students entertain
learning center pupils
Freehold Intermediate
students entertain
learning center pupils
By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Dressed in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform, Freehold Intermediate School eighth-grader Neil Bolton, 13, portrays baseball legend Dizzy Dean during a “Live Wax Museum” presentation to pupils at the Freehold Learning Center, Freehold Borough.
FREEHOLD — Students helping other students to learn may not be a new concept, but Paula Desch and more than 90 eighth-graders have taken the concept to a new level.
They’ve taken the art of learning and mixed in some costumes, a bunch of props, a paper cup and alternating stillness and movement to create a fun way to learn about people who have had an impact on society.
Desch and her Freehold Intermediate School students presented a "Live Wax Museum" show for second- through fifth-graders at the Freehold Learning Center elementary school on Nov. 19.
The result of the project was education in a form that the youngsters seemed to find intriguing and fun.
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Freehold Intermediate School eighth-grader Krysten Curet, 13, is all smiles as she portrays TV sitcom star Lucille Ball during the program.
"(The project) was part of our reading challenge, to recognize National Children’s Book Week," Desch explained. "We presented a reading challenge to the students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The challenge was to read five books in one year."
She said the challenge was motivated by the teachers’ desire to have their students want to read more.
The subject of the reading project was biographies.
The project challenged the students to read, but also allowed them to have fun and learn in an environment conducive to creating that fun.
The students were required to read a biography of a person they admired from any era of history.
The only requirement was that the person must have had a positive effect on society.
Last week the reading project came to life.
Lined up along the four walls of the learning center gymnasium stood the eighth-grade students.
Some came in costume, and some held special props, giving clues to whom they were portraying.
All seemed excited to be immersing themselves in the event.
Desch said each student was required to research the person he or she was going to portray.
They were directed to learn things such as the person’s ethnic background, family life, contribution to the world and positive impact on society.
Finding costumes and props was part of the fun, according to Desch, who explained that the project was a team effort and students helped one another.
"If someone needed boxing gloves and couldn’t find any, someone else did," she explained.
"One child brought in a tuxedo for one (student), while another brought in a stuffed puppy for someone else," Desch noted.
The learning center gym was alive with color and design as each of the older children held a paper cup with the name of his or her historical figure printed on it.
The younger students seemed fascinated at first by the silence in the gym, but when a child walked up to one of the eighth-graders and dropped a nickel into the paper cup, that action animated the character.
Costumed and ready to perform their stories, the characters came to life, giving a brief history of who they were, what was important to them and what they wanted to be remembered for.
When the speech was finished, the student returned to "wax" and once again stood still.
Desch said all the nickels that were collected would be donated to the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, which was founded shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, death of Todd Beamer of Cranbury on United Airlines Flight 93 during the terrorist attack on the United States.
The foundation is a nonprofit public charity created to equip children experiencing family trauma to make heroic choices every day, according to the foundation’s Internet Web site.
Besides the wax museum, Desch enlisted the help of science teacher Diane Quade, who added a "food festival" to complement the live wax museum.
"After researching their character, each student came up with a recipe to complement the chosen person," Desch explained, giving examples such as Josh Hoffman, who matched up tea and scones to complement his narrative on William Shakespeare, and Teresa Ly, 13, who chose Chinese fried rice to bring to the festival to honor Asian American author Amy Tan.
Ly explained that Tan thought she would become more American by eating less Chinese food and by sleeping with a clothespin on her nose as a child, hoping to change her Asian features.
There were corn muffins for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Spanish rice for baseball Hall of Fame honoree and humanitarian Roberto Clemente and potato latkes for filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
"We want to give thanks for all the contributions of the people that were chosen and honor the positive impact that their diversity had on us," Desch added.
Some children chose the same people to profile. Comedienne Lucille Ball was honored by Krysten Curet, 13, and Jasmine Chandler, 13.
"I loved to make people laugh," Jasmine said as she portrayed Ball. "I saw the possibilities that television held and acted out my vision."
Krysten chose to wear clown makeup in her portrayal of the comedic legend.
Dressed in jeans, a white shirt knotted at the waist, bracelets and several pairs of large hoop earrings, Salinda Hernandez, 12, portrayed the late singer Selena.
Muhammad Ali was also represented by two youngsters.
Gerardo Vasquez, 13, dressed in a bright-blue sweatshirt and pink boxing gloves and spoke about the champion he called "The Greatest."
His facial expression and stance told the story of the legendary heavyweight champion fighter.
Mike Blum, 13, who also chose to represent Ali, said the fighter was shy and was sensitive to the needs of others and that he wanted to be remembered for his deep faith in God.
Lauren Patterson, 13, chose to portray Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, stating that she was the first First Lady to publicly and actively participate in her husband’s presidency.
Dressed in a Chicago Cubs T-shirt and baseball cap, Emily Patterson told the story of Todd Beamer, mentioning his wife, Lisa, his children and the fact that he would like to be remembered as an average person, who had tremendous faith in God and in his country.
Beamer is recognized as one of the passengers on Flight 93 who are believed to have fought back against a group of hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001 and to have prevented the hijacked plane from striking a target in Washington, D.C.
The teachers said they were very pleased with the success of the event.
Fun and learning came together to make a great experience for both the "wax" eighth-graders and the younger children who made them "come to life."