January 4 - Happy New Year
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| How many teenagers does it take to pop a balloon!? |
Welcome back. I hope that your first few days are going well. Speaking of first days, if you haven't stopped by the art room and met Sarah Hewitt....please do so. She is Averill's long term substitute, lives in Morrisville, and is working on her teaching degree. Welcome Sarah....(we'll do something more formal at our next Best Practice, which isn't for awhile....) By the way, if you don't already know, Leah Peterson (sub extraordinaire) is taking over for Lesley when she goes out on maternity leave. Well, partly, Rita is also taking one of Lesley's Chemistry classes. Thank you Rita!
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| It's starting to look like winter again.... |
I NEED Your HELP:
I am beginning to draft an introduction to the PA Family Communication for February. Can you please share with me any work you have done this year, or will be doing, that is related to Black History and/or Equity. Please indicate if you are doing anything specifically during February. Please share here
THANK YOU:
Thank you for all of the helpful feedback you provided in the numerous surveys that you completed in December. You will (or have) be hearing back from 'us'. See below for next steps with each survey:
Flextime - See response below (it's repeated from the previous notes)
Schedule - Leadership and Schedule committees are currently reviewing your feedback & will report to you during Best Practice on 1/22 with more details. For the time being, here's where we are at:
- We got your feedback, lots of great questions and ideas
- We will provide a Q & A based on the above on 1/22
- We are going to 'test' what a 7 period schedule might look like
- This test is a trial, it's a way for us to evaluate the potential impact of this schedule change
- In order to do the 'test' in a timely manner, we are going to start the scheduling process sooner; look for a program of studies from Sheila
If you questions in the meantime, the following people can probably help answer them.....Carrie, Matt Yosko, Phil, Sheila, Trevor.
Conference - Leadership Team is reviewing your feedback and will report by or before 1/22- anticipate some changes to conferences (mostly related to timing) in March.
EST - this committee is consolidating your questions and ideas and will present a response, including next steps, at our Best Practice on 1/29 and/or potentially in-service on 2/2.
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Quote of the Week:
'Creativity has to start somewhere, and we are true believers in the power of bracing, candid feedback, and the iterative process - reworking, reworking, and reworking again until a flawed story finds its through line or a hollow character finds its soul.' - Edwin Catmull (Pixar)
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This week's Link
Normalizing Hate On-Line
- How to help teen Jan 29
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Updates/Reminders:
1. January Assessment Schedule
- Friday, 1/19, 1pm Staff meeting - 10-15m Securly Training
In case you missed it....
4. Default Flex Update: Based on your feedback, we will not be moving to a default flextime schedule for the second semester. Thank you for your thoughtful feedback.
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Calendar
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Links to activities and scripts for TA this week:
Tuesday (1/9): Flex sign up; Announcements
Friday (1/12): Flex sign up; Announcements
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Schoolwide Happenings:
Jess Graham's tenth-grade American Literature students embarked on a journey to discover the geological and human history of our local region. The unit was adapted from a lesson originally created by Dorienne Cedeno.
Students were challenged to read a variety of informational texts, to conduct their own research, to interpret graphics and maps, to piece together essays from their research, and then to turn those informational essays into palatable podcasts or video presentations. Check out these awesome examples.
Celebrations:
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| Built to break....well, actually built to last, but hopefully you get it. |
PA students to compete at the Concordia University Bridge Building Competition
I am pleased to share with you that four of our high school students have been invited to participate in a two-day bridge-building competition at Concordia University in Montreal. This event, scheduled for the end of February 2024, is a great opportunity for our students to compete with over 300 engineering students from colleges and universities across Canada. Notably, our school is the first high school to be invited.
The four students (Gigi Calhoun, Phoenix Masten, Lucy Nigro, and Gabby Schaffer) have been working on their bridge since September 2022 and decided in June 2023 that they would enjoy the challenge of competing against college students in Montreal instead of high school students at the competition in Vermont. While similar in many ways, the event in Montreal is much more competitive and judged more strictly than the bridge building event at VTC. As in past competitions, the bridge going to the competition at Concordia will be made entirely of popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. While our students definitely will be the youngest and least experienced participants, they are detail-oriented builders and excellent presenters and plan to not be last in at least one competition category.
For more info about the event go to https://troitsky.ca/
Thank you for supporting those students in any way you can. They truly appreciate this unique opportunity and having the time to complete such a challenging project.
Happy Birthday
Liz Sanner Jan. 11
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