Dig into community resources: teachers map out great connections you can make in your own hometown - includes related article

Instructor, July-August, 1994 by Karen Hammnonds

There's a world of valuable resources waiting just outside your school door--local people, places, and things that can bring real life into your classroom and your curriculum. INSTRUCTOR asked teachers from across the country to tell us about their most useful community resources. Here are a few of their favorites, plus tips for finding and using resources in your community.

BRING HISTORY TO LIFE

One of Lakewood, Ohio, teacher Margie Dunlevy's favorite community resources is the local historical society. The jewel of the Lakewood Historical Society is a restored 19th-century farmhouse called the Oldest Stone House Museum--a popular destination for Margie's sixth graders at the Horace Mann School.

When Margie's students aren't going to the museum for its special programs for kids, the museum comes to them. Historical society volunteers give in-school talks on pioneer life and set up displays on everything from butter-making to quilting. They even recreate the rigid classroom of the 1800s, complete with one-legged stools and dunce caps. (Margie assures her students beforehand that this recreation of 19th-century disciplinary methods is just for fun.) And the society is also busy developing trunks of materials that teachers like Margie can use on their own, such as turn-of-the-century style toys and clothing.

To make the connection in you community: Teachers interested in finding historical societies in their area can consult the Directory of Historical Organizations in the united states and Canada, published by the American Association for State and Local History (172 Second Ave. N, Suite 202, Nashville, TN 37201). Another useful resource is the Official Museum Directory, published annually by R.R. Bowker.

CULTIVATE BUSINESS PARTNERS

Christine Staskiewicz's fourth graders at Westport Elementary in Westport, Massachusetts, became expert herb gardeners last year--with a lot of hard work and help from a network of community partnerships.

The students started their gardening project with advice from members of Coastal Resources, a local collaborative of growers and distributors. Equipped with gardening carts and pots, pans, and seeds donated by the collaborative, the students raised a variety of herbs both hydroponically and in soil. The network of advisers grew to include area chefs who showed the students how to cook with herbs and a marketing consultant who gave advice on packaging and advertising. The kids eventually sold their successful herb harvest at a family fair.

"My students really learned to enjoy working together in teams," Christine says, "and they learned problem-solving."

Partnerships for the herb project and others in the Westport school district were organized through Project Enterprise, which develops linkages between schools and their communities to help teach students workplace skills. In Westport, Project Enterprise is funded by the Polaroid Corporation.

To make the connection in your community: For information about establishing a partnership with a business or organization in your community, contact the National Association of Partners in Education (NAPE) at 209 Madison St., Suite 401, Alexandria, VA 22314; (703) 836-4880. For information on Project Enterprise, contact Dr. Sandra Wellens at the Westport Community Schools, 17 Main Rd., Westport, MA 02790; (508) 636-1137.

PLUG INTO A KIDS' MUSEUM

One of Joan Shandler's favorite community resources--and her students', without question--is the Santa Fe Children's Museum, which lies a convenient three and a half miles from her school, Carlos Gilbert Elementary. Joan takes her fourth graders to the museum every year, and every year they love its many hands-on exhibits, which include giant bubbles, a solar greenhouse, and a rope-climbing area. It's the only museum in the area that lets kids touch things, Joan points out.

In addition to special programs that teachers can integrate into their curriculum, the museum sponsors artists in residence, like the clown who came to Joan's classroom to teach the children pantomime and pratfalls. There are also summer programs for kids: this summer, participants are building a miniature adobe community.

Equally popular with kids and teachers in its area is the Children's Museum of Memphis, with such interactive exhibits as a mini-grocery store and a simulated garage. Judy Nocifora, who teaches gifted fourth to sixth graders at the Graham Wood School in Memphis, uses the museum several times a year and recently built an oral communications unit around its story-telling program. And teachers at Grenada Elementary School in Grenada, Mississippi, like the children's museum idea so much that they're coupling advice from the Memphis museum staff with support from local businesses to open their own "kidzeum" at the school.

To make the connection in your community: There are nearly 400 children's museums across the United States, according to the Association for Youth Museums, so a terrific resource may be closer than you think. For information, contact association president Jeanne Finan at the Children's Museum of Memphis, 2525 Central Ave., Memphis, TN 38104; (901) 458-2678.