April 23 - Welcome Back

PA students at the annual Youth Rally in Montpelier the week prior to break. 

As we launch into the final stretch of the school year, I want to again thank you for your patience and diligence as we work through our various transitions toward a cohesive PBL system. But, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Lots of time still remains for tons of learning and memories. Thus, as you prepare and plan for the next 8 weeks, please do what you can to help make targets, expectations, and progress as clear as possible to students. As we work to help students finish the year successfully, it is important that students know where and how to see their progress and current standing. This has been hard for all of us this year. The activity that you did in our last Best Practice and the activity that we are doing in TA this week will help. The activity that we do in TA will also help you when checking in with your advisees.

TA this week :

    Tuesday (4/24): Mastery Report Activity (We will review this during Best Practice on 4/23)

    Friday (4/27): On your own - Academic Check in

This week's links: 

Thanks for your work during our March in-service on the Performance Level Descriptors. These are the descriptors that exist on the Mastery Report Cover Page.  Val's most recent post in Learning Spaces explains the follow up work undertaken by Curriculum Council and the LSSU Administration. The link below takes you back to her post and the new work. Please take a look at the final draft and let us know if you have any feedback. Thanks.

          Performance Level Descriptors, revisited

For your planning purposes, please click the link below for deadlines, etc for end of the year reporting. Please keep in mind that senior grades are due earlier than other student's grades. If you have a senior that you are concerned may not pass your class, please let guidance know ASAP. For the remaining weeks it will be helpful and important for you to complete any grading steps as soon as you can. (See timeline below)

            Quarter 4 Timeline for Reporting

Finally, check out this quick read on 'Learning Labs' - a new development of Bill Rich and Susan Hennessey featuring visiting the classrooms of other teachers. Sam Nelson's classroom is featured in the article, which is written by Bill Rich. Other PAML teachers are also mentioned.




Upcoming Events:

4/23 - Best Practice
   - Mastery View TA Activity, Performance Levels
4/25-27 - FYI - PHIL OUT *
5/3 - NHS Induction  7pm
5/5 - SAT exam off campus
5/9 - AP Lit Exam
5/11 - AP Art Exam
5/14 - AP Biology Exam
5/15 - AP Calculus Exam
6/14 - Last Chapel
6/14 - Graduation Date Set
6/15 - Last day of School - Make up Exams
6/19 - Wendesday - Projected Curriculum Camp Start
8/20 - AUGUST IN- SERVICE begins

* Aidan Lodge and I were invited to speak at a national 'Youth Activation Summit' in San Francisco....at Facebook Headquarters. We will be part of the UP for Learning team, which also includes Helen Beattie. It's still a bit unclear what we will be doing, but I'm sure we'll have something good to report upon return. Don't worry, I will not share your personal information with any FB employees.

Curriculum Camp Update

It is looking like curriculum camp will take place at Stowe Wed - Fri (6/20-22). I am hoping that will have the opportunity to pay licensed teachers to work on school specific initiatives/needs on Tuesday 6/19. Below I have outllined the final dates of the year for you.

      6/14 - Graduation Date Set
      6/15 - Last day of School - Make up Exams
      6/19 - Potential OPTIONAL Paid Work day at PA on school needs for next year
      6/20-22 - Curriculum Camp at Stowe

Schoolwide Happenings: 

Beginning Spanish just finished a culture unit on Latin American food. They created menus and celebrated by preparing homemade corn tortillas, churros and a rice drink called "horchata".

Hallway 1:1 during Vt History class

Brother Kennedy and Florence who founded a school in Nairobi, Kenya for homeless children, where they can live, eat and learn called the St. Charles Lwanga School visited Peoples Academy Middle and High Schools on Thursday. They visited Erin Fishell who with a few other students raised money to pay for 36 students at the school to take their state exams. Many of those students were allowed to access higher education because the fee was paid for their exams. The school is looking to create partnerships with Vermont schools and they are hoping to partner with PAHS and PAML classes via Skype next year. 

Kennedy and Florence also presented and held a question and answer session with the 5th and 6th grade teams. The students were really well prepared and asked great questions. 

Digging into 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in 9th grade English.

Taking in the Italian architecture

Pictured here are students who are part of the Stowe/PA team that visited China during break. This team is working to build a relationship with schools in China. Two PA students, two Stowe students and several educators including Kate Toland and Tracy Wrend from across LSSU attended the trip. Kate and the PA students are part of the PA World Culture Club.

Stowe and PA are beginning to join forces to expand the Chinese Program from Stowe to PA. This is an LSSU wide initiative in partnership with Spiral International and Middlebury College. This effort aims to increase Chinese and broader cultural immersion into all 7 LSSU schools. We are working toward having a Chinese intern at PA and Stowe high schools next year and hopefully a few Chinese exchange students at PA by next winter or fall of 2019. 

Celebrations:

5 PA students had their art work selected for the Congressional Art Show taking place at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, May 8-14. The students whose work will be displayed are Faye Hannigan, Aidan Lodge, Shawna Beattie, Rachel Zmich, and Caroline Merriam. These students will be recognized at an Awards Ceremony and Reception at the college on the 14th. Select student work will advance and be displayed for a calendar year at the US Capital Building in Washington, DC.


Congrats to Sierra Graves, Bryce Noel, and Tyler Dunham-Metoyer who were selected to be th ambassadors representing PA and JSC Upward Bound at the JFK Student Leadership Conference in Boston, MA on April 18th.

Great Job Ellie! Thanks to Carrie for helping to orchestrate the visit from “Sound Check’ . As a reminder, Sound Check is a band of Vermont high school musicians, singers, rappers & poets whose aim is to fight for social justice. 9th grader Ellie Autorino (on guitar) is a member of this band. This select group of students will work with music educators, prominent singer-songwriters and anti-racist educators to develop original material that tackles racism, injustice and hate.  The band will regularly perform and facilitate workshops at VT schools using art and music as a catalyst to spark dialogue, action and awareness.