
{"id":1410,"date":"2007-12-06T08:03:36","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T16:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/12\/06\/schooling-students-on-the-river\/"},"modified":"2007-12-06T08:03:36","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T16:03:36","slug":"schooling-students-on-the-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/12\/06\/schooling-students-on-the-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Schooling students on the river"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/hawbridge4resized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/hawbridge4resized.jpg\" height=\"390\" width=\"260\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Photo by Isaac Sandlin <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Hawbridge combines science, art to teach about the Haw<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tucked away in Saxapahaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s River Mill Village along the banks of the Haw River, the Hawbridge School offers high school students a different sort of education, with the opportunity to spend time learning in and around the river.<\/p>\n<p>After a move to River Mill Village a few years ago, the public charter school, formerly known as New Century Charter High School, changed its mission to focus on environmental science and the arts.<br \/>\nThe school \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which was previously housed in several locations around Chapel Hill, including a church basement, the Chelsea Theater, the old White Cross school building and the Sheraton Hotel club room \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is small, with only 85 students in grades 9-12 and 12 faculty members.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This school is the best kept secret,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Norma Johnson, the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science and sustainable agriculture teacher. Johnson said she came to the Hawbridge School because she really liked the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s focus on the arts and environmental science and its small size.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was so impressed with the vision of the school and where the school was going,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Hawbridge School teachers have varied backgrounds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the world history teacher has worked as a Middle East correspondent, while an art teacher came from New York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Harlem Textile Works, an arts-education institution and design studio.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done something else, and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really good for the students,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Marcia Huth, the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s director.<\/p>\n<p>Walking into the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new building, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious a lot of care went into the design of the Hawbridge School. The halls have hardwood floors and tall ceilings, and the space, which still smells like a textile mill, is very open and airy, with large windows and exposed brick.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The kids are very artistic and the faculty is very artistic, so we need a beautiful place so we can function well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huth said.<\/p>\n<p>Huth hopes the school will add a middle school on the floor below the high school. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve applied to do so, but won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find out if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll receive the funding for a couple of months.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Studying the river<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proximity now to  the Haw River, Hawbridge School teachers decided to use the resources around them to educate their students.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All of the classes utilize the river in some way,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Johnson said. The earth science class, for example, is building a nature trail along the section of the river behind the school.<\/p>\n<p>All students in the class are creating their own stations on the trail, where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve conducted a habitat assessment to determine the native and invasive plants in that area.<\/p>\n<p>For physical education, students canoe and kayak on the river.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They moan and groan about it at the beginning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huth said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But by the end, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sad that the season is over.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, students have participated in the Haw River Assembly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s River Watch Project, in which river watchers look for certain organisms to determine the health of the water.<\/p>\n<p>Christine Rebrook, a sophomore from Alamance County, said she liked being able to use the river in her classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool for biology and art, because we get to do stuff with the river,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson said she uses the river \u00e2\u20ac\u0153any time I can connect [the students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122] science learning with something outside.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The wildlife around here is pretty incredible,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They absolutely develop an attachment to the river.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, Johnson said, she takes the students outside to just sit on the rocks by the river and take it all in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A different kind of curriculum<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Students must apply to attend the Hawbridge School, and because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so small the school does turn some applicants away.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We hope to recruit students who are going to focus on the environmental aspect and the art aspect,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Huth said. Most classes have no more than 20 students, while some have as few as two.<\/p>\n<p>Once students are accepted, they must sign a partnership agreement with their parents and school faculty.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan Smith, a junior from Greensboro who started at the school last year, said she came to the Hawbridge School because of its size.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot smaller than the public schools,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Craig, a junior who previously attended Chapel Hill High School, said he too liked the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s smaller classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much different than other schools,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You get more attention that way.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Craig added that he liked the flexibility he had with his curricula compared with some traditional high schools\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 block schedules. The school year at Hawbridge is broken up into interdisciplinary units. This year, the units include pottery,  power and energy, textiles, the river and sustainable environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The main reason that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing this is so they can see connections across disciplines,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huth said.<\/p>\n<p>During each unit, students go on fieldtrips, work on special projects and listen to guest speakers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a small school, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to go on so many field trips,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>The students will soon complete their river unit, in which they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve studied some aspect of the river in all their classes. In music class, for example, the students studied music from areas along the Mississippi River, from New Orleans to St. Louis.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Basically, the [interdisciplinary units] ha[ve] been so phenomenally successful that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bowled over,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huth said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the river unit is drawing to a close, the students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 study of the river is hardly complete.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably always do something with the river,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Huth said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/hawbridge5resized1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/hawbridge5resized1.jpg\" height=\"173\" width=\"260\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Isaac Sandlin Hawbridge combines science, art to teach about the Haw By Susan Dickson Staff Writer Tucked away in Saxapahaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s River Mill Village along the banks of the Haw River, the Hawbridge School offers high school students a different sort of education, with the opportunity to spend time learning in and around the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}