Maine PBIS 2022-2023 Cohort Applications Now Open

Maine Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a state-wide effort designed to help school teams form a proactive, school-wide, systems approach to improving social and academic competence for all students. Schools in Maine are engaging in the implementation of PBIS through a variety of training and coaching opportunities offered by the Maine Department of Education in strong partnership with the University of Maine System. PBIS has documented outcomes for schools who implement PBIS with fidelity and integrity related to dramatic decreases in the number of behavior problems experienced in their schools. Additionally, students and staff in these schools report higher ratings of school climate scores than those in comparative schools who do not use a system of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

Maine DOE is now accepting new applications for schools and SAUs interested in joining a 3-year professional development cohort to establish a strong PBIS Tier One System.

To receive the application, please go to https://forms.office.com/g/P8k2wy3veW.

For more information, please contact Anne-Marie.Adamson@maine.gov.

Get to Know the Maine DOE Team: Meet Julie Smyth

Maine DOE team member Julie Smyth is being highlighted this week as part of the Get to Know the Maine DOE Team Campaign. Learn a little more about Julie in the question and answer below.

What are your roles with DOE?

I am the Director of the Office of School and Student Supports. This office oversees three teams – the Climate, Culture, Resilience Team; the Coordinated School Health Team; and the School Approval/Enrollment Team. We refer to ourselves as the O-Triple-S (or O3S).

What do you like best about your job?

I work with amazing professionals and feel so supported across the department. I love to introduce ideas and to brainstorm, and my ideas and energy have been met with enthusiasm and appreciation. It’s a wonderful feeling to work with others who love Maine and the field of education as much as I do. I am so proud of our educators and school personnel in the field, and anything I can do to provide them support and to show my appreciation for all that they do is an incredible feeling. It drives me daily and fills me with immense purpose.

Julie Smyth Cross Cafe — I’m a huge fan of the Spicy Dill Pickle Chips in the Cross Cafe (shout out to Matt and Matt), so my first day at the Maine DOE in November 2021 would not have been complete without a selfie for my former co-host at Maine Ed. Matters podcast.

How or why did you decide on this career?

I like to think that education chose me. My family had limited college experience, and I walked on the Bates campus in 1989 thinking I’d study pre-law. I gravitated toward English courses, and in the spring of my first year, an opening was available for a class titled Introduction to Teaching. The rest is history! I knew immediately that I belonged on this track, and I have never regretted my decision. I taught high school English in Windham for thirteen years and then moved into the administrative route, where I spent time in the Old Orchard Beach and Saco systems. Although I miss the daily interactions with staff and students, I LOVE working for the Maine Department of Education and could not be more proud of the work of the O3S!

What do you like to do outside of work for fun?

I surround myself with amazing family and friends! My husband Curt and I enjoy spending time on the beaches in Biddeford and cheering on our two teenagers from the sidelines as they participate in soccer, basketball, track and baseball. Our two Biddeford Tigers fill us with a lot of pride! We also have quite a fierce tennis rivalry going – mom and son vs. dad and daughter! The more active we are the better!

There is Still Time to Nominate for Maine School Nurse of the Year

The Maine Association of School Nurses has opened nominations for the Maine School Nurse of the Year (SNOY) 2022-23.

This award recognizes an outstanding school nurse for their contributions to the school and community they serve. The award provides recognition to an individual who demonstrates leadership in six areas of practice: care provision, program management, health education, professional development, community involvement, and research.

The individual selected will receive a $500 cash award and be recognized at the July 2022 Maine School Nurse Summer Institute.

The application deadline is April 25, 2022. The completed nomination packet must include: Nomination Form, reference letters (3-5) with at least one from administration, curriculum vitae, and a written report addressing the six content areas. Submit the original and 3 copies by April 25, 2022 to SNOY Coordinator Erin Taylor at etaylor@capeelizabethschools.org.

If you know a school nurse who inspires you with their dedication to their school community, please consider nominating them for this prestigious award!

For more information, please visit the MASN website.

Registration for Math4ME is Now Open

The Maine Department of Education Office of Special Services, in collaboration with the Maine Math and Science Alliance (MMSA), is pleased to announce a new Math4ME cohort for the 2022-2023 school year. Math4ME is designed to increase access to mathematics for all learners through teacher professional development. This year, participants will register as a team – an administrator, general educator, special educator and ed tech for hands on in person learning and remote synchronous interactive sessions. To learn more about this math learning opportunity, please view the Math4ME Informational video found here:

To receive an application for the 2022-2023 Math4ME cohort please go to https://forms.office.com/g/PUizY0fmF2.

If you have questions, contact Anne-Marie Adamson at anne-marie.adamson@maine.gov.

Week of the Young Child: Artsy Thursday

Every year, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) hosts Week of the Young Child. This year, the celebration will occur from April 2nd through April 8th. Members of the Early Learning Team at the Department of Education plan to share a video each day highlighting early childhood educators across Maine enhancing high-quality experiences for young children ages birth through eight. Each day’s video will focus on NAEYC’s theme of the day. Today is Artsy Thursday!

Today’s video highlighting music in early childhood settings can be found here:

The resources linked within the video are below:

You can find the daily videos and resources posted on our Early Childhood Professional Learning and Resources page here.

Thank you to those who have contributed to the videos and photos. We enjoy highlighting your work and sharing your commitment to young children with our colleagues throughout Maine.

Throughout the week, be sure to share additional photos and ideas using #WOYC2022 and #MEWOYC2022. Tomorrow, we’ll share another video for Family Friday.

Any questions regarding the Week of the Young Child can be directed to our Early Childhood Specialist, Nicole.Madore@maine.gov.

Celebrating National Poetry Month (Updated): Digital Resources, Events, and Great Poets!

As part of National Poetry Month, we’ve compiled some fantastic digital resources, events, and great poets to help with integrating poetry into teaching and learning throughout the month.

Digital Resources:

Digital Resources for Poetry Month (download PDF version of infographic above with links!)

Click the image to download PDF version with links!

Events:

Dear Poet 2022 – invites students in grades 5 – 12 to write letters in response to poems.
Digital Poetry Workshop with MLTI Ambassador Kate Meyer on April 7th – Register Here
The 19th annual Poetry & the Creative Mind event will be exclusively presented online on April 28th.

Sample Lesson Structures (NEW)

Great Poets:

The Maine Department of Education will be highlighting great poets with Maine ties all month long on our social media sites, follow us to learn more and continue the celebration:

WEBINAR: Resilience Strategies for Educators: Techniques for Self-Care and Peer Support

Resilience Strategies for Educators (RSE): Techniques for Self-Care and Peer Support Train-the-Educator (TtE) Virtual Training by Request (VTBR) is a virtual learning opportunity coming up for caregivers in schools and school districts to better understand, and teach others, resilience strategies following emergency events.

The REMS TA Center is excited to offer the NEW Resilience Strategies for Educators: Techniques for Self-Care and Peer Support (RSE) Train-the-Educator (TtE) Virtual Training by Request (VTBR) created in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Supportive Schools (OSSS). This dynamic and interactive half-day-long training is designed to assist caregivers in schools and school districts to better understand resilience and self-care strategies following natural disasters and other emergency events.

Participants will gain the knowledge and hands-on skills needed to implement the five components of Psychological First Aid — listen, protect, connect, model, and teach, as well as awareness about compassion fatigue, and how to build a self-care plan.

Pre- and -post training activities will provide guidance on how this training is relevant to emergency operations planning and assist with the implementation of what is learned.

TRAINING DETAILS
When: Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET
Cost: NO CHARGE
Register here. (Registration for this event closes on Friday, April 22, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.)

TRAINING DESCRIPTION
As part of a comprehensive school emergency operations plan, it is important for schools and school districts to understand how to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from critical incidents, including social, emotional, and behavioral recovery. The training is designed to provide educators and school staff with a better understanding of resilience strategies that can be used to increase their ability to work more effectively with individuals impacted by stress, loss, and trauma brought on by community or family violence, natural and man-made disasters and economic hardship.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
The training is applicable in areas that have been impacted by traumatic events and/or natural disasters, as well as those that have not recently experienced a traumatic event(s). The intended audiences for this training include, but are not limited to:

• School counselors and psychologists
• School social workers and nurses
• Administrators, educators, and support staff
• School Resource Officers
• Community partners such as local mental/behavioral health practitioners

For more information and questions reach out to REMS directly at info@remstacenter.org or contact Maine School Safety Center (MSSC) staff Melissa Condon at melissa.a.condon@maine.gov.

Jazz Informance Livestream on 4/19 Featuring Herbie Hancock, Sean Jones, U.S. Education Secretary

The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education, will present a peer-to-peer jazz informance on Tuesday, April 19, featuring the Peer-to-Peer Jazz Quintet. Hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona and 14-time GRAMMY Award-winning jazz legend Herbie Hancock, the “informance” – a combination of performance and educational information – will be presented by five of the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area’s most talented high school music students alongside internationally acclaimed jazz trumpet recording artist Sean Jones, and renowned jazz educator Dr. JB Dyas.

The informance will be livestreamed from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) headquarters building in Washington, D.C., beginning at 1 pm Eastern Time, to hundreds of school districts in the United States and around the world, streamed on ED’s YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, and streamed on the Institute’s website. It will not only focus on what jazz is and why it’s important to America, but also on leadership in the time of a crisis, such as a pandemic, and how the principles of jazz – collaborating, improvising, not seeking perfection, playing off each other’s strengths, perseverance and the vital importance of really listening to one another – can enlighten leaders as they navigate through a crisis, uncertainty and challenging times.

Download the full press release.

Continue the Conversation with Maine DOE and the McKinney-Vento Community Regional Representatives

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) has contracted with several organizations to provide county-specific support to schools for implementing the requirements of McKinney-Vento Act, including New Beginnings, Preble Street, Shaw House, Gateway Community Services Maine, and the Maine Youth Action Board.

The Maine DOE will continue this collaboration with virtual Regional Meetings to share available regional and statewide resources, and hold space to discuss the most pressing issues schools in Maine are currently facing with homelessness.

Join us for the April and May Regional Meetings

Hear updates on federal, state, and local policies and resources for students and families who are homeless or have unstable housing.
Learn how to increase your school and district’s capacity to support students.
Brainstorm solution-oriented strategies affecting youth in your school and community.
Network with colleagues from other schools and organizations in your region.

Dates and Times for Schools and Organizations in Your Region!

No cost to participants ~ Registration is required.

Kennebec & Somerset Counties

Wednesday, April 27

9:00-10:00

Register here

Androscoggin, Franklin, & Oxford Counties

Wednesday, April 27

1:00-2:00

Register here

Penobscot & Piscataquis Counties

Thursday, April 28

9:00-10:00

Register here

Washington & Hancock Counties

Thursday, April 28 11:00-12:00am

Register here

York & Cumberland Counties

Friday, April 29

9:00-10:00

Register here

Mid Coast Counties

Wednesday, May 4

9:30-10:30

Register here

Aroostook County

Thursday, May 5

10:00-11:00

Register here

For More Information Contact:

Amelia Lyons at amelia.lyons@maine.gov or Susan Lieberman at susan.lieberman88@gmail.com.

LRTC 8023 – A Robotics Underdog Story

Pictured: Team LRTC 8023 with their robot. From left to right: Ahmed Hussein, Omar Osman, Jacob Willette, and Chance Tuttle.

April 2nd – 10th is National Robotics Week, a time to focus attention on this interdisciplinary component of computer science. In Maine public schools, robotics comes to life in a variety of ways. From our high school students participating in robotic competitions down to the youngest elementary student programming robots to follow a sequence, robotics is a grassroots effort that we can see in many schools. This recognition, dating back to 2009, has a simple mission – “to inspire students in robotics and STEM-related fields and to share the excitement of robotics with audiences of all ages.”

This second installment highlights the underdog story of LRTC 8023 (Team 8023*) from Lewiston Regional Technology Center. The team formed in 2019 and only had one competition under their belt when FIRST suspended the season. At that first meet in Massachusetts, they walked away the Rookie Inspiration Award and many lessons learned from competing on the field.

LRTC 8023’s two awards in a display case at their school. Two events, two awards, including an Alliance win, is quite the feat. The broken piece was sent with love from Team 6324 with the inscription “Ouch!”

After a year and half without in-person competitions, the team made their return to the carpet for the Pine Tree District’s FIRST Robotics Competition held at Thomas College in Waterville. The twenty-six teams were from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, many of them with long established programs and experienced mentors.

The team had been spending months getting their robot ready for their first competition of the 2022 season. They were, however, underdogs. They came out of the qualifying matches with a 3-6 record. They were brought into an Alliance with Orange Chaos (Team 4564) out of Brewer and Morpheus (Team 5813) out of New Hampshire going into the playoffs. After a spectacular final match with a close point count, LRTC came out victorious. It was a big lift for the young team mentored by LRTC Trade Works instructor Alan Graves and Lewiston High School Social Studies teacher Kathy County. As a result, they ranked 21 of 183 in New England district. LRTC 8023 was one of the fourteen Maine teams headed down to the NE District Pease ANG Event this past weekend, where the field was deep and the competition was fierce. They came in 32nd overall after a 5-7 record during qualifying and did not make the playoffs. “They worked hard, showed up and had what it took to show what a true underdog can do,” LRTC Student Services Support Kelsey Poliquin said. The town of Lewiston recognized the team’s accomplishments and proclaimed April 5th to be “Robotics Team Day” and invited the team to city hall to be formally recognized.

If you would like to follow LRTC 8023, check out their Facebook page or their Twitter feed. To learn more about opportunities for Robotics in Maine schools, check out Robotics Institute of Maine (RIM). For information about computer science in Maine schools, please check out the Maine Department of Education’s Computer Science page. If you have a robotics success story at your school, email jonathan.m.graham@maine.gov.

* team numbers are given in order of creation, so LRTC 8023 is the 8023^rd team to become part of FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition).