Educating Our Eagles - Issue Nine

Educating
our Eagles
9
SUMMER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUE

From SBRSD’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Julie Dolan
Welcome Back!
We are pleased to be starting the second year of our publication, Educating Our
Eagles! This was created to give families and community members a lens into our
classrooms. However, it occurred to us that many people are not aware of all the work
and continuing education our teachers do each summer. So, this issue is going to
focus on all the amazing opportunities teachers participated in over the summer.
Our future issues will focus on all the wonderful things happening in our schools.
We continue to see growth in our math scores because of our new math program and
we are currently looking at new reading programs for the Elementary Schools. We
implemented a new reading program in middle school at the beginning of the year
that offers many supports to help us better meet the needs of all students. In other
exciting news, the Elementary Schools are going to be starting a Community Read
Aloud Program this year. This will bring community members into classrooms four
times a year to read to the students and gift the book read to the class. We are pleased
to have the opportunity to allow people into our buildings again.
We are thrilled to announce the start of our Early College program with Bard College
at Simon’s Rock. This collaboration was made possible through a grant from the state.
After many years and countless hours of applying for the grant Mt. Everett was given
this award, a grant to support the implementation of a wall-to-wall Early College High
School. This means that all students at Mt. Everett will be exposed to college classes
and have the opportunity to graduate from high school with up to 30 transferable
college credit hours. These college credits will be earned in conjunction with the High
School graduation requirements at no cost to our families.
Please be looking in your mail for a newsletter that will be coming from the School
Committee that will talk about these programs and many others.
Here’s to a great school year!
CONTENTS
National Endowment for the Humanities: LANDMARK SERIES - pages 4-12
Additional Summer work - pages 13-14
Cover: Mount Everett middle school students participated in team-building exercises during their first Field Day.
Right: Mr. Wolgemuth participated in a summer National Endowment for the Humanities workshop.
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NEH LANDMARK SERIES
This summer I participated in the NEH Landmarks series:
Living on the Edge of Empire: Alliance, Conflict, and
Captivity in Colonial New England which took place in
Deerfield, MA. Each day different scholars and experts
presented lectures and workshops from multiple perspectives:
settler, indigenous, and scientific. There was a wealth of
new information that I was able to cross-reference with
local research regarding the Mohican People. So much was
intriguing to me, especially regarding intertribal relationships
pre and post contact as well as colonial alliances. The learning
is currently being applied to a county-wide collaborative arts
integration project, which will be unveiled on Indigenous
Peoples' Day in October.
STEPHANIE GRAHAM
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NEH LANDMARK SERIES
This summer, Mount Everett English teacher Kevin Wolgemuth
participated in a two-week Institute run by the National
Endowment for the Humanities. Under the direction of professors,
experts and Indigenous community leaders from throughout New
England, twenty K-12 educators from across the country examined
historical documents, maps, oral traditions and artifacts through
several perspectives including archaeological, cultural, literary,
topographical/geographical and political. Focusing particularly
on Mourt's Relation, an obscure 1622 English collection of
writings recounting the early years at Plymouth, teachers engaged
in extensive close readings and discussions toward decolonizing
historical narratives. Tours included visits to Mayflower II,
Plymouth, Provincetown and local areas to "walk the steps" and
first encounters of Indigenous peoples and English settlers.
KEVIN WOLGEMUTH
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NEH LANMARK SERIES
This summer I was lucky enough to join colleagues from all over the country in
Deerfield, MA for a NEH sponsored weeklong workshop Living on the Edge of
the Empire. This was an intensive and immersive program located at the Deerfield
Teacher’s Center of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association. Throughout the week
we explored the time surrounding the 1704 Raid on Deerfield. We explored the many
narratives that came from the unique experience of the raid. We discussed how the
agreements between the Abnaki and Mohawk tribes were understood by both parties in
diverse ways. The French settlers from Canada knew this and formed an alliance with
the Abnaki, Mohawk, and Huron tribes. This led to the surprise raid in February of that
year and when the settlers were captured their lives often changed forever.
During the workshop I was able to design a lesson that explored origin stories from
tribes throughout North America. The unit is launched by learning about how the
Pioneer River valley is explained through Abnaki legend. Students then explore the
landforms surrounding our area and connect to the many tribes that still exist in
North America. Our class will also be joining many schools in Berkshire County in the
Hexagon Project, through Stepanie Graham, where students are creating artwork that
will illustrate the idea of connection.
This workshop was a fantastic way to connect with colleagues throughout the country.
Being able to develop friendships and connections with teachers across the country is a
fantastic way to enrich our own schools and I am grateful I was able to be a part of the
program.
JANE SCHUR
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NEH LANMARK SERIES
Joanne Duval (Resource room 7/8) completed a two-week special development
workshop funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The institute,
“Pandemics in History, Literature and Today” featured an interdisciplinary team of
University of Arkansas professors, medical, and community experts who worked with
participants on the 1918 influenza pandemic to consider how to integrate these lessons
into history, science, and literature curricula. We learned about the history of the 1918
flu, read novels, discussed poetry, and examined artwork and music. Additionally, we
were led through exercises on contagion, disease transfer, and virology using interactive
teaching. Participants examined oral histories of COVID collected by the University of
Arkansas and finally spent time at the Pryor Center learning how to create oral history
projects with students and develop grade-appropriate historical and interdisciplinary
lesson plans. After hours, we stayed in University of Arkansas housing and explored the
Northwest Arkansas Region- from Crystal Bridge Art Museum, the Cherokee Nations,
and the wide choice of food offerings!
JOANNE DUVAL
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SUMMER WORK
Elyse Mercier (Mt. Everett Special Education)
completed a class called Foundations of
Restorative Practices which starts her work
towards a graduate certificate in Restorative
Practices through the Internation Institute
for Restorative Practices. The course focused
on the foundations of restorative practices
as an evolving field of study, explored the
emotional, relational, and ecological theories
underpinning restorative principles, and
the importance of engaging with others in
equity-oriented relationships.
Kari Giordano (Mt. Everett Art) completed
a course called Photographic Sustainable
Strategies through Falmouth University.
The course focused on the methods and
approaches we use to produce photographic
work and how we carry those out responsibly
for a shared future.
Victoria Aldam (Mt. Everett English)
completed a Masters of English through
Southern New Hampshire University. The
program focused on both creative and
communication skills and covered a myriad
of historic and contemporary topics in
literature. The program culminated in a
thesis paper that Victoria wrote about how
Shakespeare used his feminine characters as
catalysts throughout each of his three famous
tragedies: Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth.
Sarah Cooke (South Egremont School)
earned a Certificate of Advanced Graduate
Study with MCLA this summer.
Neal Barbieri (Mt. Everett Mathematics)
completed a graduate course called
Mathematical Modelling for Educators
through MCLA. The course was designed
for K-12 educators who are already
teaching mathematics but want to support
their pedagogy by incorporating real-life
mathematical modelling projects. The course
explored the tools necessary to create and
adapt modelling projects, keeping in mind
the current best practices in assessment and
transparency, with a focus on writing and
coding in mathematics.
Ashley Barrett (UME Third Grade)
completed a course called CORE's Reading
Fundamentals training through the Mass
Literacy: Open Access Professional Learning
(OAPL) initiative. The course focused on
the foundational concepts of the science of
reading for all grade levels, covering the early
grade basics as well as adolescent literacy and
high-leverage intervention topics.
Tanya Michaud attended a weeklong EPI
(Ecology Project International) course, in
the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Science
educators from all over the U.S. came
together to work with researchers to learn
about the conservation efforts made for
local amphibians, buffalo, pronghorns, and
wolf populations. We created NGSS-aligned
lessons using the 5E Learning Cycle model.
More importantly, we had the opportunity
to put on waders and survey ponds for
amphibian life, walk within proximity of the
buffalo, and hear the wolves howl and the
baby elk bellow!
Mr. Maier took the secondary MTEL exam
to qualify for Massachusetts State Teacher
Certification and passed it, even though,
through no fault of his own, he wasn’t given
sufficient time to complete the exam!
Elizabeth Petty (Music) completed two
courses over the summer focusing on English
Language Learners and Visual-Spatial
Learners.
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