Where are we going and what are we doing there???? Well, it all started in the fall of 2009, when we were creating an integrated curricular unit for our 7th graders, trying to blend together big ideas from social studies (ancient meso-American civilizations), science (ecology and sustainability) and language arts (personal journal writing). We stumbled upon some information about the massive stone heads created by the Olmec, the students had all kinds of questions, and a virtual field trip to explore the mystery unfolded in our classroom. Here's Nichole, investigating : )
(and if you had access to my photo archives, you'd see how I
revamped a nativty shepherd's costume to create an Andean Inca wardrobe)
Anyway, it was a great learning experience for the kids, but we were bluffing our way through some of the lessons because it was tremendously difficult to find authentic, accurate information to flesh out our field trip--even with the help of YouTube.
Fast-forward 15 months, and we had the chance to apply for a generous grant because our school was named a Wisconsin School of Recognition. We proposed a three-week trip to Mexico to see the Olmec heads first-hand, and apparently spun a convincing rationale about how this travel would enhance the in-class experiences of our students.
We won the grant! and joined a list of Fellows from around the country, all dynamic teachers trying creative things on summer vacation. Check them out on the Fund for Teachers site here: http://www.fundforteachers.org/fellows.html --Kris
