A Reflection on Our Work with Vermont's Rural Partnership

by David Wells, Doty Memorial School Principal –April 4, 2002


One of the biggest challenges VRP work in my school
faced was…Partnership is the key word in the name of this organization. The Vermont Rural Partnership is not an organization that simply delivers services or money to a school. The value is in a school’s participation in the partnership. The partnership aspect of Doty’s participation in the VRP has forces us to ponder—“Why are we in the VRP, Should we be in the VRP, What does the VRP mean to us?”

The VRP takes on life only when its members are reflective and participatory. As our school changed administrators and new teachers came on board it was a challenge to re-educate staff and re-define Doty’s reason to be in the partnership.

The most important work Doty’s teachers have engaged in has been reflective discussions as a staff about: involvement with the Worcester community, place based education, and student leadership. It is very important to take stock in
where you are and where you need to be.

The most important work my teachers engaged in as a result of the VRP has been…
In teaching at a small school in rural Vermont, Doty’s teachers have always known that the environment around them was an important teaching tool. The problem was that there wasn’t always a clear direction and links to the greater curriculum that allowed, or encouraged teachers to make community part of our work.

An important part of our work with the VRP has been to engage in purposeful conversations on how to incorporate place-based learning throughout our teaching. Doty’s teacher worked with Joseph Keifer and Mark Skelding to plan place based units. Doty’s teachers all enrolled in a place based curriculum development course that focused on meeting the Vermont standards while teaching environmental issues.

The most important work Doty’s teachers have engaged in has been reflective discussions as a staff about: involvement with the Worcester community, place based education, and student leadership. It is very important to take stock in where you are and where you need to be.

Thanks to the VRP, our school has been able to…
• Create a raised bed garden that students in Kindergarten, First, and Second grade participated in. Parents worked with teachers to build the garden. Students planted and harvested crops over the spring, summer, and fall of this past year. Students shared their harvest with the school kitchen and Worcester’s Community Kitchen. One parent, who helped plant an herbal section of the garden, even showed children how to brew their own tea.

• Begin a Town Park/Town Forest Project that connects to the community and strengthens student voice as 5th and 6th graders study this town resource and plans for its future use.

• Doty’s 3rd and 4th graders have begun an Oral History Project in which students, teachers, and an interested community member interview local residents. This work will branch out and feed into the newly developed Worcester Historical Society.

• Doty’s 3rd and 4th graders have completed an annual Frog Survey as part of our school’s Fall Hike. Students have been data collectors as they study their local environment.

• Doty’s 3rd and 4th graders have participated in a Woodland Habitats unit of study that was developed by their teacher’s work in a place based curriculum course.

A Photo Gallery of Our Work at Doty

Students harvest potatoes from their garden.	Students share potatoes with the school kitchen.
First and Second Grade Students bring their harvest to the Worcester Community Kitchen.	Flower garden at the Doty School.
Students discuss how herbs are used to make tea.	Students enjoy freshly brewed tea.

More Info on Doty Memorial School