Edutopia - April/May 2008 - (Page 24)

Treasured A tiny offshore Maine school’s self-suf⇒ciency makes it an inspirational island apart. By Lisa Morehouse Photography by Katherine Emery Island cisely because it doesn’t try to duplicate a large mainland facility. “Teachers understand that teaching and learning is done most effectively in North Haven by doing rather than by sitting and getting,” he says, “because that’s the tradition of the community.” He points to the hands-on teaching that’s part of island maritime life, with children learning at their parents’ sides. That tradition morphs easily into school life. Students ride in NHCS’s electric van (equipped with a student-converted engine) to the nearby garage, where they’re making biodiesel and researching hybrid engines for their next vehicle. They’re trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (in both French and English), and some are trained in automatic external de⇒brillator use. They’ve installed solar panels on the school’s roof and tested residents’ water for lead. And while studying the Vietnam War, they interviewed people to learn different perspectives on the era. Though NHCS’s learning looks nontraditional, it’s grounded in both intellectual rigor and a sense of island identity. “It appears that we break all the rules, which we don’t,” says Hallowell. “We just connect the teaching we do with the place where we live.” To build a park trail, ⇒fth and sixth graders researched island ⇓ora and history, surveyed townspeople, learned to use global-positioningsystem (GPS) units and geographic-information-services (GIS) maps to design their trail, studied town government and presented their proposed trail to park commissioners, who approved it. When a dead white-beaked dolphin washed up on a nearby island, vocational arts teacher Terry Goodhue created a project in which students rearticulated the dolphin’s skeleton. They boiled hen locals from Maine’s North Haven island board the ferry for the 12-mile, hour-long trip to the mainland, they joke about “going to America.” This community, about halfway up the coast in Penobscot Bay, has a year-round population of just 350, and may indeed seem isolated from the mainland. But North Haven residents’ self-suf⇒ciency and determination mean they have one thing most Maine islands lack: their own K–12 school. And this scrappy school, the smallest public K–12 campus in the state, has, often out of necessity, developed innovations that can inspire schools of any size, in any location. In the last century, Maine has gone from having about a hundred islands with schools to just fourteen. Only three serve all grades. North Haven Community School, though, has not only survived but also thrived. It serves as the center of its community and challenges the perceptions about the quality of education—and opportunities FLOAT YOUR BOAT for graduates—that island schools can Watch students learning math and local history through boatbuilding at deliver. With a ⇓exible curriculum, an www.edutopia.org/boatbuilding-slide-show experiential, place-based pedagogy at its core, and a commitment to reaching all of the island’s sixty-⇒ve kids, NHCS gives students real skills and responsibilities grounded in rigorous academics. Life on North Haven has always involved physical work. Today, work “on island” includes lobstering, carpentry, caretaking for summer residents, and working at one of the two boatyards. Principal Barney Hallowell believes the little school succeeds pre- W 24 EDUTOPIA APRIL/MAY 2008 http://www.edutopia.org/boatbuilding-slide-show

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - April 2008

Edutopia - April 2008 Contents Up Front Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of the Class Cool Schools Design Reinventing the Big test The Daring Dozen Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Jack Prelutsky

Edutopia - April 2008

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