SUMMER READING PROGRAM FOR TEACHERS AND HOMESCHOOL PARENTS

Did you wish you had more time during the school year to explore the classroom library included with the Mariposa’s Dreaming Again Immigration Teaching Trunks? Now is your chance! Teachers and homeschool educators can check out the classroom library for a month at a time this summer to peruse immigration-themed fiction and plan for the coming year. Contact the museum at 603-316-8689 or education@mariposamuseum.org to reserve a middle or high school “library” — a.k.a. the whole summer’s beach reads, conveniently packed in a duffel!

Procedure and Requirements: Trunks are available to teachers in New Hampshire and by special arrangement to teachers in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine. Educators wishing to reserve a Trunk should contact us or visit our Web site for an on-line request form. Trunks are available for four week periods on a first-come, first-served basis. To make the Trunks available to as many schools as possible during the year, we expect multiple classes within a school will share use of the Trunk during the four-week period.

A Mariposa staff member will personally deliver the Trunk to provide teacher training in its use. A representative teacher will sign off on contents using a checklist. Missing materials at the end of the rental period will be the responsibility of the school. Since the trunk is rather heavy, schools should provide one or two people on site to unload/load the Trunk.

You Are a Part of the Trunk’s Evolution. The Trunk is a work in progress and will evolve as we receive feedback from teachers and students who use it. We invite you to share your own lessons with other teachers so others may benefit from your experiences, and to ask your students to share what has been most meaningful to them in using this unique resource.

As an expression of this responsibility we ask that you:

• Write letter(s) to the Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center

• Provide photographs of the Trunk being used by students

• Complete a culminating activity where students sign for the Trunk and share what it means to explore immigrant experiences

• Complete (as an educator) a final evaluation form

Dreaming Again Immigration Teaching Trunks

The Mariposa invites you and your students to participate in our new Immigration Teaching Trunk Program. Four trunks for middle and high school classrooms have been created for classroom use, each designed to enrich student learning linked to one of the most fascinating and relevant topics facing New Hampshire communities today: Immigration.

Sponsored by the NH Humanities Council, Putnam Foundation, the Partridge Foundation, and the Horne Foundation, Immigration Teaching Trunks are a component of the Mariposa’s Emerging Voices of NH Initiative. Other resources offered to teachers as a part of this initiative include school-hosted performances of the NHHC-commissioned play Dreaming Again and Teacher Professional Development Workshops. Please contact us for information.

Separately targeting middle and high school students, Immigration Teaching Trunks are filled to the brim with humanities content chosen by educators and designed to encourage independent and classroom exploration of immigration experiences. Novels, nonfiction accounts, DVDs, CDs, maps, an original dramatic script, and lesson plans build global awareness while building critical skills in cross-cultural understanding, communications, and thinking. Students will be explore issues of identity and membership vital to the future of New Hampshire and our global community.

Cost: There is no fee to borrow the Immigration Teaching Trunk. We do ask schools to provide mileage reimbursement for trunk delivery at the rate of .50/mile.

Any donations to the Mariposa to maintain the Immigration Teaching Trunks are welcome and much appreciated!

Acknowledgements: In addition to our generous sponsors, we would like to thank the team of educators and staff who have worked hard to create and bring these Teaching Trunks to you: Team Leader Marjorie Margolis (Brandeis University); Linda Chick, ELL specialist and English Teacher (Manchester West High School); Genevieve Aichele (author of Dreaming Again, arts educator, and Director, NH Theatre Project); Leona Casella, Immigraton Literature (Leona Casella Education); Nona Feinberg, Special Humanities Advisor (Keene State College), Mariposa Board Member Betsy Small-Campbell and Administrator Tina Thaing.

We would also like to acknowledge the work of Facing History and Ourselves and Teaching Tolerance, whose publications have been included in Trunk contents.

Thank you once again for joining us in the ever-fascinating adventure and challenge of exploring culture and community in New Hampshire and of transforming our state’s rich diversity of cultures, experiences, and points of view into a rich learning resource for all.