Here’s a shout out to all middle grades educators who advocate for integrated learning that engages students in solving real-life problems! The Thomas College Center For Innovation in Education’s Summer Institute: Weaving a Tapestry of Learning is the place to be in late June!
● APRIL 1, 2016: Teachers confirm student participation in Samantha Smith Day and submit issue and progress reports.
● MAY 1, 2016: SSC projects & videos are submitted to AWTT.
● JUNE 6, 2016: Samantha Smith Day celebration for SSC participants from around the state of Maine. Once you have read through this document, feel free to contact us for advice, guidance, contacts to help you explore your issues, or anything else that will make your experience richer, more rewarding, and educational.
The Americans Who Tell the Truth website has an entire section devoted to the SSC that includes ideas for helping students understand the impact a single person or a small group can have on society, as well as to motivate them to accept the Challenge. Additional inspiration can be found in the blog post from last spring that highlighted the Samantha Smith Challenge Celebration in the Hall of Flags at the State House.
Important links and information can also be found on MAMLE’s webpage in the Samantha Smith Challenge section. Last year over 700 students across the state of Maine participated. We would love to double or triple that number this year! Building a bridge from your classroom to the world by encouraging your students to become citizen problem-solvers is a fine way to address Maine’s Guiding Principles:
A clear and effective communicator
A self-directed and lifelong learner
A creative and practical problem solver
A responsible and involved citizen
An integrative and informed thinker
Click on this link to go the AWWT webpage to learn more and to register for the Samantha Smith Challenge.
Bonny Eagle Middle School was named an Apple Distinguished School earlier this year. As part of the application process they had to compile their qualifications in an iBook publication. Since the book was first published they have continued to refine the content, polishing it like a rosy apple until it was perfect.
The content paints a picture of a vibrant school focused on student learning. It includes information on the following topics:
Athletics
Clubs and activities
Special Olympics
Supports for student learning
PBIS program
Restorative practices
Marzano Teaching Framework
Proficiency based learning
Allied Arts
Their library
Heath and wellness
Professional development
Principal Mick Roy, now Assistant Superintendent of SAD # 6, commented that the process of writing the book was an extremely positive experience because so much reflection on their curriculum and program was involved.
Creating an iBook is certainly an excellent way to demonstrate to the community the strengths and culture of a school. The Bonny Eagle iBook is a model other schools might want to explore as a possible way to tell their unique story.
Sherlock Holmes uttered the famous line, “The game is afoot.” in The Adventure of the Abbey Grange. “Games” is a concept everyone understands, and Team Androscoggin students from Mt. Ararat Middle School used it as a way to demonstrate their learning this spring.
Here’s a report on their Celebration of Learning from Nicole Karod, science teacher on Team Androscoggin:
On June 3rd, Androscoggin Team Students and Parents held a celebration of learning. Our students have been working hard writing and publishing companion books to go with the book “The Other Side of the Sky” as well as creating and engineering board games around the topic of disease and the human body. The work that these students have put in and the outcome they’ve accomplished is amazing. In the afternoon students shared with their parents their hard work through an I-Spy challenge and playing board games.
The books were a reflection of a large unit on informational writing. Social Studies themes were incorporated through the study of the book and students’ final product included many inserts about Afghanistan and the theme of the book.
Each game that was created was based around a disease that the students chose. The games had to incorporate not only information about the disease but also be structured to relate to the disease and how it affects the human body.
Below is just a sample of our games and books from the event.
Students Hard at Work!The PlagueRabies!A Race to the Doctors! A game about strep throatHeart Attack!
The first Monday in June is designated Samantha Smith Day in Maine. This year the first annual Samantha Smith Challenge celebration was held in the Hall of Flags at the Maine State House on Samantha Smith Day. Over 500 students from across Maine accepted the challenge put forth by American Who Tell the Truth and the Maine Association for Middle Level Education to choose a problem in their community, state, country or the world that they would like to address and help solve.
King Middle School sets up their project.
The Hall of Flags began to pulse with energy as students poured into the room to set up their projects. Posterboards, trifolds, iPads, laptops, and oil paintings appeared and transformed the Hall into a showcase of student curiosity, hard work, research skills, and commitment to addressing troublesome issues. These students tackled a myriad of topics: underage drinking, animal abuse, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, cyberbullying, suicide, and harmful bacteria lurking right under our noses.
Examples of projectsStudents who accepted the Samantha Smith Challenge
Students explain what they learned and how they hope to address the issues.
A variety of distinguished visitors shared with students their stories related to becoming an active participant in addressing the problems of our communities–near and far.
MC Dr. Nancy Doda
Dr. Nancy Doda, 2014 MAMLE Annual Conference keynoter and Brazee Award honoree, guided the festivities and introduced the honored guests.
Jane Smith, the mother of Samantha, congratulated students and reflected upon her daughter’s legacy to the world.
Jane Smith, Samantha’s mother.
Former Maine legislator Elizabeth McTaggert introduced Senator Angus King who addressed the students via a video message.
Elizabeth McTaggertSenator Angus King, Senator (I) from Maine
Maine’s First Lady Ann LePage chatted with students and helped put into context the world in which Samantha Smith lived–the Cold War era.
Ann Lepage chats with students from Lyman Moore Middle School.Ann LePage addresses the students who participated in the Samantha Smith Challenge.
Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap shared why his family moved to Maine during the Cold War and congratulated students for becoming involved with important issues in their community.
Secretary of State Matthew DunlapThe Hall of Flags was packed!
Florence Reed, the founder of Sustainable Harvest International, shared how she was on a similar journey to the students to address real issues that affect communities and possibly the world at large.
Florence Reed
The morning ended with each school receiving from Robert Shetterly of Americans Who Tell the Truth a poster of his painting of Samantha Smith.
King Middle School, PortlandLeonard Middle School, Old Town/RSU 34Lyman Moore Middle School, PortlandMessalonskee Middle School, Oakland/RSU 18Mt. Ararat Middle School, Topsham/SAD 75Poland Community School
The teachers were also honored and received a thundering round of applause from their students.
The Teachers
Lessons learned by participating in this type of project—quotes from the students.
“I always have room to grow. I had thought about poverty as something very other than myself, something that didn’t really affect me. Turns out it’s not, and the kind of thinking I used to have was actually part of the problem because it prevented us from finding solutions.” Leonard Middle School student
Doing suicide has been a tough challenge. It’s been devastating reading each story and finding a solution. Through the past couple of weeks on working on this, it’s been rough.” Lyman Moore Middle School student
“It was fun because it wasn’t “school work”; we got to go out in the community and change an issue that is affecting our area.” Messalonskee Middle School student
“I learned that I didn’t give up after we had our first setback and two more after that.” York Middle School student
“Working on this project has made us come back to reality and realize that this is a bigger problem than we thought. It’s hard to believe that we have found over 110 cases of cyberbullying that end in suicide. We were shocked by the large amount of teens (especially females) that have admitted to cyberbullying and/or being cyberbullied. Cyberbullying is a huge epidemic of the modern day world. It has to stop now before we lose all sense of morality.”
“How can we work together with the Maine Government to reduce homelessness, hunger, and poverty in our state?” That was the essential question for our Samantha Smith challenge. Throughout the research process, we discussed existing programs in Maine such as food stamp assistance, WIC, and SNAP. The “SNAP-Ed” challenge not only fit perfectly with what we were doing, it gave learners another opportunity to take action and make a difference in our community through authentic voice and choice!
Molly is a young lady who is no stranger to volunteering and providing food to those less fortunate than herself. She also enjoys cooking and experimenting with vegetarian meals for her and her family.
The SNAP-Ed challenge was open to anyone in the state of Maine, and I could not be more proud that a middle school student accepted and won this challenge! Read more about the challenge and her recipe.
Maine State House
Participants in the Samantha Smith Challenge will be honored June 1, 2015 in the Hall of Flags at the State House in Augusta. First Lady Ann LePage, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, and Sustainable Harvest International founder Florence Reed will join in honoring the students. Over 600 middle grades students from across the state accepted the challenge. Kudos to all of them and their teachers!
Honor colleagues by nominating them to receive MAMLE’s Exemplary Practice Award. Presented at our annual conference in October, this award recognizes middle level educators in Maine who have designed and implemented powerful programs that engage and challenge their students. Recent honorees include:
A team of educators, community members, and university faculty led by Denise Friant from Woolwich Central School who tackled the invasive European green crab problem threatening the livelihood of local clammers.
Working to save clams from European green crab–Woolwich Central School
Central Middle School’s PBIS Intervention Team that developed an approach that overwhelmingly improved the climate and culture in their school.
Carl Bucciantini’s program at Auburn Middle School that teaches students the power and responsible use of social media by exploring Twitter.
Carl Bucciantini–Exemplary Practice Award Winner-We’re All A’Twitter at Auburn MS
The deadline for nominations is June 1, 2015 so there is still plenty of time to fill out the nomination form. You can download it here: exemppractice1.
Who in your school is touching students lives in unique and powerful ways? Honor them by nominating their program or practice for an Exemplary Practice Award.
Do you remember when a group of Freeport elementary students took on fast food giant McDonalds and won? Concerned about the environmental impact of styrofoam packaging, the students convinced Freeport’s town council to ban its use. McDonalds had to come up with another way to serve their hamburgers. How about Katie Brown who at age 11 raised money to purchase protective vests for police dogs? And… did you know there are students all over the state participating in research projects related to the invasive European green crab? Given the opportunity, our students will amaze us!
Samantha Smith-Used with permission from Americans Who Tell the Truth
After the December break is a long stretch of instructional time in which to do something extraordinary. Join other middle grades teachers and students across Maine as they accept MAMLE’s and Americans Who Tell the Truth’s Samantha Smith Challenge. Invite your students to amaze you and their school community by taking on a real life problem—local, state, national, or international—and work to come up with a viable solution or plan of action. Here is an excerpt from a recent news release:
The purpose of the Samantha Smith Engaged Student Challenge is to build a bridge between the classroom and the world and to show students that no matter what age, they can be part of solving the challenges and problems they see around them in the world. Samantha’s journey began with her concern about nuclear war. A year later she was an eleven year old teaching adults and children about making peace. Her progress from concern to courageous engagement was a series of small steps and decisions—the kind of thing any of us can do!
Working to save clams from European green crab–Woolwich Central School
Should you wonder how you could possibly fit in this type of project with all you have to do, consider Maine’s Guiding Principles:
Guiding Principles
Part of The Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction
The knowledge and skills described in the Maine Department of Education Regulation 132 support Maine students in achieving the goals established in Maine’s Guiding Principles. The Guiding Principles state that each Maine student must leave school as:
A. A clear and effective communicator who:
Demonstrates organized and purposeful communication in English and at least one other language
Uses evidence and logic appropriately in communication
Adjusts communication based on the audience
Uses a variety of modes of expression (spoken, written and visual and performing including the use of technology to create and share the expressions)
B. A self-directed and lifelong learner who:
Freeport MS students share research projects with visitors from Sweden.
Recognizes the need for information and locates and evaluates resources
Applies knowledge to set goals and make informed decisions
Applies knowledge in new contexts
Demonstrates initiative and independence
Demonstrates flexibility including the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn
Demonstrates reliability and concern for quality
Uses interpersonal skills to learn and work with individuals from diverse backgrounds
C. A creative and practical problem solver who:
Observes and evaluates situations to define problems
Frames questions, makes predictions and designs data/information collection and analysis strategies
Identifies patterns, trends and relationships that apply to solutions
Generates a variety of solutions, builds a case for a best response and critically evaluates the effectiveness of the response
Sees opportunities, finds resources and seeks results
Uses information and technology to solve problems
Perseveres in challenging situations
D. A responsible and involved citizen who:
Students from Phippsburg keep their community informed about their local history.
Participates positively in the community and designs creative solutions to meet human needs and wants
Accepts responsibility for personal decisions and actions
Demonstrates ethical behavior and the moral courage to sustain it
Understands and respects diversity
Displays global awareness and economic and civic literacy
Demonstrates awareness of personal and community health and wellness
E. An integrative and informed thinker who:
Gains and applies knowledge across disciplines and learning contexts and to real-life situations with and without technology
Evaluates and synthesizes information from multiple sources
Applies ideas across disciplines
Applies systems thinking to understand the interaction and influence of related parts on each other and on outcomes
The Samantha Smith Challenge fits the bill as a way for your students to work toward proficiency and meet the high standards of Maine’s Guiding Principles.
Nancy Doda wowed the audience with her keynote at our Annual Conference this past October. One of the reasons her address was so powerful is that she shared the microphone with Nick, a student from Hampden. He explained why having a choice in how he demonstrates his learning is so important to him. In case you missed Nick, here is a video of what he had to say.
Here is a video of of his composition.
Nick’s 8th grade teacher was Karen Lewis (Reeds Brook MS), and she also is the Teacher Representative on the NELMS Board.
Nick will be our featured speaker at the Scholar-Leader Dinner in May.
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