What's New at Expeditionary Learning
The good works of Tapestry Charter High School students in Buffalo, New York, were featured on Channel 4 WIVB on April 1. Students at the school wanted to help their community by ridding it of eyesore properties. Two students were chosen to participate in the "enrichment intensive," after doing "really well" in their core subjects, according to the School's Art teacher. The students teamed up with Buffalo Re-Use to gut a dilapidated house on Seneca Street and recycle the materials inside. The building will then be refurbished. Before this, Tapestry students spruced up the neighborhood by painting murals on vacant homes. Click here to read the article.
EL Teachers are Winners!
Hats Off to the 45 ELS teachers who received cash awards totaling $154,000 from the Fund for Teachers for projects in the summer of 2008. In all, 25 of 70 ELS proposals were funded, with 16 awards going to individuals and nine to teams. ELS has a vibrant partnership with FFT; FFT treats our national network as a partner school district and, in return, ELS helps with design of the FFT program. ELS teachers use these summer fellowships to build expertise and gain primary source materials for Learning Expeditions and projects. Proposals this year reflected the great imagination of ELS teachers, and included travel to Norway to study "Friluftsliv," a mind/body ethic connected to outdoor activity, researching peace-building efforts in Israel and Palestine, holocaust research in Germany, a dinosaur dig in Montana, and an inquiry-based high school physics class.
EL teachers, is there a project you would like to do but don't have the resources? Visit DonorsChoose.org to see how you can use the power of the web to raise the money. DonorsChoose.org posts requests from public school teachers across the U.S. to fund student projects, classroom activities, fieldwork, technology, books, etc. On-line donors choose the classroom idea they want to support, all or in part, from proposals sent in by teachers. Several EL teachers have submitted projects; King Middle School in Portland, Maine sent requests for 12 projects, five of which were funded for a total of $2,335. Thanks to DonorsChoose.org, King received a color printer, a floor-to-ceiling computer screen and books. For details, visit www.DonorsChoose.org.
ELS in the News! Prescott eNews reports on The Sound of Silence at Prescott Mile High Middle School.
Civano Charter School in Tucson, AZ was crowned the greenest elementary school in the nation in a segment featured on the Ellen Show. The school was awarded a $50,000 prize, while students were each awarded an iPod. The school plans to use the funding as seed money for a long planned addition that will include a multipurpose room/kitchen. Click here to watch the video on the Ellen Show.
The school district of Bonner Springs, KS is in the news as it implements Expeditionary Learning at the elementary and middle school levels.
ELS in the News! NPR News reports on A district where no two schools are alike and ELS is front and center.
ELS in the News! ABC News reports on the Kurt Hahn School and on Polaris Charter Academy.
View news clips about the opening day of Polaris Charter Academy in Chicago, Illinois from NBC News and Fox News.
Read about EL Schools in A Passion for Learning by Diane Demee-Benoit, published in Edutopia.
A Night in the Global Village -- At Heifer International's Global Village, in Perryville, Arkansas, Colorado middle school students experience firsthand the living conditions typical of developing countries.
The journal Edutopia recently published the following piece on a Expeditionary Learning School: Memoirs, River Journeys, and Life Without Bathing. The piece, subtitled "Expeditionary learning puts the focus on student investigations -- and a Kansas City district embraces it" was written by Laura Scholes. The original article is on the Edutopia website.
Suzanne Gregg, Educational Director at ANSER in Boise, was interviewed on Boise State Radio on a program called New Horizons in Education - June 2nd. The program is available (audio) by clicking here. Look for the June 2nd broadcast.
Read about the Russell Byers Charter School in "Heart of the City", an article in the most recent issue of the American School Board Journal.
Both King Middle School in Portland Maine and Decatur Discovery Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana are featured in news articles. Read all about it!
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