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What happens when you take a group of
talented artists and give them a theme like 'character'? Well, you
get ART of course, with a good dose of character as well. Since 2004 Secondary Art Teacher Helen Findlay has been
working with talented 8th and 9th grade students to create murals to
decorate the halls of the Secondary School.
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Their first project took two years to complete, with students
designing and beginning to layout the large murals that now grace
the Middle School cafeteria. This group of murals is based on the
character virtues of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility,
justice and fairness, caring, and civic virtue and citizenship. They
are woven together with common elements with an emphasis on the art
of many cultures. These large murals were an enormous undertaking
but they represent the fine efforts of the students that worked on
them, and help remind students dining in the cafeteria of the
character choices they get to make everyday.

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Their second project is now in place
outside of the Secondary Library and has a theme of encouraging
reading and appreciation of literature. The students worked to
design the piece as a group, and then had to work cooperatively to
complete the artwork. They needed to learn to respect one another's
ideas and talents while working on this project, so it too was
encouraging good character choices.
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This is an on-going project and plans
are already being made for the next mural to be completed in the
Secondary School. For more information and to see the 'works'
themselves visit:
http://www.brittonkill.k12.ny.us/findlayweb and click on "Learn
and Serve America Grant Projects." |
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