Clark Schools Celebrate the Legacy of Dr. King

 Clark teachers celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with their students through all kinds of projects last week.

At Valley Road School, first-grade teacher Paula Spence taught her class about King by reading a picture book on the topic and discussing the Civil Rights Movement. Principal Joseph Beltramba said he was amazed at how Spence was able to put sensitive issues about civil rights into first-grade friendly terms. "That is probably why she was the Teacher of the Year last year," said Beltramba.

Jennifer Clere's class used current events to show how racism still occurs today. Using a recent article about the "White Only" sign posted at a swimming pool in Ohio, Clere compared and contrasted events which occurred during King's time to the event that occurred just this week. This lesson reviewed racism, discrimination and bullying. At the conclusion of Clere's lesson, her children brainstormed ways to solve conflicts peacefully in honor of King.

Students in Karen Krick's first-grade class learned about Dr. King and his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Since they are also learning when to use quotation marks, they created a project in which elbow macaroni were used to as quotation marks around what King said.

Jennifer Kelleher's second-grade class has a Martin Luther King Jr. bulletin board titled "I Have a Dream." The students wrote down dreams that they have, like future careers. Students brought props into school or dressed up as their dream, and Kelleher took black and white photos of each student to create the display.

In Nicole Czarnecki's class, second-grade students compared their lives to the early life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Czarnecki created a template in Pages to encourage students to make connections between themselves and Dr. King. Students then shared their work with an audience.

Over at Hehnly School, Jennifer Lewis's second-grade class read a story on Dr. King and talked about how he changed the world through his vision. "We infused discussion on bullying into our lesson and how things change for the better when you peacefully set out for change," explained Lewis. The kids all had to write what their dream for the world is. In honor of February's Black History month, Lewis's students will now be each researching a famous Black American for a project.