Session A 9:00 – 11:10 a.m.
(note: this is a double session running concurrently with Sessions B and C)
Mary Ruth McGinn: Working Towards Sustainability
We will explore how taking a “small” idea can become the driving force that brings
about change in our classrooms and beyond the classroom. We will use this “idea” to
reflect on our teaching and to see how this becomes a way of thinking that permeates
everything we do.
On a Fulbright scholarship to Spain for the last two years, Mary Ruth has worked extensively with teachers and their students exploring the many elements and contributors to best practices in the classroom. She has taught for 20 years in the states of South Carolina and Maryland, each year working toward the goal of releasing more responsibility to students. (Most of her students have been affected greatly by poverty. Most have spoken English as their second language.) She has always used the arts as a vehicle but has recently discovered that the key is combining and connecting all that she teaches in a way that makes sense to students and teachers alike. Through this type of thinking and learning, all have discovered hidden potential.
Caryn McHose: Speaking the Language of the Movement Brain: A Workshop in Experiential Anatomy and
Evolutionary Movement
This workshop offers ways to bring alive whole body intelligence to the topics of
anatomy, biology, and healthy body movement. McHose’s curricula are adaptable to
all age groups.
Caryn McHose has taught perceptual approaches to creative movement for 40 years. She created the experiential anatomy curriculum at Middlebury College and it is the basis for Bodystories, A Guide to Experiential Anatomy by Olsen and McHose. She is the co-author (with Kevin Frank) of How Life Moves, Explorations in Meaning and Body Awareness. Caryn teaches internationally and has a private practice in Holderness, NH.
Emma Rous: Literature and the Land: Reading and Writing for Environmental Literacy
Participants will write, discuss nature journaling, and review a curriculum that raises
student environmental awareness through a combination of readings, writing, and
outdoor experiences.
Emma Rous taught for thirty years at every level, preschool to college, including 17 years in the English department of Oyster River High School where she developed, taught, and published Literature and the Land. She is presently a NH state representative and chairs the NH House Education Committee.
Meg Gilman: Becoming Stewards: Stories Nature Tells
It is imperative to encourage caring and responsible environmental stewardship. For
thousands of years, stories have been guides to the natural world – fostering a
connection with nature while offering wisdom as well as magic. This session presents
an introduction to ways stories can enhance environmental education, while developing
writing and speaking skills, and exploring world cultures.
Meg Gilman, MFA, has been telling stories and teaching storytelling workshops since 1999. Prior to that, she was a visual artist and teacher, and has taught in universities, public schools, and in community learning centers.
She has worked in the film industry, in political news gathering, and in the corporate world. Meg serves on the Healing Story Alliance Executive Committee and is the National Storytelling Network State Liaison for NH.
Shipp Webb: Geocaching and the Classroom
The workshop presents an overview of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a
demonstration of individual handheld receivers and an introduction to Geocaching
(the hiding and finding of waterproof containers—“caches”—all over the world).
Experiences with elementary students suggest ways that Geocaching engages children
in basic reading and writing skills as well as advanced concepts such as cartography,
navigation and appreciation of the natural world.
Shipp Webb’s many wilderness canoe camping expeditions during which GPS was essential, and his ten years as an elementary teacher, have led to the recognition that geocaching has something for everyone: high-tech gadget, outdoor travel, internet research and communication. Now retired after twenty-five years as a jewelry craftsman, Shipp devotes time to tutoring and other volunteer work at SBS.
Jon Engle: Life Outside the Workbook: Connecting the Disconnect in Elementary Education
When there is an intrinsic reason to learn, the learning part becomes almost second
nature. In this workshop, we will discuss and engage in different fun activities that
“trick” students into learning. While with a little creative thinking one could apply these
ideas to any subject, due to time constraints, most of our work in this workshop will
revolve around math and science activities.
Jon Engle has been involved in various aspects of education for over thirty years. He ran a small private school in Martha’s Vineyard for several years and has taught elementary, middle and high school students in a variety of different subjects at Sant Bani School.
Alexander Lee: Laundry: An Inconvenient Chore?
Mr. Lee will use a series of recent articles to outline a new direction for American
progress and a new American Dream. Drawing on the work of social scientists, he
will illustrate the need for us to tackle the climate crisis in more creative and fundamental
ways. He will issue a clarion call for a semi-revolution that allows citizens to
take matters into their own hands and to create a more beautiful world for tomorrow.
Mr. Lee will also offer his regular PowerPoint presentation that promises to educate
viewers about laundry and how it relates to the environment.
In the last year, Alexander Lee has appeared in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and on ABC World News talking about the clothesline and climate change. He was Sierra Club’s featured activist in September/October 2007 and works from a home office in Concord, NH.
Gail Darrell: Who Decides? How Hidden Histories Affect Community Decision Making
The presentation is an introduction to the Daniel Pennock Democracy School, a
project of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit, public
service law firm based in Chambersburg, PA. The telling of the Pennsylvania,
Barnstead and Nottingham, NH stories reveal the hidden histories which cause
problems within communities that try to say “no” to corporate projects hoping to
locate within the municipality and provide the listeners with a rights-based solution
to the question: Who Decides?
Gail Darrell began her education career in 1971, while attending Plymouth State College, as a volunteer with the Pemigewassett Community Headstart Program, tutoring children with autism. In 1974 she met and married her husband, Doug, and began practicing the arts of homesteading, gardening and sustainable living. From 1978 until 2005, Gail was a homeschooling parent of four children. When the youngest of the family started school at Sant Bani, Gail had time to participate in local grassroots environmental and political efforts. The successful writing of letters and speaking before local meetings led her to her present occupation of community organizer. Gail has been assisting communities in NH and Maine with water protection and the drafting and passage of local, binding law.
Hans Mundahl: Edit the Encyclopedia: Wikis and Wikipedia for Teachers and Learners
Participants in this workshop will explore two types of wikis – the well known
Wikipedia and free wiki platforms available to educators. Through hands-on myth
busting we will analyze the benefits and drawbacks to Wikipedia. Participants will also
learn how to create their own wiki for the purposes of classroom management,
student collaboration or internal communication. For more information about this
workshop please visit www.hansmundahl.wikispaces.com.
Hans Mundahl has taught since 1995 when he first walked to the front of the classroom as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher in the former East Germany. Since then he has been exploring how high tech and low tech solutions meet the learning goals of different kinds of students. Hans has presented at Independent Schools of Northern New England, Outward Bound and Association of Experiential Education conferences on the role of technology in education. He is currently the Director of Experiential Learning and Technology Coordinator at the New Hampton School.
|
