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Denny International Middle
School’s new Somali partnership
(Seattle,
January 26, 2010 Ceegaag Online)
(From left, Denny assistant principal
Chanda Oatis, Mr. Mohamed, Ms.
Habibo, Denny’s Leticia Clausen,
student Farhiya)
With more Somali families moving to West Seattle, the
schools serving those families are working to build new
cultural bridges. Saturday afternoon at
Denny
International Middle School, families,
community leaders and school administrators gathered for
what Denny’s English Language Learners program director
Leticia Clausen described as “a formal
welcome, opening our doors to the Somali community.”
According to Denny principal Jeff Clark,
this was the third weekend that Denny has housed a new
program partnering with local Somali families – a cultural
education program in which the families use the school
building on Saturday and Sundays, as a supplement to regular
school. Clark says Denny will probably have about 100 Somali
students next year; he pointed out that district managers
announced recently in West Seattle (mentioned in this story)
that Somali is now the second most common non-English
language in the district. More on Saturday’s event and the
expanded outreach, ahead:
The schools that most of the students attend, or will
attend – West Seattle Elementary, Denny,
and Chief Sealth High – are working to help them feel
welcome. Sealth principal John Boyd also
visited the Saturday gathering – you can see him with Clark
in the background of this photo (which Clark provided, along
with the two that follow, later in this story):
According to Clausen, inclusion includes practicalities
such as arranging for a place for the prayers the Muslim
faith requires at specified times of day; right now, Clausen
says, they just have to find places at school wherever they
can, like the library. She also talked about celebrating
Eid al-Fitr, the holiday ending the month-long
Ramadan observance, and about learning more about cultural
customs, even bringing in a community leader who explained
the traditional dress for women by inviting her to try it
on. “So they wrapped me and turned me,” she recalls,
smiling, “And one of my Somali boys said, ‘You look better
in Somali dress.’ I said, well, thank you, I’ll take that as
a compliment!”
Culture means more than dress, religion, language; it
includes understanding the dramatically different lifestyles
some of the immigrant families used to lead. Clausen
explained, “We have Somali students where (in their
homeland) their day was getting up at 4 am, spending all day
watching the goats.” So, she says she told principal Clark,
if they could get two goats for the school, “(the students)
will be blooming, knowing something they could teach us!”
That already happens, she says, with participation in
P-Patch programs at nearby gardens – some students who came
from farming backgrounds know all about working the soil and
helping crops grow.
After families had arrived for Saturday’s event, sharing
snacks and talking, in the Denny cafeteria, presentations
began on stage. “It’s an honor to have you come here to
Denny,” Clark told them. “We are one community. This is your
school, and we are so glad to have you here today.” He in
turn was thanked for providing a place for the new Somali
weekend education program.
He also shared information about programs including
College Bound, the scholarship program offered
to middle-schoolers who pledge to graduate from high school
with a grade-point average of at least 2.0 and good
citizenship and whose families meet income-eligibility
requirements (example, a family of 4 who in 2008 had income
no greater than $40,800). That information was being
provided in three languages, as were handouts about “making
reading a family affair” and “tips on helping your teen in
school” (the tips include 1 hour of quiet time each night
for homework, 8 hours of sleep a night, and a good breakfast
before school, including protein).
Part of this new phase in encouraging Somali families’
closer involvement with the schools involves partnership
with
Neighborhood House, parent organization of the
new Neighborhood Center at High Point, which was the site of
a meeting two weeks ago (WSB
coverage here) giving local families – many of them
Somali – a chance to hear from and speak to local school
officials (attendees included the principals of Denny and WS
Elementary, as well as high-ranking district managers).
Overall, both Clark and Clausen point out, this is part
of Denny’s transformation into a truly international school.
It’s not all about immigrant families; Clausen also spoke
with us about the dual-language class with Spanish immersion
– a class that eventually will include students moving up
from
Concord International Elementary, where the
program expands each year and is now into the second grade.
(Since they don’t have a true feeder yet, Clausen explained,
“We went shopping within our building to see which students
would be best-placed into [the immersion class].”) And she
described a project under way with eighth-graders, “an
avatar project where kids go into a virtual world — talking
to kids all around the world. Students are crearting a
tapestry that relates to international issues.”
Back to the Somali students – Clark says the estimate of
100 next year might wind up on the low side: “I talked to
some of the community leaders who said to expect 200 kids
next year.”
And in fall 2011, Denny will move into brand-new
buildings now being constructed on the nearby permanent
campus of Chief Sealth High School, which will be the first
co-located middle/high school complex in
Seattle Public Schools.
ADDED 12:43 AM MONDAY: More details on
the new weekend school, sent late last night by Denny’s
principal:
I am pleased to share that we have launched a new
program, Denny International Somali Weekend School. I am
partnering with two Somali community leaders from High
Point to offer this exciting new program to our community.
We just finished our third weekend of running the 8:30 am
to 6:00 pm program on Saturdays and Sundays at Denny. The
goal of the program is to give Kindergarten to Twelfth
Grade students an opportunity to:
1 – Maintain a positive attitude towards school with
the ultimate goal of college graduation
2 – Learn basic Arabic literacy skills
3 – Improve their English literacy and math proficiency
4 – Increase their understanding of Somali culture
5 – Improve their study skills
Each weekend day we have two classes, one morning and
one afternoon of approximately 30 students each. At this
time, many of the participating children are in elementary
school, with only a few secondary students. In the coming
weeks we expect the increased participation of secondary
students to double the size of the program. There is no
real cost for this program as we are all volunteering to
make this happen.
Source:
www.westseattleblog.com
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