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The view from where we sit...
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As community boatbuilders/ teachers, we TWSBA Steering Committee members get to sit in a good seat. We get to hear what people are doing and see all their cool projects. What we're hearing from lots of folks recently is, "When's the next Teaching With Small Boats Conference? And, where's it going to be?" Those are easy questions to answer. The next TWSBA Conference will be April 27, 28 and 29, 2017 at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. If you're doing this kind of work, we strongly suggest that you be there. Your participation, presenting your work, sharing your expertise, or asking good questions, makes TWSBA conferences exceptional. See below for more details, and for how you can engage.
As said before, we sit where we can see what other folks are doing. And, we like connecting people who are doing good work. This is what TWSBA does; and now it's about to do that work much better. Tony Archino has been doing a great job moving the revised TWSBA website forward. He's gotten funding and professional web development help. Tony's now getting feedback and participation from several TWSBA members and organizations. This will help initially "stock" the website with lessons and project descriptions; but it's really incumbent upon all of us to participate and share. It's going to be a terrific tool.
TWSBA is all about sharing expertise, resources and ideas. Conferences, newsletters, web interviews, and now the upgraded website. It's great to see. Thanks for letting us sit here.
--The Teaching With Small Boats Alliance Steering Committee
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2017 TWSBA Conference Update
When: April 27, 28 and 29 (Thursday - Saturday)
Where: Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, Maryland
Help us spread the word!
Download and display this cool "Save the Date" poster
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The themes of the 2017 conference will be:
- The relationship between small and large boat educational programming
- Using a Maritime Heritage Museum as the focus for regional efforts involving other maritime/marine organizations and school systems
- Making stronger connections to post-secondary education and careers
As in previous years, there will be three "Presentation Tracks" according to organizational experience. Content will be presented in a variety of formats: lectures and panel discussions, hands-on workshops and
on-the-water activities.
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A call for Workshops, Projects and Presentations:
Your participation adds to the richness and relevance of the discussion at the TWSBA conference. Consider participating as a presenter: in particular, we're looking for hands-on workshops that relate to, or demonstrate, the conference themes. Of course, we're also looking for cool presentations and panel discussions. If you've got an idea that you want to share, send us a note: twsba.info@gmail.com
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About the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a great place to be in the Spring; and we're going to be there for the 2017 TWSBA Conference!
The museum sits on an 18-acre waterfront campus and once was the site of a busy complex of seafood packing houses, docks, and work boats. Today, it is the site of the nation's most complete collection of Chesapeake Bay artifacts, visual arts, and indigenous water craft. And, it's a stone's throw from historic downtown St. Michaels, one of the most charming towns on Maryland's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It's hard to imagine a better place for a TWSBA conference. And, we'll get an inside view of the museum's work as we experience their boats, resources and the Bay they represent.
We hope you'll plan to join us April 27 - 29, 2017!
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Become a Founding Member of TWSBA
From our initial conference at the Alexandria Seaport in 2010, TWSBA has grown into an international network of over 150 participating organizations serving over 20,000 young people a year. We've hosted four conferences (if you've been to a conference, you know how much valuable information gets shared), and produced quarterly newsletters with program profiles, job notices and relevant events in our industry.
We've done all this without a formal organization, or financial membership support. Now, we're asking you to pay a small annual fee--$50 for individuals, $100 for organizations--to help us continue to provide value and resources to our growing community of educators. AND, we've prorated the fees for 2016. SO, THIS YEAR IS HALF PRICE!
Please join now to become a Founding Member! |
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Organization Spotlight: Community Boating Center,
New Bedford, MA
As a boy growing up in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, Richard Feeny remembers loving to go on family cruises. He especially treasures the first longer trip that took his family through Lake Ontario into Canada.
"It opened my eyes to the magic of boats," he says of the experience.
Today, as the education coordinator for the
Community Boating Center (CBC) in New Bedford, MA, Feeny is trying to instill that same sense of magic in the young kids who have never had the experience of going out on a water craft, much less building one from scratch.
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Richard Feeny with students
at the Community Boating Center
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Now that the kids, aged 8 to 18, have
completed and launched three boats, they are gaining an appreciation for the joy of rowing and sailing, while also learning valuable math skills and how to work as a team.
"Their perspective shifts through this program," he says, "when they step foot on a boat and depart from the land, and look back at the city."
The Community Boating Center was organized by
a social worker who wanted to provide positive experiences for children from low-income families by taking advantage of the water that is deeply embedded in the New Bedford culture.
Feeny has organized community as well as public and charter school programs that encourage kids to learn math and science through sailing. He and the CBC staff have used the Building to Teach videos and building instructions to help young people build three skiffs, which are now used to row out to keel boats in the harbor. The programs run over the summer and more recently have expanded to the spring and fall shoulder seasons.
"The sense of accomplishment is written on their faces," he says.
Feeny has also taught the kids to make model boats, both free sail and radio-controlled, that they sail off of their dock. "It's equally dynamic," he says of the models. "They love the measuring, drawing and cutting and problem-solving. They are captivated by it."
All in all, the college philosophy major has found real meaning in teaching boat building to the students. "Watching them take shape from just flat wood," he says, "is just fantastic."
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Solar Boat
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Cool project: solar boat
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