Janet Felsten from Placewise Learning (Baltimore) and Kathie diStefano from Stichting Lawine (Rotterdam) led a PenPal Exchange for 4th grade classes at Govans elementary school (Baltimore) and Wereldwijzer school (Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam) in the spring 2024 school semester. The exchange’s themes include environmental sustainability and language skills development.
Category Archives: education
Operation Trash Tour Baltimore – Fall 2023
Rotterdam-based, American-born theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano will visit Maryland October 17 – 27, 2023 to share her environmental program ‘Operation Trash’ with area schools. Ms. Kathie uses creative arts to teach students, young and old, to throw trash away where it belongs and how important recycling is for our future. Ms. Kathie has taught drama and theater arts in Dutch public schools for many years, pioneering the concept of using performance arts to enhance required curriculum studies.
During her October visit to Maryland, she will be performing ‘Seagull Mamma,’ an interactive show for children in kindergarten through second grade about how our current trash behavior affects our environment. The show also serves as a comical ”introduction-to-theater” for young kids.
She will also be offering an assembly program ‘Operation Trash’ for middle and high school students. Ms. Kathie’s Operation Trash program is an entertaining assembly with facts and figures about how much trash we produce, why it’s a problem, and the need to increase our recycling strategies for a sustainable future.
Continue reading Workshops for kids about trash — available in Baltimore/Maryland in Fall 2022
Theatre artist & educator Kathie diStefano, leader of Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts, designs and coordinates creative educational activities for kids in Baltimore & Rotterdam to make them aware of trash pollution and how they can help solve it. Kathie diStefano visits Baltimore every year to hold interactive workshops and performances for kids about trash, recycling, and environmental stewardship.
From late October to early November 2022, diStefano is visiting Baltimore from Rotterdam, and we invite schools, community centers, and other venues in Maryland to host a performance by her. Contact Kathie diStefano if you are interested in hosting a performance or meeting with her in fall 2022, or when she returns to Baltimore in spring 2023.
Offerings include:
Baltimore-Rotterdam virtual exchange program 2022: Operation Trash / Operatie Afval
An international cultural exchange project linking American & Dutch students — centered around the themes of waste and recycling.
Trash serves as the theme for a cross-cultural Sister City virtual exchange between schools in Baltimore (USA) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands) organized and designed by theatre artists and educator Kathie diStefano from Avalanche Arts, a Rotterdam-based nonprofit. Students research trash topics and recycling strategies and make presentations to share with their counterparts overseas. They are inspired to reduce litter and increase recycling in their communities while learning about each other’s cultures. There have been several exchanges between Baltimore and Rotterdam over the years.
The 2022 edition of the exchange kicked off in February 2022 with Bay Brook Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) and the bilingual Wolfert Lansing school in Lansingerland, a suburb of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, a sister city of Baltimore.
Continue readingSponsorship opportunities for the spring 2022 education exchange
Planned Baltimore-Rotterdam virtual exchange program 2022: Operation Trash / Operatie Afval
A social cultural program linking American & Dutch students
Trash serves as the theme for a cross-cultural Sister City virtual exchange between schools in Baltimore (USA) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Students research trash topics and recycling strategies and make presentations to share with their counterparts overseas. They are inspired to reduce litter and increase recycling in their communities while learning about each other’s cultures. Several editions of the exchange program have been held over the past years between schools in the Baltimore and Rotterdam regions.
The Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) is planning an edition of this exchange program during the 2022 spring semester for Baltimore and Rotterdam area schools. The program is designed for middle school students, grades 7 or 8, referred to as ‘1st and 2nd year classes’ in Dutch high schools. This edition of the exchange takes place February to April, 2022. More info about the 2022 edition of the exchange.
BGE provides Green Grant for Baltimore Sister Cities educational program
Operation Trash Baltimore Tour 2020 (cancelled)
Rotterdam-based, American born theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano visits Baltimore region each semester. She had intended to visit Baltimore in 2020 but travel for cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
Seagull Mamma Performance at Pratt Library Nov 6, 2019
About this event
Seagull Mama — A Performance Piece about Trash and Recycling
Performed by theatre artist & educator Kathie diStefano from Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts.
This interactive show takes young audience members on a journey through the eyes of a seagull mamma who mistakes trash for fish while hunting for food for her young. How do our waterways get so polluted with plastic trash? The term ‘plastic soup’ is introduced; lakes, rivers, and seas that have so much plastic trash that no fish can live there.