On November 13th, 8th grade teacher Kathleen Hudson and her colleagues, science educator, Nell Herrmann and art teacher Penny Ricker from Blue Hill Consolidated School presented, Woodlawn – The Black House, A Walk Through the Past at the Write Here, Write Now: Writing Across the Curriculum conference in Augusta, Maine. This annual curriculum conference was presented by the University of Maine and attended by educators from across the State.
Hudson, was asked to present at the conference because of her training in both the National Writing Project and the Maine Writing Project which supports the professional development for Maine educators and writing activity for Maine Students. Her presentation was based on curriculum she developed as a participant in the 2015 Woodlawn Teachers Institute.
According to Hudson, “My project was selected for presentation because it met the criteria they were seeking. I had integrated all the subject areas, worked with a local community resource and developed a solid curriculum that can be replicated and built upon every year.” Using Woodlawn as a classroom, Hudson incorporated art, social studies, science, technology, economics, physical education, and English language arts. The curriculum had to be both engaging for her students and meet the standards for the Common Core and Maine Learning Results.
For the writing conference, she focused her presentation on how the lesson plan incorporated a “writing reflection time” into each subject area. Examples of the student activities used to meet the educational goals included artifact and portrait sketching in the Black House, nature exploration and forestry succession on the Woodlawn trails, and learning the game of nine wicket croquet with the Woodlawn Croquet Program players as the instructors. Hudson thoroughly enjoys her work with Woodlawn saying, “Woodlawn gives kids a sense of place and time. It was wonderful to see all my students engage with the activities and have a great hands on learning experience so close to home.”