GC Randolph Explores Ancient Greece

This Winter Interim we have been learning about Ancient Greece. We learned about Greek gods and goddesses like Zeus, Dionysus, and Poseidon. We read exciting myths. We spent an afternoon at the Kimball Library reading about Ancient Greece. The Olympic games came from Ancient Greece, but they didn’t play modern sports like basketball. The events had to do with war, like running, javelin, discus, and chariot racing. Dates, grapes, and spanakopita are some of the Greek foods we tasted. We even made some Greek jewelry!

We are getting ready to celebrate our travels with an Ancient Greek potluck!

By Global Campus Randolph

GC Randolph Reflects on their Fall Term 2011!

We learned about the Tunbridge Fair from Vicki at the Library. In Edie's Talking Books classes we switched to a new story about a chimpanzee living with a family, it is great! Rick taught us about bowling and we learned the inside of the ball is made of hard plastic. Missy showed us how to set a table with laminated placemat diagrams in her Basic Table Setting class.

The VT state butterfly is the monarch and the tree is a maple. That was from Edie and Vicki's State Symbols class. Dan gave a drumming demonstration and played along with ACDC.

Kathi, Cheryl and Joe taught us about fall leaves and how to make a collage with them. Everyone at MENIG liked Rena and Justin's class on Baseball Bingo. We learned baseball terms like infield, outfield, and innings. Jonathan taught us what VDOTU stands for in his TV show class and we learned more songs in Theme Song Trilogy.

We made a Full Value Contract that says how we should treat each other at our campus and we all signed it. Our theme is Building Community and we made a map of our community with all the connections we have, like where we live and work. We also invited guest speakers from the community to teach at our campus in the Spring Term. It's our campus!

- By Melissa Campbell, Rick Holbrook, Daniel Dunn, Edith Billings, Vicki Uphahm, Raymond, Justin Lumbra, Rena Haevers, Jonathan Fletcher, Lisa Dickinson, Marion Casarico, and Kathi Pratt

GC Participants: Leaders in their Campus and their Communities

As Global Campus participants all over Vermont and New Hampshire grow through the process of engaging with their campus, they encourage each other to take on more responsibility and leadership. "It's our campus," we always say! Robin, a teaching faculty at GC Bradford decided that the local library would be a good place to spread the word in the community about her campus so she presented to the librarian about GC Bradford. Thanks to her efforts the campus has been invited by the library to have a display of our Fall Term Catalogs for community members to pick up, learn more about our campus, and attend our classes. Rena, a faculty participant at GC Randolph thought it would be great to offer her Baseball Bingo class at MENIG, an assisted living facility associated with Gifford Hospital in Randolph, so she went and talked to the MENIG coordinator and successfully secured both a venue and a very excited class audience there! These are just a few of the countless examples of campus participants taking charge and driving the growth and development of THEIR Global Campuses. Keep up the great work!

GC Randolph Presents Community Connections Conference

On Monday evening, August 22nd, Global Campus Randolph hosted a Community Connections Conference at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Randolph, VT. This conference was created with the intention of introducing our campus to the community of Randolph, sharing the creative work we are all engaged in and making new friends and connections. There was a fantastic turnout for the conference with community members, campus supporters, ambassadors from other Global Campuses, and the participants of GC Randolph in attendance.

The evening included a welcome address, an honoring of campus participants, a sharing of the GC Randolph story, many dynamic short classes presented by Global Campus teaching faculty, and a panel discussion focusing on making new connections within the community. The participants on the panel welcomed community members to attend their classes and even to teach a class based on their own passions and interests! Community members were also invited to participate with the campus as a resource person, sharing a teaching experience with one of the GC Randolph faculty. When asked how community members should participate with a campus, Shawn of GC Bradford replied, "Just treat us as who we are and not as our disability."

During the catered meal that followed the main portion of the event, many community members in attendance shared how inspired and moved they were by the campus participants and their impressive work. Congratulations to all the GC Randolph participants who created this tremendously successful conference!

GC Randolph Explores Montshire Museum!

Global Campus Randolph traveled to Montshire Museum this week to explore their current exhibits and get some inspiration for Fall Term classes!. The museum had generously mailed us free passes to get in for the day so while we were eating lunch we all signed a thank you note for the executive director. There was a lot to explore in the museum. We started out as one big group checking out the robotic exhibit and then slowly drifted into smaller pods. The robot exhibit was really neat, there was a platypus, chameleon, house fly and other animals that were robotic and you could push buttons to make different parts move or light up, reading about different facts relating to the animal. I didn’t know that the male platypus has poison injectors in his hind legs for fighting with other males! We had fun with a chameleon camouflage exhibit, trying on different ponchos to blend into a background.

Rick, Dan and I ventured outside to the water park, but the warm bath water wasn’t much of a respite from the heat. As the afternoon came to a close we spent some time in the downstairs portion of the museum having a grand time with all the different permanent exhibits. Giant bubble contraptions, air tubes with foam balls, fish and reptiles in tanks, vortex and current machines, and more. It was a full afternoon!

GC Randolph Greens Up Randolph and then Celebrates!

Participants at Global Campus Randolph gathered at Pleasant Street House to celebrate another dynamic semester at their campus! The afternoon began with a picnic lunch in the sun followed by a class by Joe, Kim and Cheryl. They led us through their neighborhood picking up trash and enjoying the warm weather. Joe, Kim and Cheryl walk regularly in the warm months and always pick up along the way! After their class we congratulated each other on our great classes and accomplishments this term. Participants were honored with certificates and applause! Congratulations to all on your hard work!

GC Randolph and GC Chiang Mai Initiate Pen Pal Experience!

In the Fall of 2010, Global Campus Randolph faculty Rena Haevers presented a class on Pen Pals. As part of her class she asked everyone to write a letter to Global Campus Chiang Mai. GC Randolph participants just received their first response from half-way around the world featuring letters and photographs from participants at GC Chiang Mai. They were thrilled to receive the letters and learn more about the campus participants in Thailand. Everyone wrote back immediately, sharing more about themselves and the huge winter snowstorm we just received! What a wonderful new relationship sparked by Rena's class, congratulations!

GC Randolph Celebrates Fall Term!

Global Campus Randolph recently celebrated a very successful Fall Term at an awards celebration in mid-December! Our Fall Term began by exploring the academic year theme: “Our Stories”. As part of the theme campus participants thought about their lives and had the opportunity to share any interesting stories that emerged through writing, artwork, story telling and a variety of other creative mediums. We’ll be exploring the theme more during the Winter Interim and Spring Term!

The faculty at our campus presented some fantastic offerings this term. Jonathan shared three courses including a Power Rangers sequel, a new TV series called “Case Closed” and his popular Theme Song Trilogy class that he first offered during the spring term. Edie taught two classes, Nutrition and Exercise, and Edie’s Book Club. Rena also presented two classes: one was a Christmas karaoke class for the seniors at the Menig facility at Gifford Hospital called Singing with a Pair of Friends. The other was a Pen Pals class in which we all wrote letters to our friends at Global Campus Chiang Mai in Thailand. Dan and Rick co-taught a baseball class; Vicki shared her passion for Shirley Temple, and Lisa taught about Honkey Tonk music. Cheryl offered a Music and Dance class and Kim taught drawing, both classes were offered at Pleasant Street House in Randolph. Missy shared a class on making salads and her twenty years of experience preparing them for McDonald’s and Kathi taught about snowshoeing. Even though there wasn’t any snow, she still demonstrated by snowshoeing down the hallway!

Our campus adopted a few new initiatives this term including allowing for more space for participants to respond to questions, in case someone might need extra time to think. We also accepted more leadership by taking over the facilitation of the Campus Seminar. Each week someone new volunteers to lead the group through the agenda and create a new agenda for the next week. Rena, Rick, Ann, Vicki, and Dan all participated as facilitators this term. For our community service project, our campus decided to collect school supplies for children in need both here in our area and for children in Thailand. We’ll be collecting until the beginning of the spring term.

Shortly we’ll be kicking off our Winter Interim at Global Campus Randolph, exploring the legend of King Arthur in England while also learning about what life was like in Vermont several hundred years ago during the winter. This decision was a great process for our campus as we honored the voice of a participant who did not really want to travel this year. Stay tuned as our adventures unfold!

GC Randolph Spring Update

What a great year for Global Campus Randolph! The highlight of our fall term was participating in the Fall Conference in Burlington. Rick, Missy and Rena all participated as faculty presenters and served on panel discussions at the event. We were very proud to share our campus with several hundred people!

During our Winter Interim we experienced a flight simulation and a trip around the world on the first week. We then learned about the earthquake that devastated Haiti and spent several weeks planning for, learning about, and traveling to Mars. We were particularly interested in exploring the possibility of life on the Red Planet. Our travels finished with a Mars party at Pleasant Street House where Jonathan shared some fascinating space documentaries with us.

This spring term we were all very impressed with how far we have all come as faculty at our campus! The classes this semester were fresh, full of experience and new ideas, and all were very fun. Jonathan taught a fantastic new class with Rena called Theme Song Trilogy, engaging participants at our campus together with a large audience at the Menig Facility at Gifford Hospital in a TV theme song trivia game. Kathi taught us how to dance, Peg shared her passion for National Geographic magazines, Dann and Rick showed us their moves on the Basketball court, Joe shared his love of the TV show “Beverly Hillbillies”, and Edie had folks over to her home for a six week book on tape series. Kim and Cheryl led our campus in a Green Up Walk through the streets of Randolph. Rena shared her love of Karaoke with the folks at Menig. Rick, Missy and Lisa captivated the same audience with a Piano Concert by Rick and an Elvis Dancing class by Missy and Lisa. Missy also taught a fantastic class on the History of McDonald’s.

During our campus staff meeting and campus seminar this semester we have been learning about and participating in the process of writing a grant. As a campus we are interesting in broadening our educational horizons with a number of experiences outside of our local area as well as connecting more with other campuses across the state. We also worked on exploring different teaching audiences in our area and experienced a great success with that project by offering several classes for folks that live at Menig, an assisted living wing of Gifford hospital.

We celebrated our successful teaching and learning experiences at the end of May with an Awards Barbecue at Pleasant Street House. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time socializing together and remembering all the good times we had together this term. Smoothies and watermelon were the highlight f the afternoon!