Jon Mark Beilue: Long-distance ‘Letters to Cammy'

WT history class connects with second graders in Arizona

West Texas A&M University history professors Dr. Bruce Brasington and Dr. Byron Pearson were flyfishing near Angel Fire, N.M., this summer when Pearson mentioned what his stepdaughter, Cammy Frautnick, would be doing in her first year as a second-grade teacher this fall.

Frautnick would turn her classroom into a mini-WT.

Not because she went to WT. She graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Not because her school was located just a few miles from Canyon. Katherine Mecham Barney Elementary School is in Queen Creek, Ariz., 37 miles southwest of Phoenix.

It’s because Barney Elementary is using the AVID program, or Advancement Via Individual Determination. Its mission is to prepare students for college readiness through note-taking strategies, study habits and organizational skills.

Each elementary class adopts a university to get students in the spirit of a college theme. Frautnick, in a nod to her stepfather, chose a university 705 miles to the east of which her 7-year-olds had never heard. But they soon would.

“Bruce was super excited about it,” Frautnick said.

Brasington led a push to decorate Frautnick’s classroom in maroon and white. Her classroom would receive WT pennants, posters, stuffed buffaloes and any other memorabilia that could be packaged and mailed.

But it didn’t stop there. Barney Elementary is a STEAM school, emphasizing science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Brasington had an idea, a curriculum idea.

“This is not an average second-grade class,” he said. “I made it clear to Cammy that this is her classroom and I’m not trying to tell her what to do. But if she wanted, this could be a way for them to expand their horizons.”

Frautnick thought it a creative way for her students to learn history in a manner not many second graders learn.

“I’m hoping they have a better understanding of history and how it can be more personal in what they learn and what they want to know,” she said.

That gave rise to “Letters to Cammy.”

Brasington teaches History 2302, a class designed primarily for history teachers that’s better known as The Historian’s Craft. The class focus is on historical research and written work from extensive research.

In addition to the requirements that have been standard with previous classes – seven essays, one major paper, one power-point presentation, five primary source analysis forms – was a new one.

“Letters to Cammy” are five short essays that each of the dozen students will periodically send to Frautnick over the course of the semester. Tailored for a second-grade class, each essay will consist of a photograph and some historical information either about their adopted university or another topic from the archives of WT and/or the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

“In this course, you get your hands dirty on history,” Brasington said. “They learn about the history of the area and WT and, in this specific assignment, how to share that with second-graders. Since most of these students want to be teachers, it’s also a good way to think of the audience they are trying to reach.”

At the beginning of the semester, the two classes had an ice-breaking Zoom meeting where after introductions, historical topics and interest of second-graders was sought.

The consensus: candy and owls. (Hey, they’re 7 years old).

Such innovations are encouraged by the University’s long-term plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World. That plan is being fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign.

Kari Wardlaw was on the Zoom meeting. She’s a junior history major, a graduate of Amarillo College. She wants to teach government, economics and history in middle school or high school. She’s hip deep in the Historian’s Craft class on Texas civil rights after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. That’s a little heavy for second graders.

“I wasn’t going to send second-graders an essay on Martin Luther King,” Wardlaw said. “We want the project to be of interest to them about history, and maybe in that way they can find their own love of history.

“One of the children in the back said she wanted to know about the history of candy, where candy came from and how it got started. So I picked candy.”

Wardlaw uncovered the Paris gum factory in McAllen in the 1940s and through further research found historical candy makers closer to their home in Arizona.

Frautnick’s class has received two rounds of letters. The other three will be sent periodically until the Christmas break.

“The kids have loved them,” Frautnick said. “They think it’s so cool that college students are writing to them and they can learn about what they want about history. One of the best parts of the week is sharing the letters that we have received.”

Photo: Students in Cammy Frautnick's second-grade class at Katherine Mecham Barney Elementary School Queen Creek, Ariz., have partnered with West Texas A&M University history students for a new curriculum concept.

Frautnick’s second-graders also have made their own splashy WT shirts. And then there’s Buffer, the unofficial official class mascot. Buffer is a stuffed WT buffalo, bigger than the others. Each of the 20 students has a weekend where Buffer goes home with one of them, and then they write a letter as to what they did with him.

Can applications to WT be that far away for Cammy Frautnick’s Buffalo-themed class? Probably a little early for that. Give them until fourth grade.

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.