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Collaborative Curriculum Work:
Wednesday, February 14th and 28th
Counselors PK – 6 (Feb 14) - The elementary
school counselors will meet at VUES
Grade 5-6 (Feb. 14)
- All teachers of Writing. Facilitator: Alison DaBica and Teri Wright
Grade 5-6 (Feb. 28)
- Grade 5-6 Math Facilitators: Tara Quesnel
and Sue Dula
High School (Feb 14)
- Math Half Day Released Day (7 - 12)
Department
meetings - Essential Questions Work
High School (Feb 28) - Interest Group
Work resumes
Middle School (February 14) - Math Half Day
Released Day (7 - 12)
Subject Area
Meetings
Middle School (February 28) - Expedition
Planning/Reading Groups
Music pK-12 - Steve and Jeannie at VUES:
common assessment work
Sue, Karen and
Bill:
PreK-4 - Continue
meeting in Informational Writing Inquiry groups
Vocabulary (Margo
Grace, facilitator) - Schoolwide Literacy Room at
VUES
Looking at Student Work (Elaine Pentaleri, facilitator) -
Elaine’s room at VUES
Instructional Writing (Sheryl Thurber, facilitator) - meeting at ACS
Instructional Writing (Melissa Haggett, faciliator) - meeting in Melissa’s room at VUES
Oral Language as it relates to Written Language (Marlyn Brandfass, facilitating) - meeting in Sally Conway’s room
at VUES
Oral Language as it relates to Written Language (Diana Raphael, facilitating) - meeting
in Lisa McGuire’s room at VUES
Video/book study group (Sara Blake, facilitator) - meeting at FCS
Informational Writing and Grade Level Expectations (Marilyn Woods, facilitator)- meeting in Marilyn Woods’ room at VUES
Special Educators K - 6 (Feb.
14) - First inquiry group meeting
Special Educators K - 6 (Feb. 28) - ANWSU Special
Education regular meeting
Special Educators 7 - 12 (Feb. 14) - ANWSU Special Education
regular meeting
Special Educators 7 - 12 (Feb. 28) -
VUMS
Expeditionary Learning
VUHS Interest
Groups
Speech Language
Pathologists K - 6 (Feb. 14) - Inquiry Group work: Connecting oral and
written language and differences between speech and writing. Kathleen
Rivers facilitating
Speech Language Pathologists K - 6 (Feb. 28) - ANWSU Special
Education regular meeting
Technologists K - 12 Feb. 14 at Middle
School Lab
Discussion of
VUMS/HS changes for 07-08
Discussion of
Writer Project progress at grades 3/4
Input for new
Tech Plan for ANWSU requested
Bridges Pilot Update
There are two more opportunities to discuss our math
programs. On February 5, there is an
informal discussion about the Bridges Math Pilot at
Until the decision is made, Betty has been in preliminary
conversations with ANESU about the possibilities of combined professional
development. At this time, ANESU is
looking at these tentative dates: 2 day
workshop for K-3, June 25 and 26 and a 2 day workshop for grade 4, August 13
and 14. In addition, there is a Math
Leadership training (for Bridges) being planned for July 23-24 at the
Doubletree Hotel in
Stay tuned for more information, pending the math decision.
Farm to School Grant Award goes to
group at ANWSU
FCS (mainly Kathy Alexander) and Walden folks (mainly Emily
Watson Blagdon) wrote a Farm to School grant from
Dept. of Agriculture and got it! We were awarded $12,500.00 to build
sustainable partnerships with local farmers in our county, to increase local
produce and plant purchasing for our school meals and gardens, to make farm to
school connections part of the fabric of both schools (curriculum), and to
create an elementary/high school mentoring program. Addison Independent had an article out on this
recently.
ANWSU LSB News
Re-licensure Materials – Deadline
In order to
receive action on re-licensure materials by June 30, those materials (i.e. IPDPs and portfolios) must be submitted to the LSB for
consideration by March 1. When an educator does not complete the license
renewal process within the timeline established by the LSB, the LSB chair will
notify the educator’s superintendent of the non-compliance within 30 days after
the date of required submission.
New Form B & Requirements
Form B will now
be in triplicate. It is available through your local LSB representative.
Prior to
submitting Form B to the Central Office, each teacher is responsible for having
his/her building principal review and sign Form B. After receiving the
signature of the building principal, Form B is to be sent directly to the
Central Office, not your LSB representative.
PREVENTION NEWS
The Vergennes Community Group, made up of business, clergy and
parents has recently completed its Mission Statement: To educate and inspire our youth and adults
to create positive changes in their own life and the lives of others in order to continue building a safe and
caring community for our children. The group will meet again on Thursday,
February 15, to state a vision of what we would like to see our community look
like in the next 5 to 10 years, and begin the work of creating an action plan
for how to get there.
Youth Involvement
The third youth-led bi-monthly luncheon was held in the
Capsule Program at VUHS. Stress and
Coping Skills were learned through fun and interactive games.
Prevention students were asked to help out with a fun and
tasty project! The Capsule students’
assignment was to have prevention students sample chocolate. A short survey was
completed. Data from this tasty test will be charted and results interpreted by
students in the Capsule Program.
VUHS – Non-traditional Tobacco
Cessation Program in the Works–
Youth Focus Groups have been completed. Results of group
meetings have been summarized and a draft curriculum written. The Prevention
Council has hired Dianne Jackson to facilitate this program.
Superbowl Activity--TRY IT OUT!!
ACME (Action Coalition for Media
Education) is going to make available their "Tackling the Beer
Barons" program again this year. This is a pre and post superbowl activity for youth! Go to: http://www.acmecoalition.org/documents/media%20education%20monthly/superbowl2007.doc
for the free curriculum; and then for the student log, go to: http://www.acmecoalition.org/documents/media%20education%20monthly/superbowllogsheet2007.doc!
Parent/Youth Involvement –
“Celebrate Youth Success” Parent Workshop - Parents
learned the power of asset development by interacting directly with middle
school youth. They learned first hand, the challenges faced by today’s youth as
well as the successes. Results of the Search Institute’s Resources and Assets
Survey were used to strike up conversations between youth and adults.
A Sampling of What Youth Had to Say!
“A handshake gives me a feeling of equality, it feels good.”
“Sometimes while walking around the community, we feel like
we are just taking up space.”
“Stay involved in your kids lives, even as they grow older
and push you away.” “Stay involved”
Cecile Gebo won family tickets to
The Great Escape. Tickets were donated by the Addison County Tobacco
Roundtable.
The “Shared Ventures” Parenting Series both traditional and non-traditional
met for the final class on January 18. Forty parents attended either the 6-
week series or the non-traditional 4-week series. This program was a total
success and we hope to bring Vicki Hemenway-Hoefle
back again next year.
Teenage Health Teaching Modules
Marta Koonz, a highly respected
trainer from the Center for Health and Learning will be visiting our schools on
March 6 and March 7. The methodology used to help health educators with
effective teaching strategies, is still in the works.
For more information please feel free to contact Alyson Cota at 877-3332 or acota@anwsu.org
Professional Development
Opportunities
The new VMI '07 applications are hot off the
press and have been sent to all elementary and middle schools in
The 4th Promise of Place
Keynote speaker: Richard Louv, author of Last
Child in the Woods
· Over 40 workshops that provide
the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to design place-based education curricula
in urban and rural regions
· Learn how to interpret the
forested landscape, start a community reading series, link place-based
education to standards, and overcome the challenges of starting a place-based
education initiative
· Enjoy live music with singer-songwriter
Erica Wheeler & African dance band Jeh Kulu
More Information:
Registration materials and
complete brochure at: www.promiseofplace.org
Early bird registration:
February 13, regular registration due February 26.
Teaching English Language Learners
in the Regular Classroom
Participants will learn
about the cultures of English language learning students in
Who: Teachers,
Administrators, Para-Educators and all District Staff who work with ELL
students (or work with ELL students in the future!)
What: The Quest Instititute
Online - Spring 2007
A
hybrid course offering online content and 7 face-to-face meetings
Where:
When:
Instructors:
Mark Nigolian and Mary Kay O'Brien
Benefits:
Text, course materials, collaboration with ESL Content Specialists and other
educators
Cost: $1230
payable to Project Quest and brought to the first class or mailed to Project
Quest, The Burlington School District, 150 Colchester Ave, Burlington, Vt.
05401 (after contacting Mary Kay).
Other Info:
Offered through the
Online course content: www.bsdvt.org/district/grants/quest/online
Community, Courage and
Adventure in our Schools
LAPDA is pleased to partner with Helen Beattie and Ron
Rubin to offer this course which combines two proven and powerful approaches to
developing and sustaining a positive school climate: the "Circle of
Courage" and adventure-based learning.
The integration of an understanding of the basic needs expressed by the
"Circle of Courage", with adventure-based activities, offers
educators a practical, highly useful means of translating theory into practice
across a broad array of educational settings and situations.
This course will be held on Feb 9 & 10, March 26
& 27, and May 5th in
The flyer is at
http://www.lapdavt.org/documents/community_courage_adventure.pdf
The annual Vermont Science Teachers' Association (VSTA)
conference will be held on March 14 at
The theme of the Conference is 'Sustainability of Systems: How Balanced is your Universe?'
A series of workshops will be presented offering classroom materials, CDs and
lesson ideas to incorporate energy conservation into science programs. The
keynote speaker is Dr. Art Sussman from West Ed, an
educator who has numerous publications on environmental systems instruction.
Registration will begin in February: http://www.dbweb.ed.state.vt.us/vsta <http://www.dbweb.ed.state.vt.us/vsta> Please encourage your
teachers to join us!
Social Studies Network Meetings:
· April 4th:
Southwest Social Studies Network meeting at Castleton State College (SWC)
· April 5th:
More details to follow! Contact
Sigrid Lumbra sigrid.lumbra@state.vt.us <mailto:sigrid.lumbra@state.vt.us> for information or programming suggestions.
Arts Assessment
Institute 2007:
The Arts Assessment Institute 2007 will take place on
August 7, 8, and 9 (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) at Castleton State
College. Learning opportunities will be available for those inexperienced in
arts assessment as well as those who attended the Arts Assessment 2006 or have
advanced experience in arts assessment. Dr. Scott Shuler, Arts Coordinator for
Registration materials will be available in late
February.
The
Save the dates
of Thursday and
The cost of the conference will
be very modest. If you choose to be a speaker (form attached) there will be an
honorarium of $75 or a free hotel room (your choice) and other teachers from
your school will get a discount off of the conference fee. Jim Kearns and Nancy
Nichols are looking for as many speakers as they can get and plan on both math
and science strands.
Please save the date to come to
the conference. We also would love to have you offer to do a presentation. This
will be a wonderful opportunity to mingle with math and science teachers from
all over
Nancy Schick
nschick@ti.com
The Vermont
Invites You to the
Fourteenth Annual Residential
VERMONT MIDDLE GRADES
SUMMER INSTITUTE
New Format and timetable this year. June 25 -
And
The Middle Grades
Institute offers six different course strands for educators now working with
students in grades 5, 6, 7, 8, and/or 9, and for those new to the middle
grades.
The six strands are:
Nature and Needs of Early Adolescents *
Middle Grades Curriculum, Instruction and
Assessment *
Middle Grades Organization *
Embedded Literacy in Middle Level
Education *
Planning and Working in Teams
Teacher Leadership (pre-requisite-having
attended two previous Institutes)
Participants in
this four-day residential institute may choose from one of the four courses
that lead to the middle grades endorsement (*) or continue
their middle level work in leadership or teaming. Each course is designed to
integrate the competencies required in the State's middle grades endorsement,
with research and best practices from the field of Middle Level Education, and
the "Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities" for grades
5-8. Dick Flanary, professional development director
of NASSP, and nationally recognized leader on Breaking Ranks in the Middle
will be our keynote speaker.
Courses are
team-taught by professors from the Vermont Middle Grades Professional
Development Collaborative and by practicing middle grades teachers. During the week, participants attend classes
held specifically for each strand, as well as classes held for all institute
participants. There are small group discussions, and a variety of special
events, including some with visiting teams and students. Every effort is made to model best middle
level practice throughout the institute. More than 600
The Institute will
be held at Castleton State College, beginning
Course fee is
$1200, and includes room, board, all materials, and 3 hours of graduate credit.
The Institute is offered:* as a three
credit graduate course from
JOHNSON
SAINT MICHAEL'S COLLEGE
* for non-credit
* for work toward
middle level endorsement
* for professional
development credit
Registration flyer will be available in
late FEBRUARY, 2007. To receive a flyer
mailed directly to you, or for more information about the summer Institute,
contact:
Maryanne Newsom-Brighton
VTMGPDC
Dept. of Ed-McClelland Hall
JSC - 337 College Hill
Phone: 802-635-1449 e-mail: VTMGPDC@pshift.com
Teachade: Online Social Networking for Teachers
-eSchool
News Site of the Week for
Educators who are
looking for online sites to communicate and collaborate with their peers can
register free of charge with Teachade, a site that
lets educators share resources, create online learning communities, and connect
with colleagues. Teachade is available to K-12
teachers, pre-service teachers, student teachers, and college professors
through a free registration process. The site uses Web 2.0 collaboration and
social-networking technologies. Teachers can join groups formed around topics
such as music, 6th-grade science, supporting educational technology, increasing
student and child safety, and so on. Educators also have access to a personal
and group calendar and can keep lesson plans or other items in personal
"favorites" files.
Teachade can be found at http://www.teachade.com.
Great Black History Month Site
Maya Angleou
has a site with poems read by black authors, a place where you can play with
words and a letter to the youth. There are also some good teacher/parent
resources. It is not very extensive, but what is there is worthwhile.
There are some good poems in the
teacher/parent resource book - www.target.come/dreamincolor
Annenberg Communications
professional development site
Below are
some fantastic video programs published by Annenberg Communications. The sign up is free, the workshops are
free. There are courses for teachers in
Art, Foreign Language, literacy, math, science and social studies, at all grade
levels. The sign up procedures are at
the end of the list of available videos.
You can watch them on your computer!!