James Monroe High School - Echo Yearbook (Fredericksburg, VA)

Page 25 text:

English department expands elective curriculum The English Department at James Monroe has ex¬ panded its electives to cover a wider range of courses as well as to provide basic requirements. The new curriculum offerings include a course on per¬ spectives on death as well as one on Mark Twain. Each teacher can offer a unique nine weeks’ course, concentrating on one of his special interests. Students enjoy the increased stimulation of a variety of course offerings. To teachers, this variety is seen as an oppor¬ tunity to alleviate classroom ‘boredom.’ Electives give students and teachers alike a chance to experi¬ ence different learning situations. During 1973-74 May Jane Tillman, department chairman, had an article published in Virginia English Journal and an article accepted for an upcoming issue of the Virginia Journal of Education. Intent on becoming a professional dilettante, Mary Virginia Moran does her dabbling at JM with the Basilisk. She teaches senior English. What goes on in that trailer at the back of the school? Barbara Stafford, cooking and bridge buff, spends her days teaching reading and speech there, of course! English teacher Annie S. Anthony is the sponsor of JM ' s literary magazine, the Basilisk. In her off hours Miss Anthony enjoys reading, swimming, and the outdoors. She teaches English 9. 21

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Janet Kimbrell wins the heart of America with her favorite hobby —sleeping. In her waking hours she gardens, sews, hikes, and plays pmgpong. As an English teacher she is a natural for co¬ sponsoring forensics. Aghhh! You are not going to do well this nine weeks! Such com¬ ments were frequently made by head JV Football and Varsity Track Coach Robert Burch. He is often found bowling, golfing, and playing tennis during his spare time. Mr. Burch is a senior English teacher. Tennis enthusiast Joyce Turner teaches ninth grade English and is the sponsor of the Black Studies Club. She enjoys listening to music. Often May Jane Tillman can be seen wearing a sweater she knitted herself. A dedicated teacher, she is a sponsor of FTA SAE and the Senior Class.

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i Tina Egge’s fifth period English class joins Sandy Sykes ' first graders to listen to Christy Phillips read an original story called After the Lights Go Out. The story explains the dark is nothing to be scared of. 1st and 10th graders learn through storie s “Dick and Jane and Tom and Betty and Susan were boring! As an outgrowth of this student comment, a tenth grade English class wrote their own narratives and read them to a group of elementary students. The tenth graders, remembering the stories they had read as first and second graders felt that they had gotten a fairy tale image of the way people really lived. “Kids today have the right to read about people who are not bound by typical roles. At the suggestion of teacher Tina Egge, the students decided that they would like to try to do stories which would be exciting because they dealt with the world which is real and in which girls as well as boys are heroes. They based their attempt on the “Stories for Free Children that appears in Ms. Magazine. The first task was to discuss which typical roles, stereotypes and attitudes the class wanted to eli¬ minate and what positive statements about the relationships between people the stories should make. The results were “Zelda in Real Life and “After the Lights Went Out. By this time the decision to illustrate the stories had been made, and the class worked hard on including local scenes that the elementary children would recognize and identify with. Business sponsor of the Spotlight, F. Christine Egge is always busy. A tenth grade English teacher, she is also sponsor of the new JM chapter of Quill and Scroll Literary Fraternity. A tenth grade English teacher, Jeanette C. Bickings made some rather early morning trips to district and regional Forensics contests as sponsor. She likes to read and travel in her spare time. 22