"Collaborative Learning Excites TFHS Students"

[This article by Anne Harding originally appeared in The Montague Reporter, Vol 17, #3. It is reprinted here with permission from the newspaper and the author.]

A chance conversation between multi-faceted Turners Falls high school teacher Brian Lamore and Jen Audley of the Gill-Montague Community School Partnership brought music and physics together during a memorable event back in September. 

At a professional development meeting, Lamore mentioned he would be starting a “wave” unit with his physics students. His plan was to have them demonstrate their understanding of wave concepts, rather than testing them on rote learning. To that end, Lamore had already purchased a number of glasses for use in sound wave demonstrations.  

Audley was excited to tell him about an upcoming performance that had been arranged with Antenna Cloud Farm, an artists’ retreat and summer festival space located on a former dairy farm in Gill. The farm provides musicians and artists with weeklong residencies in an inspirational setting as a site to develop a project or prepare a new work of art. These typically include a public performance, and some kind of community outreach event. Turners Falls High School was the lucky beneficiary of one of those outreach events, with a performance by artist-in-residence Cindertalk.

Following a joint presentation on the physics of sound and a brief performance with water-filled glasses, Lamore’s students introduced the guest of honor, musician Jonny Rodgers, performing as Cindertalk, a name that refers to the sound made by live coals hidden within the ashes of morning fires. 

The presenters had already captured the interest of fellow students with their visual presentation and discussion of how microphones work, how the amount of water in a glass changes its pitch, and techniques for tuning glasses. Their performance was rudimentary, but it brought back memories of my father teaching me to make a glass sing, and using water-filled pop bottles to make music.

Rodgers’ performance was not rudimentary. His presence on stage included about two dozen perfectly-tuned wine glasses, a guitar, computer, keyboard, and other technology, and an impressive vocal performance. 

Rodgers spoke to students about his musical journey, and the difficulties he faced growing up. He recalled the times in his youth when lots of people were telling him what to do or believe. Rodgers let the students know “it took a while to figure out” what he believed in.

Complexity of Sounds
Rodgers’ performance began with a mesmerizing number that started with the glasses, and moved to keyboard and guitar. It was hard to believe there was only one person on stage because there was a lot of looping and sampling. Rodgers was constantly fussing with the laptop, tapping foot pedals, fine-tuning the keyboard and guitar bits. 

When he finally added the vocals, he was singing to a rapt audience – no easy feat when you’re playing for high school students who have never heard of you. Rodgers thanked the students for their respectful listening, especially while he was playing the glasses and recording for looping. He talked to them about what the impact of outside noises would do to the aggregate performance. 

I enjoyed the way Rodgers interacted with the students. He took the time before each song to talk about where his head was at when he wrote it. One song that seemed to resonate with students was “Don’t be Afraid to be Small,” but I suspect that Rodgers’ frank discussion about “possibilities for change” and “strength in numbers” was a key factor in their deeper listening.
 
Rodgers also talked to students about the themes of social justice issues that recur in his music. Before a song about Syrian refugees, he talked about the 10-year war that has afflicted their country, and told students he thought about them a lot. Rodgers reminded them that Syrian refugees “are people like you and me.”

The performance took place in the auditorium at Turners Falls High School with an audience of about 220 students and faculty attending. Following the performance, music students and teacher Kayla Dedischew had the opportunity to play with Rodgers. In addition, there was a group of film students doing a three-camera shoot to record the event (hopefully to be aired on Montague Community Television soon). You may also see Rodgers perform online at cindertalk.com. 

I spoke with Korey Martineau, one of the film students, who had researched Cindertalk on YouTube before the event. He hadn’t particularly enjoyed the video, but was impressed with the live performance. Gill student Aly Murphy was a member of the behind-the-scenes team – directing the film crew, lighting and other aspects of the show along with faculty member Jonathan Chappell. Murphy told me there were about 10 students involved in the set, sound, video and lighting work around the performance.

Growing Collaborations
It was great to see multiple disciplines coming together to produce a memorable event for the school community, but also to look at it from a broader perspective of education initiatives, cooperative learning, and partnerships. I spoke with Principal Annie Leonard about the event, and also the ways the district has been working to expand authentic learning through community engagement.  

This particular project came about when Michi Wiancko of Antenna Cloud Farm talked with Jen Audley about organizing community events for their resident artists outside of the farm-based performances. In her role as the manager of the Gill-Montague Community School Partnership – a coalition of schools, organizations, volunteers, youth, and adults in the district – Audley was able to facilitate some local events, including the Cindertalk performance.

Leonard, Lamore, and Audley are all members of the “Powertown in the 21st Century” team, alongside a host of others. An eighteen-month grant from the Barr Foundation in Boston is being used to support the planning and redesign of the Turners Falls High School toward competency-based education – “an educational experience designed to enable students to acquire content knowledge, creative know-how, habits of success, and wayfinding abilities essential to improved life chances.” The project, which seeks to build on existing partnerships, is being facilitated by the Collaborative for Educational Services. For detailed information about the project and partners, I recommend a visit to powertown.org.

Working with the Career Center
Leonard says she is excited about the opportunities for growth for students and staff, but was also clear that some of this work has been going on for years. One of the school’s longstanding partners is the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center (FHCC), whose work in the district has been ongoing for many years. 
The Career Center uses a combination of state and federal funds; one grant from the US Department of Labor has been extended another year. The “Summer Jobs & Beyond” program benefits students living or schooling in Montague.  

TFHS is one of three schools where you might find Donna DuSell of FHCC. She is often called the “Jobs Lady” by her students. DuSell sees students one-on-one or through group events; individual students looking for jobs, career counseling, or non-college alternatives might be referred to her by a counselor or teacher. FHCC also contracts caseworkers from the Community Action Youth Program.

DuSell brings in guest speakers from time to time, arranges job shadows, teaches resume writing, and works with others to arrange events such as job fairs. Her position is there to support the school in general, and she will meet with any student in the 9-12 cohort who wants assistance.  DuSell also helps with the “School to Careers” elective class taught by Lamore. The class focuses on job readiness and career exploration. Some of their goals include exploring opportunities for students to experience competency-based learning; finding synergy between disciplines; offering a variety of choices for students to pursue learning; and providing experiences that add relevance to what students are learning. Together, they help students hone their awareness of professional behavior, develop their resumes, and find internships and jobs.  

Hands-On Learning
Lamore also teaches in the school’s maker lab, where students have access to the carpentry shop, 3D printing, drafting software, and more. Students learn the basics of how electronics work, build circuits, and program microcontrollers. Toward the end of the class, interested students can move on to design their own project. Last year a student designed and built Bluetooth speakers using a combination of modular and scavenged components. The outer shell of the speakers were designed and created using the 3D printer. 

The focus of the maker lab is mostly electronics, while the “Design and Build” class has a different emphasis. Students learn the basics of electricity and engineering, and are usually challenged to create an invention. They also use the woodworking shop to design and build sets for school plays and musicals. For last year’s production of Dorothy in Wonderland, students built a five-foot-tall table and chairs, which was a good engineering challenge for them.

Whenever possible, Lamore likes to offer students the opportunity to be out in the real world, to add relevance to what they are learning in the classroom. Recently, his physics class took a trip to Decker Machine Works, an ultra-precision machining company in Greenfield. Lamore’s class has been studying light, and saw firsthand how high-intensity lights were used to inspect the manufactured pieces.
 
Lamore also organized a field trip for interested students to attend the “Women in Engineering & Computing” career day at UMass. Eleven students took the opportunity to take part in hands-on activities and hear a number of speakers. Hosted by women engineers from Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon, the UMass engineering department, and others, there was also a panel discussion on the challenges for women studying in a male-dominated field.

These are just a few examples of the diversity of challenges and experiences offered to students in the Gill-Montague district through collaborations between the school and the larger community. This is an encouraging trend, and one that many – particularly those involved in the Powertown in the 21st Century study – hope will continue to expand in scope.