School News Network: No ‘bad’ apples here

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

From creative writing about apples to making music with ukuleles, area schools are offering innovative programming during the pandemic. Speaking of succeeding, if you were an essential worker from April 1 to June 30, you may qualify for the Future for Frontliners program. Scroll to the bottom for more information.

For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.

There wasn’t much recognizable about Symone Gray’s apple, Martin Van Buren, after he got hit by a car in the Big Apple (School News Network)

Wyoming: Babysitting an apple

Ninth grade students at Wyoming High School get creative in their writing by telling the woes and tragedies of the apples they babysit. Want to get all the juicy sauce on this? Click here.

TEAM 21 Coordinator Ellen Veenkant tackled the change of coordinating the West Godwin Elementary’s drop-off and pick-up schedule (School News Network)

Godwin Heights: A real team player

With no parents allowed in its buildings due to COVID, West Godwin needed help coming up with a plan for pick up and drop off. TEAM 21 member Ellen Veenkant stepped up to the challenge, showing how much of a team player she is. For more, click here.

Kelloggsville music teacher Susan Iacovoni had to figure out a way to get her ukuleles to her students when COVID-19 restrictions meant they couldn’t come to the music room (Dianne Carroll Burdick)

Kelloggsville: Have cart, will travel

Some 140 years after the ukulele was introduced to Hawaii, in Kelloggsville schools, music teacher Susan Iacovoni is introducing her students to the “jumping flea” and watching with glee as their fingers make music, albeit haltingly at first. To learn more about the musical fun, click here.

Brookwood Elementary School Principal Lorenzo Bradshaw is the recipient of the 2020 NAACP Role Model Education Award

Kentwood: Prinicpal earns role model award from NAACP

This past October Kentwood’s Brookwood Elementary School Principal Lorenzo Bradshaw was virtually honored as the 2020 NAACP Role Model Education Award from the local Grand Rapids chapter of the association. Learn why Bradshaw tried to decline the honor and what he finds most rewarding about being in education by clicking here.

Adults attend a Kent ISD GED class (courtesy)

All Districts: Essential workers get high school diplomas thanks to state program

If you served as an essential employee between April 1 to June 30, you may qualify for Futures for Frontliners program. Through the program, eligible participants can earn a GED and/or job training or study at a community college such as Grand Rapids Community College. To be eligible, you must have worked at least 11 of the 13 weeks from April 1 to June 30. For more about the program, click here.