Reaching Heights Awards First Round of 2010-11 Grants

Projects that integrate the written word with video production, provide hands-on science experience, nurture a middle school vocal music program, and an event that will help students build wellness of body, mind, and spirit received grant support from Reaching Heights in the first round of 2010-11 School Team and Community Connection Grants.

Reaching Heights is an independent citizen organization dedicated to helping every student in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District receive an excellent education, with the engaged support of the entire community. Since 1990, Reaching Heights has funded 375 innovative projects with grants totaling more than $272,000. School Team Grants of up to $1,500 support projects that address specific achievement needs; Community Connections Grants of up to $250 support projects that connect our schools with our community. Grant funds are raised from the Reaching Heights Adult Community Spelling Bee (the 20th Annual Bee will take place February 22, 2011 at Heights High), Thank-A-Teacher donations and individual donors.

Approved School Team Grants include:

• Script to Film, an interdisciplinary project focusing on literacy and technology, utilizes the collaborative talents of the English and Television Production departments at Cleveland Heights High School. This year-long program will examine the intricacies involved with short film script writing. Each student will develop, write and edit a script, which will be produced by members of a video production club. The project, which received a $1,500 grant, will culminate in a film festival at the end of the school year. Jeff Glass is the project manager.

• Science is the focus of Exploring Energy; Parade of Ohms at Monticello Middle School, recipient of a $400 grant. Students will identify, explore and create battery-powered electrical devices. Each device will be constructed to highlight and demonstrate the use of energy pathways using a minimum of 4 working lights and simply constructed cardboard replicas of houses. The projects will demonstrate students’ understanding and exploration of how electrical energy operates within a closed system. Jodi Burke is the project manager.

• The Roxboro Middle School Vocal Music Retreatis aimed at building community while developing skills among members of the school’s vocal music program. Students will learn basic techniques of rehearsing, including vocal warm -ups, body movement, and proper sitting and standing technique. Using the Kodaly method of music education, students will master elements of solfege to aid in learning music according to the Music Educators National Conference National Standards of Music. Mario Clopton is project manager for this $600 grant.

“These grants provide a glimpse of the creative energy among teachers in our district,” said Patrick Mullen, Reaching Heights executive director. “We’re proud to support these projects, and encourage teachers to apply for our second round of grants for this school year by Oct. 30.”

A $250 Community Connection Grant will support for the second district-wide Mind, Body and Soul Wellness Fair produced, promoted and run by Leading Ladies, Inc., a group dedicated to helping girls develop positive and powerful attitudes that will help guide them into becoming resourceful and resilient adults. This fair, to take place in November at Cleveland Heights High School, focuses on healthy life-choices include food, activities and health initiatives. Sabrina Humphries is the project manager.

SPARK Kindergarten Prep Program Expands to Cleveland Heights

SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Healthy Kids), a free home tutoring program that helps families and pre-school children learn and practice skills that children will need in kindergarten and beyond, is expanding into Cuyahoga County. Once a month, a parent partner will visits participating families at home with free books, activities and supplies to keep and enjoy together as a family. The parent partner helps families develop a learning plan for each child so he or she has all of the skills necessary to be successful in school.

In Cleveland Heights, eligibility is currently limited to families with a four-year child who will enter kindergarten at Oxford or Boulevard elementary schools in August 2011. 

SPARK Cuyahoga is part of SPARK Ohio. Together we are committed to helping families get children ready for kindergarten.  For more information, please contact Trena Saxon at Family Connections at Taylor Academy, 216-321-0079.

Reflections on 2010 Heights Summer Music Camp

The t-shirt for the Heights Summer Music Camp this year was lime green. It added to the “glow” of the finale concert held on June 26 at Wiley Middle School where campers demonstrated much of what they learned during the previous week to an awestruck audience of more than 300 family, friends, community leaders and music advocates. The concert was a knock out; an inspired ending, and tearful for many, to a week of intense concentration, sustained effort, expert instruction, and plenty of fun. The result: beautiful music, significant growth, and some important lessons for life.

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Part of the camp’s daily routine is work in chamber groups – small ensembles where each musician’s contribution is highly visible.  All 20 chamber groups participated in a recital on Friday to show their progress.   The drumming group and Twisted Metal trumpet quartet greeted concert goers playing in the courtyard before the concert. Four more groups, selected for the polish they demonstrated at the recital the day before, performed on the stage as the first phase of the concert. 

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The energetic Heights Summer Music Camp Choir led by elementary music teacher and camp principal Tamar Gray treated the audience to three songs. The 25 voice ensemble complete with soloists, footwork and hand motions brought hoots of joy and pleasure from the approving audience, once again proving the powerful impact of music.

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The choir is one of three electives that expand musical experiences. The other two options are guitar, and jazz – one group for string players and the other for band instruments. Participants in these groups performed in Friday’s recital.

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Music theory is another important part of the camp day. A variety of hands-on activities from Note Twister to work on chromatic xylophones develop the building blocks of music making: note reading, scales, rhythm , ear training and more. Each musician put these lessons to work as they prepared for the concert.

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Finally the big moment arrived and the orchestra assembled on the stage. Concertmaster Trenton Bulucea, a rising 7th grader and three year camper, tuned the orchestra in advance of conductor, Daniel Heim’s arrival at the podium. Then the music began. The orchestra performed four pieces representing a diverse repertoire including:

Dance of the Tumblers from “The Snow Maiden” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity from ‘The Planets’ by  Gustav Holst
Take Five by Paul Despond
Thunder and Lightning Polka by Johann Stauss

Suddenly it was over.
When done well, music, like basketball or any other enterprise that relies on the combined effort of skilled individuals appears effortless. It isn’t.  The seemingly effortless performance by this young orchestra made up of 80 rising 5th through 9th graders evoked a standing ovation and ended a remarkable week.

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The orchestra’s strong performance was the result of focused and sustained effort.  Each camp day includes about two hours of orchestra rehearsals and a 45 minute sectional rehearsal where each instrument grouping meets to work on its contribution to the orchestra selections.  The conductor guides the musicians through the music and unites the individual musicians into a harmonious whole.  The coaching staff and mentors – 26 strong – work along-side the orchestra members to help them do their best.

The conductor’s high expectations evoke remarkable concentration from the musicians. And over the course of the week through careful direction and good humor, combined with camper effort this painstaking process produced wonderful music. Campers not only master playing the notes but playing them in pitch, in unison, with the right rhythm, at the expected and varied volume and speed. In the end everyone can witness the impact of this growth process and feel proud of their contribution. Then they get to perform it and see the impact on the audience.

The performance was the outward expression of one of the most powerful lessons of making music: sustained effort combined with high expectations and good direction produce excellence! It’s something I discover each year as I hear the orchestra on the first day of camp and the last day. All the campers know it too.

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I look forward to next year when many of these young people and a new group of campers bring their instruments to Wiley Middle School, take their place on the stage, and repeat the powerful process of working in an orchestra to master music they never imagined possible. They discover their own capacity to excel and remind us how important it is to provide these life changing opportunities.

Sign up now, Heights Summer Music Camp 2011 – June 20 to 25, 2011.

By Susie Kaeser, Heights Summer Music Camp Administrator.

Heights High Alumni Hall of Fame Inducts Ten

UPDATE: Video highlights of the 30th Cleveland Heights High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame induction ceremony is now available at the Cleveland Heights Alumni Foundation’s YouTube channel, including remarks by inductees and a performance by the Heights High Barbershoppers.

 

On May 6, the Cleveland Heights High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame held its 30th induction ceremony at Landerhaven in Mayfield Heights. Chris Brandt, MD, one of the honorees, is a longtime supporter of Reaching Heights and member of our Music Committee. Two inductees, siblings Eric and Lisa Collins, are the offspring of former Reaching Heights trustee Joyce Collins.

The Hall of Fame was created as a way for Heights to honor the accomplishments of its alumni while giving current students solid examples of what they can accomplish in life. With over 50,000 graduates, Heights High School students have an impressive and diverse list of alumni from whom to select for induction. A student committee, The Imagemakers, select inductees from nominations made by the general public. Students do not know the names of the nominees, only their accomplishments.

This year’s inductees include:
• Daniel Abrams, Class of ’48 – Musician & Composer
• Dr. Christopher Brandt, Class of ’76 – Physician & Educator
• Eric J. Collins, Class of ’87 – Broadcaster & Sports Commentator
• Dr. Lisa G. Collins, Class of ’85 – Educator & Author        
• Dr. Rodger Doxsey, Class of ’65 – Astronomer & Author
• David Gunning, Class of ’60 – Attorney & Patron of the Arts
• Lizbeth A. Heyer, Class of ’82 – Housing Advocate & Educator
• Michelle L. Heyer, Class of ’80 – Assistant United States Attorney
• Marian Katz Magid, Class of ’53 – Civil Rights & Community Activist
• David E. Weiss, Class of ’79 – Attorney & Real Estate Executive
 
“It’s not until you hear the inductees speak and listen to their stories that you understand just why the students selected them for the Hall of Fame,” Eric Silverman, President of the Cleveland Heights High School Alumni Foundation and a 1987 Heights High graduate stated. “What is great about this year’s inductees is not only their varied careers and lives, but what struck me was the common theme of what they learned and didn’t learn at Heights,” Eric said. “Many of them spoke about how the pluralism and curriculum at Heights prepared them for their futures.”
 
The evening program began with outstanding performances by the Heights Singers and Heights Barbershoppers, followed by remarks from the inductees. The next morning the new Hall of Famers visited Heights High, touring the building and speaking to classes. More information about this year’s and previous years’ inductees can be found at the Heights High Alumni Foundation website.