Commodore John Rodgers Middle School
A blog post by Outreach Coordinator Rachael Binning.
Last year Elena Rosemond-Hoerr, the JMM’s Education & Program Coordinator and I began a long-term museum-school partnership with Commodore John Rodgers Middle School (http:///www.baltimorecityschools.org/Domain/534) in Butchers Hill. I love this partnership for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons I love this project is that unlike most of my work as a museum educator, here I get to work with the students at CJR on a continual basis. One of my major roles as the Community Outreach Coordinator is to teach school groups off-site. However, it is rare that I get to see a school group more than once in the same year. I know that Elena will agree with me when I write that our CJR partnership has been one of the most challenging and rewarding projects we have worked on this year. Last week we had a meeting with the middle school social studies teachers to talk about our progress with the students and to create a game plan for moving forward. During our conversation we ended up discussing a few students who had dramatically improved from the 7th to 8th grade. It really is an amazing thing to see a student’s progress over time and I’d like to think that the JMM has had some positive influence over them.
The goal of the JMM-CJR partnership has always been to create large-scale projects with the students based around the exhibits currently being displayed at the JMM. This decision was based upon the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult for teachers to bring their students to visit the museum, even if the museum is right around the corner. Instead it is our role to bring the museum to the students. Last year we were lucky to have artist Loring Cornish and his exhibit, “In Each Others Shoes.” It came naturally that our final project that year was a large-scale mosaic that is now permanently displayed in the school. Loring was a big supporter of the project and worked with the students several times over the course of the partnership.
This year we are working on a project related to our “Chosen Food” exhibition. Although Elena and I would have loved to turn our CJR students into Jewish Farmers we scaled back our project and decided to create a cookbook with them instead. Each week we have been working with the students to teach them about healthy eating, food traditions and culture, and oral history and memory. Over the course of several months the students have been thinking about their own food cultures and traditions such as their favorite food on Thanksgiving or a meal that their grandmother cooks for them. We asked the students to interview a family member or friend about a recipe that is important to them. The final product will be a CJR middle school cookbook that will consist of the recipes they collected and the stories and memories that support them. We will also provide healthy recipes, Jewish recipes (what middle school student doesn’t want the recipe for gefilte fish?) and some recipes from our own families.
This is where you come in. I’d like to invite you to contribute your family recipes and stories to our collection. Our cookbook is focusing on family recipes in general, but will also have a focus on ethnic and cultural food as well as healthy eating. If you would like to contribute a family recipe and story, we certainly encourage you to. Please email me at rbinning@jewishmusuemmd.orgto provide a recipe or if you would like more information.
