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Teacher Spotlights: Greg English, Oak Park Middle School, Calcasieu Parish Greg English is a social studies teacher in Calcasieu Parish at Oak Park Middle School. His dedicated and innovative approach to engaging his students in learning social studies employed folklife content and methods even before Greg became a Louisiana Voices Ambassador. He has the distinction of having attended the week-long Louisiana Voices Summer Institute for the past two summers. When I asked Greg if we could feature his work in this newsletter, he was a bit incredulous and self-effacing, saying "I just teach. I don't think I do anything special. " Well, Greg, let's let our readers judge for themselves. Greg English has been teaching for 14 years (second career). His degrees are in Social Studies and Art Education with additional certifications in journalism and computers and countless professional development hours. He is a photographer and Louisiana enthusiast who has amassed a collection of over 5,000 images taken in and around all 64 Louisiana parishes. Aside from his teaching and dedication to his history club, the Louisiana Explorers, Greg coaches girls fast pitch softball (he has coached the same team for 20 years), umpires, builds webpages and listens to Cajun music. One of the guiding principles behind the Louisiana Voices project is the idea that students should have authentic experiences that connect them with their community, their heritage, and their state. Greg's way of doing this has been to transform his classroom, an old football equipment room, into a veritable museum of Louisiana history. When you enter his classroom, you are bombarded by color and stimulation. Diorama mini-exhibits fill the cubby holes that used to hold shoulder pads and helmets. The evolution of the flags of Louisiana covers the ceiling. Collections of everything from iron pots to hot sauce surround student project tables. This is a history lab where students can engage all their senses and experience real objects, images, and sounds of Louisiana. Before Greg became involved in Louisiana Voices, his students did an interviewing project on the impact of Hurricane Audrey on the people of Calcasieu and Cameron Parishes as well as a genealogy project. Wanting his students to learn Louisiana first hand, but not wanting to get tied down by field trip regulations and red tape coupled with some students' attitude toward field trips as a day out of school, Greg began a history club. The club travels on weekends to Natchitoches, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and other locations around the state. They have visited rural life cabins, plantations, churches, and even haunted houses. They have eaten Louisiana foods ranging from Natchitoches Meat Pies to New Orleans style Shrimp PoBoys and crawfish. As the club's mission statement says, "Louisiana Explorers is to educate seventh and eighth graders about the sites, sounds, food, music, culture, and history of the state they live in through hands-on experiences and living of Louisiana history that others just read about." These are not your run-of-the-mill, let-the-kids-run-wild field trips. Students are armed with clipboards that hold questions to be answered and scavenger hunts to be solved. Greg makes sure his students notice the architectural details, folklife characteristics, and contextual information that make each site special. Students draw historic houses, take notes, and talk with the people who live and work in the area. Before and after trips, the students do research and create projects. Students contribute to their own website. One result has been healthy competition and hard work on the part of Greg's seventh graders to be chosen for one of the 32 Louisiana Explorer spots. Another result is joyfully obvious - students that are engaged in learning about Louisiana history and folklife. Greg first attended the Louisiana Voices Summer Institute at UL-Lafayette during 2001; he returned in 2002. Truthfully, he was not totally convinced after the first time that his experience had been valuable or useful. He was a bit frustrated by the lack of ready-made activities that we presented at the Institute where we immerse the teachers in the content and work of folklife. However, back in the classroom with the Educator's Guide in hand, he discovered many ready-made activities and lessons that he could tailor or plug-in to his existing curricula. Since then, Greg has added a more in-depth look at Louisiana festivals and the culture of South Louisiana. His students took part in a pacqué (egg knocking) contest and a cooking demonstration. Of his experience at this year's Institute Greg says, "I felt more at home with the binder and the things we learned at the Institute gave me even more ideas...some very simple to use and some that I will remold to fit my needs, but all easy to do. " This school year, Greg plans to bring local folk artists into the classroom to demonstrate: a gospel singer, Creole accordion player, a fiddle maker and a local cook. If to teach is also to inspire and change students' lives, then Greg English does do what he says he does. "I just teach." You can visit Mr. E's classroom and his Louisiana Explorers online at: |
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