Discovering Community is sponsored by the Vermont Folklife Center.
Discovering Community Moves to New Home in 2009!
In order to take advantage of the digital classroom and other resources offered by our new headquarters facility, we are moving the Discovering Community Summer Institute from Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center to the Vermont Folklife Center’s Vision & Voice Documentary Workspace in Middlebury.
Because of the planning time needed to stage this multi-site community-based project in a new location, we have elected to take a year off in order to fully prepare for the summer of 2009. Please join us for Discovering Community: Students, Digital Media, and Place-Based Learning, July 13-17, 2009 in Middlebury, Vermont, and watch our Web site for information about the program in our new location.
The Discovering Community Summer Institute offers educators the opportunity to explore the power of field research as a means to facilitate student engagement with their home communities. Over the course of an intensive, week-long program participants will work with cultural researchers, documentary media specialists, artists, and fellow educators in a learning environment that models an ethnographic approach to community enquiry. The Institute brings together place as the context, sustainability as the goal, and service-learning as the strategy.
"We came into this with very specific needs–to learn about ethnography and we wanted the digital piece–and we got it."
Michele Forman, Middlebury High School
–2001 National Teacher of the Year
"The Institute was literally one of the best courses I have ever taken."
Marie Kittel, Bethel Middle School
•The Institute combines the methods of ethnographic field research and the techniques of documentary production to facilitate the development of projects that both draw knowledge from–and return knowledge to–students’ home communities.
• Participants will experience a rich, hands-on learning environment that nurtures creativity, modeling ways to structure a similar environment in their own work with students.
•The Institute presents a range of possibilities for student research, offering guidelines for exploring both community history and the rich tapestry of community life in the present, as well as students documenting their own lives, interests, and daily experiences.
• Institute participant will return to their classrooms or programs prepared to initiate local projects that help to meet the pressing needs of cultural conservation and civic engagement, with the ongoing support of institute faculty and a network of like-minded peers.
"It was a really positive experience, and the group was great. We ended up with good bonds and a lot of trust."
Lidie Robbins, Education Director
Northern Forest Center
WORKSHOP & SESSION TOPICS INCLUDE:
•Students Studying and Documenting their Own Worlds
•Bridging the Divisions of Race, Class, and Culture
•Supporting Student Voice and Project Ownership
•Service-Learning and Education for Sustainability
•Place-Based Learning and Local Cultures
•Making Reflection Journals •Digital Storytelling
•Introduction to Field Research Methodologies
•Fieldwork Teams and Community Ethnography
•Field Research and Documentary Production
Intensive Media Sessions:
•Video as an Ethnographic Medium
•Audio as an Ethnographic Medium
•Photography as an Ethnographic Medium
COMING SOON: 2009 Registration Information • 2009 Institute Brochure (PDF)
"I left feeling so positive about the Institute...it exceeded my expectations. On a personal level I felt greatly energized by the voices and people there. The staff and teachers were great."
Andy Wallace, Four Rivers Charter School
TRANSFORMING STUDENT LEARNING, BUILDING BRIDGES OF UNDERSTANDING
Our long-term goal is to foster a transformative experience for young people that will facilitate personal growth by deepening their understanding of others and, in turn, themselves. At the same time community-based research will promote a young person’s sense of identification with, and caring for, their home community and their future involvement in its civic life. Since drawing on community resources and using digital technology represent rich opportunities for hands-on learning, we anticipate that these projects will engage both high-performing and at-risk students, facilitating the development of basic research and communication skills.
ESTABLISHING A NETWORK OF SUPPORT
The Summer Institute faculty and participants will form an ongoing network of like-minded peers who will provide feedback and support for each other’s classroom and program initiatives.
Institute faculty and participants form an ongoing network of like-minded peers who provide feedback and support for each other’s classroom initiatives. Their work also forms the basis for an expanding Discovering Community Website that offers a resource of curriculum exemplars and student-generated work—providing models and inspiration for other teachers and students.
The mentor relationship established during the Institute continues over the summer as teachers return home to flesh out their projects and implement them. Post-Institute mentor-teacher contact will occur by phone and e-mail and will include school site visits when possible. Core faculty and participants will reconvene for a day-long session in Middlebury, Vermont, in October. Staff and participants remain linked electronically for group communication and project critique.
"My definition of community really changed from a one-dimensional to a more multi-faceted one. I discovered the complexity of community and how history and the documentation of relationships in history is really an art."
Sarah Pulaski, Twinfield Union School
INSTITUTE SCHEDULE & PROJECTS
Each day of the five-day Institute focuses on developing a different aspect of the research and documentary process. The daily schedule is built around sessions led by educators, folklorists, digital media specialists, and artists who have done exemplary work as ethnographers, teachers, and documentarians.
Over the course of the week participants will undertake a mini-field research project and explore the documentary potential of the digital medium of their choice: photography; audio; or video. Each day will begin and end with a peer reflection session facilitated by core faculty mentors. Several evenings will be given over to field outings that put into practice ideas developed during the daytime sessions. Participants will develop individual curriculum plans based on their Institute learning and experience.
PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATES & GRADUATE CREDIT
Participants will meet July 13-17, 2009 eight hours per day plus the evening programs, with the expectation of individual reading, research, and planning. Professional certificates will be issued to all participants upon completion of expectations for the week. Participants seeking three graduate credits (optional) will submit a completed curriculum plan along with a post-institute reflection. A follow-up session will be held.
COMING SOON: Registration Information • Institute Brochure (PDF)
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