As told to WKCD by Laura Richter, Skowhegan Middle School Teacher

“It began many years ago as a local history unit, with a team of four teachers trying to integrate all of the content areas. We examined our curriculum and tried to figure out how we could engage students in a really interesting community study. We began by trying to determine what the kids already knew about the local community and if they had any idea how it was connected to the country and to the world. There were four of us, sitting down and mapping out ideas, starting from scratch.

“Before long, we were bringing in community members to meet with the students, sending students out into the town (including some job shadowing), and then doing a lot of historical research with primary resources, interviewing older loggers, people who lived during the Great Depression, and keepers of the town history, many of whom have since died.

“The students began capturing a lot of what they were discovering, in both video and text. We decided to create a website featuring their historical research and documentaries.

“Over the years, as this project has passed from one student to the next, it has greatly expanded. Six years ago, Maine middle schools became 1:1 learning environments where every student got a laptop. Our local history curator contacted me at the time, wondering if our students could help scan and publish documents and photos that were in storage at the history house. With the help of the Maine Historical Society, students learned how to scan images in high resolution and transmit them to the Maine Historical Society’s online website. In the process, the students got very interested in the photos and decided to do further research. If you access the Maine Memory Network, you’ll find Skowhegan Middle School students have scanned over 200 images and submitted numerous historical essays.

“Recently, with the help of the Rural Schools and Community Trust, the program has expanded its focus from students conducting in-depth historical research, to working with local officials and organizations to revitalize our downtown. Like towns all over the US, we have lost our industrial base and are now faced with re-inventing ourselves. Our hope is to help make Skowhegan a ‘destination place’ rather than merely a dying industrial town that has lost its shoe shops [save a New Balance factory] and spinning mills. We have a great natural resource, the Kennebec River that flows through our town, and it has sustained the community since early settlement. A local committee, The Run of River, hopes to establish a kayak run through the river gorge.

“As part of the revitalization effort, The Maine Department of Transportation and the Local Heritage Council asked the local student historians to help develop prototype signs from the images they had scanned for the Maine Historical Society. The town has received grant money that will make these signs a reality. To go along with the signage, students will be creating a historic walking tour and podcasts that will detail the rich history of the area. [Apple is providing the iPods as part of a grant to the project].

“So when tour buses drop off visitors at the Chamber of Commerce, the plan is that they will pick up the iPods along with a colorful and informative brochure and proceed from one historic point to another, listening to the student narrations. Students are integrating all of their historic research, based on both primary and secondary sources, in the audio files. We hope high school students can translate the narrative into French for Canadian visitors. 

“A number of high school teachers have become involved in the revitalization project. Science teachers are getting the kids down to the river to conduct water quality tests. Because the town is planning to have new boat portages constructed, these tests will contribute to required environmental impact studies. Other teachers are working on media projects that will highlight and advertise the assets of the town.

“One group of teachers and students at the middle level has focused on organic farming. Overall, the small farms in our area are in decline but we do have some small organic farms. As an integrated study, students have interviewed farmers, compared commercially grown produce to locally grown foods, and created charts and graphs displaying the data. After a trip to the local farmers market, students decided to create advertising for the local farmers. One of their goals is to design a website for the farmers so that they will be able to sell food year round.

“Our challenge as teachers is to develop academically rich curriculum that will support all of these initiatives. Extending the walls of the classroom into the surrounding community has both challenged our teachers and allowed our students to become vital resources as they engage in real life learning. There are 15 teachers involved with this project, planning lessons that integrate 21st century skills—critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving, communicating, and technology. It’s really a new path for everyone involved. On the community side, the belief that schools and youth are essential resources in building strong, sustainable communities has begun to take root.

Throughout the years as a 1:1 school, we have come to realize that technology is an essential tool for both teaching and learning and without the Macbook, the GPS equipment, online resources, and the many programs ranging from Noteshare to Adobe Photoshop, we would not be able to accomplish the goals of this community project. Hats off to our students—digital natives—as they help guide us—digital immigrants— along the way.

Notes: A film crew from Apple, Inc. came to Skowhegan this September ‘07 to film a day in the life of a technology student. Skowhegan Area Middle School was one of four schools in the country chosen to be a part of an Apple Internet documentary about technology in education. The Jane Trust has also been a strong supporter of the students’ historical work.

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