In Shalimar Poulin’s media arts class at Wiscasset High School on Sept. 26, sophomore Keara Hunter looked over a digital poster she had made using landscape photographs. They were ones she had taken on her own, over time, not for the project; but when Poulin chose to take her assignment’s “make a difference” theme in an environmental direction, they were a natural fit.

“I like the fact we get to use what we like to do,” Hunter said, about being able to incorporate her interest in photography into her schoolwork.

At the next table, freshman Lindsey Gordon had a digital photography project that included photos of the mare she rides. Early in Friday’s class, she asked Poulin if it was all right to make editing part of her project.

It was, Poulin said.

Sophomore David W. Roach Jr. was at a computer, with his sketchbook on a metal stool nearby. He showed a reporter the logo he was adding onto a military aircraft in a video game called “War Thunder.”

“My first draft was just creating the outline of the shape. My plan for the text is redesigning it kind of like how I have it in my sketchbook. That’s going to take a bit of time, because originally I just used the text tool to go in and plop down the text and edit it,” he said.

Like the others interviewed, Roach is liking the ability to choose what he’s working on.

“This setup is nice, because creating our own projects, and me being able to do what I want to do with something like this, it’s very fun, and I’m able to work on my skills with texturing,” or adding to what is seen on the screen, he said.

If it sounds like the students have a lot of latitude in their work for the class, they do. Although they have to account for their learning, much of how they learn, and how they show what they have learned, is up to them.

For each project, each student follows a chart headed, “Wiscasset High School Standards and Targets Guide.”

It lists the content being studied, in this case, visual arts. The student can pick which standards the project will be graded on, or leave the choice to Poulin. By the end of the course, a student’s projects have to have covered all the standards.

Poulin’s class is an example of the direction Wiscasset High is going in: giving students choices in how they gain skills and knowledge, and choices in how they prove it.

The concept is central to the proficiency-based diploma that the state is requiring Maine high schools to transition to. The changes will better prepare Wiscasset graduates for the changing demands of today’s workplace, and give students who fall behind a better chance to catch up and graduate, Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle has said.

The proficiency-based diploma is required starting with this year’s freshman class; but students in the other grades are also reaping benefits from the changes, Towle told the Wiscasset School Committee on Sept. 25.

A student who needs to make up a credit can now finish earning it by working on the pieces they still need to learn from a course instead of retaking it in its entirety, Towle said. About 15 to 20 students are doing so, she said.

“We’re keeping those kids in school because of that (option),” Towle said.

“This is great,” committee member Chelsea Haggett said about the progress the school is making toward more of the kind of work she enjoyed doing in an independent study while she was a student there.

“I still remember that (work) was my favorite thing ever, because I got to call the shots,” Haggett said.

She got good grades at Wiscasset High, but the new way will appeal to all students, she said.

“People who dislike school aren’t going to (dislike it) as much.”

“All of it leaves us with a much better prepared student,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said.

Poulin has been studying how choice can work in the classroom since well before the state’s new rules kicked in. It’s an area of education that still has kinks to work out in terms of how it’s carried out, but choice can help students get into their work, and that can make a huge difference, she said.

“I’d much rather they get to the end of the class and be turned on to art than never wanting to do art again.”