reflection statement

Both personally and professionally the sabbatical leave allotted me time.  It allowed me to explore a topic that had very personal ties and connect it into my professional world.  Taking a story that taught me many life lessons made me reflect upon story-telling in general and its capacity for it to be a tool that can connect, teach, and open our minds to new people, cultures, races, and over-all life lessons.  I began thinking about the nature of teaching and what we do as educators and, when within the institutional walls, we sometimes forget in the midst of all our other responsibilities as public educators that we are all telling stories.  In general, the students passively sit and listen and apply these stories on tests, essays, etc. What if the students were actively engaged in these stories?  What would they learn?  How would it be different if they actively listened to stories of their choosing, stories that enlightened them, changed them, affected them in some profound way?  What if they took those stories and put them together to then discover their lessons and teach others about their discoveries, what these stories that affected them can teach others, what lessons are hidden in each story?
I had begun interviewing the women in my family years earlier, prior to applying for a sabbatical leave and as I began my sabbatical and engaged in the activities of collecting, listening, recording, and creating, I learned so much about a generation of women, about World War II and the lessons I couldn’t get in textbooks, about the nature of listening, and re-listening, and then listening again.  I learned about strength of spirit, character and for some the lack thereof, and more importantly I learned about myself—I reflected often about the differences and similarities of people and how we all connect.  It’s that word and the meaning that was highlighted often throughout the sabbatical year—connection.  I personally felt more and more disconnected from my professional life and what the sabbatical allowed was the time to not solely create a project but a project that allowed for more connection with my students, colleagues, and community. 
I wanted to use technology not as a distraction, or a tool to play rote games, or collect data, or enhance visual stimuli but use technology in a more expressive way, a way to connect on a more human-to-human level.  The technology is the backdrop and background for the project, the tools to create the visual engagement but the connection is human-to-human.  The connection is what is truly the lesson-two people connecting via story, one telling another listening.   As the project continued, many other lessons were apparent—research that taught me more about WWII, a place, an event, how to use technology to create a format for my project and social lessons were taught as well.  I had to go out and connect, collect, and organize.  By being allowed the experience of doing this myself, gave me the knowledge in how to approach it with my own students and knowing its value in education. 
The project itself can be utilized not only as an example to an Oral History but for a number of other lessons within the classroom and the subject of Italian—translation, history of Italy, and the list goes on…also due to its inter-disciplinary nature, the project can be used in many other subject matters.
I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity and thankful that OPRFHS offers such an amazing opportunity for its faculty-it truly is an invaluable resource we have at the school and I strongly recommend others to apply and pursue such a rewarding opportunity for personal and professional growth.  Again, thank you OPRFHS!