|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
05/24/2007
Docents for a dayStudents learn by teaching at farm museum
Alexis Floyd holds up a piece of rhubarb to show classmates while practicing her docent speech on farming practices at Samels Farm in Williamsburg. Students will be dressed in period costumes as they teach fourth-graders and seventh-graders about life on the farm, covering such aspects as the blacksmith shop, farming and housekeeping. WILLIAMSBURG — Courtney Isenhart wasn't yet born when the Samels brothers gave up farming on their century-old homestead. But the Elk Rapids eighth-grader knows as much about their lives as subsistence farmers in 1920s Williamsburg as many of the Samels Family Farm's current neighbors. Courtney, 14, is one of 28 Cherryland Middle School students working as docents this week on the 84-acre Skegemog Point farm now operated as a farm museum by the Samels Family Heritage Society. Dressed in period costume — overalls or suspenders for boys, straight skirts for girls — the students are showing off the homestead as part of Annie Hill's eighth-grade language arts class. "The best part is we're learning a lot about what it was like in the old days living on a farm and how much work it was,” said Courtney, who helps show the upstairs bedrooms. Earlier the students toured the farm with "mentors” from the heritage society, then divided into five presentation groups devoted to the barn, the house, the garden, the blacksmith shop and granary, and the archaeology of the site, Hill said. With in-school help from their mentors, they researched life on the farm before modern amenities, then wrote and rehearsed their own scripts to prepare for presentations to fourth-graders from Lakeland Elementary School and seventh-graders from their own school. Along with planning the scripts, Hill said students learned about the elements of delivery, such as memorization, enunciation, tone of voice, pace of speaking and body language. "It's just a good way for them to meet the state criteria for the speaking and discourse areas they have to do,” she said, adding that previous classes have made presentations to the Whitewater Township board and community on village and recreational planning. "It just has more meaning. They have a really different audience than their class.” Originally purchased in 1889 by Whitewater Township native Frank Samels, the Samels Family Farm was farmed by Samels' sons Dennis, Ben and Rob until the 1990s, when it was placed in a trust for preservation. General farmers who raised and sold a variety of livestock and crops, the bachelor brothers clung to the old ways long after the arrival of modern conveniences. They plowed their fields with draft horses and oxen, forged their own tools, heated and cooked with a wood stove, and grew and preserved their own food. This week 14-year-old Zach Wilkes of Kewadin is operating the forge and showing what it takes to pound iron into shape and form while Courtney demonstrates the craft of hand-quilting. Inspired by quilts on the farmhouse beds, she decided to make her own from a traditional diamond-design pattern, with help from society mentor and Williamsburg quilter Anne Krigbaum. "It's a lot easier than I thought it would be, but it takes some time because you have to make sure all the edges are straight and all your stitches are small,” Courtney said. Krigbaum is one of several society volunteers who have been busy readying the farmhouse for the event, said Mary Anne Rivers-Friese, a retired teacher and president of the Samels Family Heritage Society. Some scraped up old vinyl flooring, washed windows and returned the grape arbor to its original condition; others scoured area thrift shops for costumes and baked bread the docents can use in their presentations. "It's a big undertaking,” said Rivers-Friese, who guides the garden group. Hill said it's the second time her students have been involved in the project; the first was in 2005. "Our students came away with a great feeling and the young kids had a great time, because it's very hands-on,” she said. "This year they will get to try out tools and farm implements, and make butter in the house. They'll have the blacksmith shop open, and they'll even have animals.” Using older children to teach younger ones is another effective way to stimulate students, Rivers-Friese said. "When I was at the (Dennos) Museum as director of education, I tried valiantly to get a high school-to-middle school docent program going,” she said. "I've seen the effect that kids teaching children can have — because (the younger students) are just awed by the bigger kids.” She said working with school groups is part of the society's mission, outlined by the Samels family when they placed the land in a trust. "One of the things they put in the trust was they'd like it to be used for educational purposes,” she said. Friday's event will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the farm on Skegemog Point Road and is open to the public.
|
|
