Window to the Night Sky

By Lynn K. McMullin

A wonderfully magical, boxy-drumlike-kind of instrument, a telescope!, on the sidewalk of Cherry Brook Primary School becomes exactly what it advertises – 'a window to the night sky.'  Through these 'windows', last night, I saw the half moon, dusty-gray and looking as big as a basketball, and Jupiter with her four bright moons all in a row!

I love the way Canton is teaching science!!

I know we’re not perfect -- our Grade 5, 8, and 10 science scores have room for improvement -- but I love that we help our kids do things with science, not just spout back to us what they know. I love Gizmos, Robotics Club, Search, experiments in Mills Pond, in the redesigned CBPS courtyard, the CIS weather station, BrainPop, and all the regularly scheduled science labs where kids can experiment and talk about the results.

In the 60’s, I was a perfect science student – I studied and got an A on every science test I took; and yet, (amazingly, you might think!), I never really understood a single thing!  If the teacher asked, “Why does an apple look red?” I could explain in a perfect cursive paragraph that 'white light, like sunlight, is composed of all the possible wavelengths of light. The different surfaces of things caused them to either reflect or absorb some of the light’s wavelengths.  The reflected wavelengths determined the color.  For example, if the apple is red, the apple reflects the red light to our eyes and it absorbs all the other colors in the light.  That's why it’s red!'  Uh-hunh?

In fourth or fifth grade, I built an A+ solar system out of painted papier-mache covered styrofoam balls, coat hangers, and string.  The planets colors, sizes, and distances from each other were more a function of what my mother could find cheap at Woolworth’s five and dime than any application of scientific principle.  I still remember it: “Mary’s Velvet Eyes Make Johnny Stay Up Nights Proposing.” (although, now I realize the ‘proposing’ has been demoted.)  I knew that the sun was a star, only closer, and stars were ‘masses of burning gasses’ held tightly together by gravity.  Uh-hunh?

My ‘night sky’ education, naming the constellations and studying two dimensional pictures of artist-drawn planets like I've recaptured here, didn’t prepare me for the ‘adventure’ over 40 years later of looking through the telescope for the first time and seeing Saturn's rings for myself.  I had that chance four years ago at Cherry's Brook's first 'night sky' event, and I've been a convert ever since! 


That’s why Cherry Brook’s “Window to the Night Sky,” originally the dream and now a labor of love for teacher, Ms. Linda Caraher, is so special.  The event, which is held each year for 2nd graders and their families (and for all the various interlopers who want to a chance at the telescopes) is unforgettable.  What you see through the telescope is real – not a picture in a book or on TV.

The event was postponed twice due to miserable weather forecasts in December, but not even temperatures in the teens and a blustery wind could squelch the spirit and enthusiasm of the second graders and their guests who took turns at four magnificent telescopes set up along the sidewalks. Two local astronomers, Mr. Scott Tracy and Mr. Victor Leger, along with seventh graders from Ms. Marsha Jorgensen’s science class manned the telescopes, providing assistance as needed. The telescopes were fixed on Jupiter and the moon; and this morning, I wonder how many Canton residents will be logging into amazon.com to check out the price of a telescope for their own homes.  It’s that wonderful of an experience!

Like any remarkable educational event, “Window to the Night Sky” takes a lot of people, planning, and preparation. The program began at 5:00 with students singing a song led by Ms. LuAnn Saunders and listening to a brief presentation about the relative sizes of things in space (If Jupiter was the size of a basketball, Earth was a marble.)  This was followed by varied activity stations for students and their families to visit.  At the Star Finder Station, additional seventh graders helped families use devices they had made themselves to find prominent constellations in the winter sky.  In the driveway, Mr. Bill Phelps and Mr. John Sherman showed students how to use a program on the i-pads to locate constellationsand night sky objects.  In the cafeteria, students could work on science experiments with Ms. Kathy Magarian and her fifth graders.  In the gym, after listening to a question, students could use the ‘planet parachute’ with Ms. Pam Keagan and Ms. Robin Nardini and try to finesse a ball into the hole next to the correct planet's name.



Students worked together to maneuver the 'planet parachute'
trying to get the ball into the hole labeled "Venus," the brightest planet.



Mr. Scott Tracy showed students pictures of his backyard conservatory,
with its sliding roof which opened the room to the sky.  Then, he let them take turns
 at one of the telescopes he has built himself.



Several of the telescopes were fixed on the half-moon;
the rest were fixed on Jupiter.  One student, who looked through
the telescope at the moon summed it up perfectly: "Whoa!" she said.



Two Amazing Canton Graduates

By Lynn K. McMullin

This week’s BLOG is a follow-up to last week’s look at the altruism of our classrooms and clubs.  I want to celebrate with you the success two amazing CHS graduates, Ryan Abraham and Chris Robitaille, who exemplify the epitome of civic-minded initiative and problem solving.  For over three years, these two young men have impressed us with their creativity and verve in their efforts to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  It began with their Senior Project.  In March 2009, following their first cross-county bike race, which raised over $20,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, they were recognized by Jodi Rell and each received a Red Cross ‘Local Hero’ award.

Now, three years later, they (along with several of their peers Peter Leung, Brian Beaulieu, Miranda J. Conary, and Mark-John Clifford) have organized a foundation of their own called R.F.A.R. (Riding for a Reason).  Check out this foundation’s extensive website at http://www.rfarchallenge.org/index.php?CID=11.  I can guarantee you will feel both astounded and proud!

Click on the link above and check out the RFAR Foundation's website.

Clicking on the Foundation’s history lets you know that R.F.A.R. was “founded in 2008 by Canton High School seniors Ryan Abraham and Chris Robitaille in an effort to combine their passion for an active lifestyle and supporting cancer victims.  RFAR’s first event raised over $20,000 and the second event nearly tripled the revenue and raised almost $60,000!  Riding for a Reason has now expanded its organizational leaders to help create a unique and exciting event each and every year.  Riding for a Reason will also be expanding across the nation, adding new states each year!”

Recently, Ryan Abraham sent an email to Gary Gula, principal at Canton High School to share with him the latest accomplishments of their foundation.  Ryan wrote, “After creating a new partnership with Robin Williams and creating 'The Power of Laughter Gala: An Evening with Robin Williams' to be held in October 2011 at New York City’s Gotham Hall, Mr. Williams has graciously offered up the idea and his list of contacts and we have created 'The Power of Laughter Tour.'

We will be sending celebrity comedians including Ellen Degeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Jerry Seinfield, Ray Ramano, Dennis Leary, and Jeff Dunham across the 50 states to top cancer centers!  While everything is still very much in the works, we will be coming out with a press release and a website page for this new addition to the Riding for a Reason Foundation shortly!

We will be hosting 50 events across the 50 states up until October 2011. These events will lead up to the main event - the Gala, where we will bring in all the comedians to honor and thank them for their support as well as 500-1000 other guests.

We are incredibly excited to have live entertainment provided by Robin Williams, himself, and Robert Holden as a keynote speaker - the leader in the true power of laughter, and the top researcher on how leading a happy life can help cure cancer.”

In a rather humble closing to his email, Ryan wrote, “I just thought I would let you all know of this great new addition!”

Both young men are currently college students!

The Value of Empathy

By

Lynn K. Mcmullin

At every grade level, involving students in community service projects makes sense.  Not only do students learn empathy, (which adds value in every potential future endeavor), but they learn a little bit about the responsibilities of citizenship in our democratic society.  Community service projects are particularly meaningful when students design and carry them out themselves.  In those instances, they learn skills such as problem solving and participating in groups, both as leaders and followers.

Our Senior Project course at the high school includes a community service component.  In this course, students identify a significant need and design and implement their own community service project to meet this need.  The most meaningful projects involve developing new initiatives, rather than supporting one that already exists.  The Grade 6 community outreach projects and Grade 8 Odyssey Projects incorporate this same kind of civic responsibility learning.

In addition, many of the clubs and activities Canton offers have community service components to them, thus helping students to understand why people volunteer.   As adults we are likely to have experienced many kinds of civic volunteerism and service which have helped us build a sense of belonging in our wider community.  And, let’s face it… helping out others makes us feel good about ourselves -- we feel worthy, energized, capable, and connected to others.  

There’s no better time to tell you about some of the community-minded projects that our students are fulfilling.  I hope you feel as proud as I do of their accomplishments:

Canton Middle School



Students sent packages of snacks and hygiene
items to our soldiers overseas
through http://www.anysoldier.com/

 On November 12, the Middle School sent 94 packages off to Afghanistan and Iraq.  This was, by a good margin, more packages than the school had ever sent before.  First, the students visited http://www.anysoldier.com/ to find a soldier, who makes a single request on behalf of his or her whole group, (watch “Tango Mike” on this website if you’d like to learn more about the value of this outreach program).  The students then spent several weeks collecting and boxing necessities (such as body wash or Chapstick), snacks, and some items just for fun.  In the Collinsville PO, Barbara worked 90 minutes off the clock to get the packages out and donated $20 to cover a little postage.  The rest of the postage was covered by the Community of Concern, the Student Council, and the PTO.  Within days the students got their first correspondence:

 Canton Middle School Students,

On behalf of Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 10th Aviation Brigade I would like to sincerely thank you for supporting the "Dukes", as we call ourselves!  The fantastic Christmas decorations and cards have all found homes in the hangar where our Soldiers work.  Our job here is to provide 24 hour maintenance support to the many AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Blackhawk, CH-47 Chinook and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters throughout Afghanistan.  The soldiers work very long hours, both day and night, to ensure the helicopters are ready to fly at a moment's notice.   



Everyone stops to read the cards and smiles when they see the decorations.  We definitely feel the love and support you have sent! Thank you again for being a part of the Any Soldier program and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Respectfully,

1LT Sarah M. Brisson



Middle School students packed a police trailer with
donations for the Canton Food Bank.



This month the Middle School has undertaken a canned food war with the competitive goal of filling a police cruiser which came to the school last Friday and was packed with over 1000 non-perishable food items for the Canton Food Bank.

Cherry Brook Primary School

At Halloween, students collected donations for UNICEF, (which you and I also may remember doing when we were children).  After Halloween, CBPS collected and took donations of candy to share with the Food Bank and the troops overseas.

 Then, on December 6th, a collection began for new, unwrapped toys for Canton’s Gifts of Love.  The following week, they set up their annual “Mitten Tree” display in the hallway by the library.  Students have been bringing in children's hats, gloves, and mittens to decorate the tree.  On December 17^th, the items will be collected and given to the Canton Food Bank, who will help distribute the items to local families. 

Canton Intermediate School

Just before Thanksgiving, students and teachers participated in their annual “Jack Bannon Turkey Trot” collecting canned goods to help our neighbors in need.  Grades 4, 5, and 6 competed in a spirited rivalry that brought together more than 2,100 lbs. of non-perishable food items.

This month, CIS is busy with a number of projects.  Students are putting the final touches on their annual Holiday Gift and Toy Drive of books, toys, cash donations, and gift cards which will be given to Canton neighbors in need.   The “Kids Care Club” is making ornaments for the senior citizens and Cherry Brook Health Center.   The “Kids Care Club” is a nationally-recognized, student-driven community service group that generates projects and activities to benefit the community and is facilitated through the school’s Quality Council.

Another group, the CIS “Circle of Friends” in collaboration with the Boy Scouts is collecting crayons to send to the “Crayons for Cancer Center” to be melted, recycled into different shapes, and sold.  They are asking CIS students to contribute old crayons to this very exciting project. The money they raise will help families stay with their kids while they are getting treatment at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. 



In one example of the Grade 6 outreach projects mentioned above, a Grade 6 student in Mrs. Perry’s class decided to ‘reach out’ globally.  In order to bring supplies and food along with her and her family on a mission to the Dominican Republic, she and other students held car washes, raked leaves, and collected $107 towards her project. 

One of CIS’s major service initiatives took place on Thursday, December 16, when the “CIS Flying V's" met the "Cherry Brook Spikers" on the CIS volleyball court for the third annual staff match.  All proceeds from the game, attended by families from both schools, will be donated to the Kilimanjaro Education Foundation, which is an excellent example of a school community making a long-term commitment to help others.  Proceeds from many previous fundraisers funded the building of a classroom in Tanzania; proceeds from this year's volleyball match will be targeted specifically to purchase lesson plan books.   If you’d like to read more about the Kilimanjaro Foundation click here http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/kef/47544/.

Canton High School

The student members of the high school’s ‘Substance Free Students’ found the idea for a very different kind of service project on the Nike website at http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/.  In an effort to promote “green” thinking, they are collecting 200 pairs of used sneakers which will be recycled into indoor tracks, basketball courts, and gym floors.  Approximately 30 students are involved in this project which required publicity, (including writing promotional articles for the newspapers), collecting and counting the sneakers, and finally, transporting the very large collection to the Nike store at West Farms. 

CATA (Canton Adolescents Taking Action)
meets regularly to plan community
service and civic-minded projects.



Students involved in CATA, “Canton Adolescents Taking Action,” recently baked Thanksgiving cookies for the Canton Food Bank and delivered in them in time for the holiday. Now, and through the beginning of January, CATA is holding a winter clothing drive for people in need. 

CATA cookies were packaged with this message:
"Happy Thanksgiving from CATA!...Baked with love at
Canton High School just for you!"

Another civically-minded group, the FCCLA Club (Family, Career, & Community Leaders of America) spent an afternoon putting together cookie-making kits for the Canton Food Bank -- the kind that you see beautifully layered in decorative jars.  These “cookie jars” are available to families at the Canton Food Bank (which despite the efforts of the schools and other local civic groups will continue to need support throughout the year.)



Hopefully, by learning empathy and experiencing the positive rewards of helping others, our students will become more responsible, less self-centered citizens.

Student members of the FCCLA Club made cookie mixes
for the Canton Food Bank.

Carnival Day in Math Class

By Lynn K. McMullin

Often, 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. We’ve all read or heard that knowledge doubles at some “fill-in-the-blank” rate, whether that rate be every 8 days … or every 8 months … or some other frightening statistic.  But, the point remains: change happens in content knowledge so quickly that what a person knows is becoming secondary to what a person is able to do.

We hear that students in other countries are now achieving much more than our own students do.  Studies show that the countries with the highest achievement teach fewer topics more deeply. They teach less content knowledge and more reasoning and application skills.  In order to compete in the global economy, the United States will need students who can communicate, collaborate, and problem solve, not recite.  Our students will work with ‘just-in-time’ specifics by researching and analyzing information just as they need it for the particular problem and proposal their boss has assigned.  They need to be innovative, analytical, and persistent.

This week, in two high school math classes, students participated in Carnival Game Day. The task was this: work collaboratively in a small group to develop a carnival game that favored the house, but looked ‘winnable’ to the potential client.  There were a lot of parameters.  Students had to use a combination of at least two spinners, coins, dice, or cards. They needed to write-out the ‘game-play” rules, test the probabilities for profit vs. payout, and calculate the mathematical expectation of their games.

On “Carnival Day" itself, the students were given $48 in play money and were required to visit each game a minimum of three times.  In the end, the tables had to calculate their profits; and the contestants, their winnings.  Keep in mind, the students could go back as many times as they wanted to the games that seemed the “loosest” to them.



Lollipalozza -- what row you spin, what side you flip,
which lollipop you choose determines whether you win --
nothing, the lollipop, or $4.

 Lollipalozza was both enticing and interesting. It cost $3 to play. First, you spun for a color: 33.3% of the wheel was red (the bottom row) and 8.3% of the wheel was yellow (the top).  If you spun blue, green, or yellow, you knew you walked away with at least a lollipop; so if you didn’t mind a $3 price tag for the lollipop, you could call yourself a winner at that point!  Next, you flipped a coin.  Heads got you a pick from the left side; tails from the right.  Now, you got to select a lollipop from the colored row and side you had won.  If the dot on your lollipop stick matched the color of the row, you won $4… and the lollipop!

In Probability Roulette, you paid $3 to play. You had to spin the wheel and roll the dice simultaneously.  If your die landed on a pink triangle, you won the show of the die, anywhere from $1 - $6.  If your die landed on a green triangle, you lost.

I really enjoyed seeing what the kids had created, but I didn’t count my money on the way out.  I did hear one student complain to Mrs. Gabrielle Aitchison, their math teacher and the department chair, “I don’t get it. The probability of winning our game is minimal, but everyone keeps winning!”

The final part of this activity is that the students each write a self-evaluation based on the game they invented and the games they played.  Which game was the best performer and why?  Remember, a game had to both make money and attract customers. What would you do to improve your own game now that you saw how it performed?  Explain why your game’s performance did or did not match your mathematical prediction?  Students learned a little bit about odds and gaming at the same time, knowing how games can be built to favor the table and still look attractive.



Spin the roulette wheel and throw the die into the spinning wheel --
land on pink, you win the face value of the die.



Will this kind of collaborative, problem-solving activity make a difference?  I think so, especially since self-reflection is an important final component of the process.  Students still had to “know” things about probability and math to write their game proposals and resolve their problems.  But, they also had to put what they knew to the test, and then they had to be critical of their results. 

What do I see next?  I’d love for this kind of activity to move into the technology realm, with the kids designing their game components on computers and testing their results over the broad spectrum of their many peers through their ready access to ‘social networking.' Posting links to their games and collecting the results might even be one example of putting the Internet to work for them.

The Carnival Day assignment was designed by Mrs. Gabrielle Aitchison, (in red)
who grades students on every facet ... from the project proposal to the visual display ... from the "fairness" of the payout description to their grammar and spelling.

TEAM and Our Qualified Teachers

by Lynn K. McMullin

In late August, we introduced our newest teachers in a webpage photo album called “Welcome New Staff.”  (You can find it below the BLOG is you missed it.)  Since, I am fresh from a meeting in Hartford about the new TEAM program for beginning teachers, I thought I’d provide some information about the paces we put our new teachers through to ensure they are the best teachers they can be.


First of all, in Canton we only hire certified teachers (or teachers whose certification is immediately pending because, perhaps, they have moved to Connecticut from another state.)  As you can see from the photo album, most of our new hires already have their Master’s degrees. Others are enrolled in a graduate program and are well on their way to an advanced degree.


All beginning teachers have 3-year Initial Certificates. This means they have successfully complete a state-approved education program at an accredited college or university; they have passed the Praxis I Skills Tests (math, reading, and writing); and passed the Praxis II Subject-Knowledge Tests, such as in Elementary Education or French or Biology.  Once hired in a school district, teachers with initial certifications now need to complete TEAM (which I tell you more about below) in order to move on in their careers.


The next level is the Provisional Certificate, which is valid for 8 years and requires 30 months of successful teaching experience, as well as 30 semester hours (10 courses) of credit beyond the bachelor’s degree at an accredited college or university.  After 2016, those credit hours can only be graduate level courses and cannot be in the pursuit of another bachelor's.


Next, the teacher seeks a Professional Certificate, which is valid for five years. It requires 30 additional months of successful experience and 9 additional CEU’s (Continuing Education Units).  Each CEU is equal to 10 hours of additional training, so a total of 90 hours of professional development are required for a teacher to retain certification.


Some beginning teachers come to us through ARC, or Alternate Route to Certification, which allows qualified, motivated adults to change career paths.  These are individuals with college degrees and years of experience in a relevant profession who are willing to enter an intense teacher training program.

TEAM is Connecticut's Teacher Education and Mentoring Program

TEAM is an induction program which pairs beginning teachers with trained mentors and, step-by-step, works them through five, 10-week modules. The difference between this experience and their eight to 10 weeks of student-teaching in college is enormous. In TEAM, they are immersed in their own classrooms, they are expected to set very specific learning goals for themselves, to reflect on their daily classroom performance and how they are improving and developing as teachers, and to track student achievement in specific impact statements.

The TEAM modules are: Classroom Environment, Planning for Active Learning, Instruction for Active Learning, Assessment for Learning, and Professional Responsibilities. The phrase “for active learning” in these modules refers to the idea that the new teachers must concentrate more on what their students are doing than on what they are doing.  New teachers are expected to be coaches of learning not lecturers or imparters of knowledge.  Or in edu-speak -- they are to become a “guide on the side’ not a ‘sage on the stage.’

TEAM is a brand new state program, so as I mentioned to one of our administrators today, we are flying the plane while we are building it.  We have mentors in various stages of training, we have the draft of brand new 3-year District TEAM Plan in the hands of a brand new, though eager committee.  We’re still trying to iron out some glitches in the data, so that our new teachers are in the correct schools and can be paired with the correct mentors in State’s new on-line system.  I was told yesterday, that the request for data corrections is down to only 470 this week. 

Yet, I must say, none of this is scary.  In fact it is rather exciting!  The three most positive signs of success are: 1.) the new TEAM modules have a heavy emphasis on mentoring, in-class coaching, and co-teaching, a practice well supported by research; 2.) the in-house committee approach for scoring our beginning teacher’s reflections about the modules gives Canton a great deal of control over induction, and 3.) the happy coincidence that Canton’s five new Teacher Evaluation Rubrics align with the State’s five modules (we must have used the same research!)

I’m sharing this information with you as reassurance that we have hired the best teachers and are working even harder now to ensure their success.  When new teachers leave the profession, they generally do so in the first two years out of frustration, because getting started in teaching is very, very difficult and they have felt alone and unsupported.   We’re doing everything we can to create a supportive community that retains the fabulous people we have hired.

An aside:
** By the way, athletic coaches are required to have certifications, too.  In fact, this July, legislation was passed that in addition to other required courses, coaches must complete a training course regarding concussions and head injuries and must update that training every five years.  Only courses approved by the Connecticut State Board of Education qualify for this certification.

Are you a WARRIOR?

By Lynn K. McMullin                 


This past week, Canton’s students and parents have had the opportunity to meet with a highly recognized motivational speaker, Mr. Calvin Terrell, to explore the topics of justice and acceptance. Calvin Terrell is the founder of Social Centric, an organization dedicated to creating peace, fighting injustice, and challenging the stereotypes and intolerant behaviors of the young and old alike. Terrell first came to Canton for a two day visit last spring to work with high school students and the student group ‘Be the Change,’ advised by social studies teacher Jennifer Gembala, who also organized each workshop event. Terrell’s visit had such positive impact on the school, we asked him back  in August to speak at our Opening Day Convocation for teachers and to meet with student groups in preparation for this month's week-long visit .



Calvin Terrell began his week with 4 - 6th graders at
Canton Intermediate School.  He ended his week at the high school,
and on Wednesday evening met with parents.


Terrell’s work with our students, which is 100% grant funded, is one facet of Canton’s multi-faceted approach to creating a safe school culture, free of harassment and bullying. Along with Character Counts, CyberSMART, small counseling groups, classroom curriculum, and Advisory group discussions, this week's workshops are aimed at reducing racism, prejudice, hatred, bullying, and violence.



Terrell, (in back), told Middle School students that
being in a clique was OK, everyone wants to have a group
of friends.  But he asked them to consider what kind of energy
their clique brought forward -- love or hate?

 
Terrell begins his workshops with an examination of five different types of people, asking his audience to decide what they want to be. In brief, COWARDS are people who may know what is right, but act, or fail to act, out of fear. They go along with the crowd; they pretend to be something they're not in order to fit in. THUGS create chaos and attempt to feel great by disarming the people around them. Thugs come in all colors and all forms. They hurt people and rationalize that there have always been people who've hurt others in the world.

SOLDIERS are people of action who follow orders. There are good soldiers who try to make a difference, but there are others who hurt people. REBELS use their personal anger to act out against others. They are self-centered and oblivious to others. It’s all about them.

Finally, Terrell points out there are WARRIORS. Warriors are people who follow a sober mind, heart, and spirit. A warrior knows what is right, speaks his/her truth, and lives an authentic life. Terrell explains to his audience that it's the warrior who brings peace, not chaos, to the world.

Terrell asks the students about their own groups or cliques – Together, are you cowards? Thugs? Or warriors? Do you build or tear down? He asks, “How many of you have seen people spread a rumor about someone else? How many people have seen others treat someone in a mean way? How many of you have ever been that kid who's marched around the playground or down the halls and treated someone else that way? What are the things you've been saying to the others in your school?”

“All of our lives will end,” Terrell says, “but my goal is to be remembered as a Warrior, not as one of the other four. How am I living? That's what this short time I have is about -- how do I treat people around me? My enemies, strangers and friends alike?”


MS Principal, Joe Scheideler, worked with students to untie a
human knot as part of a workshop exercise that challenged
kids "get out of the maze of your mind and into the genius of your heart."



During a "Call of Warriors,” Terrell asks if there is anyone who wishes to apologize to someone they may have hurt or excluded. At every session, at least 20 students took the microphone. Some students choose to say their "peace," some specifically apologizing to someone for unkind, even hateful, things they had done in the past. Some choose to thank a warrior friend or family member who helped them in some way. The comments were heartfelt and authentic.

Terrell spent Monday through Thursday, working with students in grades 4 – 12. His work included large group assemblies, team-level sessions, and small group workshops, all of which were planned and organized by Jennifer Gembala.  Terrell, Gembala, and our school community recognize that a week of workshops will not sustain the safe, accepting school culture Canton is trying to attain.  If the impact is to be lasting, the students and teachers need to embrace Terrell's message and find additional vehicles for spreading the positive energy he creates. Thus, part of the students’ responsibilities at each school will be planning how to sustain the ideas Terrell has introduced.

Terrell admits he works tirelessly, like a Warrior would, for his cause which is an end to injustice and hate.  On Monday evening, he spontaneously accompanied Dr. Jordan Grossman to St. Joseph’s College where he spoke to Grossman’s graduate school class. On Wednesday evening, he held a parent community session from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.



After the assembly, a large group of students met with Terrell in the CHS library
to continue the work and discussion begun earlier.



Calvin Terrell is shown here with social studies teacher Jennifer Gembala,
who orchestrated the week-long event.  Both educators used every available minute
to convey a simple message to our students: "Live authentic, hate-free lives."



Kids Love 'Clickers'!

by Lynn K. McMullin

I could call this technology a “Personal Response System” (PRS), and risk a ‘ho-hum’ reaction... or I could call it what the kids call it -- a 'clicker'! -- and hopefully entice you to read on.  A 'clicker' looks like a simple remote control, it fits in even our littlest student’s palm, and it changes the way our students participate in class.


The Clicker Instructional Model

Linda Caraher, a Grade 2 teacher at Cherry Brook Primary, uses clickers with her interactive SmartBoard to gauge her students’ progress with the concepts being learned. For instance, she might show a reading comprehension activity on the whiteboard (like the “Penguin” example shown here) and ask the students to answer several multiple choice questions with their clickers. Immediately, she has the results and sees who needs to meet with her in a small group for further instruction. Or, she can use the clickers in the morning for a quick assessment, and then during Reader's Workshop, pull the children who might have missed the morning assessment question into one group. The software program for the Smart Response system also provides a spreadsheet with the students’ scores. The clickers even make DRP assessments more fun and provide Linda with immediate feedback. A DRP assessment moves from easier questions to more difficult questions. (Examples also included below.)

 The kids love the clickers as well. They actually get excited to take a test when they see the clickers come out. According to Linda they beg, "This is cool! Can we do more?"

Linda collected some simple data about the impact of the clickers on students’ learning. She had her class complete several simple reading comprehension exercises in which students identified the ‘best answer’ to a multiple choice question (see below). When using the clickers, the students were more focused and were significantly more accurate -- from about 75% (paper/pencil)to 95% correct (clickers).  Linda then asked the students to answer an open-ended question explaining their choice, and they more eagerly participated in this activity as well.  As a result, the class scores had improved, probably due to the increased interest level of the students and their desire to have their correct answer show up in graph.

The Everyday Instructional Benefits
First, and foremost, they make 100% on-task attention more likely. They are enticing to students. Every student responds to every question posed by the teacher, and the teacher waits until every clicker has entered a response. Second, the teacher has immediate understanding of whether or not the class 'gets it'.  In conventional instruction, even if every hand is raised after the teacher asks a question, only one student actually answers.  If the student is right, does this mean the class understands?

Third, each student has the chance, by viewing the class graph, to compare his or her answer to the rest of the class.  Finally, the teacher can pinpoint and correct misunderstandings, as in, “Eight of you thought ‘D’ was the right answer.  Let’s look at what may have been misleading...”

'Clickers' are spreading. Principal Joe Scheideler at CMS is exploring the use of clickers in his Language Arts classrooms.

CLOZE assessments, such as this one, progress from easy to difficult.

The History of Clickers

The technology began on college campuses, where professors began using them for en mass quizzes and exams in those large lecture hall settings. They could post a multiple choice or true and false question in a PowerPoint presentation, ask each student to respond with his or her personal remote (which was coded to software on the professor’s laptop), and then view the answers for each student and for the entire class. The professor knew two things: each student’s individual score on the quiz or test, and how well the class did as a whole on each question. It’s also the same technology used on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” when the contestant asks to poll the audience, and the audience members use radio-signal responders to select A, B, C, or D. A graph then displays the results.

Extended Day Kindergarten Pilot

by Lynn K. McMullin

Over the past few years, we have worked diligently to improve reading at Cherry Brook Primary School.  Our focus has been on assessing the reading skills of our youngest students and differentiating instruction to meet the needs of our emerging readers.  In the process, we have successfully turned over a pyramid of support so that we now provide a great deal of tutoring support in kindergarten and require less support for third graders.
We have enjoyed solid, positive results!


Providing tutoring support to our kindergarteners, however, is complicated by the reality of our half-day Kindergarten schedule, which includes not only reading and writing instruction, but also math, science, art, music, computers, PE and Health.  Thus, was born the idea to pilot an extended day program, to collect some relevant data, and analyze whether or not taking extra time to develop background knowledge, foster print readiness, and focus on early reading and math skills makes a significant difference.  Our Extended Day Kindergarten Pilot is yet another effort to provide just the right support to our students at just the right time.


This pilot program is 100% funded by an Open Choice Academic and Social Support Grant which is designed to benefit Choice students and Canton students equally.  Currently, our Open Choice students attend one session of kindergarten in either the morning or the afternoon and spend the remainder of their day at a local daycare/preschool. In this pilot plan, our seven Choice students will remain with us at Cherry Brook for the full day, thus experiencing less time in buses and fewer transitions in their day.


The additional benefit to us is the opportunity to offer placement in this extended day class for seven or eight Canton students.  The composition of the class will be an even combination of students who are 'at goal' and 'below goal' in reading as determined by in-house assessments during the opening weeks of school.  Parents who are interested in this extended day opportunity are currently filling out an application, which requires some background information about their child and a commitment on their part to occasionally volunteer in the extended day classroom.  Additionally, they agree to attend three social gatherings for the extended day kindergarteners and their families and to participate in survey-like data collections.


All our Choice kindergarten students began Extended Day Kindergarten on the first day of school.  We are planning to have the Canton students placed by September 21st.


The extended day kindergarten program will offer the students our suite of intervention strategies, (including Lexia Reading, DIBELS, guided reading groups, interactive read-alouds, etc.); a strong hands-on component; individualized instruction; a focus on building background knowledge as an aid to comprehension; and a wealth of print-rich experiences.


The extended day kindergarten teacher, Ms. Jessica Papp, will also work in the morning, observing and assisting her 15 students in their regular kindergarten classrooms.  She will confer with their teachers, analyze the skills and gaps of her students, and plan for their needs regarding upcoming curriculum.  We’re thrilled that this provides an extra teacher in the morning kindergarten classes, which have larger enrollments than we’ve experienced in the past.


There is an abundance of research comparing half-day and full-day kindergarten programs and analyzing whether children benefit from developmentally appropriate, full-day programs.  Most research states that in terms of early academic achievement, full-day kindergarten gives students a better foundation for school success and helps prevent a future cycle of remediation and possibly grade retention.  Research focuses on primary-grade reading and math skills.


However, the seven studies (one each from 1988, one from 1991, and the rest coming after 1995) were specifically focused on the difference in achievement between full-day and half-day programs for disadvantaged students.  Students were considered disadvantaged based on criteria such as print-rich environments, non-English speaking homes, mother’s highest completed grade in school, and so on.  There is no research study which supports a difference in achievement between full-day and half-day kindergarten for students from print-rich, English-speaking environments, etc.


To that end, we’ll try to analyze our own data collection, by continuing to progress monitor the kindergarten students in reading and math and surveying the parents of these students, and to thereby evaluate the effectiveness of program.


As I mentioned earlier, this is a grant-funded pilot program with no cost to Canton.  Both the teacher’s and the tutor’s salary and benefits are funded by an Open Choice Academic and Social Support grant.

A Summer of Accomplishments

by Lynn K. McMullin

The building principals, Kevin Case, Ed Hoyt, and I often hear, “You must love summer! It’s got to be so quiet without the kids and teachers!”

In truth, the summer -- especially this summer! -- is anything but ‘quiet.’ Granted it is a very different kind of work, and what we do in the summer is very exciting, because we see the changes happen right before our eyes.  So much gets done that I thought it might be fun to share with you what we have accomplished while you were away.

We Hired New Staff!
We have many new staff members, and I can tell you unequivocally that everyone in this district recognizes there is no more important summer task than hiring the right people. Because, this district’s strengths are its people, we don’t rush the process or take short cuts.

Most of our employees had a series of two or three interviews, and many of the teachers taught a summer school class in Canton to demonstrate their classroom expertise.  Did you know the advertisement for elementary teaching positions attracted over 400 applications?  By the second week in August, we had hired 9 new teachers, 11 paras and tutors, one high school counselor, a new Athletic Director, and a new Administrative Assistant for Cherry Brook.  Within a few weeks, after an equally extensive search process, including a site visit, we’ll announce a new Assistant Principal for the High School.  To see photographs and introductions of our new staff members, please click on “Welcome New Staff” back on the district website.

We Developed New Programs!
Over the summer we added a couple of new features -- without spending a dime! – to our programming.  The Extended Day Kindergarten PILOT is key among our accomplishments. This is a 100% grant-funded program for about 14 – 15 kindergarten students, and we’re so excited about this new program I’m featuring it as next week’s blog.

But, I’m also excited about two new courses added to the Middle School curriculum. The first is a new course called “Electronic Communications,” based on the CyberSMART curriculum, which teaches students safety, manners, authentic uses, research skills, and twenty-first century readiness. This year all 7th and 8th graders will take the same electronic communications course; next year, all 8th graders will have an application course which will follow-up on this year’s foundation.  Joe Scheideler and the two CyberSMART teachers are also planning a full-day workshop for students and their parents on this topic for late October; so as we draw closer to that workshop, I’ll feature this new curriculum in a future blog.

Also, at the Middle School, we added a course for 7th graders called “The Science of Healthy Eating,” to cover everything from food preparation safety (cross contamination, proper temperatures, and properly holding a paring knife) to balancing your food group choices to preparing your own healthy snack.  Look for new curriculum in the 7th and 8th grade Physical Education and Health classes, as well.   In a future blog, I’ll tell you more about the "decision-making" model that underlies all of these new Middle School courses.

We Added Technology!
Both equipment and programs!  First, a new internet technology is now simplifying and tracking our mandated Title IX training.  Staff members train on-line and take an on-line test for their Title IX certification.  Second, we added a new module Inform to our PowerSchool Student Information System to help us track our SRBI interventions (this is grant funded!).  A great deal of very intensive training and reconfiguration went into this new product.  We’re adding NetTreker, a tool for differentiating research and instruction (also, grant-funded!).  And, most classrooms at every school have been equipped with LCD’s, speakers, and other enhancements such as SmartBoards, mimios, document cameras, and so on (with a lot of generous support from our PTO’s and a lot of installation work by our tech department).

In addition, we added to our Virtual High School (VHS) program by training our first teacher to host American Popular Music in the VHS format.  Tom Moran will conduct an on-line class of students from around the world.  In return, up to 25 Canton middle and high school students can take on-line virtual classes of their choice from the VHS catalog.  (If you’re interested, the school counselors at the high school and middle school can help.)

We Went Green!

Our new janitorial supply company, ROVIC, worked with Ed Hoyt and our custodians to introduce new cleaning processes and products which are “green certified.” All of the custodial staff were trained and certified in green cleaning basics, carpet cleaning care, and hazardous materials handling. The gym floors, for example, have never looked better, and they were cleaned with ionized water, not chemicals.  The same process, using hand-held ionized water cleaning, makes our white boards look like new.

New painting projects were completed with environmentally friendly paint.  All classrooms were analyzed for efficiencies, and teachers are sacrificing the convenience of small appliances, such as coffee makers and microwaves, in their classrooms in our “green schools” effort.  In addition, between August 12th and 25th, the windows on the back wall at Cherry Brook Primary, which were rusting and contributing to significant heat loss during the winter, were replaced.

We Improved our Facilities!
Paint crews were busy -- everywhere! – and, as I mentioned, with green-friendly paint.   At CHS and CMS, the classrooms on all three floors were touched up or repainted. At CIS the hallways and stairwells were painted.  At CIS and CBPS, the outside doors were scraped and painted, as well.

Concrete floors in the CHS and CMS weight room and boys locker area were tested for moisture, analyzed to be in the acceptable range, and the highest recommended flooring was installed.  Bleachers in the gymnasium were also renovated and repaired, by replacing broken boards, cracked welds, and adding the handrails which made them ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.  In addition, the classroom locks and hardware in the old section of the high school building were replaced in order to meet ADA requirements (IDEA ARRA grant-funded).

The CBPS Courtyard, under the careful eye of Jarleth Connolly’s Lawn Tailors, has made a radical transformation into two teaching stations. There is still work to be done, but the "science center" dream is being realized as each day passes.

This report touches on some of the key efforts and changes that mean the most to us.  We did these things in addition to cleaning every classroom, processing hundreds of purchase orders and inventoring truckloads of supplies, registering a slew of new students, printing handbooks and policies, analyzing the CMT and CAPT testing results, setting school goals and writing district and school improvement plans, preparing for our back-to-school student orientations and teacher professional development, establishing bus routes and student schedules, and so much more.

All of this work, none of which would be possible without our secretaries and custodians, led to what we hope has been a fabulous first week ... and what will be another successful year.