Category: Good News from Schools

Seeking Success Stories from Maine Schools

In an effort to help promote and highlight the positive stories, initiatives, and efforts happening in Maine’s local schools, the Maine DOE will be collecting stories from local schools and districts and sharing them in a new section of the Weekly Maine DOE Update called Maine Schools Sharing Success. Each of the stories will also be highlighted on Maine DOE’s official Facebook and Twitter pages.

If a school and/or district would like to contribute a story, please write out a few paragraphs, with photos if applicable, and send them via email to Rachel Paling at (207) 624-6747 or rachel.paling@maine.gov.

OHills Reads – A Community Reads Initiative Targeting the Opiod Addiction

OHills Reads is a community-led group in collaboration with Healthy Oxford Hills and MSAD 17 that aspires to build a stronger, healthier, and more empathetic community by uniting schools, businesses, local organizations, and families with a community-wide reading and discussion of a common book. This month, in an effort to raise awareness and reduce stigma around substance use and misuse, the community read will be The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner.

According to the educator’s guide, written by Melissa Guerrette, a teacher in MSAD 17 and partner in this project, “This story is both honest and heart-felt, weaving themes of wishes, fierce love for family and acceptance of circumstances beyond our control from a younger siblings perspective. With respectful, age appropriate writing, Kate Messner has given middle grade readers a lens into the realistic ache and struggle of Charlie Brennan and her family, who—like too many families in our country —are facing the tragedy of a loved one with opioid addiction. ”

Plans are underway to bring educational programs to intermediate classrooms in MSAD #17, and to host community events including panel presentations, book discussions, an event with Kate Messner, the author, and a fishing derby. The events will take place throughout the month of January and early February. If you are interested in learning more about or participating in the OHills Reads events, please check the Facebook Page (OHills Reads), or contact Emily Eastman (emilye@healthyoxfordhills.org), Melissa Guerrette (m.guerrette@msad17.org ) or Heather Manchester (h.manchester@msad17.org).

Maine teachers spend summer volunteering at Maine State Aquarium

While some teachers were taking advantage of the summer to relax, Deb Clark, a Gifted and Talented Program teacher at Winslow Elementary, spent the better part of one week volunteering at the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor. The experience provided a chance not only to give back to the aquarium, a place she has been bringing her students for years, but to grow personally and professionally.

Continue reading “Maine teachers spend summer volunteering at Maine State Aquarium” →

Downeast students earn passing grade from Marine Resources Commissioner for winter flounder project

More than 50 students from coastal high schools presented their preliminary findings on their winter flounder project to Maine Commissioner of Marine Resources Patrick Keliher last week. Continue reading “Downeast students earn passing grade from Marine Resources Commissioner for winter flounder project” →

Falmouth HS awards state’s first STEM diploma endorsements

Falmouth High School awarded the first Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, known as STEM, diploma endorsements in the state of Maine to 18 of its 189 graduates this year. A STEM endorsement recognizes motivated students who have chosen to devote a significant amount of time and effort to pursuing an extensive course load of STEM-oriented work consisting of electives, extended learning opportunities and a related job shadow and senior project.

Continue reading “Falmouth HS awards state’s first STEM diploma endorsements” →

Weatherbee School gets community involved in Maine Day

Fourth grade student Colin Trudelle uses a microscope to study fiber investigation.
Weatherbee School fourth grade student Colin Trudelle focuses on fiber investigation during a Maine Day paper making workshop (hosted by the Maine Discovery Museum).

George B. Weatherbee School in Hampden recently celebrated its second annual “Maine Day,” a tribute to Maine Statehood Day, by offering dozens of state-themed workshops to its third through fifth grade students on Monday, March 18.

This year’s event featured over 40 presenters, half of whom were outside visitors from the community. Presenters taught workshops that focused on Maine’s slogan: The Way Life Should Be.  Teachers assigned third grade students to workshops, but fourth and fifth graders could sign-up for the workshops that most appealed to them. Workshops included: “A Wicked Good Guide to Maine Language,” in which kids listened to a true Mainer speak and translated to people from afar; “Mission of the Maine Warden Services,” which explained game wardens’ role in protecting fish and wildlife; “Whoopie Pies,” in which students heard about the official state treat; and “Aroostook County,” a brief overview of the area and potato harvesting.

Continue reading “Weatherbee School gets community involved in Maine Day” →

Boothbay-Tasmania water project on tap

Boothbay Region High School science and environmental science teacher Lauren Graham, second from right, prepares with other teachers from around the country for the water quality pilot project with Tasmania, Australia this month.
Boothbay Region High School science and environmental science teacher Lauren Graham, second from right, prepares with other teachers from around the country for the water quality pilot project with Tasmania, Australia this month.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Simon Costanzo

Thanks to the Boothbay Register for sharing this article, by staff writer Lisa Kristoff, with the Maine DOE for publication.

“I am so beyond excited,” Lauren Graham said last week.

What’s she so jazzed about? How about the fact that Boothbay Region High School juniors and seniors in her ecology and oceanography classes will be participating in an international pilot water quality project: the USAUS-H20 (U.S.-Australia Virtual Environmental Partnership).

Continue reading “Boothbay-Tasmania water project on tap” →

Caribou and Limestone students rendezvous with a comet

Jordan Theriault of Caribou Middle School conducted experiments in Challenger's simulated space lab.
Jordan Theriault of Caribou Middle School conducted experiments in Challenger’s simulated space lab, applying skills in math and science and discovering how they relate to real-world experiences.

Thanks to the Challenger Learning Center of Maine for sharing this article with the Maine DOE for publication.

Sixth and seventh grade students from Caribou Middle School and Limestone Community School worked together to become astronauts and mission controllers at the Challenger Learning Center of Maine in Bangor on Nov. 15.
Their simulated space science mission took them into orbit to encounter a comet. As they shared the thrill of discovery, students had to effectively communicate, follow directions, solve real-world problems, and work remotely in mission control and space lab simulators.

Individual teams focused on space communication, navigation, medicine, aeronautical engineering, weather, robotics, HazMat, life support, and biology. Continue reading “Caribou and Limestone students rendezvous with a comet” →