FRANK MULHOLLAND - Daily Union Managing Editor
Moulton fourth grade teacher Russell “Russ” Tomblin went back to his alma mater Eastern Illinois University (EIU) and took his entire class with him. Tomblin used his connections at EIU for a win/win situation that benefited both his class and future teachers at EIU.
A group of future teachers that are presently attending EIU traveled to Tomblin’s fourth grade class earlier in the month and presented lessons on various books that are being featured as part of the Children’s Book Illustrations Exhibit at Tarble Art Center in Charleston. Those EIU students were brought over in conjunction with their Language Arts Professor, Dr. Dan Carter. Tomblin had Dr. Carter when he attended EIU.
Then Tomblin’s class traveled to EIU to take part in various learning experiences such as reading, writing, and dance programs. The fourth grade students also had the opportunity to take a tour of Booth Library, Dounda Fine Arts Center, McAfee gym and the television and radio studios run by EIU students, WEIU.
“This Language/Fine Arts day was a great opportunity for the students to take in a lot of information about various authors and illustrators of books that the students have read or have had read to them,” said Tomblin.
Dr. Carter said this exchange idea was tried earlier in the year at the Sullivan Elementary and went so well he contacted Tomblin and suggested his class participate also.
“Both the teacher at Sullivan and Russ (Tomblin) were students of mine when they attended EIU,” said Dr. Carter. “This was a great opportunity to give my students a preview of teaching and also to gain confidence in a classroom setting, and it was great to give the fourth grade students a Fine Arts experience.”
Dr. Carter said he hopes to continue this program in the future.
“This is a really great chance for my students to gain valuable experience and bring in students to promote our university,” continued Dr. Carter.
The fourth grade students also thought the experience was great.
“I really enjoyed the dance classes,” said fourth grade student Daythan Summers. “We also got to go the art museum called Tarble Art Museum and the old basketball gym called McAfee gym.”
“I think this has been the best field trip of the year so far,” said Mason Cameron. “We had to write about our favorite book and I enjoyed that.”
“I got to learn about a bunch of stuff I didn’t know about before,” said Clayon Peterson. “I thought the dancing was the most interesting, and it was our PE (Physical Education) class.”
Tomblin said the kids enjoyed having the EIU students visit their class.
“What was really exciting for us was to have the opportunity for the EIU students to come over and gain experience in our classroom,” said Tomblin. “I think any time you can have students actually moving and seeing things and also hearing a different voice many times will spark their interest more, and the more enthused they are the more they learn.”
