I have a tendency to over-schedule during the summer. So naturally between the summer institute and a houseboat vacation with friends, I decided to sign up for a cultural tour with the WTLC. While I don't regret taking the tour in the least, I lament the lack of time I always seem to forget that I need to process, apply, and unwind from one experience to the next. This leaves me drafting this post from my bedroom cabin on the aforementioned houseboat vacation in hopes of summarizing the experience for myself and so that I can put all of these thoughts to rest and enjoy some cold beer and our on boat water slide!
I spent the week of August 1-5 on a cultural tour of Wisconsin. Specifically we toured the area around Lake Winnebago. I knew very little about this place before embarking on the tour. I traveled with my colleague, Robyn, as well as twenty other teachers from around the state. We were led by four remarkable individuals: Ruth Olson (a folklorist and the associate director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures), Anne Pryor (the folk and traditional arts specialist at the Wisconsin Arts Board), Mark Wagler (a folklorist, researcher with the UW-Madison Local Games Lab, and consultant to Badger Rock Middle School), and Steve Ackerman (Professor of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, and the Director of the Cooperative Institute of Meteorological Satellite Studies at UW-Madison) who all shared unwavering passion for local culture.
Robyn and myself strolling through Algoma, WI.
I was able to see and do things on this tour that I don't think I ever could have been able to experience otherwise: visiting the Oneida Summer Arts Program for children, talking with Hmong-American Vietnam Veterans at a memorial to their service, meeting artisans: a boat builder, wood cover, Chinese cook, organic farmers - the list goes on...
Atop the Point Beach Lighthouse.
The purpose of the tour was to engage teachers in local culture so that they might do the same with their students. We were all at different places with this idea, some teachers have taken yearly trips, some use the community in their classroom daily, others had little to no experience at all. As my school is starting anew in the 2012-13 school year as a community-based school, this was the perfect opportunity to experiment, learn, and think.
Like the Greater Madison Writing Project, I am sure this will be an experience that I go back to again and again. For now, here are some of my most tangible take-aways:
1. People want to talk to you. This sounds silly, but one of my concerns about taking students out into the community was that we would be inconveniencing people, businesses, organizations. Everyone we talked to on our tour was excited to have us visit and to be given the opportunity to tell their story. I think this is almost universal and it makes the community seem more open and inviting.
2. School becomes relevant when it connects to life outside the classroom. And why shouldn't it?! Isn't it our duty to provide students with relevant curriculum? How did schools ever become so isolated from the riches of their local community?
3. Local community provides an endless amount of potential. Who knew that people surf year round (not a joke) on Lake Michigan!? Who knew how much fun Robyn would have curling?!
Robyn: Curler extrodinare. Green Bay Curling Club.
If students are aware of the healthy, interesting, community-connecting options in their areas, maybe they won't feel so alone or take such unhealthy risks.
Overall, the experience left me exhausted, but uplifted about the potential that lies ahead. I feel full of ideas and inspiration that will hopefully carry me through this exciting year of planning a school around the ideas of place and community connection.
The whole crew at Saxon Creamery.
**Photo Credit: Ken Swift - recently retired Madison Metropolitan School district teacher and amazing photographer! Featured on left of lighthouse photo.
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