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Mill Creek kids get a peek at Scotland during teacher exchange
By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
Traverse City Record Eagle
November 11, 2008
WILLIAMSBURG -- Theresa Smith bent toward a table of fourth-graders at Mill Creek Elementary, a stuffed elephant wearing a plaid kilt and tam -- a gift from her daughters -- on the teacher's desk behind her.
It's a small reminder of home, some 3,400 miles away, where at the same time friends and family were celebrating the defeat of revolutionary Guy Fawkes 400 years ago with bonfires, bands and fireworks.
It's one of several stories, poems and songs about her homeland that Smith has shared with the Elk Rapids Public Schools students as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher from Scotland. Here for five months, she's trading spaces -- from classrooms to homes to cars -- with Laura Cobb, a seven-year Mill Creek teacher temporarily living and teaching in Scotland.
"She's been incredible," said Naomi Chalk, a Mill Creek first-grade teacher and Smith's mentor. "I think she's really enhanced our staff this year."
The Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program is a federal grant opportunity that allows teachers in the U.S. and abroad to swap places for as long as a year, offering students and staff a global, real-world lesson on culture. Smith, a teacher at St. Mary's Primary School in Bathgate, is one of only 12 teachers from the United Kingdom on exchanges in the U.S. this year.
Although she began the school year with MEAP preparation, Smith, 54, has been able to bring a Scottish flavor to much of her instruction in reading, writing and social studies. For instance, she used the recent U.S. presidential election to talk about the Scottish Parliament and seized Nov. 5 to introduce her students to Guy Fawkes Day, which marks the defeat of a 1600s plot to kill King James I.
"It's been a great exchange. They're learning all of our Michigan curriculum but they're getting a little twist on it," Mill Creek Principal Maggie Antcliff said. "They're learning about her culture as well. For instance, when the kids did Halloween, they learned Scotland doesn't celebrate the holiday."
Besides bringing a wee bit of Scotland to Mill Creek, Smith hopes to bring back American teaching methods and other ideas to her own school. She and Cobb also plan to hook up their students as "pen pals" who will exchange e-mail, share views of each other and both classrooms, and perhaps talk to each other directly over the Internet via a Web cam over the next few months.
Smith, who communicates with Cobb regularly by e-mail, said she expects the relationships to continue even after both teachers return home in December.
"I can see ties for a long time," she said.
Since arriving in Traverse City Aug. 1, Smith has been staying in Cobb's Acme home and driving Cobb's Ford Escape. Cobb's family and neighbors immediately took her under their wing, she said, while Mill Creek gave her a welcome party -- complete with maple syrup, cherries and other local products -- two weeks before school started.
Meanwhile, Chalk helped her negotiate everything from directions and school and community resources, to American customs like homecoming. The Mill Creek teacher even took her to a baseball game and the Old Town Playhouse.
"Because I'm on my own, I've made a lot of friends I wouldn't have made if I'd have been with a family," Smith said. "I'm being looked after." In fact, while she bought a diary in which to record her adventures, she said she's been too busy to write in it.
Meanwhile Cobb, who is in Scotland with her husband and two children, is driving Smith's small Fiat Punto and staying in Smith's home in Livingston, 15 miles from Edinborough.
"They got the approval of my mother, and that's saying something," said Smith, whose two married daughters and head teacher have already visited her here or are making plans to visit again over Thanksgiving.
Though she wound up in northern Michigan by chance, Smith said she loves the area's climate and friendly people. She's visited the U.S. just once before.
"They asked (about region preferences), and I left it blank," she said. "I couldn't be happier. I can't think of a bad thing about (the exchange).
"The biggest challenges are driving on the right side of the road and making sure you're doing everything right in the school, putting as much into the school as you can," she added. "Things are very different, but the outcomes are the same if you have good leadership."
And one other thing is the same, she said: "You forget you're from another country when you're teaching children."
While the students say they miss Cobb, they're enjoying learning about Smith's culture and copying her thick Scottish brogue.
"You had to get used to it, but now we're used to it," said Dylan Gilbert, 10. "It took about three days, because when she'd say something we didn't understand, she'd explain it."
"We learned 'I Sent Her for Butter' and 'The Sore Finger,' but they say 'The Sare Finger," said Makala O'Donnell, 9. "We have a CD and we try to say it like they do."
Callie Wyers likes Smith's warm but no-nonsense approach.
"I think she's really cool," the 8-year-old said. "She doesn't like to nag but she likes to get down to work."
For Smith, who sometimes lacks confidence, that may be the best compliment of all.
"I've surprised myself because, believe it or not, I get nervous standing and talking in front of children," she said. "Here, I'm talking in front of a school board."
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