Each month brings us new opportunities to celebrate an event, an idea, a person or group, and to inform us of what has come before, or what we might do to make this a better world in the future. April brings us Easter, it is poetry month, and we celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day. It is the birth month of many writers, scientists, entertainers, and sports figures.
The DPS Foundation has reason to be pleased with this month. It shines a spotlight on several programs that the Foundation has supported. We are justifiably proud of our ability to contribute to the growth of thinking and writing abilities among DPS students as a result of grant funding provided to InSide Out Literary Arts Project. Through their City Wide poets program they are transforming the lives of fledgling writers across the district. This highly successful program has received national recognition, with visits to the White House and numerous poetry awards for these engaged students. The Foundation is pleased to be a supporter of this activity.
The DPS Go Green Initiative focuses on the environment and our collective responsibility to ensure a healthy world for many years to come. Teachers have received grants to support their classroom projects and ideas as the winners of the BEST (Bosch Energy, Science, and Technology ) Program. There are many learning opportunities for their students in these hands-on projects that call attention to what individuals and small groups might accomplish. Additionally, the Foundation supported school gardens program helps to demonstrate the science of growing, at the same time that it produces a general awareness of the earth and its challenges for the broader school community. Multiple recycling projects, energy saving initiatives , and other in-school activities , have money saving outcomes as well as teaching and learning components.
A few of the April born writers that you might find worthy include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Amirir Baraka, Anna Julia Cooper, Amy Levy, Audre Lorde, Alexander Pope, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and August Wilson. Each of these authors challenge us to think, challenge our perspectives, and offer a few of their worlds that are the basis for interesting conversations. Let us know what you think.