P o h n p e i Department of E d u c a t i o n Fast Facts Best of luck to our Spelling Bee students The Peluhs in Guam! MHS Career Explora- tion Week is March 5 -9 Sendai Ikuei Gakuen International March 23 is a speech contest for 7th and 11th grade High School: Our Sister School The Peluhs will be one We hope that our partner- School (PICS High School) year old next month Sendai Ikuei Gakuen Inter- ship lasts for as long as our in the afternoon. On Feb- national High School, one two countries exist. ruary 20th, a farewell cere- NDOE and each State of the largest and most mony was conducted by DOE are developing renowned high schools in 10 students and a chaper- PDOE in the Governor’s improvements to the Japan, recently signed a one visited our island from FSM Accreditation Conference Room. The Process Memorandum of Under- February 15th to February Lieutenant Governor, Reed standing (MOU) with 20th, with the MOU signed Oliver, presented the fare- We’re Hiring! Pohnpei Department of by the Directors of both well remarks. Education (PDOE). The parties on February 16th at MOU signifies that PDOE PMA Studio in Ninsei, Ko- All of this was made possi- Inside this issue: and Sendai Ikuei Gakuen lonia Town. ble thanks to the collabora- International High School tive spirit and work of the COMET 2 have a formal relationship On February 18th, the Pohnpei Rotary Club— in the form of sister-school PDOE provided transpor- who we can also thank for programs, student ex- tation for the group’s sight- their countless contribu- Monthly Thought 2 change programs, Educa- seeing tour at Nan Madol tions over the years for tion Advice programs, post and Kepirohi Waterfall. other educational projects, Thank You PMA! 2 -secondary preparation and to include the annual readiness programs, and On February 19th, the vis- SCRIPPS Spelling Bee. more. iting students went and We’re Hiring! 3 performed their cultural Thank you, Rotary Club— The PDOE is humbled drums and dances at Nan- and welcome to our island and honored to partner pei Memorial High School and our family, Sendai IQBE 3 with Sendai Ikuei Gakuen in the morning, and Ikuei Gakuen International International High School. Pohnpei Island Central High School. Kapingamarangi 4 Accreditation 5 Pictures 7 Mwoakilloa: 1967 10 Student Interview 11 P a g e 2 COM Entrance Test February 5th to 9th was COMET jects necessary, 100% of Upward week, with high school seniors Bound students and 100% of SDA across Pohnpei State taking the Col- School students last year were De- lege of Micronesia Entrance Test. gree-Bound. Historically, there have been large Stakeholders can expect a lengthy discrepancies between public piece in the next issue of The Peluhs school programming and private analyzing our state’s COMET scores Our jobs exist for school or extracurricular program- over the past years and what our one reason: to ming. For example, while PICS has attempts to the improve those serve children about 30% of its students become scores look like. Degree-Bound i.e. no remedial sub- Thought of the Month Got a story f o r T h e Micronesians basically have of FSM. Considering the ur- P e l u h s ? three choices upon completing gent needs of the nation, it We want to school: to enter the town job would be wise to focus on re- h e a r f r o m market, return to the village alistic educational objectives y o u ! subsistence and semi- that will result in a solid gen- Call us at subsistence economy, or emi- eral education .—Father 320- 2103 grate in search of jobs outside Francis Hezel, 1995 Pacific Mission Aviation: Thank You! Pacific Mission Aviation recently The Pohnpei Department of Educa- donated a dozen+ high quality tion would like to formally thank teacher chairs to Sekere Elementary PMA for its generous donation to School. one of our schools. We appreciate it more than words can say. One of Sekere They couldn’t have come at a better School’s New time. Most of the teachers at Sekere Thank you, Pacific Mission Avia- Chairs Elementary School were using old tion, for your assistance and for and worn chairs that were falling your kindness. apart. The Peluhs P a g e 3 PDOE IS HIRING! with the ambition and the one with expertise in our Do you dream of a career ability to make our stu- native lokaiahn Pohnpei oh where you get to touch dents’ dreams come true. pil tiahk en Pohnpei, who and inspire the minds of can ensure our children in our future leaders? We need a Mathematics grades 1-12 have a back- Specialist. Someone who ground in character, lan- Do you dream of a can not only implement guage, and culture. Want to make a Pohnpei where children our curriculum, but fine- difference? can read and write in their tune it further for optimal We need classroom Call the PDOE at 320- native language and in student learning outcomes. teachers. Someone who 2103, 320-2104, or 320- 2105 English, with perfect flu- can inspire our youth to OR ency in both? We need an English reach their potential and Submit your application to Language Arts Special- the Office of Personnel, beyond—who loves chil- Pohnpei State Government Do you dream of a ist. Someone with a pas- dren and wants them to Pohnpei where our math sion for reading and writ- succeed in every possible scores are the envy of the ing, guiding our teachers in way. Openings are at world? using the best pedagogical Pohnpei Island Central practices and assisting us Do you dream of a School (PICS), Nanpei in developing the finest Memorial High School Pohnpei where scientific tools for our context. experimentation and criti- (NMHS), Salapwuk Ele- cal, creative thinking lead mentary School, Ohmine We need a Science Spe- Elementary School, and us down the path of sus- cialist. Someone who tainable self-sovereignty? Kolonia Elementar y questions everything and School. consistently yearns to take Do you dream of making our children beyond recit- a child smile every day? We need janitorial staff. ing what we know to ask: NMHS needs a staff who The Pohnpei Department what don’t we know, and wants to maintain NMHS’ of Education is now hir- how can we know it? reputation as the most ing, with plenty of posi- beautiful high school cam- We need a Pohnpei pus on Pohnpei. tions available for those Studies Specialist. Some- IQBE: What is it? If you’re chatting with a teacher or Basic Education—is an NDOE intended outcomes, such as 50% friend at the Pohnpei Department program funded by Asian Devel- minimum competency in the of Education or National Depart- opment Bank (ADB), working in NMCT FSM-wide by 2023, an ment of Education, you might be tandem with the State Depart- FSM-wide implementation of the hearing the term IQBE recently. So, ments of Education throughout Lead Teacher program, and the what is IQBE? What does it mean? the FSM. creation of a Parents as Partners Program. IQBE—Improving the Quality of The project includes a number of P a g e 4 Restarting Kapingamarangi The Peluhs Public Information Every Friday at 5pm using their radio, Kapingamarangi School discusses the goings-on at their school, including the results of their weekly meetings. Below is a highly condensed snapshot of those updates. February 2nd: Principal Mideon Andrew began today’s conversation by discussing several of his teach- ers’ requests for assistance with SLOs, particularly in Social Studies and Science in grades 6-8. The School Liaison advised he would write some reading passages and handouts that accompany the SLOs requested, as the school doesn’t have the required resources or capacity to access the internet. “When will DOE fix the solar system?” the principal asked. The School Liaison and PDOE didn’t have a satis- fying answer. (We still don’t.) February 9th: “Amyleen Tom prepared a presentation on assessment,” the principal advised. “Our school has problem with making measurable assessment that ties into the lesson objective.” Student at- tendance and teacher attendance were an issue this week, with a dozen students coming a few minutes late and two teachers arriving at 8:21 and 8:23 respectively on Thursday. Instruction begins at 8:15. The principal advised that the staff and some PTA members discussed how perhaps an issue is that not eve- ryone takes the rules seriously because the rules were not developed collaboratively. “Maybe if we make the rules together, and have everyone agree on what is right, we can make it happen.” February 15th: “Everything is fine, we’re doing great” said the principal. “Monday to Wednesday, we were doing our schedule on tutoring. Thursday we had basketball, and for our Friday meeting we dis- cussed the curriculum, and had a mini workshop,” he continued, advising that the workshop was about unpacking benchmarks and student learning outcomes to develop superior objectives. When asked how many students are in tutoring at the moment, the principal advised “We have four students in grades 1 and 2, two students in 3rd grade, three students in 4th grade, two students in 5th grade, five students in 6th grade, and four students in 7th grade and four students in 8th grade. Each of these students are in the tutoring program either because they have a low GPA, of less than 2.0, or for their classroom or community behaviors.” The staff meeting this week also included discussion on developing school poli- cies.