Her knees are nicked; her goal, teamwork

Ray Grace
Dylan Methot | USFSP
Ray Grace, shown with some of her students, is one of six AmeriCorps teachers who live on campus.

By DYLAN METHOT
USFSP Student Reporter

ST. PETERSBURG – She is known as an art teacher by day and a skater by night.

Not rollerblades or skateboards – she rides quad skates. That means four wheels and toe brakes. Think disco.

Her name is Ray Grace. She teaches – and lives – at Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg. When she looks through the rectangular windows in her classroom, she can see the white window of her upstairs apartment, surrounded with pink painted panels.

Academy Prep Center is a special, tuition-free school for students who live in the low-income, predominantly African American neighborhoods near the school at 2301 22nd Ave. S of St. Petersburg.

The students, who are in grades five through eight, attend six days a week. They work in small classes, with a lot of one-on-one attention from teachers like Grace, and when they depart Academy Prep the staff helps place them in good high schools and monitors their progress there.

Since it opened in 2005, the school says, 99 percent of its graduates have gone on to graduate from high school on time and 70 percent are now college students or graduates.

Grace, who is from Tampa, is one of six specialty teachers who teach and live in furnished apartments on campus through the AmeriCorps program. She is also pursuing a doctorate is arts education from USF.

Her scarred knees are testimony to her skating ability, which she constantly works to improve. Throughout the week she can be seen cruising around the St. Petersburg Regional Skatepark at Campbell Park or by the water downtown.

“I use skating as a way to strengthen my ties with the community and to promote physical awareness,” said Grace. She frequently meets up with groups of skaters to hone her skills.

And when she falls, she gets back up.

“Ray has smiled after taking a fall when most people would have cried from the pain,” said Melissa Isaacs, a friend and fellow book lover.

Ray Grace Working
Dylan Methot | USFSP
Grace’s students work through limitless artistic options.

In her classroom one day this fall, she waited calmly whenever students started talking over her. Working with youngsters can be tough, but Grace approaches it with patience and understanding, said Samuel Luna, a music teacher at Academy Prep.

In a recent class with sixth grade girls, Grace created a lesson plan that taught skills that are applicable in all classes and life. Grace called these skills “transfers.”

Teamwork was the main goal of the lesson in which the girls created Marc Chagall- inspired stained glass.

They used tri-fold display board, construction paper, colored pencils, scissors, and a lot of glue.

First, the girls had to decide on the design for the shutters. With the tri-fold display board closed, they glued on their paper shutters till all the negative space was covered. Some chose a simple repeating pattern while others went for abstraction.

Once the shutters were completed they were allowed to go to a “mystery box” full of collage materials. What they gathered would be used to cover all the white space on the inside of the board.

Throughout the period the girls went through waves of focused silence to roaring laughter and conversation. They all wore black shoes and dark green polos with blue shorts, pants, or skirts.

The focus was on the task at hand, not what each person was wearing.

Four beige metal tables covered with dry paint were the main features of Grace’s classroom.

Music played as the girls worked in groups at each table full of colors and endless artistic options.

Bits of paper, markers, and glue sticks covered the floor by the end of the class. They all worked together to clean up the mess and stack their chairs.

Then it was time for lunch.

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