The Richard Elementary School community celebrated Constitution Day with a special flag raising ceremony Friday morning.
Students and staff gathered on the lawn in front of the school building for the dedication of the new flags the Louisa St. Clair Chapter, National Society Daughters of the Revolution purchased for installation in each of the newly renovated classrooms at Richard.
Present were Deann Newman, Louisa St. Clair Chapter Constitution Week Chair, Peggy King Scully, past Chapter Regent, and new member Barbara Davis, a retired fifth grade teacher at Maire Elementary School who serves as the recording secretary.
Principal John Kernan opened the ceremony explaining to the students who the special guests were and the gifts they brought with them.
“I know some of you have been asking where do you stand and what do you look at for the Pledge of Allegiance?” he said. “We’re going to solve that problem.”
Three fourth graders read the Preamble to the Constitution, which “sums up those main beliefs of what our country stands for,” Dr. Kernan said.
To commemorate the occasion, students were given an American flag sticker and a bell to take home to ring at 4 p.m. that day to celebrate Bells Across America with their families, during which bells rang across the country from bell towers, individual bells and even cell phone ringtones to celebrate the anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to share what we do with the community and hopefully they bring it home to their families and share it,” Deann Newman said. “I love our country. I love the heritage of our country. It’s a wonderful thing.”
The Chapter is collecting worn U.S. flags to be properly disposed at a Flag Retirement Ceremony on Monday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. at Grosse Pointe Farms Pier Park, to be led by the Scouts of Troop 96 and the Children of the American Revolution. The community may drop worn U.S. flags in collection bins at the Farms City Hall or Farms Pier Park in advance of the ceremony.
Hearts are full at Monteith
Students at Monteith Elementary School aren’t necessarily wearing hearts on their sleeves, but they’re creating them in class and displaying them in their rooms, on lockers and in their writing notebooks to use during Writer’s Workshop.
This is thanks to heart mapping, an idea that came to Monteith after literacy coaches Julie Mayo and Beth Rainbolt and eight classroom teachers from kindergarten to grade four attended a two-day workshop on Zoom this summer presented by the Summer Learning Institute. The topic was how to design and implement an integrated reading and writing unit of study.
“Beth found it and thought it would be really helpful for some of our teachers, in particular our new teachers, to attend this,” Julie Mayo said. “She asked our PTO and they offered to pay for it.”
At the center of heart mapping “is what’s most important to you,” Julie explained. “The idea is to put the most important thing in the middle and work your way out to the edges — memories, important people in your life, special animals, friends, family, teachers. Whatever defines you.”
This concept particularly resonated with teachers due to the amount of change that has taken place in the school and district recently, she added, with COVID, new students coming from different schools, and students returning to the school building who were part of the virtual program last year.
“It’s an opportunity for the kids to share who they are, say ‘this is who I am’ and share that with the class — share their journey and their experiences,” she said.
Teachers, too, have been creating their own heart maps, and many plan to share them outside their classrooms.
At the workshop, teachers learned strategies on how to most effectively structure heart mapping. For example, some writers may place less important things around the edges of their hearts, or even outside their hearts, and place the most significant things in the center. Others may use a color-coded key for important people, places they’ve lived in or visited or defining moments.
Students are encouraged to brainstorm on the content of their heart maps and design choices before working independently, making decisions on what they will draw, what they will write, and what colors they will use.
While creating heart maps in class is a great way to kick off the new school year, the project will be ongoing, according to Julie. Heart Maps will be highlighted or presented during morning announcements. Kindergarten teacher Theresa Comilla will create a slideshow of the heart maps using the app PicPlay Post and computer lab paraprofessional Michelle Hartman will produce daily announcements to share students’ individual heart maps.
For classroom teachers, it also provides topics for students’ future writing — something that can be a challenge, Julie explained.
“It’s something the kids can keep in their writing journals and add to it throughout the year,” she said. “They can make a new one as experiences change. It’s a way for the kids to think about what makes them ‘them’ and what’s important to them.”
Principal Shelleyann Keelean applauded the literacy coaches for bringing the professional development opportunity to the attention of teachers — and the PTO for making it possible.
“It’s off to a great start,” she said. “It’s awesome what they’re doing. It’s for the whole school and it gives us insight into who the kids are.”
Alumni Through the Decades
Our 100th anniversary series on GPPSS alumni continues.
Kate Rigney Callas
Grosse Pointe High School
Class of 1968
Kate Callas was a member of the last graduating class of what was formerly Grosse Pointe High School — affectionately known as “The High.” This was the last year there was one high school in Grosse Pointe before Grosse Pointe North opened its doors in September 1968.
Having grown up in Ypsilanti, Kate moved to Grosse Pointe in 1965, first attending ninth grade at Brownell Middle School at a time when the high school housed only 10th through 12th graders.
Kate recalls her June graduation among nearly 1,000 classmates on the football field, walking between two students she had never seen before.
Among other memories is participating in a community service group known as “Y teams” affiliated with the YWCA, eating lunch in Cleminson Hall — “quite a fancy lunchroom!” — attending driver’s education classes in a Quonset hut, and being required to wear skirts.
One of her most memorable recollections was attending Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech in the school gymnasium on March 14, 1968.
“What I remember was just being blown away by the crowded gym,” she recalled. “I was up in the balcony with my parents and a couple of my other siblings. When we were trying to get in there, there was that Breakthrough group with (leader) Donald Lobsinger trying to prevent us from getting in. That was my first experience with something like that in Grosse Pointe.”
A lasting academic memory was taking a humanities class, in which teachers from history, art, music and English collaborated in an integrated studies approach — a new concept at the time, she explained. Among her favorite teachers was Robert Bradley, who was part of that humanities group.
“He was one of those guys who was just so committed to the students,” Kate said.
Kate and her husband, Jack, both now retired, raised their three daughters — Beth, Elena and Robin — in Grosse Pointe Park. All three attended Defer, Pierce and Grosse Pointe South, graduating in 1996, 2005 and 2000, respectively.
“They had a great experience in the Grosse Pointe schools,” Kate said.
Over the nine years she was involved with the Defer PTO, Kate was active in a number of volunteer activities, but her proudest accomplishment was applying for the school building to be listed in the State Register of Historic Sites, the state’s official list of sites worthy of being preserved.
The application was approved on Aug. 29, 1996.
Know a GPPSS alum? Click here for an alumni nomination form. Alumni willing to be featured may complete this alumni profile form.
Celebrate 100 years with us!
In honor of 100 years of the Grosse Pointe Public School System, we would love for alumni to join us in our homecoming and Santa Claus parades. North’s homecoming parade is Friday, Sept. 24, South’s is Friday, Oct. 8, and the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce Santa Parade is Friday, Nov. 26 — the day after Thanksgiving.
Dig out your GPPSS letter sweaters, varsity jackets and spirit wear from way back when and join fellow alumni and GPPSS staff and families!
Fill out the Parade Sign-up Form and we’ll be in touch with more details.
Parcells PantherPalooza & 5K Color Run
Join the Parcells Middle School community for PantherPalooza Thursday, Sept. 23 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. In its third year, PantherPalooza offers a twist this year — a 5K Color Run. The event combines health, fundraising and fun as students and their families run and play together to support the school’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program (PBIS). All donations will go toward the following:
PBIS goals, rewards and activities
Pep assemblies and speakers
Panther Auction
Field trip scholarships
Registration for the 5K Color Run is $30 and includes a keepsake medal, bib and timing chip, and refreshments after the run. This package is available to all community members and Parcells alumni. Visit parcells.myfunrun.com to register.
Not a runner? Come for dinner. PantherPalooza is hosting eight unique food trucks who will donate 10 percent of their proceeds to Parcells.
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.