ANDERSON, Ind. —
As kids start to reach their teenage years, new issues, such as self-image and acceptance of those different from themselves, start to arise.
Sally Ness, a seventh-grade teacher at St. Mary’s School, will use the Make Activities Count (MAC) grant money she’ll be receiving from McDonald’s Restaurants of Central Indiana to do a project she said is about “anti-bullying and diversity all meshed into one.”
She wanted a big multicultural project since the student population at the school is diverse.
“It’s kind of a celebration of who they are and about being who they are and owning up to it,” she said.
The seventh-graders will make self-portraits with the assistance of a painter friend of Ness who will focus on what is unique about each student, like mixing paints to match skin color.
She said they will also try to incorporate some Frida Kahlo work since they have a large Latino population at the school.
When finished, the portraits will either be displayed in the classroom or throughout St. Mary’s,1115 Pearl St., and the students will then be making presentations to younger kids in the school.
The presentations will give them a chance to be leaders and work on public speaking skills, Ness said.
But first, they will read “The Skin I’m In” by Sharon Flake to get some good dialogue going.
Coming from teaching first to seventh grade, Ness said she read books this summer that were at a junior high level to prepare and came upon “The Skin I’m In.”
It brought her back to being that age and reminded her what it was like to be in school.
And even though the book is about a poor inner-city school, she said there is still important meaning behind the story.
It’s about a young girl who is bullied, but learns to stand up for herself and love who she is.
Moving up to a higher grade level, Ness said she immediately saw the differences between the two groups of students.
“It was so apparent how brutal junior high can be with all the insecurities and being 12, 13.”
She said bullying isn’t really so much an issue at St. Mary’s as older students just feeling excluded and having a lack of self-confidence.
The students are good kids, she said, but there are a lot of differences.
For example, since it is a private school, some are of wealthier families while others are there on scholarships, she said.
And then there’s the diverse population she mentioned.
“(I want the students) not only being tolerant of one another, but celebrating those differences,” she said of the lessons she hopes her students take from the project.
With the $350 from the grant, she plans to buy the book for all of the seventh graders — there are 11 of them — and a nice canvas for each to paint on.
Any money left over will be used to buy books for the nine eighth-graders.
Right now, the project is still in the idea phase and will start a week after Christmas break, Ness said.
The MAC grant Ness is receiving has provided funding to teachers for projects that supplement regular classroom learning and are interesting since 2003, according to Cher Nelson, assistant account manager with McDonald’s Restaurants of Central Indiana.
Each project is reviewed and selected by a group of judges with the number of grants awarded each year varying, she said.
This year, Nelson said, 51 grants worth up to $500 each, were awarded, and applications for the grant can be submitted at www.mcindiana.com during fall 2012.
Contact Dani Palmer: 640-4847, dani.palmer@heraldbulletin.com.
Community
Related Photos
-
St. Mary's School seventh-grade teacher Sally Ness talks to her class about the anti-bullying and diversity project they will be doing after she was awarded a MAC grant from McDonald's Restaurants of Central Indiana. John P. Cleary
Discussion
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Kids find out what it means with help from MAC grant-funded diversity project
- Community
-
-
New perspective: AHS students serve and learn
Seniors in the Anderson High School Fellowship of Christian Athletes have been heading over to the Christian Center on Main Street once a month to serve lunch.
-
Jim Bailey: Build a better sneaker and you'll probably get sued
People who are gullible enough to fall for colorful and appealing advertising campaigns have an out: Sue the illegitimati.
-
Community Briefs: May 30
A compilation of community news as published in the Wednesday edition of The Herald Bulletin.
-
Jim Bailey: Jim Carter made football a respectable sport at AHS
When I first came to Anderson in 1951, Jim Carter had been named head football coach at Anderson High School. At that time, football at AHS was little more than an activity to get out of the way to make room for basketball season. The Indians were known to play two games in the same week to shorten the season.
-
Community Briefs: May 27
A compilation of community news as published in the Sunday edition of The Herald Bulletin.
-
Remember When: May 27
The slide was one of the more popular attractions at the Falls Park swimming area in Pendleton as evidenced by the number of people waiting their turn on the slide’s steps and its top platform.
-
Champions League makes everyone a winner
The Champions League — in its 12th season — is sponsored by the Pendleton Junior Baseball Association and is open to anyone 5 to 18 with physical and developmental disabilities.
-
History: Lapel Telephone Co. was talk of town
In November 1962, when the Lapel Telephone Co. was sold to United Utilities by the children of founder Earl Tull, a Madison County era ended.
-
Back in the News: May 27
The Herald Bulletin looks back at stories from the Anderson Daily Bulletin and The Anderson Herald newspapers.
-
A dream cabin in the woods
Phil Hatter regularly told his children that once they were all grown, he would build a log cabin in the country. They didn’t believe him. “I think log homes are really neat, but they have to be put in the right place,” he said.
- More Community Headlines
-
