Global Campus Moretown Fall Term 2011!!!

For many this is their first time attending a Global Campus class. The environment is loose, fun, and full of banter. Many classes consist of throwing celebratory parties with cake and potlucks. For the times when we are not celebrating we start by gathering in a group common area to pass a Talking Stick and share events of the past week. We then proceed into the actual class where faculty from Global Campus get up and teach the rest of us a little something about their hobbies and lifestyles. Classes usually last from 1 - 2:30 so that there is time to fit everything in. Global Campus always welcomes new participants and looks forward to the experience of meeting new people. - By Lee Willsey Potter

I did the best job and I really love it here! - Jennifer Lovelette

Bowling. I explained about what size ball you should use in my class. I liked putting the clay on the oven with my hands. - By Roy Francis

I like Global Campus because I can share about my interests, especially cats! - By Rhonda Komulainen

I did the Race Class last year. I talked about how the cars get fixed and how they get smashed up. Then they get towed with a tow truck. Global Campus is fun! - By Neil Rauh

I love to hang out at Global Campus. - By Matt Hersey

I like it because everyone meets. I like bringing a new match box car to share each week. Friends. - By Curtis James

Global Campus is a nice place! - By Holly Hilton

I liked Finbar's Airplane class. - By Gabriel Teran

Finbar Teaches About Airplanes and Gliders!

Global Campus Moretown was alive on friday afternoon! There were over forty people that attended Finbar's incredibly successful class on airplanes. At the farmhouse, Finbar began his class by playing a speech he had programmed into his talking device, sharing his passion for airplanes and airports. He showed a video clip of him flying a friend's Cessna out of Berlin Airport as well as two clips of weather research airplanes flying into hurricanes. He then invited us to carpool to Warren airport where we all marveled at the airplanes and gliders taking off and landing. Finbar invited Mark, from Sugarbush Soaring, to share his airplane and glider wisdom with us. It was a beautiful afternoon for a beautiful class. Fantastic!

GC Moretown Celebrates a Year of Mud!

In the fall of 2010, Neil, a faculty member at Global Campus Moretown, decided he wanted to teach a class on how to build an outdoor oven. This idea sparked a year long adventure at our campus as Neil guided us through the process of constructing our very own outdoor oven made of cob, a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. It was a challenge for some participants who don't enjoy getting dirty, but just about everyone got their feet muddy mixing the cob and enjoyed the cool mud between their toes! We just finished our oven a few weeks ago and celebrated the process at our annual cider pressing event, baking pizzas to perfection in the beautiful oven for the community to enjoy! Neil is so proud of his oven, congratulations Neil!

GC Moretown Supports Flood Relief at their 4th Annual Cider Pressing Festival

This friday was a dynamic afternoon at the GC Moretown 4th Annual Cider Pressing Festival! There was a huge turnout for the exciting event. Everyone had their hands in something, whether it was pressing and canning cider or making artisan pizzas to slide into the piping hot cob oven. After the cider was pressed in a hand press we pasturized it and canned it into beautiful mason jars with custom labels. The quarts of cider were then offered for a donation to support flood relief efforts in our community after tropical storm Irene.

Dynamic Course Offerings at GC Moretown!

Participants at GC Moretown are wrapping up their course offerings for the Spring Term and wanted to take a moment to look back and reflect on all the great classes over the last several months. Congratulations to all participants for making your campus such a success this semester! We'll be celebrating next week with a certificate day celebration and barbecue, join us!

Grace, "Chile", GC Moretown Spring 2011

Neil, "Working at a Hardware Store", GC Moretown Spring 2011

Robert, "My Life Story", GC Moretown Spring 2011

GC Moretown Supports Haiti Reconstruction

Participants at Global Campus Moretown donated over $2000 to support immediate relief efforts in Haiti last winter after the earthquake devastated the small island nation. This year they did it again! Participants organized a benefit event and raised over $1000 and collected clothing and supplies to send down with Mary Jane, a Resource Person at GC Moretown, who traveled to Haiti with a local aid group based in Waitsfield called AMURTEL. Mary Jane then returned a few weeks later to give a presentation at our campus, sharing her stories and experiences in Haiti and telling us how our donations were used! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated in the project!

GC Moretown Explores the World!

Global Campus begins by the ritual passing of the feathered pine stick that starts every class. Each person shares a little bit about their current agenda and plans for the future. Andreas, our Academic Coordinator, went to the library for our class project. For this project we are supposed to select a country we would like to visit and then choose a book that has stories and descriptions of that country. Once introductions are over, people dive into research on their topic countries, deciding how they are going to present their projects. Each person picks something unique to their own interests then by formulating a common goal of sharing compiled information about a specified place. We not only learn about our countries but inform others as well.

By Lee Willsey Potter, GC Moretown Participant

GC Moretown Kicks of Winter Interim 2011!

Global Campus Moretown kicked off an exciting Winter Interim this afternoon, exploring the world through story, legend and myth. Andreas shared a few stories orally and then Allison and Roy each read a story while Andreas acted it out in three dimensions with a puppet show. We heard tales from Sweden, Ghana, Vietnam, and from the Pueblo nation of the American dessert southwest. This is what GC Moretown Lee Potter wrote about the day:

Global Campus starts with the ritual passing of the feathered pine stick for a turn to voice each persons passing of time and stories of the New Year. While most of us were glad the holidays were over, there were some that wished the festivities had not ended, and new snow had not come. After everyone had shared we moved on to reading stories that explored the different abstract qualities of life, such as freedom, true love, and the inevitable flaws held within every person. The last story tells of deceit and survival of the fittest from Sweden and America and the path to becoming a man and growing up.

By Lee Willsey Potter, GC Moretown Participant

GC Moretown Celebrates Fall Term!

Global Campus Moretown has been an exciting place to be this Fall Term 2010! Early in the fall term we explored the GCF academic year theme: “Our Stories” by reflecting on stories from our own lives and sharing them in a variety of creative mediums. On one afternoon, campus participants passed around a camcorder, taking turns recording video and sharing stories in front of the camera. We were also busy early in the term harvesting our fruitful garden, making pesto with our basil and eating lots of zucchini, kale, and other veggies.

The classes this semester were fresh and innovative! Neil tested our intuition in a corn maze and shared his passion for racecars by having a real racecar driver Troy Kingsbury visit our campus with his stock car. Matt and Lee bravely presented a Frisbee workshop in a cold autumn rain. Allison made us feel as if we were on a cooking show with her Zucchini Bread Workshop. Afterwards Lee taught a poetry class while we munched on zucchini bread and fresh apple cider. Matt shared his passion for yo-yos by having us all make our own! Grace taught us about photography and shared a photo slideshow of all the GC Moretown classes and events. Roy hosted a local Waitsfield potter at our campus for a pottery workshop and Lee brought in a pile of acoustic instruments, demonstrating and playing each one for his class, the History and Origins of Acoustic Instruments. Our annual cider-pressing event was another tremendous success this fall. We combined the event with a Halloween and Harvest party and had a huge turnout. It was truly an exciting academic term!

We are all excited to begin Winter Interim in mid-January with an exploration of stories, legends, and myths from around the world. As we travel to different countries that we find interesting we’ll also what the local folklore is as part of our academic year theme “Our Stories”. Stay tuned to hear more about our adventures!

GC Moretown: Blueberries and Boating!

Todays Global Campus crew gathers at Blueberry Lake for some fun in the sun. The class begins with everyone bringing their own lunch to picnic down by the water. Melissa brought her truck and two of her kayaks. After lunch we all went out and picked as many blueberries as we could find. When we were done collecting we retreated back to the base of the lake and prepared to eat while others armed themselves for fun in the water. By 3:00p.m. the day came to a close and we went our separate ways, berries and belongings in hand and smiles on our faces.

By Lee Willsey Potter, GC Moretown participant

GC Moretown: Annual Softball Game

A happy raucous crowd from Global Campus joins together today for fun and games. Todays event...softball. For most it is simply a time to have fun and hit the ball, however, some bring their competitive nature to the field. Teams are formed, pitches are thrown, and laughs are had, and assistance given to those who need it. Even the few on the bench are having such fun they begin to play as well. When the six innings are over everyone gives a friendly congratulations, makes plans for next week, and goes their separate ways. This game was a project of Global Campus and all participants involved in an effort to display the importance of fitness and fun games.

-Lee Willsey Potter, Global Campus Moretown participant

GC Moretown Spring Update

Global Campus Moretown has recently completed an extremely successful and exciting academic year. The Fall Conference in Burlington was a tremendous highlight of the fall term for many participants as we all shared our campus with several hundred people. Neil, Dave, Curtis and Rhonda all presented successful classes at the event. It was amazing and wonderful to experience how proud we are of our campus and folks really responded to that!

We traveled all over the world for our Winter Interim experience this year. We began with an experiential flight simulation and tour of the planet using Google Earth. For the first few weeks we immersed ourselves in a study of Thailand, learning about architecture by building a Thai Spirit House, exploring Thai Buddhism by becoming monks for an afternoon, and experiencing different aspects of Thai food and culture. In honor of the Haiti earthquake that happened in the midst of our travels, we spent an afternoon learning about Haiti and talking about the effects of the earthquake. We participated in a ceremony together, sending our prayers and intentions to all those affected by the earthquake and simulated what it might be like to live under a tarp by performing our ceremony under one.

This event spurred further interest in helping the people of Haiti so Global Campus participants put together a benefit to raise money for the devastated country. Hearts for Haiti T-Shirts were printed and sold, CD’s of Haitian music were created and decorated and sold, there was a benefit dance, Phil even sold some of his famous canned goods as a benefit! Upper Valley Services, our partnering agency, matched our contributions and we raised just over $2000. The money was sent down directly with a local Moretown woman who runs the ambulance in town and is part of a spiritual relief organization that has been involved in Haiti for several decades.

Our spring term has been a flurry of really fun and interesting classes. Neil taught everyone how to build birdhouses, Mary Jane and Dennis presented a slideshow of their travels in Guatemala this past fall, Roy taught us all how to go bowling, Matt taught a spring break workshop in the hot tub at The Bridges resort, and Dave hosted us at his apartment for a class on his Dynotalk Augmentative Communication Devise, as well as a new program he has for his computer to assist him in communicating. Matt got us all together for a Green Up Walk, picking up trash in our community, Curtis shared how he takes apart, fixes, and reassembles his matchbox cars (he’s quite the mechanic), and along the way we planted some seedlings for our summer garden and had a grand time making ice cream in a zip lock bag!

We celebrated our successes at the end of May with a barbecue and picnic at Waterbury Reservoir. Neil felt it was important for everyone to receive a trophy in honor of their hard work, I believe that was a first for a Global Campus! It was the perfect way to celebrate, smelling the grill, tossing a Frisbee, and wiping watermelon juice off our faces.

GC Moretown: Green Up Walk

The day starts outside Middlesex on River Road with a lively crew from Global Campus Moretown. This is a class on Greening Up taught by Matthew Hersey. We go out on this project as a belated Green Up Day to collect litter left behind by our neighbors and to improve the environment. We go up and down the sides of the road finding recyclables, mailboxes, cardboard, and metal. Finding a way to dispose of these items and write for it is what brings us here on this beautiful day. The turnout of people for this project is fabulous…at least twenty people have joined to help the environment. As we walk down the dirt road I’m at the back of the pack but the effects of this effort are still clear on the faces of the adults. Clear joy, not only for the beautiful day, but for the chance to clean up their environment and make a difference. The day ends with a gathering of twenty to thirty bags of garbage to be collected and several piles of tires and metal on the side of the road.

By Lee Willsey Potter, GC Moretown Participant