For an update on Starr’s student impact, click here.

In Limestone County, AL, 82% of the citizens are white. That percentage jumps to 96% when looking at the student body of Ardmore High School where Starr Weems teaches. Fearing her students’ first encounter with racial, cultural and religious diversity would be on the job, in college or not at all, Weems designed a Fund for Teachers grant to study three of the world’s major religions in Jerusalem. Her goal was to create a combined art/foreign language curriculum that introduced her homogenous students to the beauty of diversity and tolerance.

“As the only high school art teacher in the county and the only foreign language teacher at my school, it’s my responsibility to bring the cultures of the world to my students – many of whom will never leave our state. Somehow, I needed to inspire them to learn about the world around them so that they can be prepared to take part in a diverse society. It’s this responsibility that inspired my fellowship,” said Weems.

For one week last June,  the holy city of Jerusalem became her classroom for intercultural studies. After journaling and sketching at the Dome of the Rock and surrounding gardens, she ventured to the Souq al-Qattanin to experience the colorful markets. In the Christian quarter, she followed and documented the Stations of the Cross on the way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Weems spent an afternoon plein air painting at the Wailing Wall, explored the Western Wall tunnels and toured the Ophel Jerusalem Archaeological Park. She also collaborated with Israeli educators through pre-arranged visits to the Hebrew University High School and witnessed the Holocaust’s impact on art at Yad Vashem. Lastly, she met with Isareli working artists at the Huztot Hayotzer Artists’ Colony before viewing Chagall’s stained glass windows at the Chadassah Medical Center.

Three days after returning home, she boarded a plane to Rochester, NY, where she attended a symposium on the sacred texts of the Abrahamic religions at Nazareth College – also funded by her $5,000 grant.

Finally back in Ardmore, Weems implemented her new art/foreign language curriculum this fall (schedule and budget restraints necessitated the combined class). As part of the curriculum, her students heard from a local Holocaust survivor and experienced the Darkness into Life: Alabama Holocaust Survivors Through Photography and Art exhibit at the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. After the field trip, students created their own art to reflect on what they witnessed (see below).

“A Hebrew proverb says that children are not vessels to be filled, but candles to be lit. How can a teacher light the fire of curiosity in her students if her own spark has grown dim?” said Weems. “Teaching is rewarding and exciting as no other career, but success comes only when educators take care to stoke the fires of creativity and inspiration. Guarding the spark (as I did with my Fund for Teachers fellowship) is an obligation that protects our longevity and influence as educators.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. saw the function of education as teaching others to think intensively and critically. “Intelligence plus character,” he said, “that is the goal of true education.” In honor of Dr. King’s birthday today, we also celebrate Starr Weems’ work toward building students of intelligence and character for a future of tolerance.

You can learn more about this fellowship and download the resulting new lesson plans from Weems’ blog Art in Jerusalem.

 

Fans of the movie Twilight fall into one of two categories: Team Edward or Team Jacob. Students at Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School in Birmingham, AL, support a third option: Team TSV (Teachers Seeking Vampires). This team, comprised of a science, a history and an English teacher, will research vampire legends across the British Isles’ this summer, to inspire students’ interest in reading.

“For 20 years, I’ve taught in an inner-city school and I’ve never witnessed this level of reading apathy,” said LaVerne McDonald, history teacher and team lead. “After telling students what to read for all those years, I turned it back on them and asked what they wanted to read. ‘Vampire stories’ unanimously topped the list. I decided if I could use vampires to get their attention, then I automatically get their interest and the war is won.”

Consequently, Team TSV heads to England, Ireland and Scotland in July, bringing to light the cultural influences and historic sites associated with Western literature’s vampire legends. By observing the geography and locations featured in works by John William Polidori, Bram Stoker and Lord Byron, the team becomes primary sources for their students and, hopefully, catalysts of positive reading habits.

“I knew about Fund for Teachers, but Alabama teachers were never eligible – until this year,” said LaVerne. “We figured those reading our application would think we were crazy proposing a vampire-themed fellowship. But that’s what the students wanted, so that’s what we wrote. The beauty of Fund for Teachers is that we could choose what we wanted to learn, as opposed to being told what to learn.”

Community support leading up to the teachers’ departure encouraged LaVerne that they were onto something. Features by the Birmingham News and local ABC affiliate, in addition to accolades from the Alabama Board of Education, buoyed their excitement. The only negative response came from former students, who complained about missing out on the experience.

According to LaVerne, every world culture, beginning with the earliest civilizations, incorporate some form of vampire legends, making the topic ideal for world history curricula. Stephen Howard, science teacher, plans to lead student inquiry into the biological ramifications of vampires’ habits (digesting blood and jumping great distances); English teacher Phylecia Raglund will guide students’ reading of Stoker’s Dracula, Lord Byron’s poem “The Giaour” and lesser-known works of Polidori, credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction.

“Naturally, as an educator, I want students’ reading scores to go up, because success in any subject depends on one’s ability to read. But as a person who loves children and wants them to succeed in life, I want them to enjoy reading,” said LaVerne. “If vampire stories hook them on reading, then so be it.”

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For more on this teaching team, watch this piece produced by the Southern Education Desk.