Unplugged and In-Place: Cultivating Student Success with Place-based Teaching and Learning

Monday, August 19

10:00am – 12pm – Arrivals & Check-in
12:00pm – Lunch in the Wallace dining room
1:00pm – Opening community gather with Maine Coast Semester faculty & staff
1:45 – 2:45 – Place-Based Curriculum Workshops Part I

These sessions will explore how our courses incorporate Chewonki Neck and the coast of Maine as learning tools we use in our courses for high school Juniors and Seniors. You will see how our curriculum is relevant to developing student emotional growth and supports our Goals for Graduates. Participants can select from the following course options:

• Art and the Natural World
• Teaching US History in Place
• Energy Systems campus tour
• Farm and Food Systems
• Literature and the Land 

3:00pm – 4:00pm – Weaving Intentional Community with Nature as a Partner Part I

We will explore the ways that Maine Coast Semester creates intentional community using the principles of restorative practices.  We will explore how we see the natural world as a partner in this work, and use our cabin life, advising, and solos curriculum to manifest a community built on trust, composed of community co-creators, students and adults alike.  Through this time together we’ll explore the approach and tools for: 

• Creating a container with community expectations and rules for the community to grow and thrive
• Mending that container when it cracks as rules and expectations are pressed up against
• Tending the contents of the container – the soup!
  • Connecting across difference with cabin, AAI and school meeting  
  • Backcountry skills and solos curriculum

4:15pm – 6:00pm – Optional Activities

• Free time before dinner
• Trail run
• Nature walk to the tip of the peninsula
• Visit the farm

Tuesday, August 20th

7:00am – Optional Polar Bear Plunge at the waterfront
7:30am – Breakfast
8:45am – 9:00am Morning Meeting at the campfire circle
9:30 – 10:30 Weaving Community with Restorative Practice Part II
10:30 – 11:45 Place-Based Curriculum Workshops Part II: 

• Art and the Natural World
• Teaching US History in Place
• Energy Systems campus tour
• Farm and Food Systems
• Literature and the Land example class

12:00pm – Lunch
1:00pm – 3pm – Field Lab Excursion (Pemaquid Point or Reid St. Park depending on weather and tides)
4:00pm – 6:00pm – Free time
6:00pm – Formal program ends. Participants are welcome depart, or, to stay Tuesday night and depart the following morning. There will be the opportunity to join a group for a dinner out on Tuesday evening to a local area restaurant. 

Wednesday, August 21st:

10:00am – Departure