May 8 - Thank You!! & M3 / CSR

Thanks for you hard, thoughtful, and persistent work with students, parents, LSSU colleagues, community members and each other. Your jobs are far more challenging and taxing than most people realize. I appreciate the grace, patience, and excellence that you exhibit. You are an inspiring bunch. Thanks!!

1. Opportunity (*M3), Update and this week's links:
During goals meetings, I was able to describe in some part to may of you a TA curriculum called M3: Mindset, Metacognition, and Motivation, designed by Up for Learning. I am very excited for the potential of this work helping both students and us to understand how new research can explain how our brain works and connections to our PBL transition. The goal of M3 is to:

   "Introduce the concepts mindsets and metacognition (learning about learning), coupled with sharing     effective learning strategies, so that all student believe in their capacity to learn and are empowered     with both the skills and strategies that fuel motivation and academic success."  This work matters!  

Furthermore, M3 strives to 'create a culture shift in schools that supports student engagement and self-efficacy, builds intrinsic motivation, and fosters a growth mindset for educators and students.' By design, M3 is a process that trains students to educate other students. It also comes with handy tools and strategies for teachers. Simply put, M3 develops students leaders who will help to implement the program and provide teachers with classroom support.

On this note, I am looking for 1-2 teachers who would become 'adult team members supporting the youth facilitators' with logistics. You would not be required to develop or deliver curriculum. There are 2 team workshop days in the fall and 1 in the winter  where your role would primarily be to work with and help with the students (dates are already set). There is graduate credit available for the work. (Ignore the dates in the flyer, PA has it's own training dates. We are  getting special treatment!)

Finally, you may be wondering how we will decide on the student facilitators. Once we have the teachers in place, we will start to recruit one student per TA to help lead the work. Appropriate students would be those who demonstrate responsibility, confidence in speaking and self, and are respected by others in their TA. Personally, I think considering students who will be in 10th or 11th grade next year is where to start out search.
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2. And, next year we will also be working with Up for Learning as part of an initiative called *CSR (Communicating School Redesign). The goal with CSR is to increase, improve, and implement communication with students, parents, and our school community on school redesign (Act 77, PBL, etc). We need 'an ambitious communications approach to build public understanding and support for our changes.' CSR will help us with this work. In short, CSR trains students and adults to lead dialogues within their communities on school topics.

*CSR requires an additional (but different than M3) 4-5 student facilitators and 3-4 adults. These students need to be different than those who become M3 facilitators. These students should be in 10-11th grade next year, strong communicators, and highly responsible. (We will identify these students later in the Spring or early fall) The CSR work begins with 2 training days in Mid-September and community engagement starts in November. Graduate credit is also available for this work.

*Please see Phil if you are interested being one of the adult support people for M3 or CSR. Graduate Credit will likely be paid via LSSU. 

*Stowe HS (& to a lesser degree PAML and Stowe ML) is also participating in M3 and CSR next year. This will provide for robust cross district collaboration, conversation, learning and growth.
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3. By the way, if you want to see what student led public community dialogue looks and feels like, we have an opportunity for you THIS WEEK! Students from Kate and Marc's Socrates Cafe class (along with students from Harwood) will be leading a community dialogue on Wednesday, May 10 at the Waterbury Public Library. (See this Press Release for more details)





Calendar

One more AP EXAM: Tuesday...
May 9 - all morning AP Calc
5/8 - Best Practice: Scholarly Habits and TA

Prom...coming soon to a barn near you!

                   BEST PRACTICE AGENDA
5/10 - Socrates Cafe - Waterbury Library 6:30
5/12 - **Cultivating Pathways Workshop 10-2pm at PA
512 - Final Dance Team Performance 7pm
5/19 - PA Service Day in the AM and Spring Fling in the Afternoon
6/1 - Senior Trip
6/15 - Last Chapel & Graduation
6/15 - Project Grad - FYI: if you volunteer for Project Grad, you DO NOT need to attend school on Friday 6/16, unless you have stuff that needs to be turned into guidance, etc. 
6/16 - Last day of School
6/19-22 - Curriculum Camp Rocks!!

** Cultivating Pathways is a group of about 40 students and adults who are exploring ways to showcase and learn about sustainability projects and ideas from across the state. They will be in the building between 10-2pm on Friday visiting PAML and PA. They will be sharing the work they started in the fall. They will be moving back and forth between the auditorium and cafe throughout the day (see below). There will be a TA announcement with these details and a reminder for all of us to be our welcoming selves. For more information, please see Kate Toland.

10:00-10:30 - cafe
10:30-12:55 - Aud
12:55-1:30/45 - Cafe
1:30/45-2:00 - Aud


Upcoming TA
TUESDAY                                                              FRIDAY                          
5/9 -  SH evidence collection                     5/12 -  SH evidence collection
5/16 - 8-9th grade Step up                             5/19 - SPRING FLING
5/23 - Community Meeting                              5/26 - TBD - PBL related
5/30 - Last week of TA - FREE                           6/2 - FREE - LAST TA
                        ** Yearbook Dedication somewhere in here....****
6/6 - No TA                                                             6/9 - NO TA

School Happenings: 

Visions from 'Lord of the Flies'.

An exchange farewell. 

Columbus on Trial in US History - with a PAML jury. 

Blowing up bridges - so much fun!

PA, Stowe HS and LUHS- 3 schools 1 team (sort of). 

Officer Reeves talking drugs & alcohol in Health class

Try A Major Day

Celebrations:

Congratulations to Jacob Walker who won the 2017 Vermont Maple Festival Ambassador Scholarship.  

After making a presentation and answering questions posed by the awards committee, Jacob was chosen to represent the Vermont Maple industry at functions throughout Vermont and New England for one year. A $2000 scholarship, donated by Vermont Maple Sugarmakers Association and The Vermont Maple Festival was awarded. This Scholarship competition is open to any Vermont student ages 16-21. The candidate does not have to come from a sugaring family but they must have knowledge and experience about maple sugaring. The Vermont Maple Ambassadors promote, publicize, and educate the public with their maple knowledge. They take part in Fairs, Festivals, Field Days, and are in attendance at most significant events where maple is a part of the occasion. The Vermont Building at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Massachusetts is one of the places where the Maple Ambassador will frequently play host and hostess.

Being chosen as a Vermont Maple Ambassador, and taking part in the activities throughout the year, is an experience that provides memories for a lifetime.

Happy Birthday: Michele Walker (5/10), Jeff Brynn (5/11)