#NathGeo: The Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, Part I

I'm sure I'm not alone when I share my love of National Geographic. I've watched their documentaries on PBS all my life. My favorite is In the Shadow of Vesuvius, about the people who died due to the eruption of the volcano in 79 CE and about the ones who still live near the deadly mountain today. It tells the story of physical anthropologist Sara Bisel who studied the bones of the residents of ancient Herculaneum. Unlike the residents of ancient Pompeii who had many hours to escape the eruption, Herculaneans died violently and quickly of thermal shock, a heat so hot that their brains probably evaporated. But I digress.

I love watching their documentaries. I can hear the theme song right now. And I still subscribe to the hard copy of the magazine that comes once a month with its yellow-bordered cover. It nearly always contains a story about classical archaeology. Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society represents that spirit of adventure and discovery that so many teachers have.

That's why the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship exists. Every year, National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions selects about 35 teachers from all over North America to participate in the learning experience of a lifetime. National Geographic sends these teachers on expeditions with Lindblad, a company that specializes in exploring natural wonders all over the world: Alaska, Antarctica, Polynesia, Australia, Egypt, Iceland, the Galapagos, etc. Inspired by these expeditions, the teacher fellows write lessons and give presentations for National Geographic's educational arm. Through the process, students get to ride along for the excitement with their teachers. 

I learned of this opportunity through a 2018 fellow alum, Donnie Piercey. Also the 2021 Kentucky State Teacher of the Year, Donnie journeyed to Antarctica on his expedition and excitedly told all of his TOY cohort about his experience with the program: the penguins, the ice, and his polar plunge. I was intrigued and decided to apply.

The application process was rigorous. I had to write three essays about how I collaborated with community partners, how I designed projects for my students, and how I encouraged an explorer mindset. I also had to make a 2.5 minute video about myself. I decided to talk about how 4th-grade me had been denied the dream of becoming a paleontologist due to my mother telling me that "they had found all the dinosaurs already." You can see it here. (Apologies to my mom, but it's just a great story.) I also had to choose dates that would work for me to take off 2 weeks in the next year - these included the one month I had off this summer and other 1-week school vacations that would not incur the "wrath" of my principal. (Not really, she's totally supportive, but with a continued lack of substitute teachers in my school district, teachers being out near holidays is a hard situation for schools.) I also had to list my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th choices of location to travel to. I chose an expedition called Ancient Isles: A Circumnavigation of the British Isles, Passage through Egypt, Exploring Alaska's Coastal Wilderness, and A Circumnavigation of Iceland. Since part of the program involves me writing lessons from my experience, I figured that I could connect each of those choices in some way to what I do in my classroom.I turned everything in in December, and then the waiting started. I had read that those who were selected would receive a live phone call from a National Geographic or Lindblad employee sometime in February. February was almost over, and I had given up hope when on a random afternoon at 2:30 PM during dismissal time at my school, I got a phone call from New Jersey. The caller identified herself as someone calling from National Geographic to inform me that I had been chosen as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. As bells were ringing in the cavernous hallway and students flooding by, I contained my excitement as she told me that I would be on the British Isles trip in early June and that I would need to go to Washington, DC, for a fellow workshop in April. I was speechless.

When I got home from work, I told my husband David first. "You suck," he said. "And congratulations, I'm so proud of you. But you really do suck." Cue the yellow rectangles.

I'll be sharing my experiences with the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship on my blog, and on my GTF Website. Join me!

The Penelope Project: Weaving Rizz

Remember our original idea to weave large sunshades for our school - it was going to be the finale for the Penelope Project? (It's ok if you don't.) Welp, it didn't work out as I thought it would. It worked out BETTER!

Just as we got to the phase of the project where I had to organize getting giant frame looms constructed to serve as the base for our shades, the school district decided that our school needed a large, black, industrial chain link metal fence surrounding it. The students immediately started to complain that they were being "imprisoned." Although I knew that the fence was actually about keeping them safe (we had a very open campus before), I thought they had a point. The fence was not particularly "aesthetic" (as the kids like to say), no cap. 

Then, as we were eating lunch one day outside near this fence, Athena struck me with an idea. Why didn't we just weave designs on the fence?! When I shared this idea with my students, we all agreed it would be a great idea to "rizz" it up. (I can't wait for my students to read this paragraph and melt to the floor in puddles of outrage that an adult is using already out-dated youth lingo. LOL)

So we started investigating materials that we could use for outside installations. I had originally settled on something like paracord, but the more I read about it disintegrating in sunlight due to it being plastic, I knew we had to find something else. When I looked up macrame yarn, I stumbled upon recycled t-shirt yarn. They take old t-shirts and slice them up to create yarn. Knowing that we would be spending many hours with this material running all over our hands, I wanted it to be comfortable so I ordered some to play around with. The kids and I both agreed that the t-shirt yarn was AMAZING. Bonus - it came in all kinds of pretty colors.

The next step was for the kids to design a pattern that we could easily transfer to the fence. They all turned in designs, and then we voted on the ones we liked best. We wanted the colors to match a mural that the art students installed years ago to beautify the front of the school. We also settled on an exact location: the main gate entrance to the school. Our weaving art would welcome visitors and students to the school.

We began weaving in late March. It was slow-going work but fun. The students got to work in small groups to weave the fence. They enjoyed chatting with each other as they worked side by side.

Because my classes are so large (3 sections of almost 30 each), not all the students could weave the fence at the same time. I had to devise small group station activities for students to work on while some wove the fence. Here are the stations we worked in every day: 1. fence weaving, 2. online reading program mandated by the school, 3. personal weaving on small frame looms, and 4. interpersonal skills (UNO or another card game in which they actually have to chat with each other and not interact with screens.) Thus, every student in every class got to weave the fence for at least 15 minutes per day. Some kids were better at it than others. Some were super fast and focused; others needed a lot of help. Weaving right alongside each other allowed that extra support for students who needed it.

Another cool aspect of the project was the opportunity to go outside for class. Anticipating seating issues with such a plan, I wrote the grant to cover outdoor seating. Every day when we go outside, we pick up our plastic lawn chairs and take them with us to the fence weaving space. Students who are working on their reading program on Chromebooks can comfortably sit while they do so.

As we wove, we got lots of questions and comments about our project. "Why are y'all doing this? Wow, that's pretty! That looks so nice - thanks for beautifying the fence." Kids who walk by it nearly always ask why they can't be in this class. (Hint: they CAN; they just didn't sign up for it.)

Now that we are nearly done with our fence weaving project, we have received so many compliments. It's really beautiful, and the students and teachers love it. Just recently, parents were discussing the newly installed fences on a social media app. One parent pointed out how we had beautified our fence and "made it so welcoming." We have achieved our purpose!

Advice to all teachers with "big ideas" - be flexible. Sometimes, things don't work out the way you want them to, but that doesn't mean they're not still awesome. Look around you - is there something that needs fixing? Something that could be better with just a little extra effort? Learning to notice those opportunities is a great skill to work on. 

Another bit of advice. Sometimes, projects take a REALLY long time so be patient. One day, my principal walked by as we were working on the fence, and she asked me, "So...when is this gonna be done?" I jokingly told her that we'd be finished at 2:25 PM on Wednesday, May 22. (That's the last minute of this school year. LOL) And may Athena help us, it seems as though that may actually be true. We've also had to take time off from class to celebrate the end-of-the-year achievements that happened because of this class - lots of silver and gold medals on the Pegagus National Mythology Exam!

We got so good at our work that the kids decided we needed to weave another section of the fence so that the gate is completely framed by the colorful panels. And our grant (from ADF) paid for plenty of yarn if we need more. See the bottom right corner of this picture? I'm regretting the use of that dark green and really want to redo it. Every perfectionist fiber in my body wants to. But, I'm going to try to live with it and let this project go.

As we finish out the school year with this project, it's good to know that we helped our school in some small way. My students learned to weave, they reflected on how long that process took in ancient times and in modern times too, and most importantly, they learned alongside each other. 

All STEM Leads to Rome 3: 600 Museum Visitors? Knot a Problem!

For the third year in a row, my students and I offered a STEM in classics outreach program called "All STEM Leads to Rome" at a local museum in Baton Rouge. This museum is the PERFECT venue for our work. The Louisiana Art and Science Museum focuses on science in art and vice versa.

One of the first exhibits I saw there featured the work of legendary NASA artist Robert McCall. When I noticed classical allusions in his art, I developed a unit on his work for my Latin students. The museum director connected me with the artist himself, whom I got to speak with via phone. He even sent me some of his own slides, treasured items to this day.

The interdisciplinary work that I did as a result of my inspiration attracted a reporter with the local newspaper who did a story on me and my Latin-in-space lessons. It's a really cool memory. I still nerd out on Latin in space. After all, the motto of Jeff Bezos' space exploration company, Blue Origin, is GRADATIM FEROCITER. It's an area I like to watch for inspiration.

But back to our event...this year we brought back mosaics. Years ago, when I started teaching mosaics, I found Lawrence Payne at Roman Mosaic Workshops. Not only does Lawrence make beautiful Roman-style mosaics for museums and businesses in England, but he also loves to teach what he does to others. His lessons are amazing. Watching his YouTube channel, I began to learn how much STEM is involved in designing mosaics. 

I've done a whole unit on mosaic design and production in my Roman Technology class. Thanks to Lawrence, I love to teach the Solomon's knot design. It's an easy, traditional Roman design that anyone can do with little training. For this year's LASM event, I wanted to let visitors try out building their own so I made some large templates, and we used some already-cut tesserae to try out setting them up. The results were dazzling! Other than catapults, this station seemed to get the most interest.

A tiny museum visitor builds a mosaic.

Students teach mosaic design to visitors.

We offered 4 types of marble for design.
The black tesserae are from Nero marble.

After training for a couple of years, my former student, now an alum of the program, demonstrated stone cutting as an ancient Roman tesserae maker would have. Visitors, especially kids, LOVED watching him cut stone on site to use in the mosaics they were designing.

On a hot Sunday afternoon, our little event saw over 600 visitors. My students really enjoyed showing off what they know, and we look forward to another awesome event next year!