GC Hardwick Celebrates Fall Term!

Global Campus Hardwick began the Fall Term sitting outside at Greensboro Bend Church learning to tell stories about their lives and personal histories. This Our Stories unit inspired the group to share story-telling techniques, which evolved throughout the term into in-depth personal stories. Chris decided to use video to tell the story of his work at Applecheek Farm. A film of his daily work was recorded and shared with the class. Annie created posters of her life and favorite activities. She cut out magazine pictures to describe some of her habits and what she likes to do. The Our Story theme will continue to weave throughout the curriculum in Winter Interim and Spring Term 2011.

Midway through Fall Term, after the campus numbers grew to twenty-two participants, Global Campus Hardwick decided they had outgrown the space at Greensboro Bend Church. The group settled on a new space at the Greensboro Fellowship Hall, which has a large common area, kitchen and dance floor! The group was sad to leave Greensboro Bend, where they have many memories, but the new space fits well with the campus dynamic.

Global Campus Hardwick began a new routine of creating their Campus Seminar agendas as a group before class. The group takes turns leading the campus and the leader writes the agenda onto a white board. The campus is very vocal and often spends a lot of time talking during Campus Seminar, thus cutting into their class time. We discussed whether to add more time to the seminar or to continue to cut ourselves off after a half an hour of discussion. The group decided to keep the discussions short, when possible!

Global Campus Hardwick took their course offerings to a new level this term. People often commented after a class that the faculty had used many new teaching methods and created an innovative class, fun for everyone. Amanda’s Zumba Class got everyone out of their seats and dancing. Amanda goes to Zumba class twice a week and had spent the term designing her own dance workout to share with the class. Another dance class, Connor taught the group to Contra dance. He walked everyone through a few steps and then shared a step that he had made up on his own. Helen and Tina brought in evergreen and wire for the group to create holiday wreathes. People shared that they loved the hands-on creativity of this class. Olivia’s Genealogy workshop allowed everyone to start a family tree. Parker shared about one of his favorite Beatles songs, Here Comes the Sun. As he played the song, the whole group began to sing, and people commented that his class had been relaxing and soothing. Seth and Jared arranged a field trip to the Wolcott Town Hall to walk the group through the process of voting. The campus voted Jared as Governor and Seth as Lieutenant Governor.

This term was packed with classes, so much so that it prompted discussion of whether to have some classes on different days of the week. The group is still discussing this idea, but holds fast to their love of Tuesdays. Looking ahead to Winter Interim, the group will study a Where in the World theme that incorporates stories from around the world. The campus will look at stories, myths and fables, as well as pictures and cultural facts from different countries. There will be an air of mystery to this term as the groups try to guess Where in the World these stories are from.