Darlene Quayle: European Schools Research and Explorations

Christmas Day photo of Hélène and me (far right) with my daughter (far left), and Hélène’s son and daughter.

We spent the holidays in Provence (SE France) visiting my penpal Hélène and her family. She and I have been corresponding since we were 13 years old! While we were there, we went through her boxes of correspondence and found the very first letter that I wrote to her when I was in 8th grade. The last time I saw her was in 1980 when I came to France with a university program. We reminisced about that visit as well. Xena had the opportunity to meet her kids as well. She has a son who is 23 and at university nearby, and a daughter who just turned 13. We will be able to go back in February to visit her daughter’s school and will also be able to visit the school where her sister-in-law teaches.

Because schools are not open during the holidays, I have not been able to connect with very many people and of course, I have not been able to visit schools. I was able, through a connection at a hostel in England, to make a connection with a university staff member in Palestine (Israel’s West Bank), and he is making contacts for me to visit schools when we go there. Right now, the conflict occurring in Israel is very dangerous, but we are watching the news and will have people who live there taking us places and keeping us safe. I will be buying our plane tickets after this weekend if the situation stabilizes. Some of you may remember Ami Fields, the former principal at Blue Heron middle school. She is living just south of Haifa in Israel and will be scheduling visits for me at her school and at her former school there. A good friend of mine in PT with family and friend connections in Israel is making the rest of the arrangements for us, including homestays (Thanks, Dena!).

Our next stops, before going to Israel, are in Liechtenstein, a very small country between Switzerland and Austria, and at the Mittelpunkt convention in Germany. In Liechtenstein, we will have a few days to get some work done: to pull videos from the DVDs, update the blog with photos, do schoolwork. Liechtenstein is one of the few countries in the middle of Europe that is not yet part of the Schengen agreement. They did not join when Switzerland became the 25th country to sign the Schengen agreement on December 12th, so this stay counts as time out of the region for us. Remember, we are limited to 90 days within a 6 month time period.
The Mittelpunkt convention is an opportunity for educators and gamers to meet together for role play activities and for sharing how to use role playing activities inside and outside of the classroom. Because of our stay at Østerskov Efterskole in Denmark, we have been asked to be part of a panel discussing the use of role playing in curriculum at that particular school. I have also been asked to put together a very short informal presentation about roleplaying activities in the United States. While I have limited experience with the level of roleplaying they are accustomed to, I will be able to show a few pictures and explain a bit about the prevalence of RP video games, Renaissance Faires, Japanese cosplay, and my own use of thematic instruction at school.

For our remaining school visits, I am waiting to hear back from the ministry of education in Romania for school visits at the beginning of February, and am also reconnecting with a former PT teacher who is now teaching in Bulgaria. We will be staying with her and visiting her school at the end of January. I am also reconfirming school visits we had arranged with Hessen schools in Germany during the middle of February.

We are still scheduled to return home at the end of February, so we look forward to seeing you during the first week of March!

Happy New Year 2009!