Rebecca McBride: Writing Samples

Talent and Learning Go Hand in Hand at CCS (The Chatham Press)
Among the many jewels that contribute to the beauty of the Chatham area are the talents of individuals who live, work, and learn here. As shown by projects in the Chatham schools, good things happen when forward-thinking educators join with talented members of the community to enhance the experience of learning for our children.

The origins of the Chatham Education Foundation, which provides support for many such projects, came from the creative thinking and financial contributions of a few local individuals. In just five years, the nearly $30,000 in grants that the foundation is awarding for the 2007-08 school year brings the total funding awarded so far to more than $100,000.

According to Bill Wolff, president of the foundation, “Each year we’ve been able to build on the outstanding projects of the previous year, and each year our contributions have grown. It has been a wonderful experience for all involved.”

The foundation includes two funds. Drawing on the exceptional talent right here in our own backyard, the Arts and Humanities Fund supports artists in residency, film and media projects, literacy work, student performances and publications, and more.

The Alexander M. White Fund supports excellence across all disciplines. This fund supports the district’s creation of an engineering preparatory curriculum in the high school as well as the Interplay program, which uses story telling and metaphor to promote intellectual and social growth for children in the early grades.

One major advantage of community foundation funding is the potential for fostering creative continuity from one year to the next. Last year, area artist Jacqueline Rogers, taught fourth graders how to paint like the early American portrait painters. This year, the school district’s five art teachers will broaden their own knowledge of American art through an in-service training day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in November. Plans include working with social studies, history, and music faculty in exposing students to early American culture and art throughout the school year.

Another project with threads connected to last year involves making and learning to play Nigerian Udu drums. In 2006, high school band students learned techniques and rhythms in playing the drum, along with African history and culture, from an area musician. In 2007, ceramics students will make the drums, music students will learn to play them, and younger students from MED will participate.

At the recent FilmColumbia film festival, the public had the opportunity to see the fruits of such projects for themselves. The two-minute spoof, Hairy Potter and the Flashlight of Fire, which was created, written, and shot by Chatham Middle School students under the direction of Chatham resident Regge Life, was shown as part of the Young Filmmakers Program.

The Chatham Education Foundation also believes in developing collaborative relationships with other area organizations and grantmakers. The Spencertown Academy Arts Center has partnered with the foundation in creating arts-in-education projects. These joint ventures have been supported by the T. Backer Fund, the Rheinstrom Hill Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Sidney and Beatrice Albert Foundation, among others.

Foundations like the Chatham Education Foundation, which exclusively support public schools, are emerging throughout the country. They give individuals who wish to benefit schoolchildren through charitable gifts a means to do so. Among the pioneers in this area, the Chatham Education Foundation is now assured of providing permanent assistance to the young people of our community.

Assets of the foundation now exceed $400,000 and are growing under the guidance and management of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. To make a tax-deductible donation to the Chatham Education Foundation, individuals should contact the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, 271 Main Street, Suite 3, Great Barrington, MA 01230; 413-528-8039.

A board of governors composed of Chatham residents, school officials, educators, and students oversees the raising of funds and awarding of grants. Area artists and others who feel excited about sharing more opportunities for learning in the Chatham schools are encouraged to request a grant application, due in March each year. To request an application, contact the District Office of the Chatham Central Schools, 392-2400.

The Chatham Press, November 2007

Excerpt from Handbook for School Board Members, Chatham Central School District, Chatham, NY
The Time Factor

When asked how much time you need to spend as board members in Chatham, most of you said “a lot.” And the amount of time expected by board members is increasing. The New York State School Boards Association agrees with you: they say that six hours a week is a general rule. It could be more: six to 10 for general members and up to 12 hours a week for the president and vice president.

Make every effort to attend each board meeting. This means two meetings a month—a business meeting and a workshop meeting. Spend about as much time preparing for meetings as being in the meetings themselves.

It is expected that you will serve on at least two committees and have one special assignment (e.g., Long Range Facilities Planning, Strategic Planning). (See Section 4, Chatham Basics, for a list of committees.)

Other kinds of time: Another activity that takes time is attending school events and visiting the schools. This is time well spent in several ways: you will learn more about what’s going on in the schools, and the school community (students, teachers, parents) will learn more about you.

Attend school events: The school community appreciates it when board members take the time to attend events. This is a good way to show your interest and build relationships with the community. Being visible is a type of outreach.

Get to know the schools first hand: Board members are encouraged to visit the three schools and see how they work. School visits are valuable in maintaining relationships with staff and administrators. They will help familiarize you with the schools from the inside. You may be familiar with the schools from being a parent, but when you walk the halls with a teacher or administrator, you gain a completely different perspective. Visiting the schools is good preparation for making informed decisions.

We encourage you to “shadow” a teacher for a day. You may also request shadowing an administrator or a student for a day.

Call the district office to schedule a visit. Do not visit the schools without advance notice.

“I am interested in the grassroots political process. I wanted to help protect what’s good about education and share my values.”

Excerpt from Traveling Between the Lines:

The Journal

I recognized the handwriting at once. It was small, precise, and surprisingly legible. Even at age 34, my father had a distinctive handwriting that hinted at his life as a mathematician. Growing up, I would see piles of paper with that same script but written in the language of formulas and fractions and arrows. There would be lots of white space on the page.

But here, in what I discovered was the first of four tiny notebooks, there was no white space. Instead, the writing starts at the top of the notebook’s opening sheet and careens down the page and onto the next page without hesitation. At the end of the notebook are lists of items and their cost (pipe 5/6, liqueur 3/1, mints 1) and some names and addresses. I came across the notebooks in a carton of my father’s papers long after his death in 1988.

First entry: “May 28, 1938. Got to Hook of Holland about 4 in the morning....” Was this a journal of the Black Forest cycling trip? I knew my parents had biked in Germany’s Black Forest region at one time, but I knew little else. A lover of travel, I read on.

The more I read, the more I felt myself being pulled into the world of these little notebooks. It was as if the words in faded pencil drew me in to themselves and then placed me out into the world of 1938 Europe. Soon I could see that the notebooks were a record of my parents’ trip abroad from May 28 to September 1, 1938, one year before the start of World War II....

To My Father

Your journal begins with your arrival in Holland.... You, John, my father, and Margaret, my mother, are young, have little money, and are off on a great adventure. You travel by train, stay at youth hostels, rent bicycles, drink beer, climb mountains, and visit European mathematicians. This is the first of many trips abroad that you will take together.

But why Europe—why Germany and Austria—in 1938? Today, with all that is known about that time and those places, I want to ask, how much did you know about the world you were entering? I realize that the past has revealed itself gradually, like tide uncovering sharp edges of shells on a sandy beach, but still, what did you expect, and what did you find?

Reading your journal has led me to question, what did the American public know about Nazi Germany at this time—one year before the start of World War II? What did the media tell them? What did their government tell them? You have opened a door for me, your daughter, to your own past and to our country’s history as well.

In entry after entry, you notice—and record—items like the prices of things, the rate of exchange, and the time of arrivals and departures. You are specific about the details of everyday life. Reading your journal, I learn the names of streets you walk, the cost of eggs and film, and changes in the weather from day to day.

What I don’t know is how you feel as you travel together for three months, seeing things you had never seen before, in a Europe that was fast crumbling in on itself. I write to you to help myself learn.

Traveling Between the Lines: Europe in 1938 © 2010 by Rebecca McBride