fresh air - Quaboag Current

PAGE 10 A Turley Publication • www.turley.com I Thursday, February 9, 2012
– education –
Comedy Dessert
Café set to open
SPENCER - On Friday Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. and
Sunday afternoon, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m., SPOT-
LIGHTS will be performing two one act plays at
David Prouty High School. Box offi ce is a comedy
that involves a wide range of crazy characters
who demonstrate more drama in the lobby than
there is on stage. The second selection is Match
(dot) Comedy by Bradley Haywood. In this entertaining
performance a young man proposes to
his girlfriend at a fancy restaurant but immediately
gets cold feet and using his I-pod, posts an
advertisement on a dating site. An array of female
singles arrives at the restaurant, where Trevor sits
with his new fi ancé, and the restaurant transforms
to a speed dating introduction hall.
Tickets will be sold at the door and the entry
cost is $5. Desserts and beverages can be purchased
at additional cost and will be served in a
café style atmosphere.
Come support the arts and enjoy a fun night
of comedy.
We are also looking for a few adult volunteers
to help with make-up, tickets, and food sales. If
interested Please contact send a quick e-mail to
Mrs. Rubino at rubinok@sebrsd.org
Quaboag Regional Happenings
• CONGRATULATIONS to Thomas Jankins,
Class of 2013, who scored his 1,000th career point
(with a 3-pointer!) as a member of the Quaboag boys
varsity basketball team last week against Leicester
High School. Tom, who is currently the third highest
scorer in Central Massachusetts with 21.9 ppg, joins a
select group of a dozen male and female athletes who
have scored at least 1,000 points for Quaboag – the
most recent are Tom Baker (’04-‘05 season) and Sam
McCann (‘10-’11 season).
• CONGRATULATIONS to our varsity math
team on their outstanding performance at the January
25th WOCOMAL league meet at Bartlett High
School! The Quaboag math team is now ranked third
in all of Division C, close behind league leaders Grafton
and Worcester North.
When you buy from a small mom or
pop business, you are not helping
a CEO buy a third vacation home.
You are helping a little girl
get dance lessons, a little boy
get his team jersey,
a mom or dad put food
on the table,
a family pay a mortgage,
or a student pay for college.
Our customers are
our shareholders and
they are the ones we strive
to make happy.
Thank You For Supporting
SMALL BUSINESSES!
WBES Reading Coach Nicole Guimond works with fi rst grade students Gabriel Paquette and Thatcher Atwood.
By Melissa Fales
Reporter
– WEST BROOKFIELD –
For the past six years, Nicole Guimond has been
a reading coach at West Brookfi eld Elementary
School. Guimond said many people don’t understand
the role of the reading coach and how she contributes
to the overall success of the school. “I work
very closely with the teachers at all grade levels to get
the best practices into the classroom,” she said.
Guimond has a Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education
from Fitchburg State. She earned a Master’s
Degree in Reading from American International College
and is a certifi ed reading specialist. Her all-time
favorite book is “They Cage the Animals at Night” by
Jennings Michael Burch, but her favorite book to read
to her young son is “Guess How Much I Love You,” by
Sam McBratney.
Guimond has been at WBES for a total of 11 years
and started as a special education teacher. She transitioned
into a reading coach when the school entered
into a partnership with the Bay State Reading Institute
(BSRI), a non-profi t educational group based in Holliston
that aims to help schools improve literacy.
According to Guimond, the partnership helps
WBES stay on top of what is happening in the world of
education. “BSRI has access to the latest information
on education from the state and the country,” said Guimond.
BSRI provides professional development for the
instructional coaches like Guimond, who then share the
information they have learned with the teachers at their
school. “It’s a real benefi t to be working with BSRI because
they have so many tools and strategies that we’ve
never thought of before,” said Guimond. “It’s exciting
to bring something new back to the teachers and to be
able to show them something different.”
One of Guimond’s roles as a coach is reviewing the
student data in terms of achievement. “We look at their
individual assessments as well as class assessments,”
she said. “There are lots of different dynamics and
the data changes every year.” Guimond said she and
WBES teachers use this data to determine a goal at the
beginning of each school year “We talk about where we
are and where we want to be,” she said. “This year we
focused on writing,” she said.
Before the school started using a reading coach,
Guimond said the teachers were somewhat isolated in
terms of planning their lessons. “There wasn’t a lot of
data used to guide instruction and intervention,” said
Guimond. Now, instruction is based on where the students
are academically and Guimond is able to offer
strategies and practices to make that instruction more
successful. “We use the data to plan lessons then I
model a lesson in the classroom,” said Guimond. “The
teachers use the information to work with their students.
Then we meet again to discuss how it’s going.”
As an example of a practice she helped institute,
TURLEY PUBLICATIONS PHOTO BY MELISSA FALES
Reading is her life
West Brookfi eld teacher helps kids with literacy
Guimond mentioned reciprocal teaching in a fi rst-grade
classroom where students are reading and discussing
what they read in small groups. “We walked through all
the steps together fi rst,” said Guimond. “We discussed
the procedures to follow. Now, on a regular basis they
facilitate their own discussion group.”
Guimond said in order to teach each other, students
truly have to understand the material. “It demonstrates
competency,” she said. “The best way to learn something
is to teach it.” Guimond said she’s seen positive
results from the practice. “It helps encourage them
to develop their language and vocabulary skills,” she
said. “They learn how to problem solve within their
own group. Reciprocal teaching is one of those strategies
that people didn’t use years ago, but studies have
shown the benefi ts, and we’ve seen them fi rsthand.”
Before the partnership with BSI, Guimond said all
the students in one classroom received the same instruction.
“The whole class heard the lesson and the
students either understood it or they didn’t,” said Guimond.
Now, one of Guimond’s main responsibilities is
to work with teachers to identify students who might
need different instruction or more intervention in order
to get caught up with the curriculum. “I suggest specifi
c goals and ways to help a student get where he or
she needs to be,” she said. “Now, we have kids leaving
the classroom in fl exible groups so we can work with
each student according to their needs. We give them a
blitz of extra support to catch them up to speed so they
can go back in that classroom and be ready.”
Guimond used Kindergarten as one example of
when interventions are extremely common. “The students
come in at such different levels,” she said.
Guimond said her role at the school is unique in that
she works with the teachers as well as with the students.
“The two groups are very different,” she said.
“You have to switch gears.” Since she works at all grade
levels, she not only has the privilege of knowing all of
the teachers, but also all of the students in the building.
“We track them from year to year,” she said. “I get to
know their histories. I watch their progress. That’s very
exciting for me, and very rewarding.”
Guimond acknowledged that at fi rst, she faced some
resistance to the new methods she was introducing. Not
all veteran teachers were open to new methods, especially
coming from a young teacher. “Education is a constantly
changing and evolving fi eld,” said Guimond. “Initially,
some teachers were set in their ways. However, when
the educational model changes, you have to be on board.
It’s about doing what’s best for the students.”
Over the course of her six years in the role, Guimond
said the teachers have learned to not only trust
her and the information she’s offering, but to seek her
out for her assistance. “I get excited when a teacher
comes to me and asks for help,” she said. “They might
be doing a fi ne job, but they want to get even better.
Being able to help them improve and meet their own
goals is a great feeling.”