Category: Good News from Schools

Easton Elementary School Offers Students a Book Vending Machine

Easton Elementary School Principal Erin Ireland and Easton School Department Business Manager Kim Hall discovered a fantastic idea to both generate excitement about reading at the elementary level, and promote being a good citizen and role model.

Every time a student at Easton Elementary School is seen going above and beyond their abilities, or are caught doing a good deed, their teacher administers an “Inchy Token” for the Inchy’s Bookworm Vending Machine. They then call home to deliver the good news of their reward, and are brought to the book vending machine to deposit the token and bring home a free book. This has immediately ramped up excitement for reading, and is further instilling the desire to be a good citizen.

“This creative program has been a huge success in our elementary school,” said Easton School Department Superintendent Mark Stanley.

Biddeford High School Pi Guy is Back

It’s early March at Biddeford High School and just like pre-pandemic years, the Pi Parody has returned.  Since 2007, Jon Jacques, a Biddeford High School math teacher, has been rewriting the lyrics to popular songs in an attempt to entertain current and former students. Once a year Jacques celebrates Pi-Day (March 14th) with his classes, and shares his yearly creativity on social media.

For many songs, Jacques has grabbed the microphone and recorded the songs himself, and for others he has relied on the Biddeford Singers, the school’s top vocal group.  After a hiatus in 2021, Jacques wanted to really make an impact.  For the first time, in a display of school unity, Jacques sang with the Biddeford Singers for this year’s song, and the Jazz Band played the music for the track and video.  Some of his most popular renditions include “The Pi Memorizer” to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, Pi-Rational Rhapsody to Queen’s mega hit, and I Will Know Pi to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”.

This year, he has gone to the archives and is proud to present “I Learned About the Number Pi” (a fun take on Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”.

Personal side of Pi Day 2022: Pi-Guy gets his crown

Over the years I have done a few noteworthy things to celebrate pi day personally.  I have shaved my goatee into the pi symbol and shaved pi into my hair a few times (symbol and digits in separate years).  I have sculpted a 5 foot tall pi symbol out of snow and written pi in the snow more times than I can remember.  How to top all of that was the question that I have had on my mind for a while.  This year I no doubt have done that.   I shaved my head completely and visited Eye Of Henna tattoo in Portland for a temporary tattoo of pi.  The driving force behind this was of course some shock value.  While my favorite day of the school year drew nearer, I thought I could really have an impact on things if I tied my antics to a fundraiser.  So I decided to do just that.  With so many good causes out there I thought it would be fitting with my new “henna pi crown” that it goes to someone fighting cancer so I chose a colleague’s husband as the beneficiary.

Here is the YouTube link: Pi-Guy gets his crown

MSAD 11 Highlighted Nationally for Addressing Gaps in Learning Opportunities with ARP ESSER Funds

Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 11 is highlighted in the White House Fact Sheet for how it is using American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) Funds to target gaps in student learning.

MSAD 11 is addressing gaps in learning opportunities by using ARP ESSER funds to hire nine new teachers and implement a new math, language arts, and social studies program.

The additional teachers permitted the district to reduce class sizes from 22-24 students to an average of 14-16 students. The district has provided external and internal coaching, ongoing professional learning, and planning support to educators and staff.

Check out their story here:

Brownville Elementary School Hosts Dr. Seuss “Book Tasting Event”

In conjunction with Dr. Seuss’s birthday recently, Brownville Elementary School held a “Book Tasting Event” for their 3rd and 4th grade students. Organized by Title I Teacher Miss Ivy Stanchfield and Librarian Mrs. Jeannine Lavigne, students were invited to a “5 Star” restaurant to sample an appetizer, main course, and dessert in the form of books!

When they were done sampling, the students were able to take home books to keep courtesy of our Three Rivers Kiwanis, who supplies books for all K-8 students in the MSAD 41 school district.

“The kids had a blast,” said Carol Smith, Brownville Elementary Principal. 

Bangor High School Civil Rights Team Creates Calendars to help Celebrate Diverse History and Culture 

Bangor High School’s Civil Rights Team has been hard at work this year, collecting materials to help their community celebrate African American History Month, Women’s History Month, and beyond. They recently created several calendars of content, including picture book read aloud stories to help elevate and celebrate diverse stories and cultures.  

To put the calendars together, the group researched other calendars featuring content relating to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and content that would align to the mission of the Civil Rights Team Project.  

“When it came to the ‘Celebrating Black Stories’ calendar, we looked specifically for videos featuring the author or illustrator doing the read aloud as a way of preserving authenticity,” said Stephanie Hendrix, English Teacher and the Civil Rights Team Advisor at Bangor High School. “We also looked at a number of different book lists for recommendations, and we paid close attention to the Coretta Scott King award winners.” 

The information was collected from various sources in the hopes of creating resources that are user friendly for teachers and students in their school community, to help them think and talk about issues related to race and skin color, national origin and ancestry, disability, and gender. 

Here are a few of the February and March calendars but the group has calendars for the other months as well: 

PDF versions of the calendars and other relevant activates to help celebrate:

“The students on my team and I understand how important it is that everyone feels safe and welcome in our school community, and one way we can help people feel not only included, but also celebrated, is by finding opportunities for them to be seen – whether through the stories we read and bring into the classroom, the poems we share that speak to the human experience, or the calendar events that help us understand that our normal may not be everyone else’s normal,” said Hendrix. “Ultimately, we don’t know what we don’t know, and the research that the Civil Rights Team has been doing to collect and curate these materials has helped us all learn more about just how diverse our school community is and just how important it is to see and celebrate everyone’s complex humanity.” 

To learn more about starting a Civil Rights Team in a Maine school, visit the Maine Attorney General’s website or reach out to Project Director Brandon Baldwin at brandon.baldwin@maine.gov or sign up for their newsletter.  To get copies of the other calendars, reach out to Stephanie Hendrix at shendrix@bangorschools.net.

Forest Hills School 5th & 6th Graders Learn about Career Aspirations Through Maine College Circle

Rick an Martin

Rick Wilson and Martin Mackey from the Maine Department of Education Office of Innovation were in Jackman, Maine recently collaborating with Maine College Circle Executive Director Bob Stuart as he presented to 5th and 6th graders at Forest Hills School in SAD 12.

His message revolved around career aspirations and the Maine College Circle’s ongoing process to inform and inspire early aspirations, to empower the youth of rural Maine, to build a brighter future for themselves, and for their communities.

Since 1992, Maine College Circle has been talking with rural Maine elementary school students about their opportunities to build a brighter future. They help them understand the value of continued education beyond high school and help them explore their educational opportunities. To learn more about Maine College Circle and Bob’s great work, visit https://www.mainecollegecircle.org/.

What I Did with my Summer: Bonny Eagle Educator Explores Women’s History Through Martha Washington’s Story

“Any time I find a class or webinar about the history of American women, I try to take it,” said Bonny Eagle Social Studies Teacher Dawna Cyr. 

As part of completing her master’s degree, Cyr examined what is taught in history classes about American women, outlining an American women’s history class that she hoped to teach one day. Since then, Cyr was given the opportunity to teach the course, HerStory, which she continues to teach to this day.

It was this passion for teaching women’s history, along with some former experience studying the life of George Washington at his home Mount Vernon, Virginia that drove Cyr to decide to study his wife, Martha Washington and the women of the 18th century through the George Washington Teacher Institute’s 5-day digital professional development programs this past summer.

Designed to support K12 educators who teach about the life, leadership, and legacies of George Washington and the 18th-century world in which he lived, the George Washington Teacher Institute’s online courses offer many options and flexibility for educators to choose 18th-century subjects that are most relevant to their classroom. As described on the George Washington Teacher Institute website:

Martha Washington’s story, although unparalleled in many ways, provides a well-documented access point to a better understanding of the experiences available to women throughout the colonies and the newly formed nation in the 18th century.

Cyr recalls the many lecture options offered in the program she took, everything from Colonial Women and Martha Washington herself, to Gender and Racial Construct in Colonial America, Enslaved Women, and Native American Women, to Women’s Education and Leadership in Revolutionary America, along with Music of the time period.

“I have so many things that I have brought back to my class,” said Cyr reflecting on the outcomes of her experience.  “I have added information that I learned into my lectures and presentations, and I tell my students stories from the program and share information that I learned.”

As a result of this program, Cyr has added even more books about women to her extensive collection. “I have read about Martha Washington, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Oney Judge, enslaved women, and women of the American Revolution,” she said. As a social studies teacher, Cyr is constantly looking for materials/information that she can share with her students or incorporate into her lectures, which has been a huge benefit to embarking on this program.

To learn more about George Washington Teacher Institute, visit their website. To learn more about social studies professional development opportunities and more, join Maine DOE’s Social Studies Listserv here. For more information and questions about social studies resources for Maine educators, contact joe.schmidt@maine.gov.

Student Spotlight: South Portland Second Grader Finds Purpose Through Helping the Homeless

This isn’t just a story about a little girl who made a donation to the local homeless shelter, it’s a story about a little girl who didn’t like school and by finding her passion for helping people in her community, she also found a love of learning that supports her long-term goals for making a big difference in the world.

Meet Nicolette, a second grade student at James Otis Kaler Elementary School in South Portland. Nicolette has a tremendous passion for helping people who are homeless. She dreams of one day opening a restaurant and farmers market with a community garden where everything will only cost one cent. Her dream of making fresh, delicious food affordable and accessible to people who may find themselves without a home or income has been in the making since Nicolette was 5 years old.

While she continues to make plans for the restaurant, Nicolette has found a way to not only keep busy doing what she can now to make an impact, but she has also garnered the support of her classmates and her school community in making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.

“My classroom with Mrs. Dudley as our teacher, we decided to work on keeping people living outside warm. We were thinking scarves,” explained Nicolette in a video interview with her Principal, Bonnie Hicks. Nicolette and her classmates have been working on crocheting scarves with the help of the school’s art program and a few teachers that have donated their time. The scarves will be donated to help keep kids warm during Maine’s cold months.

In addition, the students also took up a change collection raising $235.04, and used the money to put together bags with essential items that they could donate to the Preble Street homeless shelter.

“What we did was we had some bags at school. We went to the store one day after school and bought wipes, hand sanitizer, food, water bottles, and we bought chocolate because WHO DOESN’T LIKE CHOCOLATE?!” said Nicolet excitedly. The students also included clothing like socks, underwear, t-shirts, gloves, hats, and masks in the bags.

As they donated the bags, the students were delighted to hear that this kind of donation really helps the shelter with their outreach efforts as they walk the city looking for people who may need help. They later learned that the efforts of Nicolette and her classmates helped nine individuals.

Nicolette’s dreams and goals haven’t always aligned with her education journey. “I’m not afraid to tell you that Nicolette was not a lover of school,” said Kaler Elementary School Principal Bonnie Kicks. “But because of this passion and ability to use her heart and her head and her math and writing skills…”

“I got a lot stronger and decided I would go to school to finish doing more and more of these projects,” Nicolette chimed in quickly with a smile.

Principal Hicks said that they keep touch with the Preble Street Homeless Shelter and that Nicolette plans to one day do an internship and possibly earn college credit while doing so. Happy that Nicolette is already doing valuable work for them, the Preble Street Shelter is looking forward to working with her in the near future.

Educator Spotlight: Aspiring World Languages Educator Attends 2022 NECTFL Conference on National Scholarship

The Maine Department of Education congratulates Nadine Bravo, an aspiring world languages teacher, for being selected as this year’s recipient of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL) Future Language Educator Scholarship. The scholarship provided funding for Bravo to attend the 2022 NECTFL Conference which took place in New York. Nadine was selected to receive this scholarship among a pool of applicants nation-wide due to her promise as an aspiring world languages educator.

As a multicultural and multilingual individual born and raised in Halle, East Germany, Bravo has spent time in Lithuania, Russia, the United States, and Chile, even surviving the Chilean earthquake of 2010 while she lived here. With much world experience, plus a BA in FLL (Russian, German, Spanish, English), some master’s-level coursework, and 20 years of experience tutoring German and English under her belt, Bravo dreamed about pursuing a graduate degree as a world languages teacher with a certificate to teach English as another language.

“It has always been rewarding watching students learn and grow with the languages,” said Bravo. “However, I had never obtained proper teacher certification, which limited my employment opportunities. The onset of the pandemic and an injury on the job were the catalyst to get the process of graduate school rolling.”

Bravo is now in her first year of graduate school and has had opportunities to tutor German in the linguistics department at the University of Southern Maine, which has helped confirm that she made the right decision about returning to graduate school.

Bravo attributes the opportunity to fill out an application for the NECTFL Future Language Educator Scholarship to her mentor teacher, Sarah Collins at Gorham Middle School, who pointed her toward a Language Educators newsletter put together by Maine Department of Education’s Interdisciplinary Instruction & ESOL/Bilingual Programs Specialist April Perkins. A link to the upcoming conference was available in a newsletter and Bravo took the opportunity to apply.

“When I came across the conference program, I felt so inspired and wanted to attend all the workshops and lectures offered regarding my target languages,” said Bravo. “I am currently in a tight financial situation and try to take advantage of any sort of financial support while furthering my education,” she added.

With three different types of scholarships available for the conference, the application process was demanding and complex but not impossible, says Bravo. Her application package included various elements such as letters of recommendation, a list of relevant organization affiliations, testing scores, a statement, methods assignments, and transcripts, among other things.

“I decided to go overboard and shared everything that could have been relevant,” said Bravo. “One of the most rewarding items I received after my first observation in my internship placement was a stack of student notes with feedback. It does not get any better than receiving genuine feedback from your students and learning about your strengths and weaknesses,” she added.

The conference took place earlier this month, bringing opportunities and experience for Bravo to pursue her dream of working as a world languages teacher in Maine.

“It is important not only to learn the language and grammar, but also to be exposed to different cultures, customs, and traditions, said Bravo, who has a goal of teaching students in Spanish and German. “Learning a world language is the gate to other cultures. I want to be that gate, facilitating my students’ access to an additional way of life,” she added.

Bravo expresses her gratitude to all the people who have paved the road for her return to graduate school, including graduate advisor, Mike Katz, and other supportive faculty at USM including her two professors, Dr. Mindy Butler and Dr. Alec Lapidus, who employ her as their graduate research assistant.

Currently, Bravo has accepted a long-term substitute teacher position in the Gray-New Gloucester Middle School. She is hopeful about her future career as a world languages teacher.

To sign up for the Language Educators Newsletter, click here or reach out to April Perkins at april.perkins@maine.gov.

PWS Cleaning Crew: A Story of Inspiration and True Collaboration During a Difficult Time

Upon their return from winter break, the teachers and students of Philip W. Sugg (PWS) Middle School in Lisbon learned that their night custodian was going to be out for an extended period of time, along with two other night custodians at the district’s elementary school, who were also going to be out. This left the district with a skeletal crew that was struggling just to keep up with their regular cleaning schedules.

“I’m very well aware that middle schoolers are perhaps the most misunderstood humans on the planet,” said Nicole Sautter PWS 7th grade teacher and 2020 Androscoggin County Teacher of the Year. “I knew this could very well be an opportunity for them that would not only allow others to see who they truly are, but also provide them a much-needed purpose in their life that would bring them a sense of power in a tumultuous time – and that is how the PWS Cleaning Crew came to be.”

Since early January, PWS Middle schoolers have stepped up and volunteered their time after school to keep the building clean: trash removal, recycling, vacuuming, sweeping classrooms and hallways while some staff clean bathrooms and refill toiletries, among other things.

Here is their story:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created many unanticipated challenges for the Lisbon students and staff over the last two years,” said Richard Green, Lisbon School Department Superintendent.  “It has been my observation that the students and staff within the Lisbon School Department have always faced and addressed these challenges with a real determination and effort that is unlike anything that I have ever seen. The effort from the Philip W. Sugg Middle School (PWS) students and staff to help coordinate the cleaning efforts within their school as a result of staffing shortages, is a perfect example of this dedication.”

Sautter adds that it’s refreshing to see middle schoolers excited about making a difference. They’re internally motivated and have shown a solid understanding of what it means to be an involved citizen.

“I’m so grateful for these kids. There’s no way we could cover this school without their help,” said Mike Powell, Lisbon Schools Department Custodian/Bus Driver/Maintenance.

“On behalf of the Lisbon School Department, I would like to commend and thank all of the PWS students and staff who have gone above and beyond to help keep their school clean and safe during these unprecedented times,” added Superintendent Green.