The end of the
school year brought lots of activities to the Ludlow Elementary School
Students.
Grades 3-6
performed “The Jungle Book” under the direction of Ms. Marks and Mrs.
Buckley. More than 30 students were involved, performing for Cavendish
Elementary School, Mount Holly Elementary School, and Ludlow Elementary School
students on June 4th with an evening performance for the general
public.
The After School Program is thriving and we thank the staff for all the wonderful activities the students enjoyed. The children got to participate in everything from science, art, and woodworking to stop motion animation and more. Thank you to Rachel Karner, Lisa Marks, Jake Parker, Shona Trimboli, Zoe Trimboli, and Janelle Wilfong for your dedication to our students.
Grades K-3 enjoyed a collaborative end-of-year celebration at Dorsey Park. Hot dogs and watermelon were just a few of the items served for lunch. Lots of games were played and fun was had by all.
Green Mountain Union High School (GMUHS) has been providing students with increased opportunities to personalize their education. Shannon Parker (Flexible Pathways Coordinator), Pam O’Neil (Guidance Department Director) and Ally Oswald (Guidance Counselor) work diligently to offer all of our students new possibilities for pursuing their individual goals. Here are some of the specific opportunities available to Green Mountain students:
Blended Learning Opportunities:
During the 2018-2019 school year, students were able to take a Dual Enrollment U.S. History course affiliated with The Community College of Vermont, on the GMUHS campus. Students who completed the course received college level credit. This past year, 13 students took advantage of this opportunity. The class will be offered again during the 2019-2020 school year, and at this time we have 20 students enrolled in the course.
Career Technical Education:
The Guidance Office has been comparing the proficiencies that students are earning at River Valley Technical Center with the proficiencies required to graduate from GMUHS so that students will know where any gaps exist. Shannon worked with the RVTC Carpentry Program instructor, the GMUHS math department, and the VTVLC to create a PASS (Personalized Assessment of Student Standards) — a proposal so that a student could gain content knowledge of Algebra through ‘real life experiences’ in the Carpentry course offered at RVTC.
Early College:
Shannon assists in connecting interested students in the Junior class with early college placement through participating Vermont Colleges/Universities. In this program, students are concurrently involved in high school and a post-secondary institution. During the 2018-2019 school year, we had a student studying at Castleton University. For the 2019-2020 school year, we will have a student studying at Norwich College.
Community Based Learning:
Students are connected to opportunities within
our community and beyond.
This includes internships, volunteering & work study/shadow opportunities.
Shannon works with John Donorum (GM’s School-to-Work Coordinator), assisting with job placements.
A Bulletin Board is available in the Flexible Pathways room with the most recent job, internship & work study opportunities.
Learning Virtual Opportunities:
Shannon assists students with the enrollment process for online courses through Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative & Brigham Young University (both offering high school courses).
After enrollment, students receive assistance in obtaining the required materials for the course.
Students work in the Flexible Pathways classroom during the week. Shannon monitors and assists them with any technical difficulties or helps connect them to their online teacher.
Each student is required to have a weekly check-in with Shannon to help them stay on track. If they fall behind, they create a pace chart with their online teacher or with Shannon.
Students receive any necessary assistance with the technology required to complete discussion based assessments, conferences, or meetings with their online teacher.
For students taking BYU courses, Shannon proctors their final exam.
In 2018-2019, 29 students were enrolled in over 50 online courses. For 2019-202, 30 students have enrolled in 59 online courses.
For Summer 2019, Shannon assisted the Math department in enrolling 14 students to online recovery courses through Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative. This opportunity was offered to students who did not gain proficiency within a math course that they were enrolled in during the 2018-2019 school year.
Dual Enrollment:
Shannon assists students with setting up Dual Enrollment courses through participating Vermont State Colleges/Universities for Fall, Spring & Summer courses.
Once they have enrolled, Shannon
helps students apply for their dual enrollment vouchers. All Vermont students
have two dual enrollment vouchers to use during their Junior & Senior years
in high school. Shannon assists in keeping track of the number of vouchers that
each student has utilized.
Students receive assistance in ordering any
required textbooks or course materials.
If students are taking a dual
enrollment class on a college campus, Shannon helps them with the logistics of
commuting as well as scheduling; making sure that the course on campus will
work around or in conjunction with their GMUHS schedule. Students must sign a
waiver if they will be traveling to a college campus from GMUHS.
For students taking dual
enrollment courses online, they are scheduled to work in the Flexible Pathways
classroom during a scheduled class block each week. Shannon monitors and helps
students who encounter any technical difficulties or need assistance in
contacting their professor.
Each student is required to have a
weekly check-in with Shannon to help them stay on track. If they fall behind,
they work with Shannon to develop strategies to get them back on track and stay
on task.
Once students complete their
coursework, the flexible pathways classroom provides a quiet space to take the
final exam.
18 students enrolled in 24 dual
enrollment courses during the 2018-2019 school year. For 2019-2020, 12 students
are enrolled 21 different dual enrollment opportunities.
In the fall of 2018-2019, 52 students were
scheduled into the flexible pathways classroom. These students included those
working on independent projects or coursework as well as those enrolled in
college or online courses.
The number of students receiving support and using the Flexible Classroom space will increase in 2019-2020 as we continue to match opportunities to students’ individual education needs.
Lauren Fierman Green Mountain Union High School Principal
The Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES) faculty has decided to focus on one Core Instructional Practice all year and to dig deeper and study it in detail. We decided that we want to learn as much as we can about Adjusting Instruction which is defined as:
“Teachers adjusting instruction based on formative assessment so students can progress consistently toward meeting the performance indicators.”
In layman’s terms, this means that as they are teaching, teachers change what they are doing as they observe the children’s level of understanding.
Narrowing our Focus to Yield Greater Results We are going to share ideas and current practices with each other because as the adage goes, “None of us is as smart as all of us.” This will benefit the veteran and the teacher in the early stages of their career as we can all learn from one another.
In a similar fashion, we will sink our teeth into some research through reading/discussing articles about responding to formative assessment, watching videos of master teachers at work and analyzing them, visiting and observing each other at work to learn new skills and ideas. Michael Eppolito, the Curriculum Director, has offered to help us as well. He will be a tremendous resource – just his website alone is a treasure trove of research, blogs, videos, and deep thinking.
Adjusting instruction is something that effective teachers do naturally all day long, but, with it as our intentional focus – driving ourselves to get better and better at it, we are going to pinpoint areas in our curriculum where we can ramp up the rigor and refine our practice which will have a positive impact on learning and student achievement. This practice will also be the focus of our school-wide Continuous Improvement Plan.
This leads, naturally, into the MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) plan. We define MTSS as follows:
Two Rivers Supervisory Union infrastructure and system of supports is designed to provide excellent universal proficiency-based instruction targeted supplemental instruction for students with skill and understanding gaps, and intensive, focused intervention for students with significant need.
We are just beginning this process at the two levels in the building – primary and intermediate.
The primary teachers will be identifying the areas of need for students in the area of guided reading and will deliver direct instruction to students with the help of paraeducators, special educators and the Title I teacher. This is very exciting for us all.
The upper-grade teachers deliver universal instruction to the children in the areas of reading and mathematics based on data so that the child is already receiving targeted instruction as a daily dose. What we will be adding this year is the regular progress monitoring so teachers can be even more responsive to the child’s progress. Exciting times ahead!
Deb Beaupre Cavendish Town Elementary School Principal
This past school year, Mount Holly
students and staff worked towards making shifts in how we teach and learn to
become much more proficiency based and personalized. Two major areas that we have focused
on include student-led conferences and celebrations of learning.
While students in some of the older grade levels have had
student-led conferences in the past, this was the first year that students in
Pre-K through grade six have all had student-led conferences. It was truly amazing to see students
throughout the entire school plan and lead their own conferences. Students
selected work to share with their parents that was evidence of their learning and
presented data that demonstrated growth in key areas. The ownership that students showed was
clearly evident even in our youngest learners.
At the end of
the school year in June, we organized a school wide celebration of learning in
which all of the students shared various aspects of their learning. Students carefully selected and
presented a wide range of evidence of their learning. The pride students showed was
inspiring, and parents were impressed with the quality of students’ work. In the coming school year we will be
building on this work to develop a more comprehensive portfolio system and
personalized learning plans.
Two Rivers Supervisory Union Blog 