“Connections” is the theme of this year’s Island Teacher Conference, planned for Oct. 2-3 at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast. The conference will open at 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 2 with remarks by state Rep. Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven), Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and John Damien of the Mitchell Institute at the University of Maine.
Friday will feature a series of presentations by island teachers, as well as panels and round-table discussions designed to highlight innovative efforts in Maine’s island schools.
Session One:
Lorna Stuart (K-8 teacher on Frenchboro): Showcase Portfolios: Suggested Guidelines, Purposes, Examples. These portfolios are student-chosen examples of their best pieces of work over the course of a year or more.
Sara Conefry (K-8 teacher on Monhegan): Roundtable Discussion: Being a New Teacher in an Island Community.
John Dietter and North Haven Students: North Haven’s Electric Vehicle: Real-world problem solving science, authentic assessment, and community involvement. How a community need can be turned into a service learning project that brings in community experts to help students solve a real-world problem.
Yvonne Thomas (Guidance counselor on Vinalhaven): Sexual Abuse Prevention Education Program for ages 4-10: Sexual Abuse Prevention Education is taught annually as part of the Personal Safety component of the Health Curriculum.
Session 2:
Gloria Smith (4th grade teacher on Vinalhaven): The Responsive Classroom: Social Curriculum and Classroom Management. The Responsive Classroom is an approach to teaching and learning that fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classroom and schools K – 8.
Gwen Smith and Danielle Hall (3-5 teacher on Chebeague, Island Fellow on Cliff): Strategies for Teaching a Multi-age Classroom. Roundtable Discussion.
Jennifer Clifford and Vinalhaven Students (7-12 science teacher on Vinalhaven): Sports for the Mind – Lego Robotics and Problem Solving. Lego Robotics is quickly emerging as a cutting edge problem-solving and technology curriculum in schools across the country.
Ellen Bowman (Guidance counselor for Monhegan): Calling all counselors! Serving island schools and the offshore counselor experience.
Session 3:
Marci Train (K-2 teacher on Long): Technology for Idiots. Marci Train will share very simple technologies that she has used in her classroom.
Gary Canter, Mike Felton, representatives of Miss Hall’s School and Westover School: High School and College Scholarship Opportunities for Island Students. Gary Canter will share his expertise in helping island students find and apply for financial aid, scholarships, and grants. Mike Felton will give an overview of the Island Institute’s scholarship programs. Representatives from Miss Hall’s and Westover will discuss special scholarship opportunities at their private high schools for island girls.
Liv Detrick, and Shey Veditz (Island Institute Fellows): Place-based Education with GIS & Mapping.
Joe Slowinski (Principal on Vinalhaven): What the $#%! is a Cluster? A Local Assessment Overview. This session, for teachers K-12, will provide the participant with an overview of the new Local Assessment system.
Session 4:
Lisa Turner (K-8 Ed. Tech on Isle au Haut): Hands-on Math and Science – Lesson with Cells and Teaching Weights and Measurements. Lisa Turner will lead teachers in a hands-on workshop in which they will learn easier ways to teach elementary and middle school students about cells, weights, and measurements.
Bigelow Laboratory: Phytopia: Discovery of the Marine Ecosystem. An educational CD-ROM that features a wealth of new images, animations, microscope- and satellite-derived data sets, and multimedia discovery tools. Free copies of the CD-ROM are available for Maine educators.
Ben Neal (Island Institute marine resources officer): Ecosystems and Marine Life of the Gulf of Maine. Ben Neal will share his extensive working knowledge of the Gulf of Maine ecosystems, marine life, commercial fishing and the interrelation between each.
John Deitter, Mark Jackson and Charlie Pingree: Boat building and rowing from an island school perspective. In recent years, students in the schools on North Haven and Vinalhaven have built, and now race, 32-foot-long, six-oared pilot gigs.
Session 5:
Tom Tutor (6-12 math teacher on Islesboro): Building Success in Mathematics – Grades 6-10. A College Board program designed to help math teachers develop effective strategies for teaching mathematical concepts with depth and rigor.
Marci Train and Gary Canter (K-2 teacher on Long, College consultant for Vinalhaven and North Haven): Transitioning and Mentoring: Marci Train organized an innovative aspirations/ mentoring program for Long Island students who go to the mainland for middle school, high school and college. Gary Canter is assisting in building an aspirations program for Vinalhaven middle school students.
Chris Brehme, Nathan Michaud (Island Institute GIS/web & community planning officers): Living With Lobsters. Following a brief presentation on community-based lobster research and education projects (including www.LobsterTales.org), this session will be devoted to creating strategies for integrating these projects to better fit island and coastal classrooms.
Kerrie O’Donnell (Island Institute Fellow): Vinalhaven’s Lobster Larvae in the Classroom Project. During the spring of 2003 Vinalhaven sixth graders raised lobster larvae in their classroom. Centering a science class on lobster biology (an inherently familiar and interesting topic to students of a lobstering community) provided a platform for learning more complex scientific concepts.
Session 6:
Emily Graham (Former library/ technology teacher on North Haven, now at South Portland): Making the Most of Your Local Library. Finding and incorporating school and public library resources into the curriculum.
The Lobster Conservancy and Teachers: Lobster Literacy Curriculum. The session will introduce the Lobster Larvae in the Classroom project, demonstrate some of the project activities, and report on progress to date on TLC’s web-based lobster curriculum.
Maine Small High Schools Coalition: Helping Maine’s Small High Schools Survive and Thrive.
Mike Shannon and Rick Barter (Maine Laptop Mentors): Taking full advantage of Laptops in the Classroom.
Orton Family Foundation: Community Mapping Program. Students work with community groups and use tools such as GPS and GIS to investigate and sustain local systems. Islands offer a lens to examine place and change, and to see the boundaries of social, economic and ecological systems.
For detailed information, contact Mike Felton at the Island Institute, (207) 594-9209, or email mfelton@islandinstitute.org.