Gorham High School ELO Program Gives Students Confidence in Career Exploration

As Gorham High School’s Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) Instructor, Grace Olsen works “to provide meaningful career aligned opportunities to high school students.” Working alongside Eliza Kenigsberg, the school’s Career Aspirations & ELO Coordinator, Olsen helps connect students to business mentors and subsequent internship, job shadow, and volunteer work experiences.

Olsen says the best part of her day is working with her students. “Watching a student flourish in their ELO placement is rewarding and motivates me to help connect with more students,” said Olsen.

Last school year, 50 Gorham students participated in an ELO. However, students at the school who did not directly pursue an ELO were still able to take part in career exploration activities such as the program’s Career X events which involved over 45 guest speakers of various career paths and occupations. As Gorham’s ELO program continues to expand, Olsen is hopeful they will be able to double the number of students in the program in the current school year while also offering plenty of school-wide career exploration events.

One of the program’s goals is to help students who were interested in vocational school but were unable to attend. One student was interested in pursuing a veterinary career and thus looked into a medical occupation vocational program. Upon deciding the program was not a good fit for her, the student and Olsen were able to work together to connect her with a meaningful ELO placement as an intern at the Maine Veterinary Medical Center. As one of many ELO success stories, Olsen’s student shared that this experience made her much more confident about her career path and life after high school.

Olsen has helped students connect with mentors and experiences in a wide variety of fields from engineering to real estate to education and more. She has helped connect students who are interested in a career in education to teacher mentors at local elementary and middle schools, allowing them to gain real work experience in a classroom. “I’m excited to see where life takes these students,” says Olsen. “It’s wonderful to witness young people be interested in education, especially when we continue to need wonderful educators in our schools and communities!”

Looking ahead, Olsen is excited about the expansion of Gorham’s ELO program and looks forward to helping more students as they explore and work toward their future careers.

Olsen would like to extend a thank you to the following organizations for their contributions to Gorham’s ELO program: Moody’s Auto Collision, Rarebreed Veterinary Partners, Jøtul, Great Falls Construction, Harvey Performance, MK Kitchen, IDEXX, Sappi Paper, Maplewood Dental Arts, Erin Flett, Furnishing Hope, Presumpscot Regional Land Trust, Gorham House, Maine Health, Casco Bay Electric, Baxter Memorial Library, and Carter’s Auto Service.

Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) are hands-on, credit-bearing courses outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. These opportunities are personalized for students and help them explore options for their professional lives. They help students engage in learning through instruction, assignments, and experiential learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE), along with state-wide partner Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG), have made a concerted effort to provide working models, support, and funding opportunities for Maine schools to set up ELO programs within their school communities. To learn more about Maine’s initiatives with extended learning opportunities, visit: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/learning/elo or reach out to Maine DOE ELO Coordinator Rick Wilson at rick.wilson@maine.gov.

Old Town Elementary School Celebrates 20 Year Anniversary with a Book Vending Machine for Students

What do you do to celebrate your school’s 20th Year of Education? Old Town Elementary School wasn’t quite sure what to do to spark their students and make them appreciate all the wonderful things the school has offered over the course of 20 years, but School librarian Michelle Reesman knew just what to do. She approached the school’s Parent Teacher Club and asked the team to purchase a personalized book vending machine to support the students’ pro-social behavior plan during the new school year.

The Book Vending Machine sits in the main hallway at Old Town Elementary School and brightens each student’s face as they walk by and admire all the books to win. Each month the students and their teacher focus on a new characteristic/behavior. All the students work towards those skills in their classrooms with read-alouds, lessons, and activities to support a growth mindset. At the end of the month, students are chosen from each classroom that exemplifies those characteristics and are given a token to use in the Book Vending Machine. The selection of the book, the token dropped in, and the excitement of reaching in and getting the book are more special than you can imagine.

Old Town Elementary School Book Vending Machine

Student using Old Town Elementary School Book Vending Machine

“On this 20th anniversary year at Old Town Elementary, we believe we have hit the sweet spot with the purchase of our Book Vending Machine,” said Old Town Elementary School Principal Jeanna Tool. “The bright and shiny machine is just a small sample of how our school continues to reach for new and exciting activities to benefit our learners. We are grateful for a community that supports and invests in our students.”

Here’s to 20 more years of fun~!

This story was contributed by Old Town Elementary School. To submit a good news story or idea to the Maine DOE please email Rachel Paling at rachel.paling@maine.gov.

Presque Isle High School Students Get Life-Changing ELO Experience on Hurricane Island Thanks to Anonymous Donor

Seventeen Presque Isle High School (PIHS) students, along with two University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) students, recently had the opportunity to participate in a week-long educational experience at Hurricane Island. This exciting experience was made possible due to an anonymous donor who fully funded the adventure, and was open to any student with an interest in career exploration in the sciences through Presque Isle High School’s newly implemented ELO program.

Hurricane Island runs field-based education programs with an emphasis on inspiring future environmental leaders. Students were able to experience the scientific process first-hand with the guidance of the expert staff at Hurricane Island. The feedback from PIHS students has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Hurricane Island was a life-changing experience that allowed me to learn and grow outside of the confines of a classroom,” said PIHS senior Morgan House who will be pursuing a career in the medical field. “The environment on the island encouraged not only learning but personal growth. I left the island feeling connected with my peers and built relationships that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible here at PIHS. You truly cannot place a number on the value of a hands-on education. I will be forever grateful to the donor who made this trip possible”

Thanks to a two-year, $250,000 grant from the Maine Department of Education, Presque Isle High School has been able to partner with the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Caribou High School to implement programs offering extended learning opportunities (ELOs). ELOs are defined as hands-on opportunities outside of the traditional classroom with an emphasis on community-based career exploration. Allison Reed, Director of Guidance, is the ELO Coordinator for MSAD#1.

“The partnerships forged between schools and local businesses are proving to be mutually beneficial, with companies gaining fresh perspectives from the next generation of talent, and students gaining meaningful job shadowing experiences,” said Reed. “By providing students with opportunities to explore their passions, schools are nurturing a generation of informed, motivated, and inspired individuals poised to make a meaningful impact on the world.”

Windham Primary School Summer Technology Program Motivates Student Learning, Improves Comprehension During School Year

According to ID Tech, research indicates that approximately two months of reading and math skills are lost over a single summer. Often referred to as ‘summer slide’ or ‘summer learning loss,’ the students most affected by this educational shortfall are in grades 1 through 8. Many elementary school teachers across the nation find that they need to re-teach basic math and reading skills when students return to classes in the fall.

However, that is not the case for many students at Windham Primary School (WPS) who have participated for the past three years in the free Summer Technology Program. The students not only gain learning targets once school begins in the fall but develop a love of learning and can easily engage in the regular classroom setting.

WPS Instructional Interventionist Debbie Greenlaw has led this summer program since its inception. She stated that students who participate in at least 35-60 minutes a week of reading and math exercises during the summer months continue to make great educational strides.

“Since starting this program, I have noticed that students are more inspired to stay engaged in the classroom and the overall testing scores have improved,” she said. “Students have also increased in phonemic awareness, meaning they can recognize and master the spoken parts of words, syllables, etc.”

Students can choose to participate from among one to three online summer curricula. Two include reading programs, one known as Lexia and the other as Raz-Kids, and one math program known as I-Ready.

“Part of the reason why the Summer Technology Program works so well is because the three online curricula promote fun learning adventures with computer-generated animation that young students love. They don’t even know they are learning, improving their math and literacy skills. Also, each program creates personalized learning paths for students with scaffolding activities to use at their own pace.”

There were several reasons parents encouraged their children to participate in the program. One parent, Beth Leighton had both of her daughters, WPS second-grade student Addison, and her sister Leah, a fourth-grade student at Manchester, join the summer program because they were receiving additional help during the school year and had made considerable progress.

“I didn’t want them to lose it over the summer and thought this would be the best way to keep them going since they both enjoy the online programs,” Leighton said.

Leighton believes the summer program prevented her daughters from summer learning loss.

“I do believe the program helped them when it comes to being excited and engaged at the start of the new school year,” she said. “In the past years there were a lot of anxious feelings about starting back up and struggles in getting back on track with the reading and math, and this year they were both excited to start school and so far, no emotions over school being ‘too hard’.”

WPS Principal Dr. Kyle Rhoads initiated the idea for promoting the Summer Technology Program and reached out to Greenlaw to lead it.

“We experienced that during the school year, the use of academic technology programs by many of our learners was a motivating learning tool,” he said. “Many of our learners were engaged by the gamified nature of the programs. We believed there was an opportunity to expand the use during the summer and at home. We felt strongly that we would need a staff member to oversee and facilitate the use by families and Mrs. Greenlaw was just right for leading this program.”

Greenlaw enjoys observing the feeling of triumph the students experience.

“Every student has their own unique way of learning, and it is my personal goal to figure a way to help the students become more confident with their reading,” she said.

Greenlaw is quick to point out that the success of the summer technology program is a team effort.

“I had a lot of support and assistance from the WPS Technology Department and teachers Matt Calder and Rebecca Miller. I couldn’t have done it without their assistance. I also want to give a big shout-out to Kellie Sampson at Central Office who helped me stuff all the envelopes with gifts for the students and mailed them out for me so efficiently. And of course, the parents who supported their children along the way. But most of all, it was the students themselves who worked so eagerly on their own literacy and math skills during the summer months that moved me most of all.”

This story was provided by Lorraine Glowczak, Director of Community Connections & Storytelling Ambassador for RSU 14. To submit a story or an idea, email Rachel Paling at rachel.paling@maine.gov.

How Project G.R.O.W. (Garden Roots & Outdoor Wellness) is Impacting Students at Mt. Ararat High School

Project G.R.O.W. (Garden Roots & Outdoor Wellness) at Mt. Ararat High School has taken off! The program is led by Darcy Baggett and Becca Norklun.

Throughout the 2022/2023 school year, they had garden involvement in a variety of ways, all of which contributed to meeting their impact goal of 1870 student hours.

In the Fall, the team was able to partner with both the Interact Club and the Brunswick Area Rotary Club to build a tool shed. Two adults and five students built it together over a weekend using the MAITC (Maine Agriculture in the Classroom) grant-funded shed kit. This now enables them to house all of their new tools and equipment, also purchased with the funding, out of harm, and in a locked space.

Perhaps the most exciting project of the year was the collaborative sculpture project, organized by the school’s Art Department, their Community Pathways Program, and Project GROW. They invited internationally known environmental sculptor, Patrick Dougherty and his son, Sam Dougherty to work with roughly 200 students over the course of two full days to make large garden sculptures out of local saplings. It was featured on local news and in local papers – a huge success that students are still talking about!

Check out this video with more info!

Project GROW Garden Group met weekly, even throughout the winter, to plan the garden’s development, write area businesses and collaborators, harvest and sow Maine native seeds from their own school property, and more. The Leadership group is led by two Garden Coordinators, and eight students of varying high school ages. In the Spring, this group continued their work in the physical garden space, planting, harvesting, and planning new sections of the project’s “campus.”

Science teachers brought their students out to the garden during class time to teach them about the environment, plant and animal biology, and conduct soil science. An estimated number of students who were involved in the program through science classes is 100; some classes did this one time, others used the garden several times throughout the year for their research and outdoor exploration.

The health classes also used the garden to explore healthy living options, such as growing one’s own food, and discussing garden work as an opportunity for physical exercise. More specifically, t

he teacher of the “Fit for Life” course brought her students to the garden each semester, creating short-term visits with long-term impact for approximately 50 students.The Functional Life Skills class, Alternative Education Program, and the Community Pathways programs each used the garden this spring as a place for healthy, hands-on, outdoor learning. Collectively, these programs serve approximately thirty students and do a variety of things appropriate for their students’ needs.

This year, the district’s extended school year program for students with special needs was offered at Mt. Ararat High School, which means that 95 elementary and middle school students had access to Project GROW, as well. Every rain-free day of the 4-week program, these young students could be seen walking the gardens, sampling green beans, exploring our stick sculptures, and playing games.

“As a garden coordinator, it was an incredibly rewarding and unexpected scene this summer,” said one of the Project GROW organizers.

While their goal for student use has been met this year, they still hope to increase garden access even further. The Project organizers believe all academic disciplines at MTA can benefit from the use of Project GROW.

Follow along on their new Instagram account: @MTA_ProjectGROW

This story originated in the Maine Agriculture in the Classroom Newsletter where you can find more good news, grants, resources and more. To submit a story or an idea to showcase the great things happening in Maine schools email Rachel Paling at rachel.paling@maine.gov.