Begins tomorrow morning. I’ve worked hard to develop a set of materials that I hope can effectively guide classrooms into thinking about the topic, “What is my place,” while not taxing teachers.

Tomorrow morning I spend the day making 45-min presentations to all of the grades. Its a bit like a charrette.

In K-4 we will read the book, “The Big World and the Little House,” and then discuss ways the house was connected to the big world, and how they feel connected to the big world. We’ll ask them to talk about what they think are special places and special people in their communities that make it feel like home. They’ll spend some time “bringing the book up to date” (it was drawn in the 50′s) by drawing their home, and what connects it to the world today. Then they’ll have the assignment of being anthropologists between now and next Monday when the tile-making sessions begin: they’ll have some bags for collecting “artifacts” that represent some aspect of place that is special to them.

The older students (grades 5-12) will be introduced to the global dimensions of the Peace Tiles project, we’ll take a really close look at some of the tiles made by young people around the world (I’ve found I really enjoy – and so do students – browsing the flickr gallery as a way to explore tiles in the classroom). We’ll talk about the materials used, and how they express an important idea. We’ll have them interview each other around important aspects of place for them, have a discussion, then close with a reflective writing activity that will help them to focus their thoughts as anthropologists as they set out to look for artifacts (BIG thanks to Roseline Koerner for showing me the value of reflective writing in the Peace Tiles process last summer at our workshop!).

Along the way, as I’ve worked hard to ensure this is a community-driven process (so hard, in fact, I didn’t think it would happen at times – I almost never “hard sell…” even though I’ve desperately wanted it to happen) – we’ve had half a dozen planning meetings with the Arts and Enrichment Committee (parents and teachers involved) as well as a presentation to teachers and Q&A session last week. I feel really good about the level of ownership the school holds for this – I’ve pretty much responded to their interest in the process, from what the “theme” will be (“What is my place”) to how the tiles will be used (a massive 400+ piece mural).

Come to find out last week: this whole project is really important to the school staff, and fits into a major transition the school is going through. As with many states, Vermont is going through a terrible demographic slump, where the numbers of elderly far surpasses the number of young. From a school budget perspective this means that we will continue to experience declining enrollment while the tax base shrinks (a higher portion of residents on fixed income). The implication of this is what we call “consolidation” around here: school districts (read, people and buildings) get clumped together into larger unions.

Often, in a place like Vermont, pride is what we got. Traditions and local, idiosyncratic ways of doing things that go way back – to the time Donnie drove his tractor into the ditch or Mary moderated the first town meeting. Or even how students are treated on the school board. Once you start to erode confidence in these local ways of knowing and doing by smushing people together into larger associations, folks start to get a little lost.

The folks at Twinfield Union are worried about that. Parents are worried. Staff and administration are worried. Students are worried (imagine having to sit next to a ball player from a team that until last year was your arch rival, going back longer than it took Burr to propose to Estelle Lee after he come back from the war)….

Anyway, I’ll use this place to try and capture some notes…