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After-School All-Stars Fall 2008 Activities
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The schools served by Atlanta After-School All-Stars are getting ready for another year of excitement. The Mighty Mustangs of Parks Middle School kicked off the year with a series of field day activities such as rope climbing, balloon pumping, and basketball tossing, while Harper-Archer Middle School kicked off the year with basketball. This year is also the year that Atlanta After-School All-Stars has been introduced to a program called KidTrax, which is a tool that will help the schools evaluate their programs. Moreover, this year the schools are working in stronger collaboration with each other, in addition to the collaboration they've built with Georgia State University over the years. Starting January, the After-School All-Stars program will be expanding its operations with programs in Turner Middle School and Long Middle School. There is a lot to look forward to.
Field trips play an integral role in the learning experiences for participants of the After-School All-Stars program. This Fall, the ladies of Coretta Scott King went to the Ferst Center for the Arts to watch the musical group Arrested Development play music based on African-American History. Students from Coretta Scott King and Harper–Archer participated in a program called Dialog In The Dark, a journey in which the students went through darkened galleries to experience what it is like to rely less on the sense of sight and more on the non-visual senses. Also, Carson Middle School went on a field trip to the Auburn Avenue Library to see different styles of clothing that African-American women wore throughout 1887-1950. Students from Harper-Archer Middle School went to The High Museum of Art and received tickets to go to Disney On Ice. The students from Parks Middle School went on field trips to Clark Atlanta University and the Federal Reserve Bank, while Brown Middle School students went to Metro Skates. Many of the schools got a chance to see the Urban Nutcracker. Overall, the kids had a spectacular time at all of the field trips.
After-School All-Stars has always provided enrichment activities for the students that it serves, and this Fall, the program has been bigger than ever. Participants of After-School All-Stars had an opportunity to participate in clinics like nutrition, martial arts, and cosmetology. Furthermore, Volunteers from Bank of America taught financial literacy classes on checking and savings at King Middle School and Brown through a program called Operation HOPE. After-School All-Stars has partnered with Dark Horse Comics to help students at Carson, King, and B.E.S.T. create their own comic books, focusing on a theme of creating a better world. Other activities included robotics, dance, and poetry. Also, the students from Carson Middle School participated in a competition sponsored by Nintendo in which they played Nintendo Wii games to win prizes. Students at Brown also had a video game competition, though this one involved playing Dance Dance Revolution. Likewise, Parks Middle School competed in a chess tournament against Long Middle School, in which the Mighty Mustangs placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. With two new schools joining the After-School All-Stars family in the spring, the possibilities for enrichment are endless!
