Its long-term future as a school may be in doubt, but Northwoods Community Secondary School (NCSS) is doing its best to solidify its place in the state’s charter school movement.

This week nearly 75 attendees from 18 schools across the state came to Rhinelander to learn from NCSS teachers about using project-based learning to increase student engagement.

The three-day workshop is the product of a $125,000 DPI Dissemination Grant to share best practices of project-based learning with schools around the state in the hopes that this hands-on learning style will be introduced into both traditional and non-traditional schools.

DPI Charter School Consultant Barry Golden explained the impact the conference could have on charter schools around the state.

“This is a conference to improve the relationships, relevance, and rigor in education. Teachers and advisors are learning the project-based process by true immersion in community-based research,” Golden said. “Students learn the content through studying relevant problems and issues of every day life.”

Golden said the local focus of the NCSS workshop provided the added benefit of demonstrating the community school model.

“The projects developed at the conference all have a local focus,” said Golden. “My hope is that the teachers will return to their respective charter schools and use their skills to transform traditional education.”

NCSS teachers tailored their presentations to engage the program’s participants in the project-based learning style, asking them to develop their own short-term projects in order to learn about the Rhinelander community.

The projects fell into the following categories: First Generation Immigrants–– Mike Rouman (Greece), Joan Makris (Greece), Maria Gonzales-Cerra (Cuba), Patricia Stein (Wales), Nilla and Robert Sjoberg (Sweden), Dawn Wilson-Thiel (New Zealand); Organic Foods in Our Community; Cemeteries and Local History; Courthouse Centennial and Rhinelander Founders; Learning With Downtown Businesses; Recreational Opportunities in Local Forests; and Rhinelander Writers’ Workshop.

Facilitators asked program participants to gather information and use multi-media storytelling techniques to organize and disseminate the information to their colleagues.

Val Maxon, from Tailoring Academics to Guide Our Students (TAGOS) in Janesville and

Dana Scott from Quest in Ripon interviewed Rhinelander resident Patricia Stein, a native of Wales, during their project-based learning assignment on first-generation immigrants.

Stein moved to Rhinelander with her husband George, a native of Hungary, from Ashford Kent, England. She was born in the Upper Rhondda Valley of Wales in a mining town called Tynewydd.

“I didn’t know I was an immigrant, but evidently I am,” Stein mused.

Scott explained the process of tracking Stein’s immigrant journey.

“We’re creating a photo story of her life,” Scott said. “This use of technology is a way for me to stretch myself while telling this amazing woman’s story. I just wish we had more time to do a truly comprehensive job.”

Maxon said doing the project herself made her realize how much research goes into project-based learning assignments.

“For me, I do this all the time with the kids, but it's been helpful to realize how

much research is needed for a project, how important time management is,” Maxon said.

Scott said talking to Stein made the project personal.

“It’s also interesting how personal the project becomes to you--how much you own this relationship. It makes the learning incredibly meaningful,” said Scott.

Maxon praised the workshop for communicating the values behind the learning model.

“This has been the best conference I’ve been to in a while because it has purpose, worthwhile work, and meaning, and that is the motto of TAGOS,” Maxon said.