Category Archives: Arts (Visual Art & Music)

Students create Japanese tea bowls

Posted on by Leave a comment
Some of the finished Japanese tea bowls that Mr. Pesa's students made (Photo: Patterson Press)

Some of the finished Japanese tea bowls that Mr. Pesa’s students made (Photo: Patterson Press)

By Alvaro Flores-Villegas,

Mr. Pesa’s World History students made Japanese Tea bowls out of clay and decorated them in October with Ms. Holter as part of an arts integration project. The students were learning about the history of Japanese culture and how the tea bowls were very essential in history. The old tea bowls were actually made from clay.

After the students learned about the bowls, they actually made the bowls out of clay. So the next day the students went into the art classroom. Ms. Holter, who is one of the art teachers at Patterson, helped them all make the bowls out of clay and decorate them in the process. So Ms. Holter made the clay hard by putting them in a kiln. A kiln is a special type of oven made for making ceramics. After the students painted the bowls she put them back into the kiln to give the paint a glossy appearance.

“My experience with the bowl was nice because I got to try and make one like the Japanese did theirs back then”, reflected Aisha Alavez, one of the students who participated in the project.

Mr. Latanishen’s World History students also worked on an arts integration project with Ms. Holter around the same time. Their project involved making cuneiform tablets out of clay using symbols that the students created.

These projects overall were quite enjoyable to the students because they got to learn about art and world history all together. Mr. Pesa, Ms. Holter, and Mr. Latanishen plan to work together on more arts integration projects like this one in the future.

(Photos: Patterson Press)

Journalism students create photo-essays

Posted on by Leave a comment
Mikal McCoy takes a "worm's eye" shot outside of Patterson during the Wide Angle Youth Media photography workshop. (Photo: Patterson Press)

Mikal McCoy takes a “worm’s eye” shot outside of Patterson during the Wide Angle Youth Media photography workshop. (Photo: Patterson Press)

Students in Mr. Pesa’s journalism class created original photo-essays as part of a unit on photojournalism. Students chose a theme, took their own photos, wrote cutlines (captions), introductions and reflections, edited some of the photos in Photoshop, and created their own presentation websites on Weebly.com.

Many of these photo-essays are nature-themed because the students participated in a photography workshop from Wide Angle Youth Media where they went outside to do a photoshoot. Nonetheless, there are a variety of different themes reflected in this collection.

Mr. Pesa plans to print the photos out and hang them up in the hallway, as well as putting them on the digital monitor in the cafeteria. Some of the photos will also be featured in the upcoming print edition of the Patterson Press. Additionally, some of the photos may be selected for a travelling art exhibit sponsored by Wide Angle Youth Media.

Here are links to the finished photo-essays (in alphabetical order by title):

Graffiti (Alvaro Flores-Villegas)

Hard Work at Patterson High School (Mikal McCoy)

Let’s Go Hiking (Sartre Ndebaneza)

Light and Darkness (Dabria Brown)

Litter (Christian Pietrowski)

My Passion, God’s Creation (Faran Nadeem)

Nature (Morgan McCaffity)

Nature Before It’s Destroyed (Joselin Miranda)

The Beauty of Nature (Justist Rice)

The Human Effects on Nature (Marina Siebor)

The Pemco Factory (Amadou Bah)

Patterson continues tradition with 6th annual community fair

Posted on by Leave a comment
A stand from the community Fair (Photo: Patterson Press)

A stand from the community Fair (Photo: Patterson Press)

By Mikal McCoy,

Patterson High School had its 6th annual Back to School Night and Community Fair on the evening of September 22, 2016. Students, teachers and family members met together in the cafeteria to share a night of fun.

During the fair, there were games, activities and food. “It was a lot of food, a lot of chicken, vegetables and drinks”, said Yero Goloco, a student who attended the fair. For entertainment, different activities were planned. Students who were asked agreed that the fair was entertaining. “There was a lady belly dancing, people played drums, and there was a dance battle”, said Amadou Bah, another student who attended the fair. These responses reveal that people enjoyed the food and activities, but the Community Fair served other purposes as well.

Many families attended the fair. Students from Patterson High School invited their parents, friends, and relatives. Around 500 people attended the event. Dozens of community organizations, businesses and universities participated in the fair, along with many school groups and programs such as Robotics, Gardening, Coding Club and more. Each club had a stand with representatives who spoke with students and family members about what they do.

One group that attended the Community Fair was Patterson’s AFJROTC program. Cadets who attended the event helped out with setting up and seating visitors. “I was standing outside, greeting people, giving them their tickets for their sheets”, explained Abdullah, one of the cadets. Teachers, students and family members came together to make the Community Fair a success.

This year marked the 6th consecutive year that there has been a community fair event at Patterson. Ms. O’Brien and Mr. Alukwu started the event in 2011. “It was an idea that Mr. Alukwu and I came up with the summer before Mr. Benton became the principal”, recalled Ms. O’Brien. It takes planning, organization, and thought to come up with an idea like a school community fair and make it work. This year’s event was no exception.

 

 

 

 

BONUS CONTENT: Student Bookbinding Contest winners

Posted on by Leave a comment

Here are the cover pages and inside spreads from all of the winners of the Patterson bookbinding contest. More information is available on the front page of the May 2016 print edition of the Patterson Press.

 

Door-Decorating Contest Focuses on Colleges

Posted on by Leave a comment

A student shows off Ms. Rivera’s winning door (Photo: Jamal Artis, Patterson Press)

By Ramatoulaye  Goloco,

Patterson High School held its annual door decorating contest in November. The theme of this year’s contest was colleges and universities. Each homeroom chose a different college, wrote information about that college (GPA requirements, etc.), and posted some pictures about the college on the front of their door to show how precious those colleges are.

Some of  the teachers chose to feature the college that they attended. For example,Mr. Wagoner’s room put up pictures and information from Virginia University, because he graduated from there. “It’s great place”, Mr. Wagoner said. Mr. Scott’s choice was his undergraduate school, the University of Baltimore, while Mr. Gagne decided to use his son’s college to celebrate his recent graduation. “My son just graduated from Morgan State with a degree in civil engineering”, Mr. Gagne explained.

The goal of this contest was to encourage higher education, post-high school.”Statistics’ show that when students pursue higher education they make more money and have more career options available to them”, explained Ms. McIntosh, a guidance counselor for the school. “The College Door Decorating Contest’s purpose was to showcase colleges and universities across the United States and to educate students on the requirements needed to be accepted into college. Surprisingly, many of our students do not understand the requirements needed to be accepted to college and wait until it is too late to increase their GPA and study for standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT.”

The door decorating contest is just one of many activities the School Counseling Department sponsored during College and Career Readiness Month. The school hopes that these activities will help prepare Patterson students to pursue and achieve their dreams after high school.

FIRST PLACE WINNERS:

 Class of 2018: Ms. O’Brien

Class of 2017: Ms. Tuballa

Class of 2016: Mr. Baron

Class of 2015: Ms. Rivera

Life Skills: Ms. Clark

 

(Photos: Jamal Artis and Rama Goloco, Patterson Press)

Patterson holds pep rally for Homecoming game

Posted on by Leave a comment

The varsity football team lays the Douglass Ducks mascot to rest. (Photo: Jamal Artis, Patterson Press)

by Ramatouleye Goloco,

Today at Patterson, we had fun! Everybody gathered together in the auditorium and watched the sports teams celebrate the Homecoming Football games. The first team on the stage was the boys’ soccer team. The second group to take the stage was the cross country team. Third, the volleyball team and lastly, the boys football team sang, chanted, and danced.

Then, some of the boys carried a huge fake coffin to “bury” Frederick Douglass’ mascot (a duck) in. Three boys were dancing. One was singing. The photographers took a lot of pictures. Some Patterson Press reporters took pictures and toke some notes to post online. They ended with one boy break dancing.

The finale was having our own Baltimore City mega-talented performer Ricky Williams on stage. A good time was had by all, a really fun and exciting celebration. If you didn’t make it, attend next year!

Local talent Ricky Williams dances at the pep rally (Photo: Joshua Carr, Patterson Press)

Maasai Warriors Visit Patterson

Posted on by Leave a comment

Masai warriors perform a traditional dance in the media center (Photo: Laxmi Magar)

by Rama Goloco

There were Maasai warriors dancing at Patterson High School in the Media Center on November 12 . All of the dancers were men, but they looked like women because their traditional clothing resembled dresses. They came from a country in Africa called Kenya. The mountain district called Kirinyaga is where the Maasai live. They are a popular and traditional culture.

The dancers wore traditional red hunter’s clothing like great warriors. They carried shields, staffs and other items from their culture. They were singing, dancing and jumping.  When they jumped, they made a roaring sound with their voices. They really know how to jump all way up to the top!

Their visit was a precious thing because it helped the students in the US to know about different countries in Africa. That day a lot of the students enjoyed the performance. It was a fun day.

 

« Older Entries Recent Entries »