Read to ME Challenge Kicks Off This Week

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is pleased to announce that Commissioner Pender Makin will kick off the 8th annual Read to ME Challenge on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. You can watch a live stream of the event on the Maine DOE YouTube Channel.

The Read to ME Challenge is a month-long public awareness campaign held in February to promote childhood literacy in Maine. The challenge is an opportunity to promote children’s literacy growth by reading aloud to one or more children for at least 15 minutes. Part of the challenge is capturing the moment via a photo or video and then posting it on social media (with the hashtag #ReadtoME and tag the Maine DOE at @mdoenews on Twitter and @MaineDepartmentofEducation1 on Facebook! Keep watching the Maine DOE social media sites to see who has accepted the challenge of sharing the joy of reading with a child.

The Read to ME Challenge will run for the month of February, leading up to Read Across America Day on March 2, 2023. Learn more about the Read to ME Challenge on the Maine DOE Website. If you have a school or community organization that plans on participating in this challenge, please let us know by signing up at this link.

Download a promotional flyer here (PDF).

For more information, contact Dee Saucier (danielle.m.saucier@maine.gov), Inclusive Education Literacy Specialist for the Maine DOE Office of Special Services and Inclusive Education.

Building Community Through Extended School Programming at Georgetown School

Small rural schools are often faced with the challenges of how to support working families who may need before and after care for their children. Before and after care sometimes provided through the YMCA, or other organizations, are not always accessible to families, making drop off and pick up times difficult. In some cases, rural schools lose students to other schools who have consistent care programs. In Georgetown we heard this challenge presented many times from multiple families. The goal was to find a solution that made sense for families.

Last year, Georgetown School, with the support of Georgetown Island Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for education in Georgetown, began offering free after school clubs to students. The first step was to find a program coordinator, someone that could administratively organize the sign ups and rally adults interested in offering unique opportunities for students at Georgetown. Sarah Mancini, a local community member, was interested in charging the venture of after school clubs.

Beginning in November, GCS offered nine different clubs free for students in grades PreK-6. From learning how to survive in the wild, to archery and a regular after school homework club, the news of clubs began to spread in the community. More and more community members came forward and offered to volunteer their time to work with kids after school. This helped increase the offerings of after school clubs, traditionally run by just school employees.

“I feel so lucky to live and work in a place where community members consistently donate their time to work with the kids at Georgetown School,” said Sarah Mancini.

By June, students had access to regular weekly clubs Monday through Friday, many of which were run solely by community volunteers. Over the course of last year, we provided after school clubs to 78% of our student population.

This year, Georgetown School is continuing to offer after school clubs for all students. This fall, students have had offerings of 8 different clubs that have served around 75% of the school population. Weekly, students have access to a regular homework club and after school gym time. GCS also offers special clubs such as theater club, gift making, soccer club, arts etc.., garden club, and archery.

While after school clubs were providing a much needed community connection for students, they ultimately were not solving the problem of before and after care for students. Principal Nina Willette and after school program coordinator Sarah Mancini, sat down this summer to try to problem solve how to help. With the help of AOS98 Schools, the school found a way to utilize school employees, and a donation system, to offer daily before and after school programming for students. What has evolved from simply attempting to solve a problem in the community has become something independently beautiful. With the help of Jordan Lang, a local community member and parent, and Sarah Mancini, the school is able to provide families with a monthly sign up for before school programming beginning at 7:30am, and after school programming ending at 5:30pm.

The school aims to keep the cost as low as possible for families, enough to pay employees who provide a creative, loving, and community building space for students to be together before and after school. A less structured environment than clubs,
programming allows kids the time to be together, something that has been greatly lost these last few years of the pandemic. Kids have creative choices and lots of outdoor play time. So far, in the months of September, October and November, before and after school programming has served roughly 17 families in the community.

Donations are essential to providing programming to the students in our community. Principal Willette and Sarah Mancini are actively searching for other funding sources that will allow before and after programming to be free of charge to students and families who may need or benefit from this service.

“We are thankful to those community members who have generously donated towards ensuring this program is successful. We know that schools and children are the foundation of our communities,” said Principal Willette. “Our hope is to continue to provide this much needed service to families in Georgetown for years to come.”

Maine Alternative Education Association Spring Conference to Be Held March 10 at Thomas

The 2023 Alternative Education Association (AEA) of Maine’s Spring Conference will take place at Thomas College on March 10th from 8:30-2:30. AEA will offer six contact hours for participants of this conference.

If interested, please take a moment to fill out the Choices for Conference Presentation form, which will help the AEA define the topics that will be presented at the conference.

If you are ready to register for the conference, please submit the Conference Registration Form – all individuals must fill out the form, even if multiple people are attending from one school district. Step two of the registration process is to print out the AEA of Maine Conference Invoice and send it to Dawn Matthews with your payment. (address and conference information is on the form) If you have already paid your dues for the Association this year, you DO NOT need to do Step 2. If you are not sure, send Dawn an email at dawn.matthews@rsu29.org

For further information and questions about the conference reach out to Lenny Holmes Leonard Holmes at lholmes@bonnyeagle.org.

The Mission of the Alternative Education Association of Maine is to provide support, guidance and direction to Maine Alternative Educators and the students they serve. The AEA’s purpose is to be an advocate and provide resources for all those in Maine who are involved in Alternative Education. Learn more about AEA here.

2023 Mitchell Scholarship Application Open

The 2023 Mitchell Scholarship online application is now open until April 1. You can find the application link, requirements, and a few additional college and scholarship resources on the Mitchell Institute’s web site.

New for the 2023 Mitchell Scholarship application season!

The Mitchell Institute is pleased to announce an expanded commitment to increasing college access for Maine students. In addition to the longstanding commitment of awarding at least one $10,000 scholarship annually to a graduating student from each of the 135 public high schools in Maine, the Institute will award 20 more scholarships across the state, bringing its annual total to $1.55M in support for the class of 2023 Mitchell Scholars. Visit this site more information: The 2023 Mitchell Scholarship Application is Now Open

In addition to the $10,000 scholarship that the Mitchell Institute will award to a graduating student from every public high school in the state, they provide numerous resources and programs for Mitchell Scholars:

Leadership and career development events
Access to a wide array of professional networks
Customized career advising and personal support through individual meetings with Mitchell Institute staff and community members
Fellowship Awards of up to $1,500 to support internships and personal/professional growth opportunities
Emergency financial assistance for unexpected financial challenges

Mitchell Scholarships are awarded to students planning to attend two- or four-year degree programs at colleges either in- or out-of-state. Candidates are evaluated based on the following criteria: academics, community impact, and financial need. Please encourage any graduating college-bound students from Maine’s public high schools to apply before the April 1 deadline.

For more information, contact the Mitchell Institute at info@mitchellinstitute.org or (207) 773-7700. Click here to subscribe an e-newsletter that offers a monthly roundup of news: The Mitchell Institute Update

Maine DOE Update – January 27, 2023

From the Maine Department of Education

Reporting Items

| Visit the DC&R Reporting Calendar |

News & Updates

Resources and Guidance for Ensuring a High-Quality Education for Highly Mobile Children

The following message is from the United States Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services: This letter and the list of resources provides guidance and describes several important principles that states, school districts, school staff, parents, families, and others may find helpful in ensuring that highly mobile children with disabilities receive required special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs in a timely manner. | More

MaineCare Seed to be Recovered in February

The Quarter 1, 2023 January recovery of MaineCare seed will be delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. MaineCare Seed will be recovered in February’s subsidy payment. | More

Tenets of High-Quality, Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction for Pre-K to Grade 3 Students Released by Maine Department of Education

The success of Maine’s future requires an approach to education that fully prepares students for college, careers, and citizenship by focusing on their physical, emotional, and academic growth. The Maine DOE’s Whole Student Approach is a framework that invests in structures, people, and practices to develop educational systems that support healthy, safe, engaged, supported, challenged and prepared students. To accomplish this, the Maine DOE studies the science of learning and promotes evidence-based practices that support whole student development. A critical component of a whole student approach is to ensure intentionally planned foundational literacy instruction is available for all students in Pre-K to Grade 3. Strong literacy skills are essential for ensuring equitable academic, social, and emotional learning opportunities. | More

Resources for Black History Month

February marks Black History Month and the Maine Department of Education is sharing a collection of resources to help educators integrate Black history into the curriculum, not only this month but on a regular basis. | More

Maine DOE Staff & Maine Educators Honored in 2022 Fenway Bowl Honor Roll

The Wasabi Fenway Bowl, in partnership with Moderna, Amica Insurance, CVS Health, Samuel Adams, Extra Yard for Teachers, and Boston Globe Media, recently honored 30 people working in the education workforce in New England, 6 of the people recognized are from Maine’s education field. | More

Join us to Learn More About Celebrating the 2023 Week of the Young Child®

The Maine Department of Education and the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children (MaineAEYC) invite you to join us in celebrating the Week of the Young Child®, an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), during the week of April 1-7, 2023. While the Week of the Young Child is still a couple of months away, the Maine DOE and MaineAEYC are providing a couple of informational sessions in early February to help schools and communities start to plan for how they will celebrate. | More

Maine CDC Seeking Participants for Maine Young Adult Survey

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is partnering with Public Consulting Group LLC (PCG) to administer a web-based anonymous health survey to enhance the data available on the young adult (18–30-year-old) population living in Maine. | More

Get to Know the Maine DOE Team: Meet Laura Cyr

Maine DOE Team member Laura Cyr is being highlighted this week as part of the Get to Know the Maine DOE Team Campaign. Learn a little more about Laura. | More

Maine Schools Sharing Success Stories

Monmouth Memorial’s Makerspace Reaching Even More Students

Yarmouth Students Find Their Courage with SpiritCorps

Eighth graders at Frank H. Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth faced their fears this fall as they wrote, recorded, and shared short video stories of Courage from their own lives for SpiritCorps. | More

| Submit your Maine School Success Story |

Professional Development & Training Opportunities

WEBINAR: Annual Foster Care Training for Point of Contacts – Jan 31st

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015, amending the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). ESSA contains provisions related to protections for children in foster care and requires the Maine Department of Education ( DOE) and Maine school administrative units (SAUs) to collaborate with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to ensure educational stability for children in foster care. | More

Webinar Special Topics Series – Leveraging Student Strengths: Neurodiversity and Mathematics

The Office of Special Services and Inclusive Education at the Maine Department of Education is pleased to announce our next speaker in our Special Topics Series – Dr. Rachel Lambert! | More

USM Teacher Certification Program for Current School Employees

Do you have educators in your district with bachelor’s degrees who are seeking initial teacher certification? Consider directing them to the University of Southern Maine’s (USM) ETEP Program. | More

Special Topic Series on Inclusivity and Multi-tiered Systems of Support

The Maine Department of Education’s Office of Special Services & Inclusive Education is hosting a Special Topic Series around inclusivity and multi-tiered systems of support through the winter and spring months. | More

Afghan Refugee School Success Events in Portland and Lewiston

The Office of Maine Refugee Services is hosting events in both Portland and Lewiston for teachers, school administrators, and school districts that are serving Maine’s newly arrived Afghan students and their families. The workshop will be focused on cultural advisement, student success, and whole-family engagement. There will also be culturally and linguistically appropriate training for Afghan parents and guardians on parenting, school, and school engagement in the US. | More

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Training for Maine PBIS Schools

Maine PBIS is offering a 3-day Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Training for our Maine PBIS schools. An FBA is the process used to assess a specific behavior that is interfering with a student’s academic, social, emotional, and behavioral goals. | More

Webinar: Functional Communication – More than Just a New App

| Visit the Professional Development Calendar |

Latest DOE Career/Project Opportunities:

View current Maine Department of Education employment opportunities here

MaineCare Seed to be Recovered in February

The Quarter 1, 2023 January recovery of MaineCare seed will be delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.

MaineCare Seed will be recovered in February’s subsidy payment.

For further information, please reach out to Stephanie Clark, Maine DOE Fiscal Review & Compliance Consultant at stephanie.clark@maine.gov.

WEBINAR: Functional Communication – More Than Just a New App!

The Maine Department of Education is pleased to present “Functional Communication: More than just a new app!”

Please join us on February 1st from 3:30-5:00 pm for a free virtual workshop presented by Fran Bodkin, MA CCC-SLP, in order to support all school personnel in understanding students with communication needs. Communication is vital to participating in society at all levels; school, home and community. Students who have difficulty expressing themselves and getting their needs met frequently experience frustration and may exhibit interfering behaviors in attempting to communicate what they need and want.

In this presentation you will learn:

How functional communication impacts students across settings
What is a functional communication evaluation and who can do one?
How to seek an evaluation or alternate supports
Different levels of assistive technology to support communication
How you can support students across settings
How to help students reach their full potential
How to leverage communication to support positive behaviors
How to have fun with communication!

1.5 contact hours will be offered to participants of this webinar.

For more information contact Erin Frazier at Erin.Frazier@maine.gov.

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Training for Maine PBIS Schools

Maine PBIS is offering a 3 day Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Training for our Maine PBIS schools. A FBA is the process used to assess a specific behavior that is interfering with a student’s academic, social, emotional and behavioral goals. This team-based training will support your school staff in identifying why the behavior is happening through a variety of assessment tools and procedures leading to the development of a positive behavior support plan individualized to the student’s strengths and needs.

Team-based training, minimum of three team members per school
In-person training 8:30-3:00 pm (3/21, 4/4, 4/25)
The training is cumulative, participants will need to attend all three sessions – 18 contact hours are available to participants who attend all 3 sessions.
In-person at University of Southern Maine, Gorham Campus: 37 College Ave, 8 Bailey Hall – Room 301/301C in Gorham, ME

Please contact Anne-Marie Adamson (anne-marie.adamson@maine.gov) with questions.

Join us to Learn More About Celebrating the 2023 Week of the Young Child®

Consider registering to attend one of the following virtual informational sessions:

February 2nd, 3-4 pm – Register here
February 9th, 1-2 pm – Register here

NAEYC is the world’s largest early childhood education association with close to 60,000 members and a network of 52 Affiliates, committed to promoting high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8. Their collective vision is that all young children thrive and learn in a society dedicated to ensuring they reach their full potential.

The purpose of Week of the Young Child® is two fold. First, it aims to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families while recognizing the early childhood programs, services and providers who meet those needs. Second, it calls on citizens and communities to consider and plan how we can better meet the needs of young children and families at the local, state and national levels.

Week of the Young Child® is an exciting series of fun filled daily themes that celebrate young children, their families, their teachers and the communities that support them.

It is our hope that programs serving young children and their families will plan and participate in activities that support the daily themes and call attention to the important work you are doing. This is a great opportunity for schools, child care centers, home child care programs, before & after care programs, public libraries, museums, and community organizations to come together to collaborate and organize celebrations in communities across the state. MaineAEYC and the DOE have several activities planned for the week, including ECE STATE HOUSE DAY in Augusta on April 5^th from 8:00am to 12:00pm. We hope to see you there!

Want to learn more about the Week of the Young Child (WOYC)? Interested in being a part of WOYC, but not sure how? Want to plan a WOYC event, but looking for ideas? Want to learn more about WOYC mini grants being offered by MaineAEYC?

Join MaineAEYC and the Department of Education for a Week of the Young Child Informational Session on: February 2nd, 3-4pm OR February 9th, 1-2pm

You can find Week of the Young Child® resources, including a guidebook and mini-grant opportunity, at the MaineAEYC, DOE and NAEYC websites. For more information please feel free to contact:.

Morgan Hart Tolin, M.Ed
Professional Learning Director
Maine Association for the Education of Young Children
morgan@maineaeyc.org

Nicole Madore
Early Childhood Specialist
Maine Department of Education
Nicole.Madore@maine.gov

Marcy Whitcomb
Public Pre-K Consultant
Maine Department of Education
marcy.r.whitcomb@maine.gov

Sue Gallant
Pre-K Expansion Consultant
Maine Department of Education
Sue.Gallant@maine.gov

Monmouth Memorial’s Makerspace Reaching Even More Students

A finished student independent project from wood and stain

Monmouth Memorial School has some innovative ideas on how to involve more of its students with their makerspace. Not only is this makerspace available to whole classes and individuals throughout the day, but students in grades 6-8 also take a unified arts class where they are exposed to many different components of the makerspace, including 3D printing, motors and electronics, woodworking, sewing, all the way to virtual and augmented reality. By the time the students finish middle school, they will have developed makerspace skills, learned about the design process, and completed an independent project. These projects can be hands-on, virtual, or anything in between with some projects including a YouTube instructional video on quilt sewing, marble runs, an American Flag made out of wood and stain, safety guides on tools in the makerspace, and a three-foot-tall basketball hoop.

Monmouth Memorial's studio space — Monmouth Memorial’s studio space

The makerspace projects are spearheaded by Elizabeth Bellegarde, the district librarian, and Seth Mitchell, who is the school’s technology integrator and the 2022 Kennebec County Teacher of the Tear. Bellegarde feels the system is a great fit for their school, saying “I feel as though the set-up we have is ideal for our school’s structure, allowing the maximum amount of student access.” That structure allows for many different projects happening all at once, with one space designed as a work area that involves everything from power tools and snap circuits as well as materials for the Lego Robotics and VEX Robotics teams, which competed in the 2022 Vex Robotics World Championship.

In the makerspace unified arts class, 6th-8th grade students will be working on a wide array of projects simultaneously, with Bellegarde moving between groups to provide support when needed. Students enthusiastically switch between low-tech and high-tech skills to complete their projects, but the energy and excitement from the students is constantly pulpable.

“It takes time to build that culture,” Mitchell says, “having administration who see the value in this program makes it even more successful.”

Attached to the main makerspace area is Monmouth’s studio space. This area contains a wide array of materials including a sound board, iPad teleprompter, green screen walls, and resources for video editing. “Students and teachers have this wonderful resource available [that can] extend learning in a way that wasn’t previously possible,” Bellegarde says. “By using the makerspace this way, classes become more fun with memorable experiences that will increase retention.” For many students in the makerspace unified arts class, having flexibility between both learning spaces gives them even more options to create unique projects.

Bellegarde wants to continue making these learning resources available for as many students as possible. “We are still working on making more students aware of this opportunity, the makerspace unified arts class is a huge part of that,” she says, “but the students who do take advantage of the makerspace find it to be a rewarding experience.” Not only can students participate in the unified arts class, classroom teachers can use the space for whole-class learning experiences as well as individual students working independently during study halls and available times throughout the day. Bellegarde sees these learning experiences leading to the development of lifelong design, critical thinking, decision-making, and independent skills. “For me, this is the best part of the makerspace.”

This story was written and coordinated by MLTI Ambassador Joshua Schmidt as part of the Maine Schools Sharing the Success Campaign. To learn more, or to submit a story or an idea for a story, email rachel.paling@maine.gov.