Blog Article based on the book ‘Ms. Nena’s Teaching Method’

The Jefferson County public school on ‘school house ridge’ between Harpers Ferry and Charles Town on Route 340, was opened in 1972 and named for Charles Waldron Shipley who was the first principal. Charles Shipley was from Shepherds-town WV, but the original public elementary school was located a block from Nena Stowell’s house in Harpers Ferry. The old Harpers Ferry Public School (all grades) was retired when Shipley’s school was built and the building became used by the NPS Design Center for museum conservation.

Shipley Elementary School was K-6 class grades when Nena’s son Walton went to school, but had changed to K-5 by the time Nena taught there. The art teacher when Walton attended Shipley was Ms. Seibert, who was friends with Nena and went on family trips with the Stowells. Nena was sad when her friend who she kept in touch with died, but she was able to honor Libby’s memory by carrying on her work of teaching art in the same room she did.

Shipley School Art Classroom

River Gap Album

This white bordered standard paper size binder was mostly a photo album with notes. On the cover was a pastel landscape scene resembling our local river gap, with winding water between green and blue steep hills, and white fades and tree silhouettes.

Nena’s first yellow sticky note on the cover listed chores she completed: “My classroom: cleaned closet; did stenciling; did window with gallery glass showing the drawing of the gap; did painting supply closet with the mascot Ranger Raccoon.

Student Art files (mainly tests and grades) were stored in filing cabinets. Files were color coded by class eventually. Decorated class trays held projects in progress. Each year Nena taught she became more organized in her lesson planning and class public displays.

On a note shaped and printed like an artist’s palette and brush, Nena wrote: “A teacher entrusted with a child is like a gardener entrusted with a unique and delicate plant. The gardener cannot force the plant to grow by pushing, shouting, or punishing. Gardeners don’t need to tell the plant to be 2” taller by next Monday. A gardener can be successful simply by cultivating basic needs (sun – courage, water – inspiration, soil – skills). Gardeners learn the nature of plants by practicing methods of cultivation, and discover secrets that help them provide the most favorable conditions for growth.”

The River Gap stained glass effect that Nena painted on the window, made the classroom the most beautiful to be in.

Other Shipley School classroom photos similar to those in the ‘River Gap Album’ were located in green photo folders (thick stacks), the Pink Folder, Blue Journals, and the Black Velvet Journal. Nena’s journals were small books which contained mostly memoirs, personal notes to herself, and sometimes sketches and teaching information and media.

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Art Lessons & Projects

Ms. Nena made ‘Lesson Plans’ which included multiple class lessons scheduled to contain many projects during a year. Lessons ranged from art fundamentals to processes. Lessons usually referred to learning and teaching complex topics and individual projects. Projects were the media, material crafts, or created products.

Nena Stowell secured several grants for projects over her years at Shipley from WV State, Jefferson County, and other sources. She became so successful at getting grants every year, that if she missed getting a grant for a year, she felt like a failure. One year they told her that she should have hired a professional film company, instead of her son who wanted to work with his mother during an economic recession. Walton was a military veteran, architect, photographer, and artist with years of film experience shooting and studying film. After the family was disappointed by the official response, Walton told his mother to not base her happiness on getting grants. Her husband Mayor Kip Stowell had based his happiness on winning elections, so when he eventually lost it was not fun; and so the family learned to rely on each-other more than unreliable prizes temporarily granted by unknown unloyal variables.

Nena and Kip Stowell volunteered for years with the Jefferson County ‘Arts & Humanities Alliance’ (AHA). Kip and Nena hung county art shows for long hours, late into nights in local towns and cities. No complete list existed for Nena’s lessons or grants, but some examples are provided here.

[ list of lessons and projects , and more in the book ‘Ms. Nena’s Teaching Method’]

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