Montclair Kimberley Academy

Almost 30 years ago, in 1978, PAMKA awarded the first Faculty Continuing Education Grant for $150 to Barbara Rabuse to purchase books for her doctoral study. In 1997 the program was renamed the PAMKA Faculty Trust to offer grants to faculty to pursue field-oriented courses that would enlighten them and enrich their students? classroom experience in a unique way. Applications are reviewed by a committee of MKA administrators, parents and former faculty trust recipients from each campus. PAMKA has awarded 56 Faculty Trust Grants for over $ 225,000 during the past decade. Dream destinations have included Africa, Alaska, Belize, Brazil, China, Colorado, Czech Republic, Dar Islam Institute, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Galapagos Islands, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Montana, Nevada, New York, Norway, Oahu, Pacific Northwest, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Vietnam and Woods Hole. Dream projects have included the premiere of a play, recording of a classical CD and the creation and premiere of an artist's large scale portfolio. Recipients enthusiastically share their inspirational experiences with their colleagues, students, parents and the Press.

Faculty Trust Grant Recipients for 2008 On the 30th anniversary of its first gift of $150, PAMKA is proud to announce this year’s recipients of its Faculty Trust Grants. Seven teachers representing all three campuses were awarded just under $35,000 to fulfill their dreams to study language and music, observe teaching models in Asia, follow the path of Julius Caesar and walk in the wilds of the Caribbean jungle. A committee consisting of parents, faculty and administrators reviewed the applications in late November following an extended application period through the fall. The awarded faculty will report on their trips to the entire faculty and administration in late August and ultimately share their experiences with students and parents in the classroom and through the PAMKA Press.

Upper School Spanish teacher and Learning Center director, Laura Doto, will travel to Spain to attend the World Expo, Zaragoza 2008, and study the language, culture and history of Barcelona. Ms.Doto has never visited Spain, having honed her speaking skills in South America, and wrote that going to the country will enable her to “relate first-hand to the students in my Spanish classes what Spain is about…I will get to absorb the Castilian accent and refresh my reproduction of it – Most of my teachers used it, but my fluency developed in Bolivia, and so my pronunciation is no longer “pure”.”
Upper School History teacher, Kerry Verrone, will “follow the route of Julius Caesar as he marches against Rome.” In her application, Ms. Verrone argued most eloquently for the opportunity to trace the path of the leader of ancient Rome from France into Italy with the hopes of bringing the experience, sights and sounds into her 9th grade Civilization classes. Complementing the trip with readings and museum visits that explore the art, culture and politics of the period, Ms. Verrone believes that the trip will “take [her] beyond a simple history of Caesar’s life and death. . . [and] permit [her] to reflect more deeply on the moral character and identity of Julius Caesar, the root of [her] fascination with this time period.”
Upper School Math teacher, Sophie Kan will travel to Japan to visit classrooms in Kyoto and Tokyo and observe authentic mathematics Lesson Study in secondary and elementary schools. Lesson Study is a method of instruction employed in Japan where students perform very well in international math competitions. Ms. Kan will also have the opportunity to sit with mathematics professors in both cities to understand Japanese strategies for learning and hopes to bring some of the concepts and teaching methods she explores into her own classroom. “I will enrich my own teaching by learning from Japanese experts how educational goals and standards come to life in the Japanese math classroom.”
Middle School Science teacher, Amy Fossett will participate in a 14 day wild life tour in Costa Rica that will expose her to many of that country’s twelve distinct ecological zones. As part of her trip, Ms. Fossett will interact with expert scientists and naturalists and visit an active volcano. Her journey will introduce her to a variety of plant and animal life and provide her with a solid understanding of how these life forms support each other within an ecosystem. “This trip would certainly advance my knowledge of diversity in the plant and animal worlds, different ecosystems, and geology, subjects that are prominent in the new fourth grade science curriculum.”
Middle School Humanities teacher, Jennifer Pingeon, will spend two weeks traveling through Jordan and Kurdistan. The inspiration for the trip comes from five years of teaching 5th grade social studies in which the emphasis on “geography, the process of archaeology and the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia” is easily explored in the Middle East. Highlights of her visit will include a guided tour of Petra, which is Jordan’s most famous archaeological site and a jeep tour of Wadi Rum Desert and the Dead Sea. She also has the opportunity to visit relatives in Kurdistan, which is virtually absent of tourism and underdeveloped, making trips around the area uniquely interesting because it is untouched. As the modern day site of Sumer, the focal point of the 5th grade study of Mesopotamia, Ms. Pingeon will have “the opportunity to see extraordinary vestiges of history” and share those experiences with her students.
Middle School Physical Education teach and coach, Ken Smith, will travel to Northern Ireland, his mother’s birthplace, to participate in a clinic that offers instruction and licensing for coaching disabled children. With an eye towards one day coaching in the Special Olympics, the experience also adds to the skills he has acquired coaching soccer at every level from middle school to varsity at MKA. While he does not work with severely disabled children at MKA, Mr. Smith feels that the instruction he receives will “enable [him] to better differentiate my class instruction. . .I will learn about resources to help me to reach every child. . .Acquiring these new skills will make me a better and more sensitive teacher.” Exploring his family roots caps the trip, making it a personally as well as professionally enriching experience.
Brookside music teacher, Jane Smith, will travel to Ireland to explore the history of music in that country and the “roots of the baroque recorder through the Irish tin whistle.” The recorder “is the first wind instrument that school children are introduced to in many societies. I wish to visit a land where the music was first conceptualized and composed on a simple version of our baroque recorder.” With plans to visit local elementary schools, attend music festivals and participate in musical clinics around the country Ms Smith will draw on the methodology practiced in a country with a strong musical history and tradition and try to understand how Irish teachers carry that love of music into their classrooms.

This year PAMKA is pleased to award a record $36,502 to 7 faculty grant recipients who will travel to China, Israel, Italy, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland.

Upper School English Teacher Patricia Forbes will follow in the footsteps of Longfellow, Hawthorne, Twain, Wharton, Hemingway, Cather, Fitzgerald, Charlotte Bronte, Henry James, Wilke Collins, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster and others who “have drawn upon the world beyond their own shores to serve as the backdrop and escape for their many interesting and cosmopolitan characters.” Her “Great Escape” road trip retraces typical high points “back in the day” when British and American writers traveled in search of literary inspiration. Patty will begin her pilgrimage in Switzerland and continue by train and car to explore Lake Como, Florence, Tuscany and Rome. She hopes to make new connections with the writers whose works she know so well and teaches in her classes of British Literature, AP English, Twentieth Century American Literature, and the American short story at MKA.

Primary School Math Coordinator Margaret Gonzales will study the mathematics of tessellations, or tilings, in Spanish architecture and art. Her first visit to the Alhambra at age 15 inspired a “lifelong fascination with patterns and art in nature. It simply excites me to see mathematics come alive in the beauty of art. Math is music, art and science and, it is all around us.” She will visit Madrid’s El Prado, explore the works of Picasso, Dali and Gaudi in Barcelona and return to Granada’s Alhambra, one of the best-know monuments with tessellated patterns. She will create photo journals and tri-lingual eBooks formatted as scavenger hunts for her students and colleagues that will support the understanding of tessellations in math, art and science. The study of tessellations helps establish a solid foundation in the understanding of basic geometry. Margaret will also explore interdisciplinary connections of history, art, architecture, cultural diversity and engineering and envisions the potential for developing new inquiry-based projects at Brookside.

Upper School History Teacher David Hessler has been “fascinated with all things Chinese” and Daoist philosophy since he began teaching Civilization at MKA 14 years ago. He continues to teach the early history of China and the philosophies of Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. David’s dream trip to “reach beyond the history books and actually see China” will include visits to sites of historical and cultural importance including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, a tour of Bejing and the ancient city of Xian where the first emperor of China built a mausoleum destined to keep his legacy alive for over 2,000 years. He will visit Daoist monasteries to gain a greater appreciation of this ancient philosophy which lays out a moral system based on respect for nature and living without ego. He is looking forward to sharing the experiences and knowledge gained during his trip with many students. He sees a parallel to the value of integrity in the MKA.

Upper School Spanish Teacher Tony Lambert’s maternal grandfather left Spain for the U.S. in the early 20th century. Understanding the history of his country is important to Tony personally and professionally. He will explore the vestiges of Muslim and Jewish Spain by visiting historical churches, mosques and temples, including Toledo’s two synagogues and Christian church designed by “moriscos” or converts to Christianity from Islam. This region is close to the home of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the core work studied in Spanish 3 and 3H. Tony will delve into Cervantes’ Spain, inhabited by Old and New Christians, and study the complexities of multi-culturism. His journey will help him provide his students with a better understanding of the cultural and historical context in Cervantes’ novel. He hopes to create a “more challenging academic setting – in which students will consider the philosophical underpinnings of their government and will be capable of independent ideas, artistic appreciation and social responsibility.”

Middle School Band Director Linda Larkin is delighted to return to the land of her ancestors to study at Napier University’s Summer Jazz School in Edinburgh, Scotland and to participate in the internationally renowned Starbuck’s Jazz Festival. “Although I have spent years studying the development of European music and how it has influenced music in the U.S., I have never traveled overseas to experience European culture first hand. I have also never performed publicly with jazz musicians.” Linda will study theoretical and practical approaches to improvisation and enjoy master classes taught by professional musicians featured in the festival. She will give her first public jazz oboe performance with her classmates and teachers at the Starbuck’s Festival on their last day of school. She also plans to retrace her Scottish roots and visit the birthplace of her great-grandfather in nearby Paisly.

Middle School Art Teacher Jason Ruff shares Mark Twain’s philosophy that “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor…Explore. Dream. Discover.” Jason will fulfill his dream of traveling across the Atlantic by cargo ship, without the amenities of a cruise, with time for self-reflection and inspiration. His 17 day sea voyage will take him to Valencia, Spain where he will explore the ancient architecture, art of such masters as Goya, the Institute of Modern Art and the imaginative futuristic City of Arts and Sciences designed to celebrate the arrival of the 21st century. Jason believes “there is no better way to learn than by experience” and is looking forward to sharing the experiences of his “life-changing” trip with his students.

Upper School Counselor Joan Weller will travel to Israel to pursue two areas of interest related to emotional trauma. She will interview students, counselors and educators to learn how Israeli teens are affected by the constant threat of terrorism and how they develop resiliencies to thrive under such emotionally and intellectually stressful conditions. She will explore how families and institutions support healthy development with educational opportunities and counseling. Joan will also study how the essential principles in Islam, Judaism and Christianity may contribute to the well-being of individuals and society. She hopes to visit a special multicultural music school in Jerusalem where all three faiths study She expects to acquire knowledge that she can apply in her personal counseling with MKA students as well as coping mechanisms that will be shared in health classes and with students and parents through the development of various programs.

 

PAMKA Awards Faculty Trust Grants

 

PAMKA is pleased to grant a total of $19,500 to this year's five Faculty Trust Grant recipients. We wish them a wonderful time as they embark upon their creative adventures and look forward to reading about them in next year’s PAMKA Press!

This year we received a total of 14 grant applications, from 16 teachers, all of which were very impressive. After careful review, we initially selected six teachers. Three of the teachers, who are planning a joint trip, will postpone their excursion until next year. Some grant money has been set aside for their trip and PAMKA has awarded the remaining portion of the funds to two other 2006 applicants.

Paul Cunningham - Upper School English Teacher

Paul will travel to Prague and St. Petersburg this summer, the hometowns of Franz Kafka and Vladimir Nabokov, respectively, to get a richer understanding of the writings of these two great writers.  “Kafka lived and wrote in Prague for almost all of his short life, and is truly considered Prague’s son.”   “I knew I had to see Prague through Kafka’s eyes.”  “The eloquence in which (Nabokov) writes about his hometown and hearing his own commentary of his writing as a way to reconcile and return to the past, again made me realize I also had to see St. Petersburg, trying to ‘find’ that city through this writer’s eyes."

 

Robert Jeremiah - Upper School Spanish Teacher

Robert will travel to Peru this summer to study the history and culture of this Spanish speaking country.  The highlight of his trip will be a 28-mile, 4-day hike to the ancient, Incan city of Machu Picchu, after which he will take a one-day rafting trip through the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  “Visiting Peru and the home of the Incas is a truly exceptional opportunity.  It will fulfill a goal of mine, getting to Machu Picchu, as well as providing me with the opportunity to see other sites in Peru which are exceptional both for their beauty and their historical significance.”  “The opportunity to see these places – rather than just reading about them in a textbook – is something that will inspire me.” 

 

Dominique Benson - Middle School World Language Teacher

Dominique will spend a total of five weeks in Senegal this summer, four of them volunteering in a primary school during the day while staying with a host family at night. During the weekends, she will participate in cultural workshops and visit places of interest, thereby furthering her appreciation of the Senegalese culture. Her final week will be spent traveling to those areas of Senegal that she does not get to experience during her volunteer assignment. “Giving back to a community is for me an essential factor of this trip. I live a very privileged life compared with the vast majority of the world population. While I am very busy during the school year, I have three months vacation to volunteer my time and expertise in places where it is needed. If, at the same time, I can also do something which would profit my students back in the United States, the better for it.”

 

Linda Stark - Middle School Social Studies and English Teacher

Linda plans to travel to Florence and the surrounding Tuscan area over Spring Break to study the art, history, and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. "A dream of mine for many years has been to ‘live’ the Renaissance I share with my seventh grade students. . . . I hope to rekindle my love of firsthand learning, to gain fresh perspectives, to connect personally with the paintings, sculpture, and architecture I love to teach, and to work with a variety of scholars in a field I have not formally studied.”

 

Carol Spencer - Upper School History Teacher

Carol will spend a week in Paris this summer participating in the Oxbridge Academic Teacher Seminar where she will study the history, architecture, literature, art, and politics of France through lectures, guided tours, and visits to various Parisian cultural institutions. In addition, she will have the opportunity to meet with French secondary teachers to discuss their current educational practices. “Living in France for a week would allow me to study Paris’ role on the world scene, touching on both the past and the contemporary. . . . My dream is to allow my senses to soak up every aspect of Parisian life and spirit that I can possibly experience!”

 

Laurie Smith - Upper School Science Dept Chair, 

        Chemistry, Advanced Chemistry,

        AP Chemistry Teacher

Leigh Vanderklein - Biology Co-team Leader,

        Biology IRS, Biology, Chemistry IRS Teacher

Tony Jones - Biology Co-team Leader, Biology,

        Chemistry Teacher

 

Laurie Smith, Leigh Vanderklein and Tony Jones will journey together to the Galapagos Islands this summer and travel by small boat on a guided tour of 8 islands in 11 days. The tour includes evening lectures on topics ranging from the geology of the islands to the biology of sharks and sea birds. As described, the tour is structured like a college mini-course with lectures, reading, and meetings

with field scientists. By traveling together, the three science teachers will share a common experience that they can then bring back and share with the school and their students.

 

Leigh: “Quite apart from fulfilling a lifelong dream of looking eye-to-eye with a marine iguana and personally measuring the beaks of finches, I am enthralled with the idea of creating a photographic journal on the diversity of sea birds.”

 

Laurie: “I view this trip to the Galapagos not only as a perfect opportunity to continue to expand my knowledge into the area of biology but also as a way to add a very necessary dimension to my continuing education.”

 

Tony: “To travel and explore the Galapagos Islands is a lifelong dream. As a young child growing up in East Orange, I would read books about the giant turtles, boobies, and other unique organisms that inhabit the islands. It was fascinating comparing the rich diversity on the islands to the gray squirrels and pigeons inhabiting my city. It provided evidence of a rich, diverse life outside of East Orange.”

 

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"In Search of Macbeth" 

by Caroline Toman

 

Due to PAMKA's generosity, I was lucky enough to be awarded a grant to travel to Scotland over Spring Break to embark on an adventure that took me to ancient castles, highland hills, sacred burial sites and battle grounds-turned sheep fields in search of Macbeth, both the tyrant Shakespeare wrote about and the actual king who ruled Scotland in the 11th Century.

 

 

From the Fjords to the Moors:  Studying My Core Works

by Laura Gerard

 

In June, I was so fortunate to travel to both Norway and Yorkshire, England to study the authors of the two Core Works in my upper-level elective classes.  In my Literature of Modern Drama class, the core work is Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, and in my Gothic Literature class, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is the Core Work.  So, I set off on an adventure in June to see all in Norway that is Ibsen and all in Yorkshire that is Bronte.

 

"What I Did Over Summer Vacation"  by Ken Bishé

Like a child stumbling through an attic wardrobe into Narnia, or Mary Poppins leaping through a sidewalk chalk drawing into an animated English countryside, my grant opened a portal into an architectural world I had only imagined. Thanks to the largesse of PAMKA, I had the opportunity to see - if not in the flesh, then in steel, stone, and glass - magnificent pieces of architecture that, for me, had existed only in two dimensions in the pages of books.

“Oh! Those Summer Nights!!”  by Nancy Pi-Sunyer

When people ask me what I found most fascinating or amazing on my PAMKA-Grant trip to Alaska, I have to say, “The light!” Perhaps it’s time for me to do a deep study of the physics of light, but there were SO many aspects of light that affected this journey that I’ve chosen to focus on illuminating you about that!

 

A Musician's Dream Come True

by Dimitri Hadjipetkov

 

     Many years ago I began learning, and interpreting the virtuoso chamber music works for violin and piano by Franz Schubert. Originally I was drawn by the composer’s work after playing his piano trio in B flat with two Dutch musicians in the early nineties. A year later I was invited to perform a European tour with the North Carolina Festival Orchestra and I was exposed to multiple Schubert orchestral works. After learning his piano trio and some of his orchestral symphonies, I started looking into his other works for violin and piano, only to discover how few violinists have recorded them. I knew that many big violinists avoid these pieces due to the fact that Schubert composed them on the piano, disregarding the technical abilities of the violin. Therefore, these works are extremely uncomfortable and certain sections are even impossible to play. I came across one of Menuhin’s archival recordings of these works where the music was altered in many places. At this point, I was completely in love with these works and I was determined to learn them in their original version as the composer had intended.

 

 

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

by Tracy foster

 

Thanks to PAMKA, I had an absolutely fabulous time attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. My eldest daughter Kate, who wants to major in theatre in college, traveled with me. Together, we saw 14 shows in 5 days!  With 1800 shows to choose from in 300 different venues, we only wish we’d had a few more days to see more theatre and just enjoy the lovely city of Edinburgh. Great Britain’s weather can keep you guessing, but we were blessed with mostly sunny skies and summer temperatures.  Walking hilly Edinburgh was great exercise, and I got to pretend I was a schoolgirl again, staying in a dorm, the St. Mary’s Music School, bath down the hall.