ONCE UPON A TIME
The Not-So Grimm Tale of Arts Education at
ROOFTOP Alternative K-8 School
April 14, 1919
August 21, 1948
The original location of Twin Peaks Elementary School is now the location of the present day Mayeda Campus.
Newscopy: "FARM LAND—
The school building fell into disrepair and the school was moved down the street to the location of the present day Burnett Campus.
The inspection party gazes at one of the few remaining farms in San Francisco at Corbett-av and Romain-st, atop Twin Peaks. Four acres will be taken in this area for a new elementary school."
Once Upon a Time‌ In 1971, a group of young teachers from three different inner-city schools came together to develop curriculum, and break down the isolation of working alone in fragmented schools. After a year of meetings, they found a common ground in their ideas about teaching and children. They decided to join together in hopes of creating a new school based on an alternative model.
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The group calling itself, “Teachers for Active Learning,” outlined the new school’s philosophy: 1) preserving each child’s freedom to learn independently 2) creating multi sensory classroom environments 3) learning as an active process 4) holding children increasingly responsible for their own learning 5) providing children with real choices (Rooftop School Proposal, 1972)
! Rooftop Alternative originally had 6 explicit goals: 1) Openness and trust in interpersonal relations 2) Student freedom to make mistakes and work independently 3) Active learning 4) A curriculum where there was consistency and continuity 5) Utilizing the entire school site (eg. corridors) as a setting for learning 6) Bringing the city into the school.
“On May 4, 1972, the San Francisco Board of Education approved their proposal for an alternative elementary school for grades 4 through 6. They established the Rooftop School.” (from Dr. Tom Chenoweth’s 1984 Stanford Dissertation, Perspectives on the Survival of Public Alternative Schools)
In a Far Off Kingdom… The school was located on the top floor of Pacific Heights Elementary School at Jackson and Fillmore. The three grades were divided into three ‘families’. Each family had students from each grade level. The classrooms had couches, pillows, and rugs — not too many desks.
In 1977, Rooftop became a K-5 SFUSD school, moving to its present location at the former Twin Peaks School.
The Twin Peaks faculty joined the Rooftop faculty, and the school obtained a principal. The couches and pillows started disappearing. By 1978-79, all of the original teachers had departed.
In 1980, parent Aiko Cuneo’s son, Ken, started kindergarten in teacher Carol Damm’s classroom. Aiko volunteered in her son’s classroom. She loved doing art with the kids.
The next year, Aiko, daughter of renowned San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa, started going into other classrooms to bring art to more kids. She got her friends together to help out and volunteer too. There was no money in the budget for the art supplies, so she raised money by organizing the first Rooftop Auction in the multipurpose room, raising $2,000 through the sale of art. And that is how the Rooftop Art Program was born.
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In 1982, Nancy Mayeda became Rooftop’s principal. In 1984, Rooftop In Performance (RIP) began the tradition of putting on an annual school show involving the entire school community. Coordinator Elisa Elliot noted, “It’s the process of putting it together, and knowing what it is to work together on something that is the greatest thing to watch.”!
In 1993, it was decided that Rooftop would become a K-8 School, and the 6th grade was added in 1994-1995. The new Mayeda Campus was opened on February 18, 1997. Rooftop became a two campus school with the Mayeda Campus (gr. 5-8) and the Burnett Campus (gr. K-4)
! In 1998, a credentialed visual arts instructor, is hired as a part-time art teacher at Mayeda.
! In 1999, the position of 6th-8th grade visual art instructor becomes full-time.
! In 2002-2003 school year facing severe budget cuts,
the PTA chooses to fund the art position to ensure the continuity of art instruction throughout grades K-8.
Students build on arts knowledge gained from prior experience.
No Child Left Behind. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, school art programs throughout the nation are jeopardized, as the pressures of testing and financial concerns lead many schools to focus on teaching to the tests. Through thoughtful team planning and effort, Rooftop has successfully met the school’s academic performance goals for a diverse student population, and the school’s commitment to the arts remains strong.
In 2004, the teachers, under the leadership of principal Jane Bieringer, drafted a school vision statement reaffirming the school’s commitment to arts learning. !
Rooftop Alternative K-8 School Vision Our challenging educational program integrates the arts to empower students to become effective problem solvers. Rooftop’s students are academically engaged and socially responsible members of the community who face challenges with optimism and confidence. We believe that when the arts are thoughtfully integrated into the academic program, student’s opportunities to think critically and problem solve creatively significantly increase.
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Rooftop Today ! Student Enrollment
578
! Male 283 / Female 295 ! ! ! ! !
ELL (LEP/NEP) 99 (17.1%) Special Ed 82 (14.2%) GATE 94 (16.3%) Free Lunch 127 (22%) Reduced Lunch 55 (9.5%)
! 3 SDC classes for
emotionally disturbed students
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Latino 133 (23%) Other White 124 (21.5%) African-American 84 (14.5%) Chinese 78 (13.5%) Japanese 12 (2.1%) Korean 2 (0.3%) American Indian 4 (0.7%) Filipino 24 (4.2%) Other Non-White 56 (9.7%) Disabled Students 61 (10.6%) School Data from 2008-2009
Rooftop Alternative K-8 School Academic Performance Index! API Data
05-06 !
API Base Score! Statewide Rank*! Similar Schools Rank*! Growth Target**!
818!
! !
8!
! ! !
06-07
07-08 !
846!
847!
8!
! !
8!
! ! !
08-09 860! 9!
4!
7! !
7!
9! !
A!
A!
A!
A!
11!
17!
Actual Growth!are based on previous 29! 5!data. *These rankings year’s
API Growth Score!the school scored 847! at or851! ** “A” means above the858! statewide877! performance target of 800 in 2008
A Journey Worth Taking The arts inspire a community of learners. Students perform with singer Linda Tillery at the annual International Festival, a multicultural celebration of art and food from around the world.
Partial list of artists & arts organizations who have worked, performed or provided services for Rooftop Alternative K-8
! African American Shakespeare ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Company Rica Anderson, teaching artist theater / Ed Director at Cal Performances Brenda Wong Aoki, storyteller & Mark Izu, musician Ruth Asawa, artist & arts advocate Lenda Barth, Rooftop parent & sculptor Dr. Anthony Brown & the Asian American Jazz Orchestra Susan Cervantes, Rooftop parent & muralist / Precita Eyes Circus Finelli Kristin Clayton, singer Aiko Cuneo, Rooftop parent & artist / Rooftop’s first art coordinator Jacques d’Amboise, dancer Shannon Day, teaching artist – theater / chorus Mark Decena, filmmaker, Dopamine Mary Dilts, actor / BookPALS Emily Doman / de Young Museum Peter Donat, actor / BookPALS Danny Duncan, teaching artist theater / San Francisco Arts Education Project Elissa Elliot, RIP theater director Facing East Dance & Music
! Kristin Farr / KQED SPARK ! Rebecca Fisher, teaching artist
! Carrie Pffaf / StageWrite ! Lisa Quoresimo, teaching artist -
! Nicole Foland, singer ! Deborah Gibbon / KQED SPARK ! Wendy Hanamura, Rooftop parent
! Jill Randall, teaching artist - dance /
theater
! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
& General Manager/Producer, LinkTV Carla Hatley, actor / BookPALS Jake Heggie, composer James Kass / Youth Speaks Emily Keeler / San Francisco Arts Education Project Sabrina Klein, executive director Creative Education Consulting Barbara Klutinis, Rooftop parent & film maker (1991) Michael Koob, teaching artist dance / San Francisco Arts Education Project / Transit Dance Elana Lagerquist / StageWrite Loco Bloco Dave Maier, teaching artist theater / Outreach Coordinator at Berkeley Rep Linda Mihara, origami artist Mosaic Mercantile Dorothy Moskovitz Falarski, Rooftop parent & RIP music director Gail Newman, poet / California Poets in the Schools Josef Norris, muralist / KidServe Oakland Ballet
theater/chorus
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Asst. Director at Shawl/Anderson Dance Jeff Raz / Circus Center Red Panda Acrobats Aggie Guerard Rodgers, Rooftop parent & costume designer Elizabeth Rosas, teaching artist theater/visual arts Camille Salmon-Olivier / San Francisco Arts Education Project Reginald Ray Savage / Savage Jazz Dance Company SF Opera ARIA Network SF Symphony’s Adventures in Music (AIM) SF Taiko Dojo Shotgun Players Slammin’ Keith Terry & Crosspulse John Thomas, teaching artist – music Liebe Wetzel & Lunatique Fantastique Wesla Whitfield, singer & Mike Greensill, pianist Ashley Wolff, children’s book illustrator / BookPALS Word for Word Theater Company Mario Yedidia, student actor featured in Coppola’s Jack, political activist
On September 28, 2006, the City of San Francisco and SFUSD jointly announced the Arts Education Master Plan.
Art Is… for Everybody! Rooftop’s aesthetic education program is established in 2006, beginning with “Art Is... Asawa,” a schoolwide study of artist Ruth Asawa. Art Is... is a Rooftop art education program that uses works of art to provide an inexhaustible resource for exploration, reflection and understanding. The program actively engages students, supports learning across the curriculum, and builds critical thinking skills through “hands-on” art making, reflection and research.
A Quality Experience Quality reveals itself through four different lenses:
! Learning ! Pedagogy ! Community !
dynamics Environment
from Harvard’s Project Zero’s “The Qualities of Quality: Understanding Excellence in Arts Education”!
Aiko Cuneo demostrates the looped wire method employed by sculptor Ruth Asawa during K-8 field trips to the 2006 Asawa retrospective at the de Young Museum.
Rooftop believes that arts education:
! Allows all children to participate.
! Focuses on problem solving. ! Encourages creative thinking & helps students make connections.
! Invites experimentation & exploration.
! Teaches discipline & focus, perseverance, flexibility & resilience.
! Builds empathy and respect for all cultures.
! Fosters life-long learning.
Working In the Classroom
Concept-based arts integration uses the arts to explore shared or related concepts across subject area boundaries.
Rooftop 2009-2010 Arts Instruction Visual Arts ! Cyndy Sugawara, Visual Art / SFUSD
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Art Instructor (Grades 6-8) Lilli Lanier, teaching artist, Visual Art / Clay (Grade K-8) Andi Wong, teaching artist, Conceptbased Arts Integration (Grades K-8) Josef Norris, teaching artist, Mosaic Muralist / KidServe Youth Mural Project at Burnett Rooftop Art Parents (Grades K-5)
Dance ! Michael Koob, Dance (K-5) Theater ! Dare to Perform with Shannon Day &
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Elizabeth Rosas, teaching artists (Grades 6-8) Sherri Young, teaching artist, African American Shakespeare Company San Francisco Clown Conservatory
Music
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SF Symphony Adventures In Music (AIM) (Grades 1-5) San Francisco Opera ARIA Network Program (Grades K-8), Sarah-Helen Land, teaching artist Marcus Shelby, teaching artist, Marcus Shelby Jazz Organization (Grades K-8) Rooftop Afterschool Chorus, SarahHelen Land, chorus director Afterschool Electric Guitar & Band Workshops for Blue Bear School of Music STAR (Schools that Aspire to Rock) Program, Mike Rao, teaching artist
Literary Arts ! Gail Newman, California Poets in the Schools (5th Grade, Spring 2008)
Rooftop 2009-2010 Art Is… INNOVATION Selected Works of Art for Integrated Study
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RUBE GOLDBERG & IDEO The Bay Area Tradition of Inquiry, Innovation & Design Thinking
MAYA LIN & RUTH ASAWA Field trips to Maya Lin’s “What is Missing” at the California Academy of Sciences (Grades K-8), study of Ruth Asawa at Black Mountain College
From SENDAK to SHAKESPEARE Field trips to Maurice Sendak retrospective “Sendak on Sendak” at Contemporary Jewish Museum (K-5) & the African American Shakespeare Company’s “Othello” (Grades 6-8)
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SATCHMO & MARCUS SHELBY Study of Louis Armstrong, New Orleans and Jazz, in preparation for a SF second line celebration for the Fundred Project pick up from NOLA (Grades K-8)
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DISNEY & PIXAR Innovation in Animation: Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” & Pixar’s “UP”
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA & THE ADLER FELLOWS Opera sets the stage for building passion through the integration of all art forms visual art, music, dance, theater, and the literary arts. (Grades K-8)
LOS TRES GRANDES: OROZCO, RIVERA Y SIQUIEROS The Art of Mural Making with Josef Norris
Building Community with the Arts !
The Arts… at your service. Rooftop’s focus on arts learning promotes a culture of service by teaching children that everyone can contribute by doing. Artmaking involves active participation, problem-solving and decision-making, discipline and self-reliance, and helps to build a school atmosphere of respect, openness and empathy.
Students collaborate with muralist Josef Norris to beautify their school by designing and installing a series of mosaic murals linking Burnett and Mayeda.
The Rooftop Community
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Students & Families Administration, Teachers & Staff Teaching Artists & Arts Providers City Businesses, Organizations & Institutions
Art is a Mirror of Culture This community altar was installed for Dia de los Muertos. Families were invited to contribute a frame honoring the memory of a loved one. Through art, the diversity and culture of the community becomes more visible.
Special Events & Performances
Students have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning and share their success with their community and the City.
Community Fundraising
Collaborative student and parent art making are longstanding traditions for both of Rooftop’s major fundraisers, the Rooftop Auction and the Rooftop Run.
Home-School Communication ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Weekly Bulletin Art Newsletter Flyers Website E-Group Workshops Art Exhibits Bulletin Boards The Kids
Rooftop 4th graders use digital photography and the internet to learn about another culture through an art exchange with students in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Marking the Path
! Documentation ! Advocacy & Outreach ! Mentoring & Professional Development
! Connection & Personal Growth
! Attention to school
culture and atmosphere
Musician Marcus Shelby ends a classroom session with the 8th grade. For the past three years, Rooftop students have learned about America’s history and the lives of Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King and Louis Armstrong, through the study of America’s music — the blues and jazz.
We mind the past to find our future. San Francisco Artist & Arts Advocate Ruth Asawa, daughter Aiko Cuneo, founder of the Rooftop Art Program, & granddaughter Lilli Lanier, Rooftop Arts Coordinator visit the Rooftop mural “In Our Peaceable Kingdom,” to enjoy their family tiles.
Morning Circle: May 4, 1972 to present day This Rooftop tradition is carried on from opening day when the school first got in a circle to sing on the rooftop of Jackson & Fillmore. The entire school gathers at Burnett to sing the school song, “Open the Door.�
37 years old, & still learning & growing Rooftop believes that concept-based integration of the arts into a rigorous academic program will result in academic achievement and improved critical thinking for all students. The arts provide a gateway to joyful learning and to responsible citizenship. Rooftop’s inquiry-based arts program “Art Is…,” rooted in the combined study of academic content, world cultures and the journey to study art for arts sake, engages learners from K-8th grade. Rooftop students explore universal themes, big ideas, academic content in the pursuit of “another way of knowing” and another way of showing what they know. Students identify art as the most important subject because, in the words of an 8th grade student at Rooftop, “Art teaches everything.”
“What Art Means To Me”
Rooftop 5th graders study an Asawa tied-wire sculpture, “Untitled” at the Oakland Museum Poem by Toby Kwan, Rooftop 6th Grader
Art is sound, Everywhere to be found. Black and white the world would be without art as whole as the sea from computers to theaters Art can be made. Without art, how can news be shared? photos, sound and feelings, Art takes a fare, a way to change. Art is in our building. Art is our inspiration for more. Without art, how would we build? How would we bake without new creative flavors? Art is everything And everything is art.