool kids created the paintings. Most of the salespeople in Barneys now know me and all about Thriving Minds After-School, too. I encourage all of you to go to Barneys and see the windows. I know you will be touched. I can't wait to share all the pictures I took with my kids and their families!

Judy Danielson
Community Site Manager, Mills Elementary
Thriving Minds After-School



*Editor's note: The Barneys window displays of the children's art from Mills, Tatum Elementary and Long Middle School will be up throughout the holiday season. Stop and take a look while you're doing your Christmas shopping - it's quite a sight to see!

A few EXTRA-special events, part 2

Our journey continued with a weekend of support preceded by a lovely champagne-and-hors-d'oeuvres kickoff party at the brand new Louis Vuitton flagship store at NorthPark Center. The event was hosted by Kimberly Schlegel-Whitman, Daniel Lalonde, President of Louis Vuitton North America and Patrick McCarthy, Chairman and Editorial Director of W Magazine. Our Manager of Events and Volunteers, Shelly Bell, said, "The party was really great; we had a lot of Board members and donors there who truly enjoyed it. Everyone chatted about Big Thought and had a wonderful time!" Part of the proceeds from the full weekend's sales are being donated to us so that we can continue our programs for the children and families of Dallas.

Finally, self-taught Dallas artist Chris Judy and his team chose Big Thought as a beneficiary for the launch of his new set of giclee prints. The party, held at Bella Restaurant in the Uptown area, was well-attended. Patrons were energetic and excited to learn about Big Thought and see Judy's latest artwork.

We are so grateful to have been chosen to be a part of all these wonderful events. Thank you to all who appreciate our work and are inspired to help us continue making imagination a part of everyday learning. Stay tuned for more on the art exhibit in the Barneys New York windows next week!

A few EXTRA-special events

We've been busy these past few weeks, dashing from place to place around the city with our hands and vehicles full of children's art, Big Thought brochures and directional signage! Here's a recap of a few places we've been - be sure to join our mailing list if you want to receive special event invitations from us.

Our slew of events started with our delivery of more than 200 freshly-painted canvases like the one on the left to Barneys New York in NorthPark Center for their holiday windows - more on that next week!

Then we moved on down Oak Lawn Avenue on November 5th to Dragon Street in the Dallas Design District, because we were chosen as a beneficiary of the annual Design on Dragon gallery event. It was a beautiful, warm night and the galleries were full of happy patrons exploring.

Those lovely folks showered us with art supplies (some were even gift-wrapped!) and cash donations for the children and families impacted through our programs. We are so grateful to the galleries that participated and to Modern Luxury for choosing us to benefit from this wonderful event!

Stay tuned for the rest of our jam-packed schedule, which will be posted tomorrow afternoon.

(Belated) Photo Friday!

Better late than never, eh? Here's a special Photo Friday slideshow of screen grabs from the DaVerse Lounge performance at Backbeat Cafe last Friday. People of all ages showed up to the open-mic spoken word showcase, hosted by Big Thought artist Will Richey and including backup by the band Melody Memory. For more information check out the Daverse Lounge MySpace Music page - and join us at Backbeat the second Friday of December for the next performance!

5 Things We Know About Quality

Quality is perhaps the most important characteristic of a successful arts education and creative learning program. While it is a major accomplishment to increase the raw numbers of creative learning opportunities throughout a city as large as Dallas, the opportunities must also be high-quality to have an impact...thus that is an area on which we've focused our Research & Assessment lens for the last 2 years.

1. Get out your yardstick. Though it may seem too qualitative or subjective, quality of arts education and creative learning MUST be measured. One of the greatest contributions of Thriving Minds' work to date is the design of both a framework for understanding the dimensions of quality teaching and learning and a set of tools that measure it year to year.
   
2. It takes a village. Our effort to examine quality in this rigorous way has been aided by a team of nearly 50 practitioners and researchers, including local teachers, arts organization representatives, Big Thought staff and national experts in various creative learning subjects. It has been based on over one hundred observations followed by discussions and further refinements of the tools. In short, measurement of quality takes the participation and collaboration of many, many people, all committed to securing the best possible education for the city's children.
   
3. The more you know. High-quality learning opportunities require high-quality instruction. In order for today's teachers and instructors to be prepared and capable of teaching at a high level, they need to pursue continuing education and professional development. Data from the quality panels indicate that in-school and community instructors alike need to build more time for creative choice make as well as assessment and reflection into their curriculum. Professional development workshops have been designed to provide strategies to promote more of this type of teaching and learning.
   
4. Take time to make time. Another aspect of quality is in the area of teaching or instructional time. Quality panelists often found that instructors feel pressed for time and often this is why they feel unable to open their lesson to students input and creative choices. Thus, students are limited to always following instructions and never having time to innovate. Armed with this information, the Thriving Minds After-School Program decided to lengthen creative learning from 45- to 90-minutes instructional blocks.
   
5. The results are in. One of the most compelling studies we've done involves the creative work of students involved in ArtsPartners. Student writing was collected and compared before and after participating in community creative learning programs chosen to support classroom curriculum. Community programs strengthened students’ achievement. Here is an example of the change in one student’s writing, as illustrated in our research publication “Enriching Minds, Growing our Future.”

Photo Friday!

Our creative staff sure knows how to celebrate Halloween with some CRAZY costumes! Check out a few of our pics from our Halloween party last Friday:

The Case for After-School

Eighteen months ago, Dallas ISD and Big Thought began forming plans for a free after-school program for the elementary and middle schools in the district. Recognizing that it was a great complement to existing Thriving Minds community efforts, Big Thought began developing the logistics of the program and pursuing funding. We received a 21st Century Learning Center grant from the Texas Education Agency in 2008, hired more than 100 new full- and part-time employees and set up shop in 20 elementary and middle school sites all over the city in October 2008. Now in year 2, the Thriving Minds After-School Program offers free after-school care including homework help, academic tutoring and creative enrichment programs from 3-6pm, Monday through Friday, to 2,000 students in Dallas.

There's been a lot of buzz about after-school lately, with the release of the Afterschool Alliance's America After 3pm data. Despite 26% of Texas schoolchildren still being left unsupervised between the hours of 3 and 6pm (up from 24% in 2004 and tied with the national average), Texas still ranks in the top 10 states as far as after-school supply and demand.  However, of those top 10, Texas is one of only 3 not meeting the after-school demand with a statewide program, which places more responsibility on the individual organizations - like the YMCA, Dallas Afterschool Network, and ourselves, with the Thriving Minds After-School Program - to meet the demand. Currently, 51% of Texas schoolchildren not in after-school would be likely to participate if it were available to them; that's well over a million students statewide.

Though an increasing number of parents and students recognize the need for after-school care, cost of the program and transportation issues are consistent barriers to access. And families are not the only ones recognizing this need: David Kunkle, chief of the Dallas Police Department, wrote an Op-Ed article for the Dallas Morning News recently about the benefits of after-school programming. Kunkle sees it as a deterrent for three important issues facing Dallas students: dropout rates, juvenile crime and the participation in risky behaviors such as drugs and gangs. Here are some of the things he pointed out:

• Every $1 spent on after-school saves taxpayers $8 to $12 that would later be spent on crime, welfare and other costs.
• Right now, 100,000 Dallas County children between the ages of 5 and 13 are left unsupervised after school, and those kids are less likely to graduate.
• The students who need after-school the most - in low-income areas - are still the least likely to receive it, due to space issues.

Considering the current state of the economy and the fact that many parents are having to work multiple jobs just to stay afloat, it is more important than ever that our children are receiving proper after-school care and supervision. Thriving Minds After-School is devoted to providing a safe place for students to spend those critical hours between 3 and 6pm, as well as offering new opportunities that enhance their classroom learning. To learn more about our after-school program or any of the others listed here, visit the links above. Also, if you have the time and inclination, look into volunteering to help out at a local program.