School Union 76 was awarded funding for a Rethinking Responsive Education Ventures (RREV) pilot project last year to create outdoor learning spaces for students across the district. With those funds, the district has created an ADA-accessible boardwalk with an adjacent ADA Outdoor Classroom that is part of a nature trail, both are designed to be inclusive for all students to be able to engage, connect, and explore and significantly boost their student learning proficiencies across all subjects – and even the students are pitching in to make improvements to the new spaces.

As part of regular maintenance to the district grounds, many saplings were taken down this past summer in the process of maintaining the campus driveway and the well. One of the teachers wisely set them aside, rather than sending them to the local dump. After agreeing to build the railing, Deer Isle Stonington High School students taking a course named Construction I class measured and planned their project. Then, they stripped the bark from the aspen, maple, and beech trees and cut the pieces to the correct length to assemble a beautiful railing for the new Outdoor Classroom. Visitors can see by their handiwork that they considered spacing and the shape of the branches as they installed the branches.

In addition to this upgrade, 7th graders have also stepped in to help. After hearing of the desire from the kindergarten classes for immediate seating, they rolled stumps leftover from prom into the space.

“The end result is stunning!” Remarked Science Teacher Mickie Flores. “Students and staff at both the elementary and high school are enjoying the space as a place to be outdoors and a place to learn,” she added.

RREV is an initiative of the Maine Department of Education, funded by the Education Stabilization Funds through the US Department of Education’s Rethink K-12 Education Models, that bolsters Maine educators’ innovative efforts to support their students with agile, effective, and resilient learning experiences that improve learning outcomes for all students.  

Martin Mackey, the former RREV Project Director who tragically passed away in April of 2022, embodied the RREV spirit: to think and act boldly to meet the needs of students. His passion was to “change lives.” As such, he challenged each and every RREV participant to do just that as they designed pilot ideas that would ultimately have a lasting systemic impact on students.  After 18 months of leading RREV, Martin’s passion had been passed on to over 200 educators who had participated in innovation professional development. From those educators, over 40 Pilot ideas were brought to fruition and have received over $8 million in RREV awards. Through their pilot ideas, these educators have pledged to commit themselves to innovation. 

The Maine DOE encourages all schools and districts across the State of Maine to learn more about these innovative educators and their RREV pilots through the RREV website and the online RREV collaborative platform known as EnGiNE. It is through EnGiNE that we all hope to continue the Martin Momentum to change students’ lives through innovative and responsive educational programs. 

Putting Head, Heart, and Hand together can seem overwhelming.  This video is of an art teacher from Madison who has built a 7th-grade project-based unit that uses the ideas of Head, Heart, and Hand to engage students with authentic learning. 

Approximately 20 Windham High School (WHS) students participated in three separate day-long retreats entitled the “Can We? Project”. Building up to the third retreat, students learned the skills of ‘listening to understand’ through a series of story exchanges. Then, using what they learned in the first retreat, students practiced their listening skills by discussing divisive topics at the second retreat where students chose political and social issues they deemed essential.

On the last day of the Can We? Project retreat, Wednesday, Dec. 7th, students practiced civic engagement skills by presenting their perspectives on their areas of concern to elected officials from the Windham Town Council and the RSU 14 School Board.

Students shared concerns from a global and local perspective ranging from various social, political, and environmental topics.

The students only had 1 ½ hours to choose from one of the issues established by the group to develop an argument. After their presentations, the elected officials were offered an opportunity to ask questions or give an opposing viewpoint to consider.

WHS English teacher, and Can We? Project liaison Chelsea Scott said four student groups and one teacher group presented to the officials in about an hour.

“The student’s level of courage was admirable,” Scott said. “They transformed feelings of anxiety into action and used the little time they had to prepare to create insightful presentations.”

School board member and chair, Kate Brix, was impressed with the students and the Can We? Project process, stating that it was a powerful example of the importance of student voice.

“Student engagement is a core belief of RSU 14’s strategic plan, and the students of this project were extremely articulate and respectful as they presented their viewpoint on a topic important to them,” she said. “The students I met clearly illustrated that they care and think deeply about issues that impact all our lives. I can’t say enough about how impressed I was with them and know that the skills they learned will be put to good use beyond their high school years.”

Town Council member and chair Mark Morrison said the project was timely and a valuable lesson in learning respectful dialogue between people with differing viewpoints.

“We saw the students apply and follow the program process with their presentations which stressed presenting respectfully, listening, and asking questions in a way that did not make the dialogue personal,” Morrison said. “I hope this program continues so the students learn the skills needed to effectively communicate so the focus is on the ideas where the pros and cons can be discussed and measured, not on the person. I hope I’m invited back to participate in another discussion.”

After the presentations, the students had an opportunity to reflect upon what they learned most.

“I realized I need to do more research about my subject,” stated senior Teddy Becker.

Junior Mareena Batsungnern said participating in the Can We? Project helped develop her skills in leadership. “It has also given me the courage and motivation to voice my beliefs to others.”

Junior Griffin Moreau said the Can We? Project taught him something that many of us try to learn in an attempt at deep listening. “The thing I think that I learned the most is, ‘be comfortable with silence’. It is something that I have struggled with all my life and have only started to realize the answer to and the Can We? project has helped with that.”

Scott stated that the Can We? Project was instrumental in empowering the students to truly listen to each other and discuss divisive topics with empathy and a desire to understand rather than to react.

“Participants have expressed that they feel supported, surprised, and inspired by this program and that they now have the tools and knowledge to participate in their own democracy,” she said.

Briefly, the Can We? Project was developed collaboratively between the Third Thought Initiatives for Civic Engagement from Waynflete School and the Maine Policy Institute. The mission is to allow high school students the opportunity to engage in thoughtful dialogue across different perspectives.

All three retreats were held at WHS and guided by John Holdridge, the Director of the Third Thought Initiatives for Civic Engagement, and Jacob Posik, the Director of Communications from the Maine Policy Institute. The twenty students were self-selected to participate and represented a true cross-section of ages, academic foci, family experiences and interests.

Students will have the opportunity to expand their experiences with other high school students across the state who also participated in the project, taking their experiences and practice of civil conversation and dialogue to the next level. In addition, WHS teachers who participated in the retreats plan to incorporate the project as an initiative for the whole school.

A thank you goes to the following elected officials who gave the gift of listening and allowing students to practice skills of civic engagement and dialogue respectfully. Thank you to Windham Town Council members Mark Morrison, Dave Nadeau, and Nick Kalogerakis. RSU 14 school board members (Kate Brix, Kate Leveille, Char Jewell, and Jessica Bridges) and former State Representative Patrick Corey.