ELLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISTRICT INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN OCTOBER 2010

1.0 Status of Initiatives Data from Kindergarten Inventory- Baseline administration Skill assessed Performance Language Arts Identify upper and lower case letters Average number of known letters = 39 Range = 1 - 52 Name sound for given letter Average number of known sounds = 10 (21 letters used) Range = 0 - 21 Mathematics Number of who demonstrated this skill in % of students September

Rote count to 20 124/200 62.0% Count to 10 (1:1 match) 169/200 84.5% Count backwards (10 to 1) 139/200 69.5% Identify numbers 0 - 10 134/200 67.0% Identify shapes (circle, square, 161/200 80.5% triangle, rectangle)

Fall Writing Prompt Scores

Grade Total # of students % of students % of students % of students Below Score of 6 Proficient at or above Goal

3 212 11% 39% 49% 4 217 10% 47% 43% 5 205 25% 46% 26% 6 232 18% 51% 30%

Baseline data- Fall Reading Assessments

Grade Percentage of Students Achieving Benchmark Independent Reading Levels Basic or Below Proficient Goal Advanced 1 15 29 38 17 2 24 13 36 26 3 18 14 43 28 4 29 16 29 25 5 37 17 20 25 6 39 12 26 22 Karen Bailey, a consultant from the Connecticut Academy for Mathematics and Science, met with teachers in grades 1-4 to discuss updating the science curriculum to include more inquiry and more common assessments across the district. She will also offer sessions on inquiry-based instruction in science for teachers who have not yet had this training. Dr. McGurk, Mrs. Mancuso, and Mrs. Kline met with elementary teachers in grades K-6 in October. Grade level meeting topics included report card expectations, assessment protocols, benchmarks for oral fluency, and curriculum updates related to Connecticut’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

Data teams at Crystal Lake School have completed the following thus far this year: The kindergarten data team is working on its first data team cycle, the percentage of kindergarten students scoring at proficiency or higher in letter identification will increase from 63% to 86% by the end of November as measured by kindergarten inventory administered on November 25. The grade 1 data team is working on its first data team cycle. Their SMART Goal is 76% of first grade students will master 90-100% of the pre-primer words by December 10th as measured by a teacher created assessment. The grade 2 data team is working on its first data team cycle. Their SMART Goal is the percentage of students scoring at proficiency or higher in identifying the value of a digit in a two digit number will increase from 26% to 55% as measured by the Trailblazers Unit 3 assessment. The grade 3 data team has completed its first data team cycle. Their SMART Goal was, the percentage of third grade students scoring at proficient or higher in solving a make a table word problem will increase from 70% to 90% as measured by a problem-solving post-test. The team exceeded their goal with 91% of students proficient or higher on the post assessment. The grade 4 data team has completed its first data team cycle. Their SMART Goal was, Fourth grade students scoring at proficiency or higher in Reading Comprehension: Making Connections will increase from 11% to 70% by the end of the unit, as measured by a teacher created assessment administered on October 22, 2010. The team exceeded their goal with 82% of students proficient or higher on the post assessment.

On October 4, the Crystal Lake School PTO’s Reading at Home program was kicked- off with Mr. Larkin visiting each classroom to explain the program and conduct a read aloud. This year the PTO program has a space theme, Blast into Reading! Mr. Larkin read a spaced-theme book to each class. On October 8, Crystal Lake School celebrated Fire Prevention Week with representatives from the Crystal Lake Fire Department.

On October 14, Crystal Lake School grade four students initiated a year-long community service project by making their first visit to Evergreen Nursing Home in Stafford. Grade four teachers Christine Marshall and Nancy Connelly coordinate this each year. At the Crystal Lake School October PTO meeting, Nancy Connelly did a SMART Board presentation demonstrating the many ways in which the SMART Board is used throughout the day. Also at this meeting, Mr. Larkin reported on the school’s 2010-2011 Instructional Plan.

On October 21 Crystal Lake School held its annual Barnes and Noble Book Fair in . Erin McGurk, Louise Kelly, Laurie Brookes, Lisa Garofalo and Michael Larkin all served as guest readers for patrons and the Crystal Lake School families in attendance. Penny DeFrino also attended the book fair. On October 25, the first Crystal Lake School Town Meeting Assembly was held. Town Meeting assemblies are held every other month to celebrate the learning taking place in our classrooms each day. This month grade three students shared poems with the school. We also distributed the weekly CARES awards with fourth grade helpers, Michael Shuman, Grace Hurlburt, Alex Judkins, Trevor Johnson and Olivia Guard reminding the school what each letter in our CARES acronym stands for: Cooperation, Advocacy, Respect, Empathy and Self-Control.

On October 26, the district held its first Open Choice Meet and Greet at CREC in Hartford. Two Crystal Lake School families were in attendance at the Meet and Greet. Staff members Louise Kelly, Martha Terrion and Celinda Weber all attended the Meet and Greet and welcomed the families. The first annual Crystal Lake School PTO Harvest Party was celebrated on Friday evening, October 29th. Parent volunteers Cindy Johnson, Darcy Murphy, Mary Beth Lipman, Beth Ludwig, Diane Dobrowolski, Guiliana Mudano, Colette Aldrich, Michelle Terry, Kendra Roy, Kerrie Alberts, Jeanne Zulick-Ferruolo and Candy Williams all helped organize the Harvest Party which hosted over 150 children and their families.

Center Teachers met with Principal Trudie Luck Roberts for Goal Setting Conferences, creating individual and team SMART goals aligned with the district and school goals for Professional Growth Options for this school year. A school-wide goal in reading achievement will complement the full implementation of Readers Workshop throughout the school. Each grade level also began planning for the first of three data cycles using the Data Driven Decision Making protocol. The School Instructional Plan was reviewed and revised collaboratively at the faculty meeting.

Firefighter Brian Blotniski presented the Fire Prevention Assembly during Fire Prevention Week where children were able to review home safety procedures and observe the firefighters wearing full equipment for familiarity and assurance. A dozen families are gathering for the first three of seven weekly Parenting with Love & Logic Evenings with Principal Trudie Luck Roberts. Conversations concerning solving typical family problems and power struggles were facilitated in the relaxed setting of the media center. Babysitting was arranged and organized by P.T.O. parent Lori Caron. A very successful P.T.O. Book Fair was held in October at Center School. Melissa Abruzzese organized over 30 volunteers to support the Scholastic Book Fair. The community was further involved when the Dads & Donuts sale brought fathers in before school to purchase books with their youngsters. Many P.T.O. Room Parents under the direction of P.T.O. Vice President Lori Caron helped with Center School’s Harvest Parade and Party on October 29th. Families and community members admired the costume display as the Pre-K through 4th grade students paraded around Arbor Park.

A Pasta Supper was hosted by the P.T.O. on October 2nd. Natalie Lapointe, Brenda Samson and Tracy Thibert organized a delicious pasta and meatball meal for over 250 parents and their children. Many local businesses and community members donated food and items for the dinner. The Reading for Fun store opened in October, supporting reading at home. Center Students will be able to attend the ‘store’ as a reward for logging hours of at-home reading time. P.T.O. parent Toni Bannock organizes this monthly event. The P.T.O. Wrapping Paper Fundraiser was highly successful, thanks to the efforts of Marie Einsiedel and Tracy Thibert. The Center School Recess Mileage Club was begun in October with Cathryn Couzens setting up parent volunteers on the playground to help children track their laps and building physical fitness and stamina.

As part of the Windermere Instructional Plan, a list of grade 1 and 2 students who are substantially below grade level expectations in reading and/or mathematics has been created. A list of grade 3 students who are either proficient, basic, or below basic in reading and/or mathematics has also been completed. An instructional need for each student who was identified as scoring proficient, basic, or below basic in reading and/or mathematics was determined and resource allocated for that specific instructional need.

Collaborative professional growth objectives have all been submitted and finalized. The staff wrote SMART goals that align with district goals in reading and mathematics. The essential area of each collaborative goal is as follows: kindergarten – Implementation of the Reading Workshop model; first grade – Implementation of Pre/Post Assessments in Mathematics; second grade – Flexible Grouping with Pre/Post Assessments in Mathematics; third grade – Differentiated Instruction in the area of Mathematics; fourth grade – Flexible Grouping with Pre/Post Assessments in Mathematics ; fifth grade – Math achievement on Strand 25 of the CMT and Reading Achievement; and sixth grade – Improved Vocabulary through the use of Word Study Lessons.

Each elementary grade level and intermediate teams are continuing to utilize weekly collaborative meeting time to plan the actions necessary to complete the collaborative professional growth objective. Teams provide a monthly feedback form to Mr. Moccio detailing work completed, future plans, and immediate concerns. The first round of intervention block services has begun. Students receiving intervention block services have been given a pre-assessment, will be progress monitored, and will have a post- assessment at the end of the first intervention window. Mathematics windows will be 8- 10 weeks in length and the reading windows will be a trimester in length.

The dates and plans have been set for K-3 and grades 4 to 6 ’s Teachers staff developers. Mr. Erik Lepis will be returning for 10 days and work with the K-3 personnel while Mrs. Jane Bean-Folkes will return for 5 days and work with 4-6 personnel. Administration will continue to meet periodically at the conclusion of the days to debrief and plan for future day’s activities. Personnel taking part in the staff development includes homeroom teachers, language art consultants, and special education teachers. Aimee Lewis, Nicole Satagaj, Liz Conlin, Melusia Menard, and David Pechie traveled to Columbia University’s Teachers College for a professional development calendar day called “New Frontiers in Reading and Writing: Using Bands of Text Difficulty to Clarify the Skill Development and Record Keeping in Reading”. Aimee Lewis and Nicole Satagaj shared the new thinking learned with the intermediate staff at a faculty meeting and Melusia Menard and David Pechie shared with the elementary school at a faculty meeting.

Catherine Hatt, Jackie Low and Valerie Gagnon traveled to Columbia University’s Teachers College for a professional development calendar day called “Don’t Wait to Support Conventional Reading and Writing: Bring More Phonics and Conventional Reading into the Kindergarten Classrooms”. Nancy Powell, Martha Malone-Reiss, and Cathy McCullough traveled to Columbia University’s Teachers College for a professional development calendar day called “Constructivist Approaches to Phonics and Vocabulary Instruction: Word Study that Works!”. The trio shared information at the October intermediate school faculty meeting regarding word study, word ladders, and how to use picture books to build phonics.

The WPTO and WIPTO held annual fall book fairs. The WPTO held their 2nd annual Donuts with Dads where the parents could come in before school, go shopping at the book fair, and be treated to coffee, juice, doughnuts and muffins in the cafeteria. The turnout was extraordinary and the cafeteria was filled. Use of the School Messenger communication system has been expanded to include dissemination of both the WPTO and WIPTO monthly newsletters. Newsletters are converted into a “read only” format and are sent as attachments to email addresses provided.

Diane Lasher-Penti continues to spend time in kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms providing a fun interactive learning experience in character education that carries several themes through the K-4 curriculum including conflict resolution, self- esteem, team building, communication skills, stress management and recognizing and coping with feelings.

The month of October was a significant month for the middle school, particularly in the area of literacy. In language arts, both 7th and 8th grade spent considerable time restructuring the language arts curriculum as the school begins the implementation of a reader/writers workshop model. With the support and leadership of Cheri Burke, this new curriculum will promote authentic, high level learning experiences for students in the context of classroom structures like book clubs, discussion groups, and character studies. Helping to lead the way, eighth grade social studies teachers have already successfully started historical fiction book clubs this month. For social studies teachers Mike Nash and Edie Vibert Johnson, planning and preparing for these historical fiction book clubs began nearly one year ago. Early student reviews are very positive and enthusiastic. In math, pre-assessments were given in the area of computation with fractions and integers. Post- assessment data will be available in November. Grade eight math students participated in the American Math Challenge, an on-line math competition involving over 4,600 middle schools nationwide. Ellington Middle School finished an impressive 43rd overall and number one in the state. Math teachers, Eileen Fuellhart and David Kozlowski provide the support and coordination for our students’ very successful showing.

With the help of the Anti-Defamation league (ADL), the middle school held a very successful anti-bullying assembly on October 15th. The assembly was the culmination of five months of planning by a teacher committee led by school counselor, Joyce Agnew. For the students, getting ready for the assembly started in mid-September with lessons on anti –bullying strategies in their health classes. These lessons were developed and facilitated by teachers Paula Dargan and John Hostetler. Student and teacher committees are brainstorming follow-up activities to keep this initiative moving forward.

The school psychologists continued to address in more detail the 2010 Learning Disabilities Guidelines. Carin Faraci attended a State meeting on the learning disabilities guidelines and will report during the month of November. The school psychologists continued to study Deborah Waber’s book, Rethinking Learning Disabilities: Understanding Children Who Struggle in School. At the speech language pathologists’ meeting, Jen Ryan reported on the Connecticut Council of Speech Language Pathologists Coordinators meeting that she attended. The overview included testing and assessment and its relevancy in developing instructional programs that can help student improve their literacy skills. Cynthia Zingler from CREC offered six hours of professional development on writing standards based IEPs, data collection, and using various graphing programs to measure student performance.

Bruce Brettschneider, David Pearson, John Collins and the middle school PPT developed and implemented a distance learning program for a medically fragile student who is unable to attend school during the winter months. This program will provide the student, while he is at home, with direct visual and audio access to his classroom teachers and his peers via Skype. Alternatively, his classroom teachers and his peers will also be able to interact with him through the use of Skype.

Special education preschool teachers will be measuring individual student progress. If students are not making appropriate progress; the teachers will change their methods of instruction to meet the individual needs of the student. The upcoming November in- service workshop will be teaching high school special education staff how to use MAPS and PATH procedures for writing transitions goals and objectives.

Mr. Brettschneider presented material to bus drivers at a mini workshop to assist with negative behaviors on the bus. Ann Hyde and eleven other drivers attended the workshop. Discussion centered on communication between bus drivers and administration at Windermere. Positive behavior supports were discussed and the link between school and bus staff working together to ensure student safety.

After attending the NCCC Social Studies meeting at Canton High School our Social Studies Department is modifying elements of our school-wide writing rubric to make it more "reader" and "user" friendly. Two versions have been created, one for freshman and sophomore students that reflects CAPT standards and language. The juniors and seniors will work with a modified version that is not so CAPT specific. Mrs. Sansoucy, our new reading specialist, in conjunction with the social studies department has created a timeline of events for active reading strategies and conferences using student prepared CAPT outlines. Common "in class" CAPT simulations will be implemented with plans to document and assess student scores in a clearly defined CAPT unit.

The high school is now posting department and committee meeting agendas and notes on a “shared” folder that is accessible from any staff member’s desktop. Starting with the second semester report cards, student progress on achieving academic expectations will be part of each student’s quarter second and fourth quarter report cards. Ellington High School curriculum assistants and the administration will be reviewing the latest document from the National Response to Intervention Tiered Interventions in High Schools at their November meeting.

Ann Ashworth, NEASC Associate Director, visited Ellington High School on Thursday, October 28 as part of the NEASC self study process. Ann met with the high school’s steering committee, standards committee chairs, and the entire faculty. At the end of the meetings Ms. Ashworth stated that the school was well-prepared for the upcoming self-evaluation. The protocols for the Endicott Research Opinion Surveys have been received. Ellington High School will administer the Endicott Research Opinion Surveys electronically via the School Messenger system to parents and guardians. The Core Values Revision Committee developed a draft core values statement. This will be presented to the staff for ratification in the future. The committee is now looking into realignment and revision of our current academic expectations if needed.

Mr. Rinaldi reported that parents from his principal’s advisory committee are recognizing the important role that the advisory program plays for our students. Some parents recently made suggestions for program inclusion and improvement. Mr. Rinaldi reports this as a sign that the advisory program is now ingrained as part of the EHS school culture.

Mrs. Ciarci is revising the photography curriculum as well as the drawing and painting curriculum. John Collins is helping to switch over to digital processing in the digital photo lab. Members of the tech ed and music departments have identified a process for monitoring the identified students in the high school improvement plan. Objectives and a plan of implementation were developed. Questions have been identified from the "strategies for independent students" self assessment document provided by Dr. McGurk.

The science department is continuing curriculum revision in honors chemistry. Teachers of freshman science have developed an organizer for the polymers unit and have completed their first benchmark assessment. Students have also been identified who require differentiated instruction and differentiated activities will be developed for the periodic table lab, matter unit test assessment, as well as differentiated notes, handouts and visual aids. The science department is also implementing the common formative assessments as a result of the workshops with Larry Brown.

Mrs. Sansoucy, in conjunction with the social studies department, is developing a CAPT curriculum. Department members will be using this for all freshman and sophomore classes in an effort to help improve CAPT scores as defined in our school improvement plan. Mrs. Sansoucy has recently modeled a lesson in Mr. Mahler's class using differentiating reading groups. During the month of October the english department began finalizing individual and collaborative professional growth goals. Cheryl Morrow, Erica Popick, Linda Lyttle, and Mary Gelezunas created a sophomore CAPT Response to Literature simulation. Paul Grzyb, Jen Sansoucy, and Mark Mahler created differentiated reading activities for students of different ability levels. Linda Lyttle, Jeanne Dowd, Christina Black, Laarni Lucero and Mary Gelezunas worked on differentiating instruction for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

2.0 Next Steps

Crystal Lake Teachers in grades 2-4 will be administering a Language Arts assessment to students and collaboratively scoring the open-ended questions on the assessment using our school-wide rubric. The assessment will be used to form strategy groups and generate whole group mini-lesson teaching points. The first Crystal Lake School SRBI Committee meeting of the year will be held November 17. Members of the committee will plan for the next steps of our SRBI work at Crystal Lake School, including examining tiers two and three behavioral interventions and examining the structure of our intervention teams. The November faculty meeting will include a review of the status of our Responsive Classroom initiative and we will begin planning for implementation of additional Responsive Classroom core components which support school-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports namely Logical Consequences.

Grade level teachers, special educators and support teachers at Center School will continue to meet in collaborative teams to review student assessment data, student progress, and plan for support services for students needing additional assistance or intervention in reading. In the first of three data cycles, kindergarten teachers will focus on sight word recognition and first through fourth grades will target reading comprehension. All the grade level teachers and special education teachers from Center will continue to attend sessions presented by the Staff Developers from Teachers’ College at Windermere this year. All teachers at Center are contributing members to grade level SRBI teams, working collaboratively to help their colleagues identify appropriate, specific interventions to improve student academic and behavioral achievement.

At Windermere School the second round of intervention block pre/post assessments will be created. Students will be given the pre-assessment and new groupings of students requiring intervention services will be created. The overall effectiveness of the current list of staff members providing support to students with identified instructional needs will be evaluated. A determination will be made as to the efficiency of current practices, whether specific goals and objectives need to be refined, or if students can be dismissed from their current interventions. The school will continue to work with the staff developers from Columbia University’s Teachers College and set short-term goals that can be worked towards prior to future training sessions.

At Ellington Middle School, professional development sessions will focus on differentiated instruction, curriculum development related to reader/writers workshop, a substantial number of sessions on instructional technologies, and exploring key topics in special education. In department and curriculum team meetings, upcoming work will include scoring and analyzing common formative assessments, revising and modifying core curriculums, developing a prototype classroom which will support a readers/writers workshop model, and finishing budget documents for the 2011-2012 school year. Other highlights at EMS in November will include a: Father/Daughter Dance (Nov. 3); Veteran’s Day Ceremony (Nov. 9); the EMS PTO Craft Fair, (Nov.13); and Parent Conferences (Nov. 17-19).

Next month the School Psychologist Committee will meet to continue to address 2010 Learning Disabilities Guidelines. Mr. Pearson and Mr. Brettschneider will be attending a conference on using behavioral observation data for individual intervention decision making at the University of Connecticut. Mr. Brettschneider will be attending the special education directors CONNCASE Regional meeting this month. Anne Louise Thompson from the Connecticut State Department of Education and Sonya Kunkel from CREC will be discussing the challenges to Implementing SRBI and the LD identification issue. Rebecca Santiago-Rudnick from Shipman and Goodwin will be discussing the logistic and legal considerations relative to SRBI. The TEAM Coordinating Committee will meet in November to discuss mentor recruitment, reflection paper review, and ways to support beginning teachers in Ellington.

3.0 Recognitions

More than 50 teachers and administrators from Ellington, East Windsor, Granby, Windsor Locks, and Simsbury attended the Saturday Reunion at the Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project on Saturday, October 23. They attended sessions to increase their skills in implementing reading and writing workshop and word study. Dr. McGurk served as assistant chair on a NEASC visiting team to Haddam-Killingworth High School and on a CSDE/NCATE accreditation team to the University of Hartford.

Terry Johnson coordinated the annual food drive to benefit the Crystal Lake Food Pantry. Crystal Lake students and families generously contributed over 700 items to the food drive. Mrs. Johnson involved her students in the food drive by having them count and graph each week’s donations. Valerie Gagnon, Kathy Marohn, Louise Kelly, Penny DeFrino and Christine Marshall traveled to Columbia University’s Teachers College in during the month of October for workshop sessions on topics such as bands of text difficulty, reading and writing in kindergarten and fluency. Pam Whiting and Nancy Connelly attended the Columbia University’s Teachers College Saturday Reunion on October 23 in New York City. Kathy Marohn and Pam Whiting, both Responsive Classroom trained teachers, facilitated the October 12 in-service session on components of the Morning Meeting. School Librarian Lisa Garofalo facilitated an in-service session on October 12 as well, entitled, The Wonderful World of Web 2.0.

Five teachers from Center School, Sheila Byrne, Linda Grad, Renee Sherriffs, Katelyn Moule and Kathy Tetreault attended October Readers Workshop Calendar Day sessions at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College in New York City. Teacher Katelyn Moule and Principal Trudie Luck Roberts spent Saturday, October 23rd at the Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City attending a variety of literacy seminars on the Readers Workshop instructional model. Sandy Suib-Dutcher organized a Denim Day for Breast Cancer with staff members contributing donations to the cause and wearing pink to show their support. Custodian Jeff Schiavetti organized a Tennis Ball Drive, encouraging students to bring in used tennis balls for the legs of desks and chairs to prevent floor scratching and reducing classroom noise. Almost 1000 balls were collected, with second graders contributing the most.

Two seniors from Ellington High School’s Young Educators Society volunteered to help second graders paint pumpkins. Kloter Farms donated small pumpkins to Joanna Schneider and Krista Pregony as they worked with Mrs. Katie Gelsomino’s students on their fall-themed project. Playground aide Dave Upchurch organized a Hat Day celebration with students wearing a variety of creative hats during their recess time. Thanks to Pam Schlectweg for her work supporting the Red Ribbon Week celebrations. She created thought-provoking daily activities to build school-wide awareness of the importance of a being “Drug Free: The Healthy Way to Be.”

Steve Moccio, Liz Conlin, Karin Perkins, David Pechie, Cathy McCullough, and Jessica Buttafuoco traveled to New York City to take part in Columbia University’s Teachers College 79th annual Saturday Reunion. The day consisted of a Keynote Address by Kate DiCamillo and closing by Carl Anderson. Kathy Bienkowski organized and ran the first session of a professional literature book club for the elementary school while Liz Conlin organized and ran a book club for the intermediate school. The clubs read and discussed the first two chapters of Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic, Independent Readers by Jennifer Serravallo. Staff members who joined Kathy Bienkowski included Jean Mudgett, David Pechie, Cheryl Warriner, Cindy Garrow, and Steve Moccio while Loretta Donovan, Nicole Satagaj, Sarah Martin, and Cheryl Ferreira joined Liz Conlin. The clubs will be meeting periodically throughout the year to discuss future chapters.

Mary Varley held a Nutmeg celebration for any 4th grade student who has read at least 2 Nutmeg books and 5th and 6th grade students who have read at least 4 books. The celebration included a balloon volleyball game where the balloons would be popped unveiling a question regarding one of the books that would be discussed among the students. On October 14th, Rachel’s Challenge was run at Windermere School and featured Dana Scott who presented the story of her sister, Rachel Scott to all of the 5th and 6th grade students and staff. Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School and her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for a school program that inspires students to spread a chain of kindness in the school. Students attended a 60-minute assembly and 90-minute Chain Links training session. Rachel’s Chain Links Clubs have begun and will carry out Rachel’s positive messages at Windermere School. Thank you to Marilyn Toback-Reveley and her committee for bringing a valuable program to Windermere School.

Jennifer Reynolds, Student Council moderator, had the candidates seeking council offices participate in a primary run-off prior to the final elections. This was a great opportunity to have all of our students understand the elements of the election process. Ultimately, students running for office were required to give a campaign speech to the entire student body just prior to the election. Jennifer also has had the student council members conduct a school-wide coat drive with the coats being donated to the Button Up Ct. campaign, collect Yoplait Pink Labels for the Race for the Cure Fund, and Box Tops for Education. Deb Slattery coordinated the Zone after-school program affording students a variety of programs and additional academic support such as content area tutoring, pottery wheel, homework help, flag football, and volleyball. Jennifer Reynolds and the student council held a “Welcome”. The dance was chaperoned by Mrs. Fuellhart, Ms. Dargan, Ms. Robidas, Mr. Curtis, Mrs. Vibert-Johnson, Ms. Slattery, Mr. Raiola, Mr. Pennington, Mrs. Reynolds and Mr. Pearson.

Joyce Agnew, coordinated events for Red Ribbon Week that promotes a drug-free life style. The students brainstormed ideas to promote Red Ribbon Week such as “Hats On/Drugs Off”, with students wearing hats as a sign of support, “Team up Against Drugs Day” with students wearing their favorite sports team wear. The peer mediators also made daily announcements with important drug facts and had fun dress-up activities that carried a drug free theme. Students who supported the drug free themes had their picture placed on our PRIDE (Personal responsibility for individual daily effort) bulletin board.

Joyce Agnew, Paula Dargan and John Hostetler developed a student led anti bullying committee committed to developing strategies and activities that promote a healthy life style. Daryl Basch, Paula Dargan, Rachel Dio-Rand, John Hostetler, Jennifer Larkin, Michael Nash, Yurah Robidas, Debbie Slattery, Beth Tautkus and Christina Woznicki are a part of the adult Diversity Committee at Ellington Middle School that meets regularly with students to develop new and creative ways to engage our students to live and promote a healthy life style. Scott Raiola, Terry Looke, Joyce Agnew, Beth Tautkus, and David Pearson attended a reception in Hartford to meet the families of Open Choice students attending Ellington Public Schools. A light dinner and refreshments were served followed by a question and answer session.

Denise Arms attended a two day workshop on Social Thinking. Sarah Nicholson is part of a Windermere school wide Positive Behavior Intervention Support team and attended the first two of six training days in October. Sandy Suib-Dutcher and Carol Connolly attended a SERC professional development workshop on distinguishing second language acquisition from learning disabilities. Linda Grad attended a workshop at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City entitled “Constructionist Approaches to Phonics and Vocabulary Instruction, Word Study that Works!” presented by Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D.

Linda Lyttle, Denise Ackeifi, Jenny Montgomery, and Kelly McDermott attended a two day workshop in Mystic Connecticut sponsored by the Division on Career Development and Transition. The conference focused on how best to transition special education students in the 21st Century to the world of work and independence.

Valerie Baigert attended a workshop entitled “Positive Behavioral Supports: To Manage Student Defiance and Bullying and Improve Academic Performance”. Christine Chamberland attended restraint training and will be certified in CPI. Denise Ackeifi met with Center School faculty to assist them with behavioral and restraint needs for a kindergarten student.

The following students performed at the Advanced level in mathematics, reading, writing and science on the 2010 Connecticut Academic Performance Test: Nicole Angelica; Emily Cohen; Katherine Deforge; Ryan DeLand; Justin Gottier; Austin Heffernan; Kristen Joyse; Jeffrey Patrick; Kasey Pekala; Michael Thibodeau; Brian Tiedt; Alyssa Van Allen; Victor Viega; Alec Weiner; and Mackenzie Whiting.

Girls’ soccer captain Kelly Conley, along with boys’ soccer captain, Michael Thomas, coordinated a campaign to raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Awareness Month during spirit week and at the October 29 soccer game. Approximately 35 students participated in Peer Mediation training at Crandall Lodge in Tolland under the direction of advisors Catherine Lebron and Michael Stiles.

Four freshmen were named to the Student Advisory Council for 2010-2011. Freshmen were first nominated by teachers and then finalists were interviewed by Neil. The new members are Semaj Coarts, Erin McGrath, Nicholas Pigeon, and Erin Schirra. They joined the sophomore, junior, and senior members of the group for a meeting on October 22. The Student Council coordinated school spirit week culminating with a pep rally on Friday, October 29, and the homecoming dance on Saturday, October 30. The pep rally was deemed the most successful and spirited pep rally in recent history.

Lynn Ouellet and Sean Byrne attended the NCCC social studies meeting at Canton High School. Nancy Strong participated in the Mass. School Library Association Conference in Sturbridge, MA. Keith Tautkus attended the Standards Writing for State Curriculum at CREC. Sean Byrne, Janine Galvin, Cheryl Morrow, and Ann Johnson attended “Education of Students who are Visually Impaired” at BESB. Aaron Flamino and Jim Pointek attended the NCCC math meeting at Enfield High School. Dan Uriano attended sexual harassment prevention training in Hartford. Suzanne Markowski attended the Greater Hartford Guidance Directors’ meeting at Platt High School. Andrea Howarth attended University and campus talks and information sessions. Debbie White participated in the Connecticut Business Educators Association Conference. Paul Grzyb, Lindsay McGinn, Mark Mahler, and Jennifer Sansoucy attended a CAPT scoring workshop. Kandace Murdock initiated the planning process for Channel 3 Cool Schools and is coordinating the many aspects of the project.