Extreme Yard Makeover: Python Edition
At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, Paideia’s Junior High moved across Ponce de Leon to a brand new building – presenting students with a blank canvas to express themselves and redefine the Junior High student experience. With 30% more space than Oakdale Hall, the former Junior High, there was plenty of room for students and teachers alike to experiment and create.
During the last two years, there have been many efforts to make this new space feel like home. In the STEAM lab, Tom and April’s class constructed flowers from recycled hubcaps which were displayed along the Junior High’s driveway. The multipurpose room has served as a stage for the concerts, dances, the Reading Bowl, the Python Spit poetry competition and even a Greek mythology rap battle from Lucius Jennett’s 8th grade history students. Local artists, including Peter Ferrari and Rory Hawkins of Catlanta, have brought color and life to the building through their art, and in May Junior High artists reimagined a space that was previously untouched – the Junior High yard.
The Junior High yard consists of an artificial green and a basketball half court. Most students spend their outdoor breaks and lunch in the yard. While there is plenty of space for a good game of kickball, a lack of foliage and places to sit left the space feeling barren and transient. Until this May’s Junior High short term when Junior High art teacher Lowell Thompson decided to make the yard’s beautification a project for students. Spending time in the yard on lunch duty, Lowell observed most kids eating lunch on the ground. “The vibe felt unwelcoming – not the Paideia that I was used to, and I wanted to change that,” he recounted.
Lowell proposed the short term class – a nontraditional art class where students wouldn’t keep their art, but instead would create art for other students and faculty to enjoy in this public space. The class had many sign-ups, in particular many eighth graders. “It really surprised me to see so many eighth graders sign up because like me they’re leaving the Junior High and heading to High School,” Lowell explained. “We’re making this great space and leaving it behind for a brand new group of people.”
During the class, students worked on multiple projects from building tables and benches to making ceramic planters and decorating the fence with fence pixels and fence weaving. Long before the short term, Lowell was thinking about projects that would improve the space. “I’ve been secretly printing fence pixels since the holiday break because we needed hundreds of them,” Lowell laughed.
While Lowell envisioned some of these art features, like the fence weaving of the Blue Ridge Mountains, students had creative control as they weaved the sun, rainbows and flowers. Some of the hubcap flowers from Tom and April’s class were moved to the yard where students gave them stems and leaves. Many of the projects started in the STEAM lab, but Lowell also utilized the Junior High garage as students burnt and stained wood for the tables and benches.
While Lowell is joining the High School art faculty in the fall, he hopes that what he and his students started this spring will continue into the next school year and inspire future projects in the Junior High. “It’s like giving a gift. We don’t just give a person a gift because it’s something they want – we feel good when we see that person enjoy or benefit from the gift,” Lowell said of the project. “I hope these kids look back at this short term and feel like they gave the gift of a nicer space to future students.” As we approach the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, we look forward to seeing the joy of Junior High students as they flourish in this newly decorated space and hope it continues to be a place where they feel welcomed, use their creativity and feel the freedom to hangout and just be kids.
