Education Added to Radically Rural Topics for 8th Summit

Organizers have added a new track to the Radically Rural summit this year: education. The new track joins seven others to be presented at the 8th annual Radically Rural summit, Oct. 7-9, in Keene. The theme of this year's summit is "Rural Resonance." Education track leader Elizabeth Cardine hopes the three-day summit will give educators from small communities a chance to collaborate and problem-solve for issues specific to rural schools. She also sees the summit as an opportunity to introduce participants to her own school's innovative method of education: using the community as a campus. Cardine is an internship coordinator with Making Community Connections Charter School (MC2), a charter school in Keene that focuses on learning through real-life experiences, where students often work with mentors on projects that are specialized to their interests while meeting curriculum standards. The school is also focused on community-based learning in settings around Keene. "It's literally how we operate — is to use the city as our campus. We don't have a gym; we use the YMCA. We don't have a theater; we use local venues," Cardine says. Just as MC2 will share its unique style of educating, Cardine says she hopes other participants will come ready to share their own innovative ideas and solve problems they face as educators, particularly in rural settings. National conferences are "a really great place to get perspective on things when you have no one in your rural area that you can bounce ideas off of," Cardine says. "Having the opportunity to share challenges and problem-solve with people who are in similar enough contexts …, that will give you a new way of thinking that's outside of your normal colleagues' perspectives, is invaluable." The rural focus of the summit is especially important for this track, as a lot of innovation that happens in the field of education is based in urban settings, Cardine says. One of the sessions on Tuesday, Oct. 7, will include a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of how to tackle issues — like cuts to federal funding, transportation lengths or even students not having access to Wi-Fi outside of school — that particularly affect rural schools around the country, Cardine says. "We're all kind of working from the same context. Even though a rural school in Alaska is very different from a rural school in New Hampshire, there are still similarities in those resource categories, so being able to share innovations is really good." Sessions The education track sessions will kick off Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 9 a.m. with a meet-and-greet for people interested in rural education at Brewbakers Cafe at 48 Emerald St. From there, participants will join a walking tour, "Keene as Our Campus," conducted by Cardine at 9:30 a.m. During the tour, Cardine will be discussing the ways MC2 embraces learning within the community and the way the school has come to view the entire region as its campus. This is an important talk, Cardine says, because it's only been within the last 20 or so years that student experiences outside school walls have counted for credit. The walking tour will be followed by "Rural Education SWOT," at 10:30 a.m. at the MC2 charter school at 310 Marlboro St. This will give educators from rural communities a chance to come together to address issues affecting rural education on local, state and national levels. At noon at the charter school, track participants can join "Let's Dig into YOUR Work," during which trained protocol experts and participants will dedicate time to discussing "big questions" and issues facing participants now. Following that discussion, participants can join, "Gallery Walk Conversations," at 1:30 p.m., also at the school, which will be a chance for feedback as participants discuss ideas that have emerged through the day, questions that have been raised and more – a chance to dig into the unanswered. Finally, at 2:45 p.m. at the school, Cardine is hosting a wrap-up, which will celebrate the day with networking activities and more. As with all tracks this year, the education track will join other tracks over the remainder of Wednesday and Thursday for breakout sessions. Other tracks include Arts and Culture, Main Street, Clean Energy, Land and Community, Community Journalism, All in for Health and Entrepreneurship. For more information on track sessions or to register for the summit, visit radicallyrural.org.