News Coverage of Mr. S's Trip

Szuszkowski didn't go empty-handed. In a gesture of friendship, he carried with him a friendship quilt and letters, all created by his students back in Ironia, and many school supplies the children had donated.
As their thanks, Szuszkowski said the Mexican students lavished so much gratitude upon him that, by the visit's end, he was in tears.
"They kept asking for autographs, and I didn't want to leave until I signed every one," he said on Friday, March 2. "The hardest thing I ever had to do was leave that school."
Many Lessons
Szuszkowski's sojourn to Mexico was, while brief, suggestive of the annual winter migration of Szuszkowski's beloved Monarch butterfly, or "Danaus plexippus," as it is formally called.
Besides being known for its beauty, the delicate creature with the orange and black wings is also famous for its twice-a-year, seemingly suicidal migrations, from Canada and the U.S. to the mountains of Michoacan in central Mexico in the fall, and the return trip each spring.
Szuszkowski is so fascinated by the butterfly that he has patterned his own teaching experiences around it.
As a member of the Monarch Teacher Network, he volunteers raising and tagging the creatures, and often teaches teachers about them.
His Ironia classes incubate Monarch eggs, raising them through the pupa and chrysalis stages to maturity.
In the fall, they tag migrants, a simple process that includes placing a very light stamp on one of those gossamer wings.
Szuszkowski's classes extend beyond the scientific, however, since he uses Monarchs to illustrate mankind's often negative impact on nature.
For example, students learn how the over development of land, and illegal logging, are stripping away the Monarch's eco-system in Mexico, leaving it in peril of extinction.
Conversely, Monarchs, with their hemispheric migration, are a lesson in life without borders, the symbol of international brotherhood and cooperation, according to Szuszkowski.
Since the beginning of this year, Szuszkowski's students have been pen pals with a sixth-grade class in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, through the Monarch Teacher Network. Szuszkowski said plans are to soon have a similar relationship with a school in Mexico.
Szuszkowski's students are apparently as rapt as he is about the Monarch's multi-purpose lesson.
Student George Garcia called the lessons "cool."
"It's a fun program, especially because we have pen pals who care about the butterflies too," he said.
For Adam Elshaer, the fun was in learning how strong the little butterfly was.
He said when he first tagged on, "it was vibrating. I was afraid I'd put a hole through it, but I didn't."
The students are now eagerly awaiting the start of the annual spring migration, which begins this month, said Szuszkowski.
During last year's fall migration, Szuszkowski's students sent notes created on paper Monarchs, which were sent to children living in the Mexican monarch sanctuary areas.
When the spring migration starts, those notes will be returned to the U.S., said Szuszkowski.