6 minute read
Trevor Beemon
Remembering Cobb’s Enslaved Population
BY TREVOR BEEMON
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Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society recently new garden sculpture. For the sculpture, KSU students used dedicated a new sculpture at the William Root House, built state-of-the-art scanning technology to 3D scan living circa 1845 for Hannah and William Root, early settlers of history interpreter Misha Harp. Marietta. The scan was used to print a maquette of the sculpture,
Born in Philadelphia in 1815, William moved to Marietta using a 3D printer, which helped inform sculptors as they in August 1839 to open a drug- crafted the full-size sculpture. mercantile store on the Marietta The unveiling, which attracted a Square. During the 1990s, large crowd, included remarks by the Root House was restored myself, Harp, master craftsman meticulously to its original Page Burch, and a poetry reading appearance, and now is operated by Sprayberry High School student by Cobb Landmarks as a historic Courtney Brown. house museum. Lights Over Atlanta, a company Situated on the Root House that specializes in exterior lighting, property is the circa 1830s approached Cobb Landmarks Manning Family Cabin. Cobb about donating permanent outdoor Landmarks uses the cabin lighting for the Root House’s new to help tell the stories of the garden sculpture, titled “Forget enslaved individuals who labored Me Not, America.” The lighting at the Root House property, A sculpture titled “Forget Me Not, America” sits in front of ceremony took place in December. and who would have lived the Manning Family Cabin on the grounds of the Root House, The sculpture represents the in a similar cabin. The 1860 to honor the lives of enslaved people. work of students, poets, artists and census shows Marietta had 297 historians who came together for a households and a population of approximately 2,600. Of common purpose — to shine a light on the 1,200 enslaved the 297 households, 137 (46%) held slaves. According to individuals whose names were not recorded and now are lost the 1860 slave schedule (census), Marietta’s slave population to time. in 1860 was roughly 1,200, meaning that almost 45% of Marietta’s total population was enslaved at that time. To honor and remember the more than 1,200 enslaved people living in Marietta prior to the end of the Civil War, Cobb Landmarks partnered with Kennesaw State Trevor Beemon is the executive director of Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society and the chairman of the Acworth History Preservation Commission. University’s (KSU) School of Art and Design to create a
Curl Up With a Good Book
This time of year, there’s nothing like curling up in front of the fire with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book. With winter break right around the corner, check out these reading recommendations for teens and children from our friends at the library, who also share some great selections for Black History Month. Remember, the North Cobb Regional Library also offers titles in eBook and audiobook.
Winter Reads
Preschool (ages 2-5)
• “Snow Globe Wishes” by Erin Dealey • “Best in Snow” by April Pulley-Sayre • “A Big Bed for Little Snow” by Grace Lin • “Bunny Slopes” by Claudia Rueda • “Here Comes Jack Frost” by Kazuno Kohara
K-2nd Grade
• “Over and Under the Snow” by Randi Sosny-Handler • “Penguin Problems” by Jory John • “No Yeti Yet” by Mary Ann Fraser • “Meet the Bigfeet” by Kevin Sherry • “Ten Ways to Hear Snow” by Cathy Camper 3rd-5th Grade
• “Peril at Owl Park” by Marthe Jocelyn • “Winterhouse” by Ben Guterson • “Breadcrumbs” by Anne Ursu • “Race to the Sun” by Rebecca Roanhorse • “Forgotten Girl” by India Hill Brown
Middle and High School
• “Icebreaker” by Lian Tanner • “Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater • “Fracture” by Megan Miranda • “Nuclear Winter” graphic novel series by Cab • “Winterwood” by Shea Ernshaw
Black History Month
Preschool (ages 2-5)
• “Mae Among the Stars” by Roda Ahmed • “Follow Your Dreams, Little
One” by Vashti Harrison • “Dream Big, Little One” by Vashti Harrison • “Firebird” by Misty Copeland • “Black Is a Rainbow Color” by Angela Joy • “The Case for Loving: The Fight for
Interracial Marriage” by Selina Alko • “Big Papa and the Time Machine” by Daniel Bernstrom • “Shirley Chisholm is a Verb!” by Veronica Chambers • “The ABCs of Black History” by Rio Cortez • “Let the Children March” by Monica Clark-Robinson
3rd-5th Grade
• “Henry’s Freedom Box” by Ellen Levine • “The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander • “Hidden figures: The Untold True
Story of Four African-American
Women Who Helped Launch
Our Nation Into Space” [Young
Reader’s Edition] by Margot Lee
Shetterly • “Young, Gifted, and Black: Meet 52
Black Heroes From Past and
Present” by Jamia Wilson • “What Color Is My World?: The
Lost History of African-American
Inventors” by Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar
Middle and High School
• “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” [Young Adult remix of
“Stamped From the Beginning”] by Jason Reynolds • “March” graphic novel trilogy by John Lewis • “X: A Novel” by Ilyasah Shabazz • “A Matter of Souls” by Denise Lewis Patrick • “Call Us What We Carry: Poems” by Amanda Gorman • “African Icons: Ten People Who
Shaped History” by Tracey
Baptiste
In addition to these great Black History Month reads, North Cobb Regional Library is offering an outdoor Black History Month Scavenger Hunt on the grounds of the library throughout the month. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3tAZ1eX.
Learning
Reimagined
By Kate Hartley Imagine — or reimagine, if you will — your middle school algebra class. Your teacher announces a new concept: calculating slope and writing linear equations. Now, before you nod off, your teacher says, “And to learn this concept, we will be designing a water park!” Did you just snap back to attention? If so, you’re not unlike the eighth-grade students at North Cobb Christian School (NCCS) in Kennesaw, who recently designed water parks as their math final assessment. Now, doesn’t that sound much more engaging than a drill-and-kill test?
This is just one example of a schoolwide initiative called Project Based Learning (PBL), which is revolutionizing the way students learn at NCCS. Teachers in ninth- through 12th-grade have adopted PBL as a key goal, and all grade levels, from preschool through 12th, have committed to applying PBL components — such as student choice, peer collaboration and authentic assessments — to their classrooms. The outcomes have been very impactful, as NCCS students are utilizing higher-level problem-solving skills to master educational standards and serve their community.
NCCS algebra student demonstrates a skatepark marble run. A peek inside NCCS classrooms might find you...
◆ Watching high school robotics students propose a school garden, employing a FarmBot to integrate technology with environmental stewardship.
◆ Dropping a marble through the twists and turns of a cardboard skatepark, designed by middle school algebra students. ◆ Diving deep with middle school world history students, who published commemorative virtual boards on brave young adults from the
Holocaust resistance movement, using Padlet technology. (Student example: bit.ly/holocaust_teens)
◆ Traveling to Publix with fourthgrade students to purchase supplies for MUST Ministries, using funds that students raised, budgeted and allocated to combat hunger in their community.
◆ Box-jumping in the hallway during an interactive health expo put on by high school health and fitness students to promote positive mental and physical habits.
◆ Listening to 12th grade Bible apologetics students present a website that they are designing to share Jesus with fellow teens.
◆ Shopping for CO2 laser-engraved coasters and custom merchandise, designed and produced by Upper
School Business and STEM
Academy students.
Third grade students test out an earthquake simulation.
