The Facts about Field Trips

by Lynn K. McMullin

        Field trips cost money! When your family has two or more permission slips sitting on the counter and the checks need to be written, the tempting question is, “Are field trips really worth it?”   The answer is a qualified ‘yes.’  Yes, if they are planned with a clear-cut purpose and follow research-based principles.
        I remember as a 6th grader going to Old Newgate Prison in East Granby.  I vividly remember climbing down a ladder to the underground caverns and then experiencing the slimy, wet walls and lightless holes where prisoners were kept.  I remember the docent telling us that a prisoner, over the course of many years, had worn away a small bowl to hold water in the rock to which he was chained.  My feelings about the inhumanity of the place have never left me.
        My memories, and maybe some of your own, remind us that field trips are definitely worth it when they are experience driven, rather than information driven, and when they involve multi-sensory learning rather than language-based learning.  In other words, if kids get to see it, touch it, manipulate it, hear it, taste it, and talk about it, rather than read about it from a placard, field trips are well worth the cost in dollars and classroom time. 

What is the perfect field trip?
        Experiences that cannot be replicated in the classroom head the list of ‘perfect’ field trips.  I don’t want to throw a lot of research at you, but one study stands for many others: kindergartners who attended an interactive science museum had specific and accurate memories of the field trip for more than a year after it occurred (Wolins et al., 1992).  The study revealed that the teachers had used a high degree of anticipation – in other words, they got the kids excited before they went!   And a high degree of summary – they talked about, replicated, or play-acted the experiences at the museum for several days after their return.  The teachers had also capitalized on the social nature of the trip – they formed color-coded teams, they put friends together, they had students hold hands, they took photos, and so on.  It’s a juggling act – great field trips enable students to socialize about learning and yet still have a high degree of personal, independent involvement in the activities.  Follow-up review activities are another essential.
        Two of the “favorite” Canton field trips are detailed below.  Both of these trips show up in our students’ senior yearbook memories and graduation speeches.  Nature’s Classroom, a Grade 6 trip, marks for many students the first time they are away from home “on their own.” Washington, DC, in the 8th grade is a remarkable adventure, both socially and educationally symbolizing for many students a Canton ‘rite of passage.’

Nature’s Classroom
        CIS students have been attending Nature's Classroom for over 20 years with great success.  In a week-long adventure (5 days, 4 nights), they learn a variety of subjects – maps, compasses, orienteering, bridge-building, storytelling, Native American games and crafts, dissection, weather, etc. -- through hands-on explorations and activities.  By living and learning together, Nature’s Classroom also develops community awareness, social responsibility, independence, and self-confidence.  Usually, Nature’s Classroom is held on the property of Camp Jewel in Colebrook, Connecticut; but this spring, from May 3 to May 7, the students are travelling to Camp Beckett in Beckett, Massachusetts.  In the fall of 2010, Nature’s Classroom will be returning to Colebrook.

Washington, D.C.
        The Washington, D.C., trip has traditionally proven extremely popular with students and the learning experiences are closely related to the 8th , 9th, and 10th grade social studies curriculum.  One of the themes in the 8th and 9th grade courses in Western Civilization is the development of western democratic institutions.  A trip to Washington, D.C., brings to life the culmination of ideas and experiences which began thousands of years ago by Greeks, Romans, and many others in the long history of civilization.  In addition, the English, math and science teachers on the 8th grade teams incorporate ideas and concepts about Washington, government, and travel into their lessons prior to the trip.  But, aside from these important intellectual pursuits, the personal memories of this independent travel experience, embarked on together with classmates, will stay with the students for many years to come.

The Annual Town Budget Meeting Needs You!

by Lynn K. McMullin

On Thursday, April 15th, at its 4:00 p.m. meeting, the Board of Finance accepted the Board of Education’s and the Board of Selectman’s budgets.

What Happens Next?
Following a newsletter communication in the next week or so, the town will hold its Annual Town Budget Meeting on Monday, May 10th, at 7:30 p.m. in the High School Auditorium. This is a particularly significant town meeting this year in that, due to the new charter revision, 150 voting residents at the meeting will constitute a quorum and if 150 attend a vote on the budget will be taken that night.  If fewer than 150 residents attend the meeting, the budget will automatically go to a referendum which will be scheduled for a date within 2 weeks.  Since referendums cost the town additional money, it’s in Canton's best interests that residents come out 'in droves' to vote at the May 10th meeting.

I found it interesting reading, and since many people haven’t seen it yet, I’m including the relevant portion of actual Charter Revision here:
A. Date and Quorum Requirement – An Annual Budget Meeting to vote on the Town budget recommended by the Board of Finance shall be held at a time and date during the month of May determined by the Board of Finance. The presence of one hundred fifty (150) Voters as determined by the Registrars of Voters immediately prior to taking the vote shall be required to constitute a quorum.

B. Approval by Town Meeting – By vote at the Annual Budget Meeting, any appropriation or item in an appropriation may be decreased or deleted, but no appropriation or item in an appropriation may be increased or added. The vote on the budget shall be by secret ballot. In the event that the budget is not approved by vote of a majority of persons qualified to vote at an Annual Budget Meeting at which a quorum is present, then the budget shall be returned to the Board of Finance for review, adjustment and revision and the Annual Budget Meeting shall be adjourned to a date not later than twenty-one (21) days subsequent thereto, to be set by the Board of Finance. The Board of Finance shall then present the budget to the adjourned Annual Budget Meeting in accordance with this Section of the Charter and, if necessary, the process set forth in this Section shall be repeated until a budget is approved.

C. Provision for Referendum – In the event that a quorum shall not exist, the vote on the proposed budget shall be conducted by a referendum. A referendum shall also be required in the event that a Petition to approve the budget by referendum vote is signed by one hundred fifty (150) Persons qualified to vote at Town Meetings and is filed with the Town Clerk not later than the close of business on the fifth (5th) day prior to the Annual Budget Meeting. The date of the referendum shall be set by the Board of Selectmen so as to occur not less than seven (7) nor more than fourteen (14) days after the date of the Annual Budget Meeting. The referendum shall be held from 6:00 a.m.until 8:00 p.m. Any succeeding budget shall be submitted to referendum.

D. Finality of Approval – When the budget is approved either by secret ballot at the Annual Budget Meeting or by referendum, such action shall be final and may not be rescinded.

Help Us Find Canton's Next "Teacher of The Year"

by Lynn K. McMullin

Some of you may remember that this past September, we celebrated Anne Lippincott, our Cherry Brook Primary pre-school teacher, as Canton's 2009 – 2010 “Teacher of the Year.”

I don’t know how long Canton has been awarding this honor (at least for the 14 years I've been here); but at the state level, the Connecticut "Teacher of the Year" began in 1952. The State “TOY,” as these excellent teachers are affectionately called, is selected once a year from among all of the district-level winners. (The application process is quite exhausting, but Canton's "Teacher of the Year" always enters.)

Some school districts, however, don’t choose to extend this honor. Perhaps they feel "Teacher of the Year" becomes competitive among staff members, sets one teacher apart, or fails to recognize all the excellent teachers on the staff.  Maybe it is political or their teachers shy away from this kind of honor, feeling that all of their colleagues deserve recognition as much as they do.  In Canton, however, this program works!

Over the years, our “Teacher of the Year” program has successfully recognized and honored representatives from each school and many differnt disciplines for teacher excellence. The surprise introduction of our TOY at the opening of the school is an exceptionally moving moment and fills everyone with pride – a great way to begin the year!  Often we remember our colleague's remarks months later.  We believe that our TOY program recognizes the best in teaching from among the many Canton educators who share those same qualities. 

We try to select a teacher each year who will speak to the staff at convocation and, for the remainder of the year, serve as a representative of what is best in our profession.  We look for a teacher who always puts students first, who inspires a love of learning in them, as well as sets a caring example for others in the school community. We look for a teacher who demonstrates the importance of community by working successfully with students, colleagues, and parents.  Our TOY’s are innovative, hard-working, dedicated professionals.

Canton’s “Teacher of the Year” Winners for the last 5 years are:

2005-06 Patrick Allen

2006-07 Tina (Colangelo) Roy

2007-08 Linda Caraher

2008-09 Marsha Jorgensen

2009-10 Anne Lippincott.

You can click on the links above to read more about Linda, Marsha, and Anne. 

Nominate a Teacher

You can help us find our next "Teacher of the Year" because the nominations may come from anyone in the community: parents, students, colleagues, and principals.  Over the next week or two, we are hoping that you will click on the link below and use the form to nominate a teacher for this honor.

Nomination Form

A Real World Application at the High School

by Lynn K. McMullin

In several other blogs, I have mentioned the importance of 21st Century skills and real-world applications in classroom learning. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the concept that knowledge is expanding astronomically – you’ve read or heard that knowledge doubles at some “fill-in-the-blank” rate, whether that rate be every 6 months, or every 12 months, or so on.  But, the point is this: change happens in content knowledge so quickly that what a person knows is becoming secondary to what a person is able to do.

This past weekend, riding in the car, my daughter, grand-daughter, and I were wondering if every state had a Springfield – we could name about a dozen.  In under 5 minutes, my grand-daughter had lists … not only did she find a list of the 34 states with Springfields, but the other countries with Springfields, the 'fictional' Springfields (as in the Simpsons and Father Knows Best), and the people named Springfield (as in Rick or Dusty).  On her cellphone!

This only underscored the experience last week when Superintendent Case and I had the pleasure of attending a class at the high school in which students applied and demonstrated their 21st Century skills in research, math, science, technology, and oral presentation. We both loved it, but more importantly, the students really enjoyed it as well.  And what they had learned had the potential to benefit them in their future real-life decision making.

Dylan Smith, Jeremy Stanhope, Sadeq Al-Aqel, Brieanna Rowley, Sondra and Krista Westerling, Jamel Mayo, and Josh Wood had taken a CADD drawing of a house that Dylan Smith had created in his 8th grade Odyssey project and they “finished” the house, inside and out, top to bottom.  First they obtained the measurements of the house to scale – for example, the living room was 73.86 square meters; the master bedroom was 35.88; the pantry was 3.64;… the garage, 44.82.  The presentation began with this drawing and the measurements of every nook and cranny and continued with the use of charts, graphs, and pictures in PowerPoint.  In their multi-week project, the students equipped their entire home.

First, they researched the pros, cons, and costs of flooring including materials such as bamboo, vinyl, ceramic, porcelain, carpet, and so on. The students knew the chemical compositions, durability, and eco-friendliness, as well as the costs. The students weighed trade-offs such as the fact that bamboo is quickly renewable when compared to hardwoods, but the transportation of imported bamboos from East Asia creates carbon emissions pollution.  The students reported that carpeting contains decabromodiphenyl (for flame retardancy), permethrin (for dust mites), and formaldehyde (for its binding properties). They learned about petrochemicals, plasticizers, and VOC’s (volatile organic compounds)!

As the presentation progressed, we learned about heating options (oil, electric, natural gas), as well as wood and pellet stoves and solar panels (photovoltaic cells) and wind turbines.  (Did you know Jay Leno's "Seahawk" is a self-starter and is capable of producing up to 10kw of power at 6 mph?  The kids did!). 

The students had researched energy-efficient windows and could tell us the potential savings in electricity for both summer air-conditioning and winter heat.  They had even chosen CF (compact fluorescent) light bulbs for their house. On-line, they found a calculator which could predict their household’s savings based on the projected number of lights in each room and the projected amount of time the light burns each day. Click here to try it yourself.

Our students installed an eco-friendly swimming pool (of course!) and had chosen energy-efficient appliances (although they rejected a small, wall-mounted clothes washing machine that sits atop the toilet which uses the wash and rinse water for flushing!). They reported on chemical-free fertilizers for the lawn and chemical-free paint for the walls. They even told us about common products that affect the air quality of our homes – things such as pesticides, nail polish removers, bleach, and ammonia.

At the end of the PowerPoint and oral presentation, in which all of the students participated, we had a chance to ask questions and the kids even gave us a task to complete. They asked us to look at graphs they had made of the flex and stretch of common freezer and sandwich bags, brand-name garbage bags, and even plastic shopping bags (such as from Big Y and Wal*Mart) and determine, based on the data they provided, which were best.

The questions I wanted most to know – what did you learn and how will this help you in the future? One of the students said that the information and products will change a great deal from now until the time when they actually begin choosing flooring and heating for their own homes, but they learned how to do the research and how to make the comparisons, and mostly, they learned the importance of it.

More About the Budget....

This week, I'm "lending" my blog to Superintendent Kevin Case so you will have the chance to read his full budget message.   Next Friday, I'm planning to share with you some really interesting details from a class at the high school which I observed today.   It was great to see what these kids had done, so I'm excited to tell you about it!   In the meantime, here's Kevin's letter...

Dear Canton Residents,
The proposed 2010-2011 budget seeks a 0% increase over this current year’s spending. We have approached the development of this budget responsibly, recognizing the extraordinarily difficult economic times and the fiscal constraint of the town, while maintaining our obligation to meet the individual needs of the students in the Canton Public Schools.

Contractual obligations related to employee salary and benefits along with increased costs in utilities, out-of-district tuition, and transportation accounted for a $928,545, or a 4.17% increase over this year’s spending. Administrators’ budget requests totaled $359,809 or a 1.61% increase.  Thus, combined increases totaled $1,288,354, representing an increase of 5.78%.

Although every administrative request was justifiable, I worked to reduce each area of the budget possible, reducing the budget by over $855,433.  There are reductions in the area of instructional supplies, equipment, and professional development.  No new requested staffing positions were part of this budget proposal.

On February 9, 2010, I presented a proposed budget request to the Board of Education with an increase of $432,912 or 1.94%.  The Board of Education’s Finance Subcommittee met several times to review my proposed budget.  Every line item and personnel position in the District was reviewed carefully.  On March 4, 2010, the Board of Education voted to reduce the budget further by reducing funds in various line items where more accurate information had been obtained, such as in workers’ compensation and transportation fuel.  Reductions were also made in the utilities line items, as we will be challenging the staff and students in each of our buildings to conserve energy more than ever before through various activities.  We also continue to implement energy conservation measures wherever possible.

The following personnel changes were also made:
• Elimination of .5 FTE Director of Physical Plant
• Reduction of .5 FTE Library/Media Specialist
• Reduction of .5 Custodian
• Elimination of four paraeducator positions
• Reduction in secretarial support

This budget development process required extra attention this year from start to finish, as each request and line item was scrutinized as never before.  If additional cuts are made, existing non-certified and certified staff and programs will be affected, which would greatly diminish the quality of our school system.  We wish to see the Canton Public Schools continuously improve by providing the highest quality educational experiences and opportunities for our students.  It is our hope that you will support this budget as submitted.

Sincerely,
Kevin D. Case
Superintendent of Schools