Workshops and Residencies

4th Grade- Celtic Workshop

In March, the specialist team offered 4th grade students the opportunity to choose a specialist project to focus on for a week. Students were offered Irish Dance with a guest instructor, Scottish Shinty (Field Hockey), Celtic Music, Celtic Poetry Published on Spark Post, and Illuminated Manuscripts. We had a lot of fun coming together on the last day (in person at school!) to hear the bagpiper from Bardic Alchemy perform. Students showcased their Irish Dance & Song- and we competed in a grade level Shinty Tournament!

3rd Grade- New Monuments

In February, the specialist team partnered up for the second year in the row with our third grade teachers to work on a project we are very proud of. New Monuments was originally the brainchild of third grade teacher extraordinaire, Ms. Conti. In this project, our third grade students research the lives and contributions of important, yet often-unrecognized, African-American change-makers in our community. The students meet with local activist, environmentalist, poet and artist DeWayne Barton and see how Mr. Barton has used action through the arts to create positive change in our city. He then leads our students on a modified Hood Huggers tour where the students get to visit and hear the histories behind important sites like Stephens Lee, the YMI, Triangle Park, the Burton Street Rec Center, and the Burton Street Peace Garden. The students then work in the arts modality of their choosing to express their learning and to create a New Monument in recognition of these change-makers. This year's offered Arts workshops included Tableau Dance with Ms. Rigsby and Coach Hafke, Mural Art with Ms. Olson, Digital Media with Ms. Eggett, Music with Mr. Butler, and Poetry/Spoken Word with Ms. Brown.

3rd Grade- David Novak

The amazing David Novak spent 5 days with our 3rd graders this past November and December. David is a professional story teller and a teaching artist. Thanks to a grant from the Asheville City Schools' T.A.P.A.S. program (Teaching Artists Presenting in Asheville Schools), our 3rd graders' creative writing unit of study was augmented with this teaching artists' experience and guidance. David helped the third graders approach writing and storytelling through a variety of techniques and lenses, including using props and varying perspectives. He even prepared a group to present their stories at our 13th annual Claxton Story Telling Festival on December 6th. A big thanks to Ms. Conti for helping to coordinate this teaching artist residency.

Storytelling Festival

December 6th was the 13th annual Claxton Storytelling Festival, organized by our resident storyteller, Tom Godleski. Students enjoyed a full day of engaging storytellers. This year we also invited the 5th Grade Student Lighthouse team to escort our guest storytellers to their locations and help handle other logistics of the festival. They were so helpful.

Darrell Rose

LEAF Resident Teaching Artist

The amazing Darrell Rose (The Wailers, Dave Matthew's Band) spent a week with our 2nd grade in October of 2019, teaching them west African and Caribbean drum rhythms. His residency culminated with a school assembly performance and a performance at the fall Lake Eden Ats Festival. The LEAF organization is a longtime community partner of Claxton and every fall and spring our 2nd and 5th grades, respectively, get to experience LEAF artist residencies and performances.

Asheville Greenworks & 2nd Grade Monarch Butterfly Workshops

In August and September, Claxton second graders kicked off the new school year by learning about monarch butterfly life cycle, migration and advocacy through the arts! Each second grader selected an arts modality through which they expressed their learning in four days of specialist workshops.

Students were treated to a lesson by a visiting educator from Asheville Greenworks, helped establish Claxton’s first butterfly garden (The Monarch Meadow!) on the big playground, and then worked to create an artistic expression of their learning with one of four specialist teachers. Ms. Olson’s workshop had students create in her Monarch Butterfly Collage workshop in art, Mr. Butler orchestrated his Butterfly Dancers and Musicians workshop in music, Ms. Rigsby’s drama workshop students created and performed Monarch Lifecycle Shadow Puppets, and Ms. Brown’s Zine Maker Activists researched and created zines in the makerspace. All student work was proudly on display during Open House where students also participated in a crowd-sourced monarch butterfly painting with Ms. Olson and displayed the Reading Gives Me Wings collage created in library class.

We are so proud of our second graders for their enthusiastic participation and creation! The specialist team wants to express their gratitude to the second grade teachers for their support as well as Mr. Godleski, Mr. Cassara and Tricia Johnson for all of their support and help with this project!

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