garyville – The majority of Amber Detillier and Michelle Jensen’s first-graders at Garyville-Mt. Airy Magnet School have had few opportunities to travel beyond the borders of the parish or the state. However, a class project is giving the students more exposure to the world than these two educators ever imagined thanks to a partnership with Marathon Oil. Through Flat Stanley’s travels, the students are vicariously visiting places all over the world.

“This project is giving our students exposure to things beyond the classroom. It is unlikely that many of my students will travel to Africa. Most of my students don’t have family outside of Louisiana,” said Detillier. “This project is opening my students’ eyes to different cultures and environments.”

In January, each grade level at GMMS met with a Marathon Oil employee to develop a grade level project to focus on STEM. Mona Deslatte, Marathon Oil’s LRD Human Resources Administrative Assistant, Detillier and Jensen determined that doing a Flat Stanley project would expose students to both science and mathematics outside of the classroom. The three initially planned small, thinking Stanley would travel within the United States to family members and employees of Marathon Oil in Ohio. Jensen then asked if there was a location elsewhere. As a result, Deslatte suggested that Stanley travel with Mark Varisco, Marathon Oil’s PSM Maintenance Trainer who travels to their location in Africa every other month.

Within the week, Flat Stanley was traveling to Africa with Varisco. Since then, Varisco has e-mailed GMMS’s first-graders with pictures of Stanley in Africa, Norway and France. “I was very excited to see MY Flat Stanley in Africa; I couldn’t believe that they picked mine to go to Africa,” stated first-grader Iyana Johnson.

Detillier and Jensen use the pictures Varisco sends to discuss the various locations, environment, foliage and culture of the places in the photos. The students are also charting the miles that Stanley has traveled.

“First-graders have difficulty conceptualizing large amounts; this project is helping them to understand numbers beyond single and double digits,” said Michelle Jensen. “When we added up the number of miles that Stanley has traveled, they are amazed that numbers exist beyond 100 or 1000.”

Since January, Detillier and Jensen have been using Stanley as a catalyst for classroom discussions at least twice a week as part of their planned lessons. Because of the higher reading level of the Flat Stanley books, the teachers orally read them to the students, having discussions with students about Stanley’s adventures. However, if an e-mail comes in pertaining to Stanley’s travels, they immediately use their interactive white boards to share Stanley’s latest escapade with the students.

Here is a sample e-mail sent to the GMMS teachers and their students:

Attached are some photos taken with my Flat Stanley here in Africa. These particular photos were taken yesterday as I walked the streets of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea with one of my Malabo friends, Oscar Alicante Tohy. A couple of the pictures were taken in his home with his wife. The person with the LSU shirt and hat is Stanley Jesus Anyama Mera. I thought it was pretty neat that Flat Stanley got to take a picture with someone named Stanley from Africa.  Some of the other photos were taken while walking through part of the jungle just outside the town.

Equatorial Guinea (pronounced Ga-nae’-ya) is located on the western side of central Africa.  Malabo, with a population of about 100,000 people, is the capital city and is located on an island off the coast of the mainland called Bioko Island. There is an extinct volcano here.  On a clear day I will try to take a picture with Stanley in front of the volcano. I attached a photo of the volcano taken previously. Equatorial Guinea is located about 3 degrees north of the equator. It is always warm here. Most days get to the upper 80’s to low 90’s in degrees Fahrenheit.  Spanish is the primary language, although many people speak French and English. 

 The people are very friendly here and the land is beautiful. Trees grow really big here!  Attached is a photo of me in front of one of the massive Saba trees. Yes, that is me in front of it, and I am over six feet tall! They have palm trees with coconut, and bananas grow naturally here.

This is the first set of many photos I hope to send you and your students as I travel around the world. I hope they enjoy them.

Greetings from Africa,

Mark Varisco

PSM Maintenance Trainer 

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea 

Recruitment, Training & Development

In addition to his transcontinental travels with Varisco, some of the classes’ other Flat Stanleys have been sent to Pennsylvania, California and Arizona.

Flat Stanley is the title character of a series of books written by Jeff Brown; the first book in the series was written in 1964. Stanley Lambchop is a normal boy who finds himself flattened by a bulletin board, but that doesn’t stop his adventures. He is sent through the mail to places all around the world, where friends and family take him on trips, see sights and increase the knowledge of the world of not only Stanley but also anyone reading the book.