Mark Sheridan Academy

Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy is a Chicago Public School in Area 9 of Chicago, Illinois with over 500 students. It is housed in a three-story building, each floor separating the grades, with a gymnasium/auditorium on the third floor. [http://sheridan.cps.k12.il.us Mark Sheridan School Website]

School information

At M.S.A the school offers a wide variety of activities for outdoors with playground equipment and spring olymics or color wars, a big sports event in which teams compete.

The grades are separated by floors as so:

*Kindergarten, 1st, and second are on the first floor along with the office and primary science lab also the library.
*3rd, 4th, and 5th are included on the second floor with the upper grade sci lab and the counselor's office also the drama room.
*6th, 7th and 8th are on the third floor along with the file room, attic, and gymnasium
*The basement is where the janitors closets, art room, 2 lunchrooms, computer lab, and special classes.

The school also features a diverse set of celebrations like Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Chinese new year and more. It also has a lot of assemblies.

*The school is over 100 years old

Recently a Language Arts Teacher named John Nieciak won a big honor called the Golden apple which is only won by twelve teachers in the area.

Classes

Classes taught at MSA include:

* Math
* Science
* History
* Language Arts
* Art
* Science Lab
* Library
* Gym
* Junior Grade Books (advanced reading)
* Computer
* Drama
* Guidance

After School Classes

*Chess Club
*After School Program

They also offer a volleyball and basketball team.

Art Projects

Mark Sheridan has been working with [http://www.capeweb.org Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education(CAPE)] and Street Level Youth Media in order to expose students to Arts that are new to them. Mark Sheridan teacher Mrs. Dorothy Glodo has been working with artist sent by CAPE to help students learn something they have never done before. Some projects include:

* Quilting (8th Grade)
* Video projects (7th Grade). Worked with [http://www.street-level.org/ Street Level Youth Media]
* [http://www.gallery37.org/ Gallery 37] Connecting Chicago Installation Piece (2005 6th Graders)
* [http://www.jasc-chicago.org/ JASC] Japanese Interment Camp Installation Project (2007 7th Graders)
* Invention Videos (4th Graders). Also worked with [http://www.street-level.org/ Street Level Youth Media]

This Year (2008)Students from the 6th grade are working with Street Level Youth Media to produce an installation focused on current events or issues of student concerns. This project is funded by CAPE, Chicago Arts Partnership in Education and the student goal is to use persuade writing and Media Literacy knowledge to influence people to help change these concerns.

Another CAPE funded project teaming Chicago State University's Art Department with 8th grade Social studies students through the fine arts classes at MSA integrate quilt making and performance art to initiate student's awareness of the power of voice. They too are sending a message that screams of concern and they want the audience to be reached both visually and through performance, with an outcome that generates more response to addressing key areas of concern for students of the 8th grade.