Focus on TUSD - March 2008

Print Version (In Adobe PDF):
High Resolution | Low Resolution

Fun at the Fair
Pistor Stages Learning Event
The Pistor Middle School Fair keeps growing. And so does the students' interest and enjoyment. For one day each spring, they gather in the parking lot and in classrooms, soaking up new and exciting information about their world.

The event began with a car show a decade ago at the school at 5455 S. Cardinal Ave. Then Dan Forrest, an energetic, creative Pistor teacher, added arts and crafts sessions. This year, on March 5, they tacked on food and drinks.

Gigi Carreno, a math teaching assistant, got in line with her students, planning to order one of the 700 free egg rolls Ester and Eddie Havey were making at their booth. "I know they're good because my kids inhaled them," Carreno said. She's a Northern Arizona University student, who will graduate in December and hopes to return to Pistor.

She welcomed the fair. "I remember when I was in school, I looked forward to things like this," she said. "This has been so good for the kids. It's important for them. It gives them a break and they can refocus and socialize. It's a wholesome activity on school grounds. They learn that school is fun."

To prove her point, she sat on the motorcycle that Marc Basurto, a Pistor math teacher, had on display. Students clustered around her, waiting for their turn on the cycle.

Also on the school parking lot were exhibits the Drexel Heights Fire District brought; a 1960 Chevrolet Slambulance that Dean and Arwen Newman own; and other show cars.

But it was hard to forget about the food. The Haveys cranked out banana egg rolls and meat and vegetable egg rolls for the classmates of their seventh-grade daughter, Josephine. "I use only fresh ingredients," Ester Havey said. "The most time consuming job is the chopping."

Seventh-grader Perla Cantua approved, saying her vegetable roll was crispy on the outside just the way she liked, and she went back for another one.

To wash down the egg rolls, students tried out the beverages Lupita Pulido prepared -- one made from the Mexican fruit called tamarindo; horchatas made from rice, cinnamon and vanilla; and Jamaica made from a flower.

Inside the school, more activities awaited. The Rex Redhouse Dancers, composed of intertribal Native American dancers, took the stage in the cafeteria, along with the Brazilian Batucaxe dancers, who performed with the Pistor Dance Ensemble. In the classrooms, students drifted among sessions on ceramics, making beads and feather jewelry and Chinese calligraphy. They listened to presentations by representatives of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; the Busted Cowboy Band; and Mad Science.

Charlotte Redhouse-Tividad and her mother, Maria Redhouse, patiently guided students through a beadwork project, helping them construct a simple lizard from the kits they provided.

"This gives them a sense of heritage when they see the work of Native Americans," Redhouse-Tividad explained. "It introduces them to the work and awakens creativity. It gets them to think about what's around them and what they can use to create things. It's inside of us and it comes out of us when we do our artwork."

Her parents have come to Pistor for years, sharing their culture and helping students uncover their talents.

Lourdes Bobadilla, a University of Arizona senior and a Pistor volunteer, said that making the lizard was confusing at first, "but once you work on it for awhile you get the hang of it and it's not so hard." Her sister, Shirley, a Pistor eighth-grader, worked at the table beside her.

In another room, Mary Lee Kopen, Annette Demer and Barbara Pepper, docents at Tohono Chul Park, explained how desert plants can be used for food, medicine and other materials. Demer said, "It's important for them to know how desert plants are used."

"Airborne, Inc. provided a $1,000 grant to help fund the fair," Forrest said.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

Photos in the March issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the April Focus is Friday, March 11. The Focus will be published Monday, April 21. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.