Northrop Grumman Awards BCP $4,500 Grant to Pilot Calvert School Curriculum

Northrop Grumman has awarded BCP a grant of $4,500 to implement its new Middle Grades Initiative. The Initiative involves piloting the highly-regarded Calvert School Homeschool Curriculum with 40 seventh graders at City Springs Elementary/Middle School.

Goals of the initiative include improving writing skills, vocabulary, and content knowledge in science, history and geography.

For over one hundred years, Calvert School has carefully crafted an integrated, classical homeschool curriculum, which was developed by expert curriculum staff and proven in the Calvert Day School.

The Seventh Grade Homeschooling Curriculum allows students to build strong grammar and composition skills through descriptive and expository writing.

The science program delves into the life and physical sciences and introduces students to the characteristics of living things, sound, light, motion, forces, and energy.

Geography explores a variety of subjects such as thematic maps and the Eastern hemisphere.

History covers the development of the modern world from the fall of Rome to the Enlightenment.

We anticipate that the Calvert Curriculum will help our middle grades students master the material they need to succeed in high school and beyond.

If the pilot proves successful, BCP will expand the program to include grades six and eight and the other BCP schools.

NBS Sponsors BCP Fundraising Gala

Thank you to Network Business Solutions (NBS) for supporting BCP's Are You Smarter Than a BCP 5th Grader? fundraising gala on April 20, 2012 with a $500 sponsorship.

About NBS
NBS takes a unique, business-focused approach to network implementation and custom application development. It not only solves your current IT problems, but it prevents future ones, providing the long-term reliability and efficiency your business needs to succeed. http://www.nbs.biz/

Mickey Cucchiella to Appear at BCP Fundraising Gala

Professional Comedian Mickey Cucchiella will appear at BCP's Are You Smarter Than a BCP 5th Grader? fundraising gala on April 20, 2012.

Mickey will join City Schools CEO Andres Alonso, Houston Texan Bryant Johnson, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in a quiz competition with four 5th grade students from City Springs Elementary/Middle School, Collington Square School of the Arts, Hampstead Hill Academy and Wolfe Street Academy.

Mickey Cucchiella is a professional comedian. He is currently a morning show host in Baltimore, Maryland, on WIYY, 98Rock (97.9 FM). If cutting edge comedy and a hatred of political correctness is what you like Mickey is for you.

Purchase tickets at:
http://bcp.givezooks.com/events/are-you-smarter-than-a-bcp-5th-grader

City Springs Recognized as Model DI School

The National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) has recognized City Springs Elementary/Middle as a model Direct Instruction (DI) school. BCP brought DI to City Springs in 1996.

While there are many schools implementing DI with NIFDI support, City Springs School in Baltimore, Maryland is a model implementation that welcomes visitors to their site.

Read more at: http://nifdi.org/15/news/154-visit-a-model-di-school

Maryland Food Bank Backpack Program Feeds Wolfe Street Families

The Maryland's Food Bank's Backpack Program began two weeks ago at Wolfe Street Academy. The program provides bags full of food to children eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school. Backpacks are handed out on Fridays and children take them home to share with their families over the weekend.

Two Fridays ago, students participating in the BOOST After-School Program at Wolfe Street received bags of food. Food distributions will alternate weekly between students participating in the after-school program and students only attending the day school.

Kathy Stroup, Director of Extended Student Services, worked for two years to bring the Backpack Program to Wolfe Street Academy. The school will continue to receive weekly food distributions until the Food Bank exhausts the funding allocated for this program. Wolfe Street Academy also hosts two larger Maryland Food Bank food distributions twice a year.

The Backpack Program was initiated after Baltimore City teachers began noticing children returning to school on Monday unable to concentrate because they had not eaten all weekend. In Fiscal Year 2009, the Maryland Food Bank distributed 9,360 backpacks to children.

The Backpack Program is one of many services coordinated by the BOOST After-School Program at Wolfe Street Academy, which is funded by a grant from the Family League of Baltimore City.

HHA Student Si Lin Named Carson Scholar

Hampstead Hill Academy 8th grader Si Lin has been named a 2012 Carson Scholar by the Carson Scholars Fund.

This year, 402 academic superstars have been named Carson Scholars with 24 from Baltimore City Public Schools. These students were nominated by their schools based on high academic achievement and commitment to serving their communities. Each scholar will receive a $1,000 scholarships.

Applications were at an all-time high this year, meaning the 2012 Scholars are truly the best and the brightest students from across the country.To date, the CSF has awarded more than 5,200 scholarships and has scholars in all 50 states!

Dr. Benjamin Carson grew up in a challenging environment in a single-parent household with a childhood dream of becoming a doctor. His mother, with only a third grade education, challenged and supported her sons, and Benjamin Carson is now a full professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has also directed pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center for more than 25 years.

Congratulations to Si Lin and all of the 2012 Carson Scholars!

For more information visit: http://carsonscholars.org/

Collington Square School March 2012 Newsletter

Check out Collington Square School of the Arts' March 2012 Newsletter. This edition includes articles on:

• National Women's History Month
• Higher Achievement Program
• Student Achievement Throughout the School
  
• African Quilt Black History Month Project
• The Club's at Collington Square's New Middle Grades Class on What it Means to Be a Young Woman
• Elev8 News
  
• Ten Lesson the Arts Teach
  

View the newsletter at:
http://www.baltimorecp.org/collington/CollingtonNewsMarch2012.pdf