The Art of GFFE in the Classroom

Because Guilford Fund for Education (GFFE) exists, the results of a collective art class brainstorm, The Rakefish Project, is poised to go nationwide.

Born in A.W. Cox Elementary School's 3rd-grade art classes taught by Cox/Guilford Lakes Elementary School art teacher Joe Bernier, the GFFE grant was fostered with help from Cox PTO enrichment program parents Beth Kozarec and Amy Macy. The Rakefish Project is one of the town's latest innovative educational opportunities to be supported with a GFEE grant.

Joe isn't new to gaining GFFE grants and first heard of them at a Guilford Public Schools teachers' convocation, on the cusp of new school year.

"I remember being at the convocation five or six years ago and [GFFE board member] Leslie Krumholz introduced it to us. I thought it was the best thing ever. My head was spinning with ideas. I said, 'I'm definitely going to do that.'"

Now in his 15th year of teaching, Joe emphasizes the importance of art in an early education curriculum.

"Something I've been looking forward to is full-time art and music in all of the elementary schools. It's something I've worked on and advocated for over the past 10 years."

Joe's first GFFE grant brought Lakes its Digital Photography Program, which runs alongside the instructional units in the general art program. His Lakes 3rd- and 4th graders (and sometime even 2nd- and 1st graders) use the program, now also budding in Joe's upper classes at Cox. Not only do fine art and photo journalism overlap and combine with the program, but valuable skills are sharpened, too.

"These kids are definitely in the digital age. Images and digital media go together-they're going to benefit from knowing how to do this."

The Rakefish Project's GFFE grant will benefit students by allowing them to design and lead a project that's sending an environmental message, from kids across the nation, to key world leaders about ocean pollution. Specifically, The Rakefish Project discusses the need to fix the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Rakefish is an actual 3D fish sculpture built from recycled materials by all of Joe's grade 3 art students at Cox (see a photo of the Rakefish at www.zip06.com/guilford)

The Rakefish started with a broken rake-turned-sail and is actually one of two Rakefish Joe's kids made this year. The first, developed for a Cox PTO fundraiser, was made with a broken rake head Joe found in his mother-in-law's shed. After the first beautiful Rakefish took life, the kids wanted to make a second sculpture. That's when Joe says a tenant expressed by renowned arts educator Elliot Eisner began to unfold in the classes: "The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstances and opportunity."

The Rakefish Project developed from "a series of smaller ideas that evolved from classroom discussion as the sculpture was being constructed and as students' interests and understanding grew. It was circumstance and opportunity," says Joe.

The kids investigated ocean pollution and specifically the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which lies in an ocean-current-created gyre in the North Pacific Ocean. They brainstormed topical statements and questions, wrote them on colorful paper scales, and applied them to the Rakefish.

One whimsically filled its mouth with an empty bottle and the sculpture's "message in a bottle" element evolved. As the Rakefish travels the nation, host school students will add their message to the bottle, sending a written plea or statement to world leaders.

Kozarec contacted an Ohio school administrator and that's one of the first places where the Rakefish will travel during the coming school year. The $2,300 GFFE grant covers shipping to host schools and eventually back to Guilford. Schools in Texas and Colorado and others from Washington, D.C., to Hawaii are part of the itinerary in progress.

As The Rakefish Project travels nationwide, it will be followed by the Cox students who created it-Joe's 4th-grade art students next year.

"It will be satisfying to watch it all unfold," he says. And, if The Rakefish Project succeeds, he adds, "it would be so meaningful for the kids. There is so often a feeling of helplessness that goes along with solving a huge problem like this."

The Rakefish Project is currently seeking a volunteer to help create an interactive website; contact Joe Bernier at bernierj@guilford.k12.ct.us To learn more about GFFE's grant programs, visit www.gffe.org