Join with educators, farmers, entrepreneurs, sustainability advocates and community leaders
for the launch of Maine Farm Enterprise Schools: sustainable learning communities that
save farms, create jobs, and help our young people envision a future in Maine.
Learn about
• Our replicable public school reform model
• Our sustainable economic development model
• The specific proposals we’re working on for the Lewiston/Auburn, MidCoast, and Greater Portland areas.
Meet folks from partner organizations such as:
Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility Lots to Gardens Androscoggin Land Trust
Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community MOFGA Rosemont Market
and many more.
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 6-9 pm at FRONTIER CAFÉ in Brunswick
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Stimulus, Technology, Farm/School, EcoVillage
A quick entry to share things that came in this morning's in-box:
Obama administration school innovation money:
From a friend in Bowdoinham, a newly announced approach from the Obama administration that may impact Maine as one of the states that in some ways (no charters) is not playing along with the carrot and stick approach to school re-invention. Who wants to figure out a way to get some of that $ 5 billion to Maine?
From our friends at MOFGA, a calendar of events that includes all kinds of fascinating opportunities to learn and build community around growing things; of special interest is August 7: Connecting Classrooms to Cafeterias: From Arugula To Zucchini. Hosted by the Maine School Garden Network. This one day course will provide educators and school food service personnel with lots of great food for thought. Workshop topics will include: Integrating School Garden Activities into Classroom Curriculum; Maine Foods for Maine Kids Curriculum Program Training; The Making of a Maine Harvest Lunch Cooking Class; Classroom Composting; Integrating School Garden activities into your Curriculum; Maine Foods for Maine Kids Curriculum Program Training; Taste Testing Activities for Students; and Preserving the Harvest. The event will take place at the Gorham Middle School, 106 Weeks Rd, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. $15.00 per person - includes a delicious local lunch! Download the agenda. Download the registration form.
Laptop Learning
From the NY Times: An article about another approach to a small school; some similarities to what we hope to do with Math, and an indication of the degree to which many urban systems are investing in structural innovation in a way that, Maine, despite leading the nation in student laptop programs, has not.
Belfast Ecovillage
Last: Belfast Ecovillage, an innovative attempt at rethinking the relationship between housing and farms - notable to us for it's proximity to Troy Howard Middle School, which has reinvented itself, in part, as a garden school.
Obama administration school innovation money:
From a friend in Bowdoinham, a newly announced approach from the Obama administration that may impact Maine as one of the states that in some ways (no charters) is not playing along with the carrot and stick approach to school re-invention. Who wants to figure out a way to get some of that $ 5 billion to Maine?
From our friends at MOFGA, a calendar of events that includes all kinds of fascinating opportunities to learn and build community around growing things; of special interest is August 7: Connecting Classrooms to Cafeterias: From Arugula To Zucchini. Hosted by the Maine School Garden Network. This one day course will provide educators and school food service personnel with lots of great food for thought. Workshop topics will include: Integrating School Garden Activities into Classroom Curriculum; Maine Foods for Maine Kids Curriculum Program Training; The Making of a Maine Harvest Lunch Cooking Class; Classroom Composting; Integrating School Garden activities into your Curriculum; Maine Foods for Maine Kids Curriculum Program Training; Taste Testing Activities for Students; and Preserving the Harvest. The event will take place at the Gorham Middle School, 106 Weeks Rd, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. $15.00 per person - includes a delicious local lunch! Download the agenda. Download the registration form.
Laptop Learning
From the NY Times: An article about another approach to a small school; some similarities to what we hope to do with Math, and an indication of the degree to which many urban systems are investing in structural innovation in a way that, Maine, despite leading the nation in student laptop programs, has not.
Belfast Ecovillage
Last: Belfast Ecovillage, an innovative attempt at rethinking the relationship between housing and farms - notable to us for it's proximity to Troy Howard Middle School, which has reinvented itself, in part, as a garden school.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Welcome to new, REAL blog
It's been three months since I wrote a blog entry; that's mostly because the old blog set-up required way too many steps, and we've been so busy that I've not sat down and discovered how easy it is to set up the...umm...easy kind of blog. So here it is. I'll try to post every weekday, and rather than just updates on progress, I'll be linking to the many fascinating people, ideas, organizations we're running into.
But first, an update on what we've accomplished:
But first, an update on what we've accomplished:
- Three proposals in the works, all with the potential for an MFES site in the fall of 2010: Lewiston/Auburn, Midcoast (potentially stretching from Brunswick are all the way to Belfast) and the Cumberland North Yarmouth area.
- Our first official board meeting this coming Tuesday, at which we'll approve our Articles of Incorporation as a 501(c)3 organization (thanks to our crack legal team, Peter Lowe and Dan Stockdale).
- A development department: Caitlin Christensen, new to Maine, comes to us by way of Texas (fundraising for service work), the University of San Francisco (community organizing on campus), and assorted gardens and Montessori schools.
- A Chief Academic Officer-in-waiting: Erin Connor, currently Dean of Students at Andover College, former Dean of Faculty at Poland Regional High School and expert in individualizing instruction for students of every possible learning style and background.
- So much else, but the theme of the rest is the same: the extraordinary wealth of talent and collaborative spirit of folks all over Maine - educators, farmers, parents, economic developers, entrepreneurs, social workers - all of whom see both real potential and real necessity in a new form of community that saves farms, creates jobs, and helps our young people envision a future in Maine.
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