Tag: books

PRP Pulse Earns with REALM Award from NCTE

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The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recently awarded the PRP Pulse a REALM Award with a “First Class” ranking– it’s highest award! The REALM program publicly recognizes excellent literary magazines produced by students with the support of their teachers. REALM is designed to encourage all schools to develop literary magazines that celebrate the art and craft of writing.

National judges complete the first round of judging. Judging is based on a point system. The total points awarded to magazines determine placement in one of the following categories:

REALM First Class (90-100 points)
Superior (82-89 points)
Excellent (75-81 points)
Distinguished (68-74 points)
Honorable Mention (67 or fewer points)

The Pulse features the work of student writers, artists and photographers, and the project is guided by the collaboration of Creative Writing teacher Judy Scott-Berger and Visual Art teacher Denise Webb.

Results are announced in January and posted on the NCTE website. Schools receive a certificate denoting their award, which is sent to the advisor of the school’s literary magazine. In addition, the names of the student editors, literary advisor, and school appear on the NCTE website.

The Memory Project: Portraits for Columbian Children

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A small group of upper-level students created portraits again this year for The Memory Project.
The Memory Project is a youth arts organization that promotes intercultural understanding and kindness between children around the world.  

“The Memory Project gets its name from its first intention, which was to provide handmade, heartfelt portraits as special memories to children in orphanages.  Now our intention has expanded to touching the lives of youth around the world facing many types of challenges, while opening our hearts and minds so they can touch ours in return. Together we are using art to reach a distant destination: a kinder world in which all youth see themselves in one another regardless of differences in their appearance, culture, religion, or circumstances.” –Ben Shumaker, Founder

This year the Memory Project matched PRP art students with children in displaced by violence in Columbia. Students worked from photographs, along with personal insights provided by the children, such as their favorite color or toy. It was a very quick turnaround to fit them in between our other projects this fall, but they did a beautiful job on their artwork. The best part was to see the heartwarming video of Ben delivering the portraits to the children–students experienced the joy of giving something of themselves to make someone else happy. Students who took part in the project are already asking if we can do more. I’d say, Mission Accomplished!

Weaving with Louisville’s Little Loomhouse

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During October, PRP Visual Art students learned how to spin fibers learned about the history and art of weaving during an in-school workshop taught by Little Loomhouse teaching artists Norma Drisch and Michelle Amos, who is also director of the fiber arts education organization. Students made small weavings on their lap looms and collaborated to create a large weaving with Anti-Bullying messages on a “friendship” loom. Students thoroughly enjoyed the workshops and were fully engaged in the lessons each day.

Little Loomhouse is a local landmark located on Kenwood Hill near Iroquois Park. It’s a local gem and a treasure in Louisville’s south end. Thanks to a grant made possible by Louisville Downtown Partnership, Little Loomhouse and Fund for the Arts, PRP students were the lucky recipients of a two week in-school workshop! The grant provided all the materials, teaching artists, two tabletop looms and lap looms for all the students who participated. Thank you Little Loomhouse!