RICHLAND – Adam Rodgers pointed a digital camcorder toward the boat dock on the Columbia River in Richland.
Two actors, one portraying a sewer-loving ninja and another the head of an evil corporation, sprinted across the wooden planks. Rodgers, 16, focused his lens as the two collided and tumbled into the water.
“That’s awesome,” said the director as the soaked actors slogged their way to shore.
Rodgers isn’t a Hollywood director or even a college film student. He’s part of an innovative class at River’s Edge Alternative High School in Richland that bucks traditional teaching practices.
The accelerated learning program allows students to learn different subjects while following an environment-related theme. This semester’s theme: Waste not, want not.
“We thought it was a better match for our students,” said Ann Autrey, who with fellow teacher Carol Krohn started teaching the program three years ago. “A lot of our students have (attention-deficit disorder) or (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), so switching between classes was not good.”
About 30 students attend a three-hour block of classes in which they earn credits for different subjects. Although the program focuses on the environment, students have to apply their skills in math, writing, computer technology and, in the case of Rodgers, art.
“It’s amazing,” said Eric Jones, 16. “We do it on our own. It’s at our own pace. It makes us more comfortable.”
Autrey, Krohn and at least one other teacher work with the class at all times, which allows them to devote more attention to students.
“It gives us time to know the students and to work on problems, and to pay attention to things that need attention,” Krohn said.
Another eye-catching aspect of the program is its classroom, which is decked with aquariums, beakers, plants, an iguana and other creepy-crawly things. Students also have laptops and Palm Pilot computers, which were bought with grant money.
The teachers say they trust students with the high-tech equipment.
The class, which comprises students from all four high school grades, took the Palm Pilots to the Yakima River last semester to test the water’s temperature, Autrey said.
Autrey and Krohn have been recognized for their efforts by the Tapteal Greenway Association’s Conservationist of the Year award this month for taking students to the river and sampling the water’s quality.
But the biggest reward is watching teenagers with little or no confidence blossom into successful students, they said.
“This is a teaching assignment that’s a dream job for me,” Autrey said. “We’re hitting on topics that will be important to them later on in life.”
“These aren’t alternative kids,” she added. “Just alternative teaching.”
The current class project incorporates environmental science, consumer economics and film-as-art.
Rodgers’ project focuses on four teenagers who live in the sewer, similar to the cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The story line involves an evil company called the Filthy Corporation, which is polluting the environment, including the sewers.
The river scene involved group member Ryan Clifford, a 17-year-old junior who was pretending to be a ninja, and Patrick Underwood, the school’s security officer who portrayed the leader of the fictional corporation.
“(The ninjas) are all environmentally safe,” Rodgers said.
Josh Johnson, a 17-year-old sophomore, and his group are focusing on skateboards and how people should reuse them. The group was filming one another skate, and the footage will be used in their project.
“This is the only chance we’re going to get to skateboard at school,” he said. “I learn a lot more in this class. … We just don’t sit behind a desk.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
