Community+Project

__**Interested Students:**__ //Ya Li Shi Emma Corbett Kam Kennedy Abby Belisle - Haley Madeleine Anderson Amelia French//

__**Students will**__: a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
 * Students will collaborate with each other, teachers, members of the Yarmouth Historical Society and members of the community to create interactive tools for the community to use and enjoy. This project will be offered as an extension for 8th graders who are passionate about geography, history and their community. The end products will be audio and visual walking tours of Yarmouth (with a specific focus, like a time period, architecture through the ages, a certain person or family, war, maritime industry, music, artists, authors...) as well as an interactive web component (like a wiki, webpage or blog) to share information about our town.

b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
 * Students will use both web 2.0 tools as well as Ipods to store and share information with others. We will maintain a wiki to store our research and logistical information throughout the project and utilize Google docs to share information.

c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
 * We will take the opportunity to explore other local history projects from other communities around the world as we build our own project.

d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
 * Students will work in teams with professionals and community members to create walking tours of Yarmouth (which currently don't exist)

As 8th grade students research and create walking tours of Yarmouth, they will connect with their own community and will create a venue to share with people outside their community. They will use valuable collaboration skills, learn the value of their local community, create an authentic product that can be used by the members of their community and, of course, increase their knowledge and expertise of digital media tools.
 * Why?**

In the Fall, I will collaborate with Charlotte and the 8th grade team as well as the Yarmouth Historical Society to discuss the logistics of this project, Then, it will be pitched to the students, so we can identify interested learners (this will be an optional extension for a group of kids who are really excited about it). The Fall and Winter will be spent researching the town and it's people to determine what walking tours can be constructed, how we should format our information to make it accessible to various ages and types of learners in our community and what skills we'll need to learn to get the project done. I want the kids to take ownership of this project, so the HOW will be mostly up to them. By the spring, we will be able to publish our walking tours through the Yarmouth Historical Society. In addition, I want the kids to determine how to put the valuable information they've learned about our community into an interactive tool on the web - will it be a wiki to share stories and facts about our town? will we maintain a blog during the project? There are many directions we could go!
 * When?**

I will need to work out the logistics with the key players and make sure I have an understanding of all of the tools we'll be using before I bring the kids on board. Then, I will need to bring the key players together with the kids to establish a collaborative structure for the project. Next, we need to access community resources of all kinds to do our research. Then, we will determine where the information directs us - how many tours can we create? what information will the community enjoy learning the most? how can we put our information into an accessible and interesting format? We will then learn and apply the media skills necessary to create the tours. At the same time, we will build our interactive tool on the web. Finally, we will establish the best way of disseminating information to the public - how will we let them know the tours exist? how will we share our web 2.0 tool effectively?
 * How?**

__**Assessment:**__ Students will complete reflections both orally and in writing throughout the project (on the wiki where we'll store our research and plans). There will be a culminating self-assessment and students will receive feedback from key players. The final project will be reflective of their hard work.

__ACTION STEPS:__ - send out a Google Survey to the 8th graders to gauge interest in the project ( so far I have 5 "yeses" and 10 editors ) [|8th Grade Survery] - talk to Amy & Marilyn at the Yarmouth Historical Society: (NOTE: Amy met with the 8th grade teachers to plan the 2 Yarmouth talks she later presented to the 8th graders) [|Yarmouth Historical Society]
 * very excited about this project; would love to be in on the initial brainstorming session with the kids to help focus topics of interest and suggest research starting points
 * definite need for walking tours to be housed on the website and in the museum
 * we can create as many as we'd like
 * they have 1 MP3 and 1 ipod, but neither will serve our needs; ideas: ask HMS families if they have old ipods they want to discard, look for a grant, YHistoricalS has room in their budget to buy one

- talk to 8th grade team:
 * what are your expectations for this assignment?
 * what school time could be devoted to the project?
 * how would you like to be involved?
 * what input do you have on assessment of final product (rubric)?
 * will the final product assessment be included in student grades?

(NOTE: foundational study taught to all 8th graders: Maine geography, economy and local history; everyone attended Amy's 2 talks on Yarmouth history; everyone went on a walking tour of Maine Street - I went, too; FINAL PROJECT: MAINE TOUR (see Rod's website for details at http://hms.yarmouth.k12.me.us/Pages/teacher/YSD_HMSroco/SocialStudies/maine/maine) See examples (2 from past students & Sam's)

- Go into 8th grade classes to confirm interest and explain project - Meet with interested kids for an initial brainstorming session with Amy and Marilyn at the YarHistSoc; discuss logistics (see questions/wonderings/ideas below) - Start planning the research paths each kid will take to learn about their focus area - Research! Store our learning on-line - explore tools we can use to record interviews, our own tours, take pics.... - Check out examples of podcast tours through itunes: [|Bryant Park audio tour] [|Central Park Tour]

Here is an example of a paper walking tour of the Portland Freedom Trail: and here is a walking tour of Presque Isle: - Create podcasts - Get peer editors, Marilyn and Amy to review podcasts - publish in multiple ways

__QUESTIONS/WONDERINGS/IDEAS__: - how could we get the word out once the project is complete? could we have an open house in which we send people out on these tours and have a reception? publish the wiki/blog/page? - should we create paper maps to accompany tours or keep it all visual/audio? - how did Frank Lloyd Wright do that self-guided tour I took - call them! and the Boston Science Museum, art museums...talk to Portland art museum about how they manage ipods - timeline? would this go all year? - how much time can I devote to this? - could the kids create a display that would go in the current/new historical society to compliment their tour or to just stand alone? perhaps the display could just have one ipod with the kids' voice recorded, explaining the display - how much time can Amy devote to this? - can kids join once things get started? - how will we record our brainstorming, research and ideas as we go? a wiki, *blog, protected site on the yarmouth domain, google doc? - will the tours/displays be our published work or will we share our work with others through a site like the networked learner; or find a specific class/school to share with in Maine (history swap with other kids?) or in any town - compare hometown history projects with other kids; or find a historian in Maine who would want to see our work; 207 show?; Maine PBS station? share with younger/older kids studying Yarmouth? - Idea from Mike : create a podcast in Garage Band and then put a link on the historical society homepage so people who have their own ipod can download the tour at home - idea: have the kids create podcasts of school tours for new students/prospective students to view - mainememory.net - historical photos from all over Maine; looking for students to work on the project - talk to Allen Hall (YHS teacher; Todd remembers an architecture tour of Yarmouth)! WEALTH of info about Yarmouth; interview him! shipbuilding.... - have background music be music from Yarmouth musicians - see Kim! - foster grandparent (Bowen) has a DVD of interview with her - meet with Marypat Bowen - she used to teach Yarmouth history and has tons of stuff; plus the 8th graders were in her 3rd grade class! - Nancy March & Cathy Wolinski have video interviews from the '40's and 50's
 * ask Mike about the internal Yarmouth blog software where we can easily create protected blogs and don't have to worry about permissions and settings like on Blogger (suggestion by Alice)