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When the school
year started, Maria was the kind of club member who seldom
chose to engage in club activities. She preferred hanging
out in the bathroom or hallway, catching up on the latest
gossip. The academic staff became concerned that Maria’s
behaviors were limiting her development. Lucia met with her
mother and together they created a work plan for Maria that
called for her to join several academic and club activities.
Maria was responsive to the plan and she began attending Power
Hour regularly as well as a host of enrichment activities.
She now completes her homework daily at the club and had near
perfect attendance in her enrichment classes last quarter.
Maria is an excellent example of a child who needed a little
encouragement to expand her horizons and reach her full potential.
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Talia, age 10, (on right) made a bluebird
costume for our recent "In Your Own Words" talent
and art show at the Eastside Prepatory School auditorium.
"We got to show off our outfits." Talia said "It
feels good because people encourage me and complement me after.
We were supposed to take them off after, but we wore them
anyway and walked around the audience cause we looked too
good to take them off yet.”
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Rigoberto had difficulty
expressing himself at first and still struggles today. He
really shined in sculpture and began to learn follow through
with a project. With few previous experiences with art, it
took him a while to warm up to painting, drawing, and even
expressing himself physically in art class (he would look
down and smile nervously when called on to clap a quarter
note or his name) and even taking himself seriously with art
– he would goof around and had a hard time concentrating,
with every minute asking for my validation “Heidi, Heidi,
see? Heidi, Heidi, can I paint?” He barely could finish
art projects because he would give up in frustration easily.
About a month into art classes and open studio participation,
Rigoberto began to inquire incessantly about when we’d
paint again, if he could draw, and if he could work on an
art project of his own invention. Part of what his frustration
is and was is that he has a very difficult time expressing
himself 2 dimensionally and verbally. However, when we explored
sculpture, he thrived and had an amazing sense of focus and
confidence – both traits I think are related to his
increasing confidence in self expression and the more kinesthetic
qualities of sculpture. When he experimented with sculpture,
he really focused and used materials creatively as well as
followed through with the project in an involved process of
waiting for the sculpture to dry, then painting it. The look
in his eyes when he finished this project was about as pleased
with himself as I had ever seen.
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