WOW, what a spring! Last Friday evening, Portside families, teachers and administrators joined together in Portside's first ever virtual graduation for this past year's After School Arts Program (ASAP) students. During graduation, all 56 students in the 2018/19 After School Arts Program were honored for their accomplishments at the Portside in the past school year. It was great to see everyone's faces, celebrate together, and get some closure to the strange end of the school year that we have all experienced.
Although we were unable to gather in person at the Portside for the last three months of ASAP, Portside's teachers and administrators pulled together and worked hard to maintain a strong sense of creativity, structure and socialization in students' daily lives by immediately transitioning to virtual programming. Portside's lead teachers taught daily art lessons on Zoom, and assistant teachers posted art activities online for the kids. For many of Portside's ASAP students, this was the highlight of their days for the past few months. "It's kinda crazy making art together. It's kinda crazy because, well, we don't see each other that often...it was helpful to see my friends," said Sharks student Cole, age 8, about his daily art lessons with Miss Natasha. Thank you to Minnows lead teacher Miss Rachel, Sharks lead teacher Miss Natasha, Pirates lead teacher Miss Jesa, and our assistant teachers Miss YeEun, Miss Paulina, Mr. Joseph, Mr. Chris, Miss Gabby, and Miss Jean. With their help, we have been able to make it through these past few months and to continue "Empowering the Artists of Tomorrow." And thank you to all of our students for being AWESOME and creative young people. "I'm very proud of our teachers and their dedication to picking up immediately and continuing to provide arts education virtually to their students. We have the best kids in the world!” exclaimed Kim Creighton, Founding Director of Portside Arts Center. We are really looking forward to this year's After School Arts Program where we will see many returning happy faces, as well as some new ones!
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