http://www.msad54.org/sahs/socialstudies/finely/west/
At this site you will find links to our presentations for the Westward Expansion study. We used an online software called Prezi ~ The Zooming Presentation Editor. Please keep in mind as you preview our work that you are only seeing half the presentation as they were actually used as a visual aid for our presentations in class.

http://gridjumper.net/2011/11/29/high-school-students-create-and-display-art-virtually/

The Digital Art Students at Skowhegan High School in Maine display art work from the ‘real’ world in virtual museums and galleries.  Approximately 50 students enrolled in Paul Skowhegan’s (all avatars use the last name of their school) art classes are using some of the latest techniques and software to create works of art that can, theoretically, be shared worldwide.

Fine Arts
Iver Lofing
Joanna Hopkins
Paul LeBrun

Take a tour of our students' art work. Coil Sculpter from Iver Lofving's students, Cut Paper Musical Instruments from Joanna Hopkins' students, Graffiti and Cave Art from Paul LeBrun's students, and more.

Honors English I
Ryan Smith and Maura Smith
Project:  Interview a Real-Life Hero

This project is a culmination of the study of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. 

According to the New World Dictionary of the American Language, an odyssey is “any extended wandering or journey.”   In the epic, Odysseus’s extended journey includes travel, encounters with the supernatural, battle, heartache, adventure, romance, bravery in the face of adversity, reunion with loved ones, and a host of other epic elements.  As part of their text study, students come to understand that the Greek culture placed great value on hospitality, feasting to celebrate events, kindness to all, and storytelling as an art form.  Furthermore, students gain appreciation for the Greek epic as an esteemed story from which deeply “human” messages reach the audience; these messages transcend time, place, or one’s station in life.

Scott Pillsbury's class participated in an interactive videoconference that helped them see how formulas and experiments taught in high school physics truly apply in the real world.

To learn more about the distance learning programs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum click here.

Throughout this school year, our biology class has been working with the University of Southern Maine ScienceCorps on a long-term project involving identification of micro and macroorganisms in a tank of pond water in our classroom.
Two graduate “fellows” from USM, Tracy Baumgarten and Kelly Cochran, visited our classroom about once a month to work with the students. They brought with them equipment used in current biological research as well as expertise in their fields as research scientists. Students worked alongside these fellows learning new technologies and applying them in lab situations.

USM invited our students to attend their annual Thinking Matters Symposium on April 30 on the Portland campus. Some of our SAHS students exhibited a poster they had worked on for about three weeks. Four other high schools from northern Maine, and USM graduate and undergraduate students also presented their research. Visitors from the University as well as community members viewed the posters (ranging over many topics; from genetics to building materials) asking questions and learning from our students. An oral presentation of the work done at each high school was also given.

As a culmination to our study of the great Shakespearean tragedy, Julius Caesar, students were asked to memorize a famous speech from the play--an assignment I’ve traditionally given. On a test, students wrote down the memorized lines and explained what those lines revealed about the character.

After some inspirational training from the folks at “MLTI,” however, I decided to add a technological twist. Students would turn their memorized speeches into a Shakespearean Podcast; this new product would—I hoped mightily—add to their repertoire of computer skills as well as deepen their understanding and appreciation of the Shakespearean language.

I think the results speak for themselves. I’ve included my own humble effort along with a smattering of the delightful student products. Enjoy!

As a culmination to the study of their own grammatical errors, members of this junior class created Podcasts—brief audio programs that are often available for free download on iTunes and other websites.

Students were directed to create instructive and practical content. The program had to explain the error to listeners, as well as offer tips to help avoid and/or correct the mistake.

Who knows? The next Grammar Girl or Angry Grammarian (two hosts of professionally produced Podcasts) may hail from central Maine.

I think the results speak for themselves. I’ve included my own humble effort along with a smattering of the delightful student products. Enjoy!

Students created three minute instructional videos on how to solve systems of linear equations for a specific method.

In my students words… “When kids my own age are doing the teaching, I’m more likely to listen and learn”

Objective: “To create an educational video that teaches people how to do one of the three ways to solve systems of equations (substitution, graphing, elimination)”

What did you learn? Many students felt they learned the mathematical process better in having to create their video. Other responses were: how to use video equipment, import data, edit movies, create own music, and create effects on i-movie. One student said, “I learned how to use a ton of technology even though it was causing many problems too”

I was inspired to create a poetry project after visiting the Favorite Poem Project’s website. http://www.favoritepoem.org/project.html Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States, founded this project in 1997 with the intent of encouraging people to read, share, and celebrate the poems that they loved.

The site features videos of people from all walks of life reading and talking about poems they love. We showed many of these videos to our students as we prepared for their readings. In our classes, students selected poems that meant something to them, spent time rehearsing their readings and reflecting about why they responded to these poems, and then we filmed the readings, edited the films using iMovie, Fireworks, and GarageBand.

This project has given students a chance to practice their speaking skills, to explain their interest in or history with a poem, and to learn some new technology skills.