Following are excerpts from the six GFA faculty members who were recipients of faculty travel grants in the 2010.
Exploring the Landscapes of Western American Writers
Elizabeth Cleary Chair, English Department
Ten years ago, after reading Kathleen Norris’ book Dakota, the epigraph of the book lingered with me: “Show me the landscape in which you live and I will tell you who you are.” In spite of years of teaching American Literature, I wondered: had I really seen this county that inspired these writers? My answer was…well...not really. I felt a deep yearning to hit the road and see the country from which this literature emerged.
I left Connecticut in early August with my maps, my journal, a few guide books, a pair of rattlesnake boots and absolutely no idea what I would discover. Three weeks later I had driven three-thousand, three hundred and forty-five miles on the back roads of seven western states feeling a bit like a literary Lewis and Clark. I found myself meeting a country that was both foreign and familiar: an expanse of land that although I was one of its citizens, I was discovering for the first time.
My trip ended in the Salinas valley at the Steinbeck museum, and it was only then that I realized that he and I had made similar journeys. In his book Travels with Charley he writes: “I’m going to learn about my own country. I’ve lost the flavor and taste and sound of it… I’m going alone, out toward the west by the northern way, but zigzagging through the Middle West and the mountain states."
In American literature, the concepts of rugged individualism and the American dream are prominent. This trip allowed me to come to new definitions of these terms as I explored both the physical and literary frontiers of America. What I didn’t expect was how much it would teach me about myself.
An Exploration of Art Nouveau in Austria and the Czech Republic
Nicole Yates Lower School Art
My travel grant sent me to Vienna and Salzburg in Austria, and Prague in the Czech Republic to experience firsthand the environment, sights and artwork of the Art Nouveau movement in this region in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I was most interested in exploring the life and work of master artists Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Alfons Mucha - artists whose work I have admired since my first trip to Europe in 1998.
Since my return I have developed two units inspired by the artwork I viewed on my travels, including a fifth grade self-portrait lesson exploring the composition and pattern use evident in Klimt’s portraits of the Viennese bourgeoisie and a first grade project inspired by Schiele’s landscape paintings of houses in the Austrian countryside.
Travels in China and Tibet
Mrs. Russell Kindergarten
While I traveled through Tibet and China, I attempted to keep two views of Chinese life in my observations. One was my adult political perceptions and the other was what kindergarten children would be interested in--family members, play and toys, family fun, homes, pets, school, clothing and cars. In other words, the kindergarten is interested in the range of existence that they have had exposure to. For purposes of my curriculum, this meant observing ordinary Chinese families neither very rich nor extremely poor.
One example was an overnight in a rural village. The people were comfortable by Chinese standards. The living rooms contained a television set and a water cooler (everybody in China drinks bottled water). Many families kept dogs: corgis, Chihuahuas and poodles sat on the doorsteps with their owners on this hot summer evening. After dinner, I joined all the village families in their town square for dancing to watch the local teen boys shoot baskets. Everybody stayed up late as it was too hot to sleep. This is the kind of image that lives in my mind as I teach my students about life on the other side of the globe.
Sir Walter Raleigh and King George III
Amy Colbert Grade Three
“Should you reflect on his errors, remember his many virtues and that he was a mortal”. These words are found inside St. Margaret’s Church in London on a plaque commemorating Sir Walter Raleigh. Although I knew he was interred there, finding this plaque was one of many unexpected surprises that occurred on my trip to England this past summer. My travels lead me there to explore the lives of Sir Walter Raleigh, as part of our European Explorers unit, and King George III and his role in the American Revolution as part of our study of Connecticut history.
Since my travels, Social Studies has become one of my favorite parts of the day. In many ways, I no longer teach solely out of a book but from my heart. I have my own stories to tell of the land, the people and their customs. It has become personal for me, and I feel a real connection to the parts of the curriculum where I have seen the terrain firsthand.
Ancient Greece
LaRee Delahunt Grade Five
Massive columns loomed and stretched across the foundations of the Parthenon on the Athens Acropolis. I ignored the 109 degrees and sun-baked stones and stood amazed at the iconic scene before me. Greek history and mythology had come alive, truly three dimensional, as I explored the ancient sites of Athens and several other Greek archaeological sites, museums, and astonishing landscapes and seascapes of Greece. I felt a noticeable shift in perspective when I realized that the carved marble columns, statues and ruined structures were sometimes over thirty-five centuries old. The most ancient Euro-American site in the American Northeast is colonial Plymouth, a mere baby by comparison.
My knowledge base has been enlarged, my enthusiasm for teaching Greek history and mythology to my fifth graders is sharpened, and my desire for additional on-site learning has been incited. When I explored the ancient Greek and Roman Agora, spread out in the shadow of the Acropolis, I was imagining the fifth graders in that space. My pictures and experiences have now helped them visualize themselves in the center of an ancient civilized economic, philosophical, and social interaction.
Senegal and Mali
Marion Mapstone Chair, Foreign Language Department
Shortly after arriving at the home of the Ba Diops, who were to be my “family” while I was staying in gloriously vibrant Dakar, I was invited to join three generations on a mat in the courtyard to enjoy our first communal meal. This was my first experience of Téranga, a Wolof word that sums up the warm hospitality of the Sénégalais. Circled around two huge round dishes, we used our hands and pieces of baguette to eat spaghetti with roast chicken and onion sautéed in the most delectable spices. My daily classes in Wolof and Senegalese culture prepared me well for my travels and interactions up and down the coasts where I saw a salt mine, pristine beaches, an animal reserve, the historic slave museum and swathes of red earth populated by the mighty baobab. In every village I was welcomed during the wet season by a riot of color as the beautiful women in their bright pagnes line the road with their stalls piled high with the luscious mango. Overall, my trip left me joyous and grateful. I bring back so much rich material on Francophone Africa to my classes and cannot wait to return to Senegal in June with my students.
Please click on the names below to read about and see some images from the faculty members who received grants for travel during the summer of 2009!
Karen Briganti (2nd grade) pursued an in-depth study of Monet and other Impressionist painters in Paris, Giverny, Normandy, Argenteuil, and Versailles.
OJ Burns (Upper School English) searched for the "real" Ithaca in Cephalonia to complement over 30 years of teaching Homer's Odyssey.
Amy Colbert (3rd grade) retraced, on horseback, the steps of Silk Road explorers in Mongolia, including camping in the Khangai Mountain range and interacting with local families.
Rosa Esposito (Middle School French & Spanish) traveled from Paris to Provence in order to better understand the scenes and people who inspired painter Van Gogh and author Marcel Pagnol.
Nancy McTague-Stock (Upper School Studio Art) traveled to Venice and Berlin to experience firsthand the inspiration for a range of great works of art and thus be able to make them real for her students.
Vera Pitcher (Middle School French & Spanish) immersed herself in life in rural Provence, directly experiencing the culture, language, and family life.
Stephen Stout (Theatre) traveled to England to see eight plays in six days (in London, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Oxford) and to take an Oxbridge Seminar on Shakespeare.