Memorial High English teacher Patti Nommensen flew to a creativity workshop in the sunny south of France, then toured colder, wetter Ireland to stand where writers and poets Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats created enduring works of literature.
Shanna Ciarella, a Memorial High colleague, at the same time was standing
awestruck in Athens on the Acropolis. Like Odysseus of old, her topic of study,
Shanna found her own travels around the Mediterranean beset by modern-day
setbacks.
Twin sisters and teachers Lillian and Linda Suchoff combined their love of
oral stories with a jointly funded trip to Mexico City and Colombia where they
heard from and studied with expert Latin American storytellers in their
countries of origin.
These Spring Branch ISD teachers and Northbrook High science teacher Bhavna
Rawal were among more than 60 Houston-area teachers who spent a portion of their
summer on self-designed learning odysseys as scholars, researchers and
adventurers after being named Fund for Teachers Fellows. Educators must apply to
be chosen for summer grants to travel and study. Individual grants of up to
$5,000 are awarded; team grants may total $10,000.
The Fund for Teachers has supported the professional and personal journeys
of educators since 2001. In that time, the Houston-based group has awarded about
$18 million in Fund for Teachers grants.
As different as their individual trips were, creativity and the quest to
understand the creative process are common threads in the summer journeys
undertaken by SBISD’s teachers. In their travels, all of the teachers combined
professional study with personal interests and vacation – an objective of the
Fund for Teachers grants.
Patti Nommensen began her summer trip at The Creative Workshop in Arles,
France, where she joined others using cameras, sketchbooks, personal memories,
interviews and visualization exercises to spur creative practices. The workshop
experience convinced her that “creativity is innate: not learned, but simply
forgotten.”
She has taught Pre-Advanced Placement (AP), AP and Dual Credit English
classes at Memorial High for 10 years. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the
University of Texas at Austin, she holds a master’s degree in education from the
University of St. Thomas and has done graduate work in literature at the
University of Houston. Her personal work in poetry and film writing has been
recognized at Houston Poetry Fest and Austin Film Festival competitions.
From the sunshine and warmth of the Provence region of France, Nommensen
flew to the leaden, chillier climate of Ireland. She toured Dublin, the home of
famous writers Wilde and others, and then traveled countrywide. Her trip
concluded in County Sligo where the great poet W.B. Yeats is buried.
The French workshop and all the ancient ruins, illuminated manuscripts,
museums, tours, lectures, guides and graveyard visits led Nommensen to several
conclusions about creativity and great artists:
- “We are all born with a kind of creative genius, and while some are certainly more gifted than others, those we remember – George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Wilde, Joyce and Gerard Manley Hopkins – were persistent in their practice. They gave it their life. While we cannot, it does invite hope about potential and a comment on effort.”
- “Great ideas are often inspired by simple connections.”
- “All artists are thieves: they mine life and memory. We have both.”
- “We, too, should celebrate our native writers of poetry, story and song.”
Shanna Ciarella, who has taught English to ninth-graders at Memorial High
for seven years, traced the wanderings of Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s epic
tale, The Odyssey, across Greece and the Mediterranean. In ancient Latin,
Odysseus is known as Ulysses.
A communications graduate of Texas A&M University, Ciarella attended
South Texas College of Law and then practiced corporate litigation for several
years before entering the teaching profession.
“It was the best decision I have ever made,” she says. “I love teaching
English, and I am so grateful for each of my students.”
On her trip, she visited the Acropolis in Athens, as well as Turkey, the
islands of Capri and Santorini, and made other stops related to the mythological
story.
“I always tell my students that to really understand life we must step out
of ourselves and try to stand in other people’s shoes. I was able to apply that
to my journey across the Mediterranean. Just like Odysseus, I experienced
thrills visiting Turkey where Odysseus had the idea of building the famed Trojan
horse, but I also experienced setbacks. My ship was turned around from port in
Africa because of the unrest in Egypt,” she reports.
“My experience proved incomparable. I teach Gifted and Talented ninth-grade
students, and they are more than capable of reading and understanding The
Odyssey on their own. In fact, many have read it multiple times. My job is to
bring the epic to life. I blogged about my experience along the way, and my
students will be able to follow Odysseus’ journey through my eyes as they read
my blog and follow my adventures,” Shanna says.
She hopes that her trip and blog will inspire her students to write about
their own personal odysseys, such as their high school experiences.
As instructors of English language learners, twins Lillian and Linda
Suchoff won a team grant to travel and study Latin American storytelling in
Mexico City and Colombia.
Lillian, who teaches at Northbrook High, has taught for 20 years in SBISD
schools including bilingual and ESL classes at Woodview, Spring Shadows and Pine
Shadows elementary schools, and at Spring Woods High School.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a
master’s degree in reading from Corpus Christi State University (now Texas
A&M University-Corpus Christi), and recently completed the graduate program
in Library Science at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Her sister, Linda, teaches prekindergarten at Bear Blvd. School for Earl
Learning. A UT-Austin graduate like her sister, she has taught 17 years on SBISD
campuses including Spring Branch, Hollibrook and Treasure Forest elementary
schools.
The outgoing teacher twins began their Latin American journey in Mexico
City with award-winning storytellers Victor Arjona and Angel del Pilar who are
the directors of the Festival Internacional de Narració de “Cuentos Grandes,
Calcetines Pequeños,” or “Big Stories for Small Socks.” The festival attracts
famous storytellers who focus on stories for both younger and older
children.
Professional storytellers, or “cuenteros” as they are known in
Spanish-speaking countries, were part of the Columbian culture that the sisters
absorbed in Cartagena, Cali and Medellin. Summertime festivals in Colombia are
famous for traditional, oral folktales and stories that are shared and handed
down from generation to generation.
In Medellin, they attended the city’s oldest and largest festival, “La
Feria de Las Flores,” or Festival of the Flowers, an annual street party and
procession. The sisters were connected there with other storytellers. They also
learned about the use of puppets and storytelling props and devices. Back home,
they plan to collaborate and create digital lessons that include traditional
storytelling elements.
“It was an amazing adventure,” Linda says. “I was struck by the warmth that
the Colombians had for us, and the respect and pride that people of Mexico and
Colombia have for their own nations.”
“Before our trip, we were both skilled readers of stories, and fans of the
storytelling tradition. Now, we will be far better tellers of these stories,”
Lillian says.
“We are not master storytellers. Storytelling is one of the great arts. But
today, we both know so much more about the craft and tradition of storytelling,”
twin sister Linda adds.
Together, the teaching twins issued this statement on their Fund for Teachers experience: “We feel that these travels to Latin America have enriched our lives in many ways, and we expect that they will impact our teaching by helping us make literature accessible to all children through the art of oral narrative. During this summer-long investigation on storytelling, we increased our knowledge, skills, techniques and repertoire of stories while learning more about the Latin American culture and history.”
Elsewhere, Northbrook High science teacher Bhavna Rawal researched the
wealth of biodiversity in Costa Rica to help create a unit of study that helps
students grasp the concept of sustainability and better understand the impact of
human activity on the world environment.
For more information on the Fund for Teachers, please visit:
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