ALEXIS CAMARENA
Staff Writer

It’s not every day you walk into class to find your professor dressed as a fuzzy bunny.
However, for the students in Professor Emile George’s class, it’s just another day in Methodology in Teaching Social Studies, a graduate-level course for students in the QUEST education program that meets every Wednesday.
Though the class revolves around history, George does not teach his students about the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, or any other historical event. Instead, for the past four years that he has taught at FDU, George has been teaching his students creative and experimental methods of teaching history by dressing up, decorating the classroom, making projects and everything in between.
“You’re never going to be bored in my class,” George said.
Loren Kania, a fifth-year student in the QUEST program, has fun in George’s classes.
“Professor George teaches in very unconventional ways,” said Kania. “In my five years here, there’s been no professor on campus that comes close to the way he teaches.”
To demonstrate to his students one way of taking a history lesson to the next level, George had them write political platforms for both the Republican and Democratic parties and also one for Peter Rabbit.
“He came back into the classroom in the bunny suit and handed out carrots and bunny papers with ‘Vote for Peter Rabbit’ on them,” said Kania.
For any given class, George will set an atmosphere to complement his teachings.
“He’s very big on classroom environment,” Kania said. “Every night when we go to class, he has a different set-up.”
For a lesson on the 1960s, George plans on dressing up as hippie, playing The Beatles and examining the drug culture of the time period.
“I discuss often music’s influence in history,” George said. “I often play music to set an atmosphere when I teach. Teaching is about creating an atmosphere for a lesson, and that’s something I want my students to learn.”
After teaching public middle school and high school for 45 years, George retired and decided to try his hand at college education.
Having so many years of experience, George has plenty of insight to provide his students with a perspective on real-world education and the “do’s and don’ts” of teaching a class.
“Kids learn by doing, I believe in that. Research has shown that students learn more by seeing and by doing, than by hearing,” said George. “Teaching social studies should not be a lecture course; it should be a hands-on course.”
That being said, George’s class is not strictly a social studies class.
“A class like this doesn’t really teach you content but ideas and different ways to make your own students absorb material better,” said Kania.
“As the course is at a graduate level, the students should know the content,” George said. “My aim is to teach them how to apply that knowledge to teaching in a way that’s meaningful.”
The class has become pretty popular, with class size of over 20 students, slightly larger than most classes at FDU.
“I enjoy his class very much,” said Colby Thompson, a junior in the QUEST program. “He teaches in so many different ways and constantly changes up the class, that I am writing down or learning something nearly every second.”
However unique and unorthodox George’s class may be, the class is not so different from any other in terms of its workload. George’s students must complete a reaction paper every week and four projects throughout the semester.
“I still follow the departmental syllabus, though I’ve adapted it to my teaching style,” he said.
George expresses much enthusiasm and devotion to teaching the class. “I love what I do, and I love the students at FDU,” he said. “They’re bright, they’re enthusiastic, and they want to learn.”
George went on to say that the students give him feedback. “We discuss what’s good and what’s bad,” he said. “We critique every activity we do. We learn from each other.”
“As interesting as he is, he has emphasized to us to find our own way of teaching,” said Kania. “If we don’t feel comfortable dressing up in a bunny suit, then that’s not what we should do. He’s into us finding our own interesting path.”
George said he doesn’t remember a lot of “meaningful classes” from his college career, and he wants to give his students a memorable learning experience.
“I want my students to become outstanding teachers, and they will be,” he said.

MARISSA HYMAN
Staff Writer

Marie Roberts, an art professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Metropolitan Campus, had the unique opportunity to have some of her artwork featured in a recent episode of TLC’s hit show, “Cake Boss.”
“Cake Boss” centers around Buddy Valastro’s bakery, Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, N.J. In the episode “Freaks, Fast Food & Frightened Frankie,” which originally aired on Nov. 30, 2009, Valastro and his crew designed a cake for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, using Roberts’ paintings as part of the design.
When Roberts received a call asking permission for her pictures to be used on the show, she allowed it even though she had never heard of the show.
“I don’t have cable; I didn’t know what ‘Cake Boss’ was,” said Roberts. “Only after the episode aired, and Amusing the Zillion (a former carnival performer) did a blog on me, did I get an inkling of just how popular the show is.”
The works that appeared on the “Cake Boss” episode were edible reproductions of cast portraits. This cast included performers Scott Baker, Donny Vomit, Serpentina, Heather Holliday, Black Scorpion and Kryssy Kocktail.
Since 1997, Roberts has been painting banners for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. The images, called the bannerline, hang over the entrance to the sideshow theater.
“I generally try to make a new bannerline each sideshow season. That is about nine new six-by-five foot paintings,” Roberts said.
Roberts’ uncle was a talker with the Dreamland Circus Sideshow in Coney Island during the 1920’s, and her father also worked with the Dreamland show.
“I grew up with all this sideshow culture,” she said. “I ran away from sideshow culture to become an artist.” 
In the early 1990s, Roberts said she saw a New York Times article about a contemporary sideshow in Coney Island. “It was started by Dick Zigun, who had an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in playwriting from Yale School of Drama. He understood both sides of my background, the sideshow and the professional artist.”
It was in 1997 that this contemporary circus sideshow moved to its present location, and banners were needed.
Roberts and her students painted 25 full-size banners for the 1997 sideshow season.
“I fell in love with the genre and continued to paint for the sideshow. I am an artist in residence there,” she said.
“I paint anything that needs to be painted, the banners outside and inside the sideshow theater, some installation work for programs like Creepshow at Halloween, and anything needed for the annual Mermaid Parade.”
After the “Cake Boss” episode aired, Roberts had the opportunity to meet Valastro.
Valastro allowed Roberts to tour the inside of his cake mobile, a white air-conditioned SUV.
Roberts learned that before Valastro designs a cake, he draws out his designs beforehand.
Roberts said, “I was really pleased with his work. I firmly believe in drawing as the basis of all design.”
As for the cake, “I told Buddy that he did an incredible job,” Roberts said.
“It was really beautiful; it had the feeling of the show and my paintings. The colors were keyed to my paintings.”