Our Schools in the News: Brittany Woods Students Launch Streetwear Line

Check out this article from the Riverfront Times about two of our Brittany Woods Middle School students!


St. Louis' Hottest Streetwear Line Was Created by Two 8th Graders
Posted By Sarah Fenske on Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 6:50 am

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MXTRO MVB
Gunnar Wurst, left, and Daivion Crawford.

In their artfully layered streetwear, Gunnar Wurst and Daivion Crawford might be any hot young clothing designers on the streets of Soho or Brooklyn — except for the fact that they live in a suburb of St. Louis, and neither is old enough to drive.

Wurst, 13, and Crawford, 14, founded MXTRO MVB in the winter of 2015, inspired by Supreme and the other streetwear brands they stalk online. The way they describe it, the whole undertaking sounds remarkably easy. "Within one to weeks, we made a logo, put it out and got ideas going," Wurst says. They launched their website soon after, initially offering two shirts and two hats.

Since then, they've expanded to add two more shirts, but they've got much bigger plans for the future. Their classes at Brittany Woods Middle School have included sewing (part of the Family Consumer Sciences program) and fabrication, prototyping and modeling (part of their class in Industrial Arts). They want to begin cutting and sewing their clothing — "jackets, pants, and a lot of things that are harder to do," Wurst says. They've been using materials from the Small Business Administration to fine-tune their business model.



PHOTO COURTESY OF MXTRO MVB

Part of their goal is an accessible price point. Their idol Supreme may charge $48 for a T-shirt — if you can even get one; most of the products on his website are in a perpetual state of being sold out — but MXTRO MVB charges $15 for a short-sleeve shirt and $22 for a long-sleeve.

"You see the clothing that kids are into, they go for crazy money," says Crawford. "We're trying to make it affordable."

It helps that overhead is low, of course. They personally took their line's promo photos. They also serve as the models, and found a site that will host their online presence for free. Both set of parents have been supportive. (Wurst's dad teaches industrial design; of his own father, Crawford says, "My dad's into fashion, and he inspired me a lot." But, he says, he doesn't wear MXTRO MVB: "I think he's too old for it.")

The summer could be a big one for MXTRO MVB. Wurst has a trip planned to New York City, and he suspects he'll find plenty of inspiration in the city's fashion district to share with his business partner. The young designers also plan to get to work on that new line of clothing — one they sew, not just have printed.

"Through the summer, we're going to get a sewing machine and get the fabrics to do it," Wurst promises.

That's the thing about being thirteen and fourteen. Once school is out for the summer, you have all that time free .... to work.



COURTESY OF MXTRO MV

Food and Family at Pershing Elementary

Pershing Elementary recently hosted a Family Dinner Night to honor the families who participate in the Home Works! program.  Home Works! is a teacher home-visit program that partners teachers and families with the goal of improving academic and social success, as well as increased parental involvement.

Families were treated to a delicious spaghetti dinner and participated in activities related to the event's theme, We are Family.  Each family was asked to write down what family means to them, and kids were able to present their different definitions of family to the entire audience.

At the end of the evening the was a raffle in which families could win gift bags and gift cards.  Says Pershing parent Kristine Hendrix, "Good times!!"

Photos courtesy of Kristine Hendrix

Flynn Park In the Loop

Close proximity to the Delmar Loop, designated one of 10 Great Streets in America, opens up a lot of opportunities for Flynn Park elementary students.  With both civic and cultural attractions to enjoy, a field trip to the Loop is guaranteed to be both fun and educational - just ask the third graders who recently spent an afternoon soaking up art, architecture, government and, of course, Fitz's rootbeer. 

The kids headed out on foot from the school in groups, each armed with a notepad and digital camera, along with directions to look for and photograph art, architecture, and landscape along the way. Flynn Park art teacher Beverly Brandt was "so happy to see how enthusiastic these young community members were about the art and history that is around them every day."  She says, "they come to me almost every day still talking about art and architecture that they saw on their bus ride or while they were with their families." 

In Council Chambers at City Hall

The group stopped at Fitz's for lunch and a tour of the bottling plant, followed by a tour of the Loop in which they compared buildings intended for government use to those intended to be public places for consumers. The field trip ended with a trip to the fifth floor of City Hall and a chance to enjoy the spectacular panoramic views. 

The photographs taken by the students will used in an upcoming art project in which they will design a book about what they saw and learned on their field trip to the Loop.

Thanks to Beth Martin, Beverly Brandt, and Nicole Wight for photos and information.

University City Teachers seek Nation’s Highest Professional Teaching Credential: National Board Certification






Brittany Woods librarian Kelly Werthmuller is
 one of six district teachers currently seeking
National Board Certification 

Teachers tend to be busy.  Really busy.  Between lesson planning, grading, meetings, conferences, training (not to mention teaching) free time is not something most teachers possess in abundance.  So what could possibly motivate six School District of University City teachers to willingly take on a grueling three-year, 400-600 hour-long project (!)?  Could it be a sadistic love of paperwork?  Or perhaps an aversion to quiet evenings spent with loved ones? Maybe a strict adherence to that old wives’ tale about idle hands? Most likely it is the satisfaction of knowing that once the work is completed they will rank among an elite 3% of educators nationwide who hold the most prestigious professional certification available in their field: the National Board Certification.

National Board Certification is an advanced teaching credential, similar to certification in fields like medicine and law.  The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards  website describes it as “a rigorous, peer-reviewed process that ensures that Board-certified teachers have proven skills to advance student achievement” through which “teachers expand and refine their content knowledge and pedagogy. The outcome is more powerful teaching that improves student achievement and reflects college and career readiness.”

Retired Jackson Park Elementary teacher Kelly Mueller was the first in the district to earn the distinction, and now she serves as the NBC coordinator for Maryville University and works with NBC candidates both locally and nationally.  She says that the importance of the National Board process is easily understood when you think about it this way:

“Other professional development tells us what to go back and do in our classrooms. The NB process simply says ‘Here are the highest standards in your teaching profession - recognized across the country. Give us evidence of how you meet them.’ They recognize there are countless ways to get there. Each of us is an individual. We teach different children in different settings at different times. Each is a professional, and in that role makes thousands of decisions in a week. An accomplished teacher uses his/her knowledge of the students in the class, knowledge of the subject area, and knowledge of available resources to plan worthwhile lessons to meet the goals they children need to learn at this point in time. WE say what we did, giving the rationale for our decision(s) as to what to teach, how to teach it, and how to evaluate student performance. THAT is teaching.”

The certification process involves a series of performance-based assessments that include teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and thorough analyses of the teachers' classroom teaching and student learning. In all, teachers spend hundreds of hours beyond their normal workload preparing materials and being tested in order to attain this lofty distinction.

Although the process is entirely voluntary, the School District of University City has stepped up to not only cover most of the registration fees, but also to provide a generous stipend (which Ms. Mueller notes is on par with some of the best in the country) to all district teachers who become National Board Certified.   Candidates claim that this sort of financial support is a great motivator and a wise move, as research continues to show that the students of National Board Certified Teachers (NCBTs) out perform those of non-NCBTs on achievement tests (particularly in STEM fields), and that the impact is especially significant for minority and low-income students.

Brittany Woods Middle School librarian Kelly Werthmuller is one of the current crop of six NBC candidates in the district.  She says that that seeking certification is making her “reflect more on my teaching practice. I am pushing myself to be more innovative and focus on each individual and class, instead of the entire grade. It is a VERY frustrating process, but I can already see positives in my teaching.” 

Likewise, Brittany Woods communication arts teacher and NBC candidate Katherine Adams explains that the process has prompted her to “deepen my reflection and really analyze why I make the choices I make in the classroom. In the past I have thought, ‘Well this worked well last year, so I will do this activity again.’ Now I am analyzing why the particular activity worked. How exactly did it impact my students? What aspects need to be retooled so all my students are impacted by this lesson? How can I involve my parents and our community as part of our learning process? While I am still working through the certification process, I feel the work itself has truly made me a more reflective and effective educator.”

If this year’s six candidates succeed in achieving certification they will join current district NBCTs Dr. Jamie Jordan (Principal, Brittany Woods Middle) and Shenelle Dubose (UCHS Assistant Principal).  Seven additional district teachers have signed up for a pre-candidacy class, suggesting that we will soon see a flourishing of NBC teachers in our schools.  This is exciting news for our students and for our community. 

The bottom line, says Kelly Mueller, is that seeking National Board Certification is a “great opportunity for teachers to work on their practice. Showing evidence makes you think about teaching much more methodically than ever before....cutting out fluff and things that really don't impact student learning. THAT is what this process is all about!”

Thank you!

On Tuesday, April 2 residents overwhelmingly passed Proposition U with nearly 70% of the vote. The renovations that will take place with Prop U funds are a wonderful gift to our students and teachers and also to the community. Thank you to everyone exercised their right to vote.

The Prop U campaign committee worked hard to inform voters of the facts on Prop U, but it took the help of many involved citizens to spread the message and motivate voters to go to the polls.  On behalf of the Prop U campaign committee I’d like to thank the citizens who supported Prop U and helped get out the vote. Whether it was handing out literature, posting a sign in their yard, talking to others in the community, or sending emails in support of Prop U – you helped make a difference in our community and in the lives of many children. So, from the bottom of my heart...

Mother Teresa once said, "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." The support U. City continues to provide our schools is impressive and a testament to the good work going on in our schools. Let’s keep the momentum going. There are opportunities big and small to get involved and create more ripples. Here are just a few ideas:

• Join the PTO at your child’s school and/or volunteer for a committee
• Participate in the school district’s discussion on current and future plans for Early Childhood Education in U. City.
• Work in the school gardens with U. City in Bloom.
• Volunteer your time to work in the schools. Volunteers are needed in such areas as tutoring, library assistance, school stores, and office help.
• Donations are always needed. Items like books for the “Take It” libraries, items for the PBIS (positive reinforcement programs), food for special events, or gifts the high school graduation party.

There are many ways to get involved in our schools. As the proverb says, “It takes a village.” And I am so proud of our village. Thank you!