With the storm keeping us out of the office for a few days, I finally had a chance to watch a documentary I've been meaning to get to for several months now called "Schools That Change Communities."
The 60-minute film, directed by Bob Gliner, looks at five schools that are seeing positive results through the use of place-based learning (similar to project-based learning, but with a focus on serving local communities). Among other impressive educators, the film features Tom Horn, the former principal of Al Kennedy Alternative School in Cottage Grove, Ore., whom I profiled in an article last April. (Horn is now the principal of a K-5 school in Eugene, where he assured me by email he plans to continue to "hit project and place-based ed. hard" with a "serious continued focus on ecology and sustainability.")
