Super Ghana Session: Red carpet premiere of Project Ghana on classroom close-up/Black History Month/Washington’s Birthday

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School hosted the red carpet premiere of Project Ghana on Classroom Close-up.

This event began with a special Ghana Session for the numerous guests in attendance.

Red Carpet Premiere Project

The Ghana Session began with John Napolitani, the president of the Asbury Park Education Association, informing everyone that having Project Ghana on Classroom Close-up for its last season was a huge accomplishment for the middle school because it showed the success of having video conferencing in a teacher’s classroom.

From there, Mr. Gerbino, principal of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, stressed the importance of sharing cultures through the use of video conferencing and how this project helped further the learning process in the classroom.

The session was turned over to Mr. Wronko, leader of Project Ghana for the middle school. Mr. Wronko mentioned that there would be no Project Ghana if we did not have the wonderful hardworking students of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and the students in Ghana. He then turned the program over to Yvette Elgart and her chorus to perform for the students.

Ghana’s presentation

After her chorus did a spectacular job, the students in Ghana along with their lead teacher, Papa, gave a presentation comparing Ghana and its way of life to the movie The Black Panther.

Dr. Lamont Repollet

After their presentation, one of the many guests, the Commissioner of Education, Dr. Lamont Repollet, spoke on how it was great that the students in Asbury Park were making a great connection with the students in Ghana.

Assemblyman Sean Kean

Once Dr. Repollet was done speaking, the students in Ghana gave a special presentation for Assemblyman Sean Kean, who spoke about in an early session in the year about how New Jersey’s History needed to get more publicity because of its importance, about the Battle of Trenton.

During their presentation, the students in Ghana spoke about how important it was for George Washington to gain this victory over the Hessian troops, who worked with the British, during the American Revolution.

After their presentation, Sean Kean was very proud to see how well the students in Ghana understood American History. In addition, the Battle of Trenton was also created to celebrate George Washington’s Birthday.

Black History Month

The session turned to another important segment, the celebration of Black History Month.

The guests who came to this Red Carpet event fully represented the importance of Black History Month and they were Wilbur V. Martin, Robert A. Jameson, and Walter Drummond Senior.

Each veteran spoke about their service and what a pleasure it was being invited to this event. Joining them, was an elected officer of the VFW post in Asbury Park.

Published works

Finally, Allison Asegurado Mejia, middle school student, and Jozabad Abi-Jaja Caldwell, student in Ghana, spoke about their accomplishment of having their artwork published in Prehistoric Times Magazine.

Besides Prehistoric Times Magazine, Mr. Wronko mentioned that the segment of Project Ghana on Classroom Close-up was featured in the New Jersey Education Association Magazine of Review.

After the Ghana Session, the segment on Project Ghana from Classroom Close-up was shown.

In attendance that night were:

• Dr. Lamont Repollet, NJ Commissioner of Education
• Superintendent of the Asbury Park School District Sancha Gray
• Assemblyman Sean Kean
• Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling
• Veterans, Wilbur V. Martin, Robert A. Jameson, Walter Drummond Senior
• The Asbury Park School District Board of Education, Supervisors of Curriculum and Instruction and Special Education.

This event was very successful because of the team effort of the following:

• Jacki Philhower, educational coach of the middle school
• Bridget Kean, reading specialist
• The he secretarial staff, Tishell Bellamy and Sheila Batson.
• Also a special thanks to Sancha Gray and Mr. Gerbino for allowing Classroom Close-up to be filmed at the middle school.

Final thanks to Oiada International, Eric Jones and Darryl Batts for making video conferencing possible with Ghana.

To learn more about Project Ghana, visit Oiada International site which was created by Eric Jones and Darryl Batts.