This submission is from the May 2019 RSU 18 Administrative Report, submitted by RSU 18 Assistant Superintendent Keith Morin.

The Principal’s Pen by Jennifer McGee, Principal of Atwood Primary School 

I was struggling for what I would write about this month.  After all, I have been writing Principal’s Pens for 20 years now.  As I was staring at my blank computer screen, a man, who had been working in the building installing toilet paper dispensers, appeared at the door of my office.

“Are you the principal,” he asked peering around the corner.

“I am,” I said, rising from my seat.  

“Good, I want to talk to you,” he said extending his hand to shake mine.  I’m always a bit nervous, never knowing what I’m about to hear. And then he continued, “Ma’am,  I have been working in school buildings for 38 years, and I have NEVER done this before…but I want to tell you, you have the nicest bunch of children I have ever seen.  They are so polite, so nice. I want to make a donation to your school.”

He went on to tell about the thousands of schools he had been in for the past 38 years, and could not believe how delightful and well behaved our children are…and so young!  

That visit, prompted this month’s Principal’s Pen.  

This entire school year, I have been taking a course called The Educational Leadership Experience.  Each month, a group of Maine educator’s tour businesses in Maine that are on the rise and hiring! It’s been a wonderful experience, and one of my take-aways is this:  soft skills have become core skills.

In the past, employers used to refer to traits like manners, punctuality, interpersonal skills, and work ethic as “soft skills”. No longer. Now they are called “core skills”.   The reason for this change is simple. If people don’t possess these essential skills, they will not keep their job. Workplaces are demanding their work force arrive with these core skills in tact.  And I happen to agree.

Manners matter.  And manners in all shapes and forms make a difference.  When I was a child, we sat at the table and had dinner as a family. My elbows were not allowed on the table, my napkin was placed in my lap, we were expected to chew with our mouths closed and not talk with our mouths full.  We also said “please” and “thank you” when we passed food to one another.

My Mom was a stay-at-home-mother, so family dinners were a regular thing.  When I was raising my children, we had more than a few dinners in the car…and admittedly, family dinners around the table were rare…but…manners were expected. Always.

At the beginning of the school year, here at Atwood, during our very first town meeting, we begin talking about the importance of manners.  And our duty teachers are wonderful about reminding the children to say “please” and “thank you” as they go through the breakfast and lunch lines.  And you all are certainly doing your part, because today a complete stranger noticed how very polite your children are!  So there: core skills…check!

I think it was kind of symbolic that this repairman also said he wanted to donate to our school because of the kindness and politeness of our students. It serves to show us that unexpected and surprisingly wonderful results can come from positive interpersonal skills.   

Children can learn this too.  I know, when my children were small, I didn’t want rude friends over to our house to play. I wanted the polite, well-behaved, nice children!  So there are rewards for manners.

And it feels good to be polite and kind.  A first grader skipped into her classroom on her way in from recess, “I held the door for my friends,” she said!  She felt good inside. As adults we like that feeling too. That’s why sometimes people pay it forward in the Dunkin Donuts drive thru line, that’s why we have “secret pals” at work….to leave each other random surprises, and that’s why it feels good to bring a bouquet of flowers to someone who does not expect them!  Giving really is a selfish act…because it feels so great!

So ultimately my message for this month’s Principal’s Pen is to say: Keep it up parents!  You are doing a great job raising polite children who want to do the right thing. A random stranger working in our building watched and listened to your children, and he said they were the BEST children he had ever encountered in his 38 year career, and that’s pretty great.   

Keep at it!  Manners are core skills that will serve your children well their whole lives.  You may feel like you are the “nag police” when you insist your children say “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” and “I’m sorry” and “chew with your mouth closed”, but you are setting them up for a lifetime of exercising solid core skills that will serve them well every single place they go!  People notice.

This story was also featured in the OC NJ Daily Newspaper.

Submitted by Timothy Doak, Superintendent of Eastern Aroostook Regional School Unit #39. Article is from The County newspaper, written by Chris Bouchard.

Caribou Middle School in RSU 39 was recently highlighted for their Innovation Center, an initiative led by Maureen Connell, Innovation Center Director. Below is a news article from The County newspaper.

CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou Middle School students are now learning about math, coding, technology, and creative design as part of the school’s new Innovation Center, located in the former shop area in the heart of the building.

In its current incarnation, the innovation center is somewhat of a prototype of what will be offered in Caribou’s new PreK-8 school, scheduled for completion in mid-2020. The building is set to have its own space dedicated to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) activities, and RSU 39 has already hired Maureen Connell as their Innovation Center director.

At first, Connell said she wasn’t asked to start doing classes and activities with students, but soon found herself working with teachers and middle schoolers integrating technology such as 3D printing, LEGO robotics, and programmable mobile spheres into their curriculum.

She said the experience so far has been immensely positive.

“It’s been awesome to be able to learn new things myself,” she said, “and to see kids having a lot of fun with technology and apply their skills in different ways.”

The Innovation Center is not a separate class period like gym or library time, but a resource that all educators can use to augment their classes. For example, CMS fifth graders are learning about the westward expansion in this country, and at the end of the unit they will build their own wagons and create supplies that pioneers would typically bring along for the arduous journey.

Read the full story

 

Submitted by Ryan McDonald, Summer Programs Director and Public Relations Coordinator at Maine School of Science and Mathematics.

Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) has been ranked #2 Best High School in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. MSSM received a 99.99% overall score out of a possible 100 points. Ranking factors included #1 in College Readiness Index Rank, #1 in Math and Reading Proficiency Rank, #1 in Math and Reading Performance Rank. MSSM was also ranked #1 in Maine and #2 Magnet School in the nation. This is the highest rank MSSM has received from U.S. News and World Report and has been ranked 8 times in the past 12 years. In recent years, MSSM has recorded rankings in the top 20.

Executive Director, David Pearson, said, “The MSSM family is rightly thrilled about the marvelous U.S. News and World Report educational rankings that places the school top in Maine, second in the United States, and nationally second as a magnet high school.  But as in all things, there is no singular responsibility for such impressive results. These rankings are consequent upon what is, and always will be, a team effort at the school.  As such, we are deeply grateful for the tireless efforts of our staff who teach, coach, advise, and nurture our extraordinary students; but also to the continuous support of their parents, and the many school districts throughout the State who educated them through their formative elementary and middle school years. We also owe very special gratitude to the Maine Legislature for providing the financial support for our academic and extracurricular programming. Quite simply, this is not just an MSSM success story, but one for our entire great State of Maine.”

Dean of Enrollment Management, Alan Whittemore, said, “Although we have received such prestigious recognition from the likes of U.S. News & World Report in the past, it is truly rewarding to reach #2 in the nation. We are happy for all involved here at Limestone, the students, staff, and faculty all of whom are working together to provide an education second only to one!”

MSSM’s College Counselor, Erica Jortberg, enjoys the privilege of working with some of the most motivated students in the state. She noted, “They are what makes MSSM what it is. When they choose to come to MSSM, it is because they are seeking a challenge and the opportunity to push themselves academically. It is exciting to work with them through the college process and see them off on their post-secondary endeavors.”

To produce the 2019 Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News teamed up with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm. RTI implemented the U.S. News comprehensive rankings methodology which reflects how well high schools serve all of their students, not just those who are planning to go to college. According to the U.S. News Best High Schools methodology, schools were rated on the following six measures and the weights used for each indicator are in parentheses. College readiness (30% of the ranking), College curriculum breadth (10%), Reading and math proficiency (20%), Reading and math performance (20%), Underserved student performance (10%), Graduation rate (10%).

The six indicators were first normalized using standardized scores and then weighted. Those weighed scores are then summed and transformed so that each eligible school receives an overall percentile score between zero and 100 at two decimal places, with the top performer scoring 100. The overall score as a percentile score indicates the percentile position a school is in out of the 17,245 ranked schools. A school with a score of 90 means that 10% of the schools are ranked higher and 90% of the schools are ranked lower. Finally, high schools are ranked against their peers in descending order of their overall scores. High schools placing in the top 75% display their individual rank on usnews.com.

Submitted by Ryan McDonald, Summer Programs Director and Public Relations Coordinator at Maine School of Science and Mathematics.

Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) is pleased to announce two teams have qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship sponsored by the Northrop Grumman Foundation in Louisville, Ky., April 24 – April 27. The teams, 4393Z led by Ethan Kelley (a junior from Yarmouth) and 4393S led by Madison McCarthy (a sophomore from Cape Elizabeth), secured spots at the world’s largest robotics competition through their success at the VEX Robotics Maine State Championship, where they received the Robot Skills Challenge Champion award (4393Z) and the Robot Design Award (4394S).

The State Championship, held in South Portland, attracted 50 teams with students from middle and high schools competing. The VEX Robotics World Championships 2019 will be held at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky and 584 teams from around the world will attend.

MSSM’s VEX Robotics’ School Team Number is 4393 and each team chooses a letter. Team 4393S consists of Madison McCarthy; Wesley Chalmers, a sophomore from Scarborough; and Chandler Pike, a freshman from Jay. Team 4393Z is composed of Ethan Kelley; James Lau, a junior from Buxton; Ryan Oh, a junior from the Republic of Korea; Harrison Ma, a senior from the People’s Republic of China; Alex Nikanov, a junior from Ukraine; and Federico Galbiati, a junior from Italy.

When asked about being a VEX team captain, Madison McCarty said it, “allows me to learn what it’s like to apply robotics in the real world. Building the robot is only a small part of the larger design process. I have to keep track of what all of the team members are doing in a detailed engineer notebook and I’m also responsible for making sure they stay on track with our goals and deadlines for the robot. Being a captain is not an easy job and I have learned a lot of leadership skills as well as patience and organization skills.”

Submitted by AJ Rog and Sean Wasson, Computer Science Educators at Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland, Maine.

Lyman Moore Middle School is in the Portland Public School District. It is home to 480 students in grades 6 through 8. Over the last 20+ years Portland has become a very diverse city with an influx of refugees and asylum seekers from around the world. Thanks to this welcome change to our city, our school is currently home to students from 28 different countries with at least 15 different home languages being spoken.

Sean Wasson and I (AJ Rog) feel privileged to be the two computer science teachers at Lyman Moore. We are able to reach approximately 85% of our students. Our classes run on an alternating day schedule, allowing their semester of content to stretch across the entire year. This schedule engages our students in two semesters of computer science content throughout their 6th and 7th grade experiences. During their time in the CS program they are given access to coding, problem solving skills and design thinking. Our students leave middle school with a high level of understanding of JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and circuit boards.

When our students enter 8th grade they are given some choice in the elective classes  hey take. Sean and I offer multiple choices over the 3 trimesters ranging from movie making,  TEAM Windmill Challenge, Web Design, Puzzles and Cyber Security, Video Game Design,  nd Circuit Boards. These classes have allowed our students who want to go further in the STEAM fields an opportunity to do so.

Our ultimate goal is to have 100% of our middle school students take CS and to collaborate closely with the three city high schools in order to recommend high school CS placement and encourage students to continue their CS journey. We also see CS curriculum as a path toward equity and engagement. Because of the demographics of our school we are positioned to encourage those students who have historically been  underrepresented in Computer Science (e.g. girls and students of color) to focus on, build skills in and find inspiration in CS. In addition we provide opportunities for students to  engage in skills and knowledge that will serve them beyond the classroom. In our ever digitizing world, our students will leave middle school equipped to creatively tackle problems using the CS lens.