Category: Good News from Schools

Hancock County Technical Center Teacher Meghan Stubbs Surprised with National Recognition

Meghan Stubbs, a career and technical education (CTE) teacher at Hancock County Technical Center, found herself at the center of a heartwarming surprise during a schoolwide assembly earlier today. The visit by Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin to commend the school’s CTE programs also honored Stubbs’ individual contributions with a Milken Educator Award, a distinguished recognition bestowed by the Milken Family Foundation. The Award honors outstanding educators across the country for their innovation, achievements and exemplary leadership, and it includes $25,000 that the recipients may use however they choose.

Hailed as the “Oscars of Teaching,” the Awards will honor up to 75 recipients across the country in 2023-24 as part of the Milken Family Foundation’s Journey to the 3,000th Milken Educator. 2023-24 will reach $75 million in individual financial prizes spanning the length of the initiative and more than $144 million invested in the Milken Educator Award national network overall, empowering recipients to “Celebrate, Elevate, and Activate” the K-12 profession and inspiring young, capable people to pursue teaching as a career.

“Dedicated, an advocate, a leader, and an all-in educator: That’s how Meghan Stubbs is known at Hancock County Technical Center,” said Commissioner Makin. “Meghan is constantly seeking ways to support her students, lift up her colleagues, and foster connections with the community. Being one of her students means not just gaining the skills and knowledge needed to be an early childhood educator but also getting real-world experience through the childcare center she established at the school, competing in state and national competitions, and developing a strong civic voice through visits with legislators at the State Capitol. We are proud to join the entire Ellsworth community to honor and celebrate Meghan Stubbs for her extraordinary contributions to her students, colleagues, and public education in Maine.”

The Milken Educator Award is not a lifetime achievement honor. Recipients are sought out while early to mid-career for what they have achieved – and for the promise of what they will accomplish given the resources and opportunities afforded by the Award. The Maine DOE led the selection committee process for the Award.

More About Meghan Stubbs

Enrichment Through Civic Responsibility: Stubbs cultivates a welcoming, safe atmosphere for students in her highly regarded Career and Technical Education program, focusing on early childhood education. This program not only equips students with the knowledge and skills needed for leadership roles in their school and community, but also emphasizes the importance of civic involvement. For example, Stubbs organizes field trips to the state capital where her students advocate for early childhood education and positive changes in childcare practices.

Hands-On, Early Childhood Instruction: Leading by example, Stubbs established the “Caterpillar Clubhouse,” an on-site, part-time childcare center at the school. Under her guidance, students have the unique opportunity to mentor 3- and 4-year-olds, creating a rich learning experience that extends beyond textbooks. Collaborating with the local elementary school and YMCA, Stubbs provides her students with hands-on experiences across different age groups, and most of her students go on to earn their Certified Early Childhood Assistant certification each year.

Fostering Pathways to Success: Stubbs leads one of Maine’s most active chapters of SkillsUSA, a student-led organization that connects young adults to trade industries for career opportunities. Stubbs serves as a SkillsUSA advisor at both the state and national levels and volunteers on the SkillsUSA Maine Board of Directors. Her students have excelled at SkillsUSA competitions, with some earning gold medals and serving as state officers. Stubbs is active on Hancock’s MELMAC committee that works with students to make informed decisions about their futures, starting with advancing successfully to college or post-secondary training. New teachers look to Stubbs’ guidance and support to instill these values in their own students.

A Role Model Beyond the School: Stubbs’ generosity extends to the community, where she spearheads initiatives such as food and clothing drives. She is also engaged in Comfort Cases, a project that assembles backpacks with essential personal care items for youth entering the foster care system.

Education: Stubbs earned her Bachelor of Arts in early childhood education and child and family studies from Lesley University in 2012.

How Mt. Ararat High School is Integrating their Community Pathways Program Across the Curriculum

Doug Ware’s role as Community Learning Coordinator is to develop and facilitate Mt Ararat High School’s relatively new Community Pathways program. The overarching goal of the program is to enhance the traditional academic curriculum for the school’s full diversity of students by providing credit-bearing extended learning opportunities. These offerings are intended to engage students in their interests, passions, and potential career paths through discovery, exploration, and experience.

Along with this, Ware has also been working to connect students and classrooms to opportunities in the community through several initiatives including a new Community Pathways Career Exploration Series which brings in a range of guest speakers to the school to discuss their work. He also works to facilitate field trips and other such events in an effort to connect students to both opportunities and place-based experiences.

Ware also co-leads a new “Mt. Ararat Eagles SOAR” summer program, which provides students who may most benefit with the opportunity to engage in traditional boatbuilding and more than a dozen outings over the course of the summer.  This year’s cohort had the great fortune of building a traditional wooden skiff at the Maine Maritime Museum under the guidance of their expert boatbuilders.

“I value the opportunities to work with students of all backgrounds and abilities, enriching their lives with relevant, immersive experiences that meet their individual needs, passions, and aspirations,” said Ware.

“We are working to forge Community Pathways collaborations with both external partners and with other programs within our school and district,” added Ware.

Some examples include the incorporation of the Career Exploration Series into the sophomore advisory curriculum, collaborating with the school’s Project GROW school garden club, and countless collaborations with other educators at all levels from elementary right on up to high school where he has been initiating a teaching assistant program. Ware has also involved the district technology integration team, the district gifted and talented, and has also worked with the Facilities and Grounds department at Mt. Ararat to give students career and community exploration experiences.

Ware has also facilitated regular and ongoing collaboration between Mt. Ararat H.S., Brunswick H.S., Morse H.S., Freeport H.S., Midcoast Youth Center, Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber, Retail Association of Maine, Maine Tourism Association, Maine DOE, MDECD, and JMG.  This effort is to help develop a regional and cooperative career exploration program.  The hope is to expand the program’s offerings in several areas including internships, career exploration bus tours, guest speakers, job posting services, and other events/fairs. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

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.

DOE Podcast Features Yarmouth High School Students Engaged in Hands-On, Real-World Extended Learning Opportunities

Commissioner Makin Talks with Sarah Hinson About Her Veterinary ELO and Liam Hannah About His Summer ELO Building a Robot that Serves Drinks. The Maine DOE Has Invested $5.6 Million to Expand ELOs Across Maine

On the latest episode of her What Holds Us Together podcast, Maine Department of Education (DOE) Commissioner Pender Makin spoke with two Yarmouth High School students about their experiences pursuing what they are passionate about through their school’s Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) program. Yarmouth senior Sarah Hinson gets school credit and paid work experience through her ELO at Portland Veterinary Hospital and junior Liam Hannah engaged in a summer ELO to program and build a drink serving robot which also earned him school credit.

Listen here.

Extended Learning Opportunities offer students creative and flexible opportunities to explore what they are passionate about and develop skills and knowledge that will set them up for success in school and life, all while gaining school credit and the option of paid work experience. The Maine DOE has awarded $5.6 million in Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan (MJRP) funding to 26 school administrative units and community-based organizations to create or expand ELOs across the state.

“We’re going to be discussing an exciting, innovative approach to interdisciplinary, hands-on, real-world learning called Extended Learning Opportunities,” said Makin in the podcast’s opening. “I met Sarah, Liam, and several of their classmates when I visited their school to hear more about these ELOs. What I heard was so impressive and inspirational that I wanted to have them on this podcast to share what they’ve been doing with everyone.”

Dozens of students participate in ELOs at Yarmouth High School. On her recent visit, Makin talked with students who were studying cognitive neuroscience and the science of wellbeing, civics, interning for non-profits, working on policy issues, building skills to have constructive conversations and debates about issues, promoting work opportunities for New Mainers, and so much more through their ELOs. Students meet with the school’s coordinator Brittany Brockelbank to design their ELO and meet regularly to discuss their progress and showcase what they’ve learned. Makin invited two students on the podcast to share more about their experiences.

“I’m doing a work study. I’m now on my fifth semester and I get credit for what I learn in the ER. It’s a very unique opportunity to learn about what I’m passionate about and what I’ll do after high school while getting school credit,” said Sarah Hinson describing her ELO on the podcast.

“It’s an incredibly flexible program. There are endless opportunities for what you can do and it’s very individualized with the learning that you do,” said Liam Hannah about what he liked about his ELO. He said he got his idea for his drink serving robot after seeing a similar one at a sushi restaurant. He had taken coding and machining classes at school and also had a student mentor to provide support for his ELO. Hannah also utilized ChatGPT to help him troubleshoot when we ran into coding or other obstacles.

Both students highlighted connections between what they’ve learned through their ELOs and how they’ve applied it to their other classes and in life. They also discussed how ELOs offer opportunities to engage students who may not find that same kind of engagement in traditional class settings.

“I remember sophomore year we were doing something in my biology class with sodium chloride bonding and I work with sodium chloride all the time. I use it every shift and I know a lot about it…so my job in certain situations has connected back to school but in many ways it’s very different. School does provide me with the knowledge that I need to get into the field—I can’t go into the field if I’m not good at math,” said Hinson. “In my job I’m learning something that I really am going to apply in my work on a farm with over 50 animals. It gives students that don’t fit the square box of what school and a student should look like [the opportunity to learn something we like].”

“This ELO, it really helped me develop a schedule and think really far out with my plans which I was never really great at and definitely helped me develop that,” said Hannah on how his ELO helped him build stronger time management skills.

The students were enthusiastic in what they would tell other students or school leaders about ELOs.

“It’s super fun—it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a learning environment. I think every school should have the option for an ELO,” said Hannah.

“Do it! Find what works for you. There are so many ELOs available—group, individual, summer, learning ones, and working ones,” said Hinson.

Makin closed the podcast by highlighting the Maine DOE’s efforts to expand ELOs across the state.

“Our Department of Education is promoting ELOs across the state and anything that is hands-on, interdisciplinary, and applied learning. We’re really hopeful that Maine is going to lead the way nationally,” said Makin.

The Maine DOE website features highlights and stories from ELO programs across Maine.

What Holds Us Together is a monthly podcast hosted by Commissioner Makin that highlights the great things happening in public schools across Maine and how public education connects us through conversations with educators, school staff, and students. The podcast launched last month with a conversation between Makin, 2023 Maine Teacher of the Year Matt Bernstein, and the newly named 2024 Maine Teacher of the Year Joshua Chard.

What Holds Us Together can be listened to and subscribed to on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify. New episodes are released on the third Thursday of every month.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

Media Release: Maine DOE Launches New Podcast Highlighting Voices From Maine Schools

Commissioner Pender Makin Hosts What Holds Us Together, First Episode Features Maine Teachers of the Year Matt Bernstein and Joshua Chard

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) launched a new podcast today hosted by Commissioner Pender Makin featuring conversations with educators, school staff, and students. The monthly podcast, What Holds Us Together, highlights the great things happening in public schools across Maine and how public education connects us.

The podcast launched with a conversation between Makin, 2023 Maine Teacher of the Year Matt Bernstein, and the newly named 2024 Maine Teacher of the Year Joshua Chard. The three discuss what they love about teaching and schools in Maine, the importance of public education, student voice, elevating the education profession, their message to aspiring teachers, and so much more.

“Public education is the most precious common good that we share. Every month, I’ll highlight the inspiring and amazing things happening in Maine schools through conversations with educators, school staff, and students across our state,” said Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin in the podcast’s trailer.

What Holds Us Together can be listened to and subscribed to on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify. New episodes to be released on the third Thursday of every month.

Coming Soon! Maine DOE’s New Public School Podcast “What Holds Us Together”

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is excited to launch, “What Holds Us Together,” a new podcast celebrating Maine schools. Each month, Commissioner Pender Makin will highlight the inspiring and amazing things happening in Maine schools through conversations with educators, school staff, and students across our State.

Public education is a precious and profound common good we share. Join us as we explore and celebrate the ways that local schools impact students and build connections with the community around them.

Be on the lookout for our first episode, as Commissioner Makin talks with 2023 Maine Teacher of the Year Matt Bernstein and the newly named 2024 Maine Teacher of the Year Joshua Chard about what they love most about teaching and Maine schools.

Listen to the podcast trailer here:

Subscribe today on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and stay tuned!