By Scott Brinton
To celebrate Women's History Month, three Birch Elementary School fifth-grade teachers created a "living wax museum" on March 15. Students pretended to be animatronic statues of famous women. Among the many heroines that they portrayed were Serena Williams (Joey Zito), Hillary Clinton (Ariana Grob), the Unsinkable Molly Brown (Amanda Pellegrino) and Cleopatra (Jessica Chertock).
Small "Press Me" buttons were taped to the children's costumes, on their hands or shoulders. The students came alive whenever parents pressed their paper buttons, reciting two-minute speeches that they had researched and written over five weeks.
Fifth-grade teacher Chris Hoisik developed the living wax museum unit with his colleagues Vanessa Schroeder and Kristen Dekel. "A lot of things are done about male history," Hoisik said. "I thought a great project would be celebrating women."
Hoisik said he wanted to go beyond the speeches students traditionally write and read to their peers at the front of the class. The living wax museum, he explained, combines speechmaking with costume design and acting. Because students aren't standing alone with all eyes trained on them, they feel more comfortable. "It allows even the shiest kid to share," Hoisik said. "It gives everyone an artistic outlet."
Schroeder said the students gave their all to the project, which is now in its fourth year. "I think they get to experience something they may not have experienced before," she said. "They put on a little show. They get all this attention."
"It allows kids a different way to present research, in a more dramatic way," said Dekel.
In addition to the wax museum, the students also created storyboards about the women they portrayed, which were on display.
Standing in small circles after the half-hour presentation, the students were all smiles, giggling as they spoke at breakneck pace about their parents' reactions. Fifth-grader Katherine Kustas played Deborah Sampson, who dressed as a man to spy for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. ³I liked how we could be the woman and become her life,² Katherine said. ³We were in complete control of the project.²
Michael Kaplan, who played aviator Amelia Earhart, said, "We got to take on the role of a famous woman. We got to become her for half an hour."
³We got to learn a lot about women,² said Amy Waldman, who portrayed ³CBS Evening News² anchor Katie Couric. ³We got to celebrate famous women.²
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
