May

Ramp up Your Routine on the Rappahannock River

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Front Porch Magazine
May 2015 (pg. 29)

Stretch, sweat, run, sweat, lift, sweat, crunch, sweat, curl, sweat.  Repeat.  Sound familiar?  Many people find themselves looking for ways to infuse variety into their fitness routines after a long winter of indoor gym workouts, and luckily for those of us living in and near Fredericksburg that variety is right outside our doors.  With their “Gear Up Get Active” motto, Keith and April Petersen of River Rock Outfitters fully promote the ease and accessibility of outdoor fitness options in Fredericksburg while highlighting appreciation and conservation of the area’s natural resources.  

Photo by White Water Photos 

Mammoth Jockeys: A Creative Collaboration

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Front Porch Magazine
May 2015  (pg. 19)

A traditional view of the student-teacher relationship is one in which teacher leads and student learns; however, modern theory promotes a more complementary role between the two, where teacher becomes a facilitator, and student takes ownership of knowledge.  In the best of these relationships, the two also become collaborators.  Such is the case with author and high school English teacher James Noll and his former student Grant Ervin.  Their collaborative efforts will culminate over the next year with the release of Ervin’s video game, Mammoth Jockeys.

Mammoth Jockeys Composite provided by Grant Ervin


Tom Conway: It Starts with a Slam

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The Write Stuff - Virginia
May 2015

One of the major challenges for teachers of writing has always been finding ways to stimulate student buy-in during the writing process.  The days of spending time on work to please the teacher are gone for most, if they were ever really here in the first place, and students crave more authentic opportunities to share their creativity and opinions with a wider audience.  Often, however, these opportunities are daunting for teachers to implement and maintain, especially in the current environment of rampant national and state testing.  How does one carve out the necessary time to allow writing and the creative process to flourish while adhering to curriculum and content in the subject area classroom?

My guest this week has found an answer that works for his students at his school. Tom Conway, NVWP alumnus and 7th grade English teacher at Thornburg Middle School inSpotsylvania, VA, has been promoting authentic writing through poetry slams since he first started teaching ten years ago.  After graduating from the NVWP Summer Institute in 2014, he was encouraged by mentor writing teacher, Stephenie Fellinger, to jump start an idea that had been scuttling around in his brain for a bit – a student writing center at Thornburg Middle School.

Photo provided by Tom Conway - Tom and his students celebrate their upcoming poetry slam.

Carol Huebner: Educator Advocate

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Front Porch Magazine
May 2014 (pg. 6)

Ever since her days as a student at West Virginia University, Carol Huebner has believed in the power of advocacy.  Her professors actively encouraged her to join the National Education Association, and thereafter she knew she would always be involved with the organization in some capacity.  Today, Huebner is a math teacher, a site-based representative with the Virginia Education Association for her school in Stafford County, and a newly elected board member for the Mountain View UniServ district.   Of her experience working with VEA and NEA, Huebner says, “Things have changed over the years, but only because people chose to stand up and advocate for them. That’s why this organization needs to exist.  I don’t know any other organization that is fighting so hard for people’s pay and contracts, but the struggle is not solely political and the goals are not simply to get people elected; the main goal is about fighting for our members and our students.”

Carol Huebner Medawar (Center)

Pop Culture Prevails at Populuxe

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Front Porch Fredericksburg
May 2013 (pg. 9)

Amidst the shops on lower William Street sits Populuxe, Fredericksburg’s newest pop culture emporium.   Fashioned around the stylings of the 1950s and 60s, Populuxe proudly proclaims to be “where kitsch meets cool.”  Owners Dom and Charlene Salemi have transformed the storefront into a welcoming space where visitors take a nostalgia trip to a time when leather was tuff, Hawaiian shirts denoted boss beach fashion, and vinyl was the only disc to spin.  

Update: Populuxe has moved to Stanton, VA

Shirley Donahue: Art of Mehndi

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Front Porch Magazine
May 2012 (pg. 8)

First comes the basket thrust through the door bursting with sketch books and shining cones of henna, followed quickly by a beaming woman in a flow of lavender. After a quick greeting, Shirley Donahue pulls up a pillow and directs my foot to the ottoman in front of us. As we chat, I watch the artfully looping swirls covering her palms while she lightly outlines cherry blossoms on my skin with eyeliner pencil.

Donahue has been practicing Mehndi, the Indian art of henna application, for close to fourteen years. At that time, she and some friends picked up a few do-it-yourself henna kits on a whim. As she describes it, “I absolutely fell in love, and I’ve been practicing off and on ever since. Now, I want to share it with other people, because they are always so excited to hear about it. When I’m out with henna on my hands, many people stop and say, ‘Hey, you should do this as a business!’ So I’ve finally responded, ‘Yeah, Universe, I’m listening.’”