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Trinidad teaching
Study abroad program to islands gives students opportunity to teach
creative writing.
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For 10 years, Mary Swander went to elementary and secondary schools in
Iowa serving as an "artist-in-the-schools."
During those journeys, the Distinguished Professor of liberal arts and
sciences and professor of English would teach creative writing and poetry
to Iowa's youth through an Iowa Arts Council program funded in part by
the National Endowment for the Arts.
She enjoyed it so much that she still travels to Des Moines at least once
a year to participate in a similar program.
So if the idea was such a success in Iowa, why not expand it beyond the
state's borders?
Why not, well beyond Iowa?
"This is a fun and valuable experience for both (sets of) students,"
Swander said. "My idea was to take the ‘artist-in-the-school' program
and take it abroad."
Between the fall and spring semesters, Swander led what is believed to
be the first in the nation writing-in-the-school study abroad program.
The English professor and four graduate students traveled to Trinidad
and Tobago for two weeks.
There, after familiarizing themselves with the country, the students taught
creative writing in elementary and secondary schools for the program's
second week.
"To have a real writer in their midst, someone that can serve as
a role model to these children, is exciting," Swander said.
The four graduate students, Allison Macken, Julia Burton, Robin Kennedy
and Lauren Alleyne, are all experienced classroom instructors. Each taught
two classes a day on creative writing and poetry during their stay in
Trinidad. Swander would then meet with them at night.
"I worked with eight- and nine-year-olds to encourage their creativity,"
Macken said. "We read poems together, did exercises to expand how
they think about the world and about writing, and they wrote their own
poems.
"The students wanted me to teach longer, for another hour, another
week," she continued. "After I'd been back in Iowa for a few
days, I got a phone call from one of students and he was making sure I
was working on the book of their poems that I promised I would make and
send back to them."
Poetry written by the Trinidad students will also ultimately be placed
on an on-line anthology.
Swander selected four different schools for the students to teach in including
Mackin's third and fourth graders attending a Catholic school, a fifth
grade class located in a rain forest in Trinidad, a private high school,
and a public junior high school.
"In addition to teaching the two core classes each day in their own
school, the graduate students would go to the other schools to see what
those were like and help out their fellow students," Swander said.
"They each got to work with students from different backgrounds but they
also taught students that have a different world view than we have here
in Iowa."
Macken would agree.
"I don't think they've (her students) had the bad or boring experiences
that some older people have had with poetry," she said. "This
was a time for them to image wearing a shirt made of mosss, which was
part of one of our exercises, and to think about what Trinidad tastes
like, smells like, sounds like."
Swander said the initial program was such a success she hopes to offer
additional study abroad trips to Trinidad and Tobago every two to three
years. The University of Iowa has also inquired about participating in
the program.
Around LAS
February 21 to March 62005
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