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E-mailTeacher honored for connecting students to area's past
Suzanne Ament
Joe Appel/Tribune-Review
Kellie B. Gormly can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7824.
Ament followed these principles with her middle school students at St. Colman School in Turtle Creek, and won the 2005 Roy A. Hunt Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. The foundation chose Ament because of her innovative teaching methods, which merged a field trip to the Frick's Clayton house with lessons on reading and history.
The 28-year teacher accepted the award Tuesday in a ceremony at the Frick Art & Historical Center in Point Breeze, where Ament praised the institution's historical significance. Helen Clay Frick -- who prepared the Frick's art collection and Clayton for display -- built a bridge to the past, Ament told the audience.
"People with no ties to place are a people pulled off center," said Ament, 50. She now teaches seventh and eighth grade at St. Colman, a Catholic School that goes from preschool to eighth grade.
The Hunt Award -- an annual honor that began in 1999 -- recognizes a teacher who has demonstrated a commitment to participating in the Frick's educational programs, and who has successfully integrated the arts into students' learning experiences, officials say.
Winners receive an award plaque and $3,000 for their schools to fund future field trips and enrichment activities. They also receive 180 free passes to Clayton, to encourage visits from students and their families.
Last spring, Ament's sixth-grade English students studied "The Westing Game," a book by Ellen Raskin about a group of heirs trying to solve clues in order to inherit an industrial fortune. The students did dress-up skits and other activities as they studied the book.
When the students finished "The Westing Game," Ament took them to the Frick for a program that lets them look at items and artifacts from Clayton. By examining the artifacts -- a parallel to the clues in Raskin's book -- the students formed an image of life during the Victorian era, Ament says.
Judges who helped select Ament were impressed by the ingenuity she showed in tying the Clayton House to "The Westing Game" study, says Susan Bails, a program coordinator for the Frick's education department.
"We felt this was just very creative throughout ... and crossed many disciplines," says Bails, who worked on the selection committee. "She's thinking about her students and being an educator all the time; she doesn't just schedule a field trip because it's convenient."
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