Edutopia - April/May 2008 - (Page 25)

“The school is the heart of North Haven. It is the educational heart, the cultural heart, the entertainment heart.” off the skin and fat in honey barrels behind the school, bleached the bones and placed them in carefully labeled boxes, then reassembled the skeleton. Students studied the bones’ names and functions, as well as dolphin eating habits and evolution. The skeleton now hangs in the school, where it’s still used as a learning tool, as when ninth-grade biology students compared human hands to the dolphin’s ⇒n. Teachers also look to the island’s traditions for inspiration. Under Goodhue’s watchful eye, juniors Conor Curtin and Ashley Hodder built a ⇒shing boat of historic North Haven design, using a hand tool called a plane—and lots of trial and error—to shape planks to ⇒t the boat’s frame. Students use old techniques— steaming oak frames and cedar garboards—and develop an understanding of tools and job skills. But Curtin knows how boatbuilding dovetails with academics. “Instead of just using a textbook, we use math in real life,” he says. “That’s a big part of it—learning to apply skills we learn in class.” At daily meetings, staff members discuss collaboration and integrating academics with these hands-on projects, but “the ⇒rst order of business is students,” says Hallowell. Parents praise the school’s focus and ⇓exibility. “It’s adaptive. It works for a really intellectual kind of kid or a hands-on kind of kid,” says Adam Campbell, a lobsterman and oyster farmer with four children at the school. “They can focus that education and tailor it to each student, and not use up or hurt anyone else’s time.” Teachers learn to build on their students’ interests. When eleventh and twelfth graders studied forest ecology, high school science teacher John Dietter integrated a student’s love of photography, asking her to ⇒nd historic North Haven photos, take new pictures from the same location, and grapple with the evident ecological changes. “Rather than starting with the theory in the classroom and reading a text, I had her go to these places and see the change and then try to hook the theory on to it,” Dietter says. Because of the island’s isolation, NHCS seeks learning opportunities that broaden students’ experiences. English and U.S. history teacher Keith Eaton says the school “readjusted my curriculum” when they hosted Native American leader Barry Dana for workshops on Maine’s Penobscot Nation, of which he is governor. Eaton’s students debated and wrote about citizenship while working with painter Robert Shetterly and studying his portraits depicting “Americans Who Tell the Truth.” Students— and teachers—take University of Maine courses through an interactive television system, and a few kids have taken online Advanced Placement courses. In November, the ferry ⇒lled up with students from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. Extending an existing connection between the college and NHCS, education professor Doris Santoro teamed with Eaton in a formal academic partnership this year. Students read the same texts (education philosophers such as Paulo Freire were ⇒rst on the agenda), and NCHS students attended a Bowdoin class called Education and Social Justice as peers. “That’s really powerful,” says Eaton, “because it demysti⇒es the hallowed institution that is Bowdoin. They go into this class and they say, ‘Hey, I can contend here. I can hold my ground Strait Away: The Fox Island Thoroughfare, a strait separating the island of North Haven from its neighbor, Vinalhaven. EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 25 http://EDUTOPIA.ORG

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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