News & Notes
Congratulations to Cookie
Steponaitis (VUHS)!!!
Cookie will be receiving the Victor R. Swenson Humanities Educator of the
Year award on
Another creative way to share work done by students has been utilized by Sheila Burlock at Vergennes Union
Elementary. Ms. Burlock’s class created
a web page at http://anwsu.org/vues/burlock/burlock0506.htm of their stories and artwork showing their hobbies, summer activities,
and favorite things. The children could
then send this link to family members to share.
Check it out!!! Great job Sheila
and wonderful work by the students.
Middle School Update
The
middle school staff has taken some professional learning risks this year to
address clear needs they have analyzed, as kids pass from elementary to high
school. With the primary thrust of
improving our students' capacity to read well, they chose collectively to work
towards refining their own teaching skills. Regardless of whether they are
teachers of English, math, social studies or science, they are undertaking the
work of teaching reading across the content areas. This is a major step for any staff to take, and
it promises to improve students' appreciation of the purposes of reading, and
their skills at tackling the increasingly difficult contextual materials they
need to succeed in school. We hope that
it will also improve their enthusiasm for reading a wider variety.
The staff instruction is embedded in a
larger middle school improvement effort called Expeditionary Learning Schools
Outward Bound. This makes us the first
school in
As our staff grows in this process, we
will keep you informed. Ultimately, you
will be informed by students and their work.
Bridges Math
Pilot
Pam Dodge and Betty Lewis are visiting the K-4 Bridges
Pilot and the Everyday Math classrooms to gather further information about each
program. They are observing the
programs, taking notes, and talking with teachers to gain knowledge about the
implementation of each program.
Informal Math
Discussions
Voluntary informal math discussions are held monthly, at
the ANWSU Central Office conference room.
The next sessions will be held
Monday, November 13—discussion about
Bridges Math—
Monday, November 20—discussion about
Everyday Math—
All K-4 teachers are invited to attend these
voluntary discussions.
Reading
Assessment Study Team
The team met on Wednesday, October 25 to review the
results from the 18 respondents to the Reading Assessment Survey. The team will use that information to plan
for the next phase of their study. They
will spend a half-day on November 2 developing a recommendation to present to
the administrative council at the end of November.
Mathematics and Writing Calibration
We received information about the calibration system that the Department of
Education is sending to us electronically.
As of now, the information below is all that we know for sure. Teachers and administrators in ANWSU will be
looking at the possibilities for our own teachers' calibration in math and
writing, and what that might mean for us.
In the meanwhile, here is the information we received this week:
"In mid-November principals and curriculum coordinators will be
receiving a CD containing calibration sets for mathematics (grades K, 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 7, and 10) and writing (grades 4, 5, and 8). Each grade level folder will contain
instructions and rubrics, practice pieces, calibration sets and rationales for
local use by schools and districts. The
calibration sets offer numerous possibilities for supporting teachers in
practicing reliability in their scoring, as well as opportunities to define
professional development needs."
Professional Development Opportunities
English Language
Learniners in PK-12 classrooms Workshop still has openings -
After School at the
An 11-session course funded by the VT Consortium for Language and
Academics at Saint Michael's College, taught by Rita MacDonald, VCLA
Coordinator.
Location:
Time:
Dates (all Wednesdays):
December 6 & 20,
2006 March 7 & 21, 2007
January 3, 17 & 31, 2007 April 4 & 18, 2007
Cost: $42.00 (book included in price)
Approx. 23 hours of training equivalent to 1.5 re-licensure credits.
Who should take this course? Pairs or teams of any K-12 educators who work
with culturally and linguistically diverse students. EST members and curriculum
committees. Literacy leaders. (ESL teachers are welcome as co-trainers.)
Topics covered will include:
*Second Language
Acquisition *Learning
Strategies
*Sheltered Instruction *Classroom
Interaction
*Lesson Preparation *Practice
and Application
*Building Background
Knowledge *Lesson
Delivery
*Comprehensible Input *Student
Assessment
To Register: Phone or e-mail to Lisa Santor at the Colchester District
Office.
E-mail: santorl@colchester.k12.vt.us
Phone: 802-264-5983 Fax: 802-863-4774
Include participants' names, addresses and e-mail addresses
Send payment (payable to
Attn: Lisa Santor
The Second Annual
Vermont Summit on Civic Education will take place on
Wednesday, November 15th at the State House in
This year's VASS conference (
Math Course Offering
Teachers
Development Group of
CONFLICT RESOLUTION/MEDIATION FOR EDUCATORS - January - May 2007
Dates: January 11, 18, and 25, February 8,
15, and 22,
March 8, 15, and 22, April 5, 12, and 19, AND May 3
Times:
Instructor: Phoebe
Barash, Teacher, Principal,
Location: Learning Media
Ctr.,
Cost: $850 Graduate
3 UVM Credits
Educators face a variety of conflicts on a daily basis. These can
sometimes be multiple conflicts in the course of one day. Conflicts can
be parent to school, child to teacher, child to child, school to state and on
and on. The purpose of this course is to build upon skills that each
participant already possesses. Through building on skills already in the
‘toolbox’, opening up communication and adding new tools to the ‘toolbox’ each
individual will be challenged to confront conflict creatively.
Having a set of practical tools allows participants their own access to
creative conflict resolution.
The course is designed to help participants develop a greater awareness of
the ways each person responds to and engages others in conflict. The
focus will be on building a common language around conflict resolution,
building mediation skills and skills needed to facilitate difficult
meetings. This will be accomplished through role plays, readings,
collaborative problem solving of current issues facing participants and outside
class work applying the principles learned in class. Beyond current issues,
participants will design a detailed action plan for their school setting and
how to integrate Social Emotional Learning and the skills of Conflict
Management into their daily practice. The foundation of all work will be
in practicing learning conversations. Specific tools to add to the
toolbox in this course include:
§
Positions and interests
§
Conflict triggers
§
Conflict analysis
§
Reflective listening (reframing,
summarizing, problem framing, reframing, questions)
§
power imbalances
§
How can your own bias affect your ability
to facilitate?
§
The ability to articulate why Social
Emotional Learning is as critical as academic learning
§
Specific skills aimed at focusing on
Social Emotional Learning and integrating Conflict Management into each
individual’s school setting
Course sessions will also provide time for reflection and relating new
skills in conflict resolution to work presently being done in classrooms using
Responsive Classroom morning meetings, Teacher Advisories as well as looking at
school Action Plans focusing on the social curriculum. Class sessions
will be active, inviting all participants to share current challenges as
learning opportunities to practice new skills.
Email worth@champlain.edu for
questions or information
You may register for this course at the CVEDC-ESA (
Or by mail at this address (Checks payable to: CVEDC-ESA):
Darlene Worth
Websites of Interest
(Have you got a website you’d like to
share?):
www.storylineonline.net comes to us from Linda Thurber (FCS).
Thank you, Linda.
A very cute site that has good stories read by actors from the SAG guild.
You need a new version of Flash, but it doesn't require a lot of memory or a
NEW computer to run. I love it. Works
with Explorer as a browser, rather than Mozilla.
http://www.fossweb.com/ also from Linda Thurber (FCS) Click on the appropriate banner - Grade
K-2, or 3-6 to see some great computer interactive activities.
The Blogvangelist – (Teacher Magazine;
Will Richardson, a high school English teacher, has implemented Internet
features, such as wikis and blogs, into his teaching. “For educators,”
To read full article, click here (http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2006/10/01/02richardson.h18.html).
To see a blog created by one of
FIRST WEDNESDAYS –
A
This once a month humanities forum brings nationally renowned speakers to
libraries for public lectures on the first Wednesday of each month, October
through May. We will be listing these
lectures in the Learning Communities Newsletter each month, for the following
month.
Coming up December 6:
The Great Camps of the
At the Fletcher Free Library in
On Dictionaries: Words and What They Say about
Themselves. Ilan Stavans,
At the Ilsley Public Library in
Middlebury –