Holiday Concert, 2014

Another wonderful Holiday Concert, as the students of Berlin Memorial and Boylston Elementary come together for an outstanding show.  Many thanks to Peter Daley and Julie Spring for the wonderful job the did preparing our students for this evening.

Fourth Grade Owl Pellet Investigation

What does an owl eat?

Fourth graders dissected owl pellets to find out.  Prior to this activity, students had read and discussed the story “Energy in the Ecosystem.”  The owl pellet investigation allowed the students to see first hand what an owl eats and where it fits into the energy flow of a habitat.  Students used bone sorting charts to help them identify their owl’s last meal.  The student scientists discovered that their owls had eaten either a vole, mole, or bird.

Secretary of Education Malone Visits BMS!

Massachusetts Secretary of Education Matt Malone visited Berlin Memorial School today.  Escorted by student tour guides John Sawyer and Gretchen Munter, he visited classrooms, chatted with students and teachers, and then joined us for lunch!

From left to right:  John Campbell, Karen Molnar, Elizabeth Bennett, John Sawyer,Secretary Matthew Malone, Gretchen Munter, Superintendent Nadine Ekstrom, and School Committee Chair Angela Yildiz.

Harp Assembly, with an operatic surprise!

We gathered together on the first day back at school to enjoy an assembly which featured our long-term substitute Teacher, Julie Spring, playing the harp.  Ms. Spring, a trained harpist, has played professionally in a variety of settings, including time with the Chicago Symphony and as principal harpist for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She promised me early on that she would bring in her harp to perform for our students.

Experiencing music in person is such a unique opportunity, and it was amazing to see how attentive students were during the event. At the end of the assembly Ms. Spring teamed up with Mollee Nosek, our Speech Language Pathologist, to perform a small piece of opera, which Ms. Nosek sang beautifully.  The video below doesn't do justice to the moment!

Kindness Matters @ BMS!

We held an all-school assembly here on Tuesday afternoon.  Our theme - "Kindness Matters" - will be something we talk about all through the month of December.  The program, planned by Elizabeth Bennett, Julia Brodmerkle and their students (with help from several other kind adults) was a huge success!  On of the highlights was a video about kindness featuring staff and students from BMS.  If you are interested, you can watch that video here.

Students make a "grand entrance" to our Assembly!

Our School Chorus singing, "Lean on Me"

Intervention Block

We've begun our school-wide intervention block here at Berlin Memorial!

Our goal is to gather small groups of children with similar needs together to help them make rapid progress in a specific skill.  Some students are working on relearning an old skill, others are working on new skills.  The goal is to make sure that everyone is challenged every day!

First Grade students working on Lexia using iPads!

Reading Specialist Mandy Fallon working with students on responding to text.

Mrs. Donahoe working with a small group on improving reading fluency.

Grade 2 Reading On-line

We are still learning about all the various components of our new literacy program.  One of the components we are working on is the on-line parts of Wonders Reading.  Students have been assigned user names and passwords so that they can work on reading skills at their level, on any device, at school or at home.  This is a work in progress, and some classes are further ahead than others.  We will all get there soon.  A letter with more information is coming home Friday!

In the meantime, thought you  might enjoy this little clip of one of Mrs. Woodward's students demonstrating the "simple log in" to her reading page.  Each student is assigned a 3 item log in - a digit, a fruit, and a shape. It's quick and easy!

Awake, Alert, Alive

There are a lot of things we know about teaching and learning.  The trick sometimes is to find those strategies with the highest impact, and try those first.

One thing we know for sure it that if children sit around too much, their energy level drops, their attention wanders, and they don't learn nearly as effectively as they could.  Happily, there is a quick and easy answer - short, high energy movement breaks. I caught Stephanie Woodward's Grade 2 class engaged in a movement break the other day, and went back this morning, to catch it on video.

Enjoy!

Picture Day, 2014

One of my favorite days of the year is school picture day!  The bright smiles, the combed hair (especially the boys) - you can feel memories in the making.  The kids all seem to enjoy their moment in front of the camera.

Kindergarten Students coming in for pictures.

These pictures are rarely the pieces of perfection we wish they could be, yet their ability to capture a moment in time makes them a worthy memento, even when they are goofy.  I have some of my son's pictures stored in a safe place so that one day I can share them with his children, just as my sisters have taken no small amount of delight in sharing pictures of me with him.

Getting ready for the big moment.

I will say that I was very pleased with the staff from O'Connors and their attention to detail.  They really spent time making each child feel safe, while chasing down those last minute fly-away hairs.  I am looking forward to seeing how the pictures turned out.

Grade 4 Class Photo

  

Cans for a cause

Grade 3 students with Open House cans

You may remember that we kicked of the "Cans for a Cause" program this year with a special deal - parents who brought in two cans received a homework pass for their child. It was a fun way to start off this fund raiser for the Berlin Food Pantry. I am glad to report that the participation was great, and the kids have an excellent start to the year.

Thanks to Mrs. Bennett and Mrs. Donahoe for running this program, and to all of you for participating.  The program is another way in which we try to teach the kids the value of "giving back" and being an active member of their community.

Open House, 2014

Thanks to everyone for turning out tonight for Open House.  It is always a busy evening, teachers have a lot of information to share, and I think that it helps parents when they can sit with each other and understand together what the expectations are for a new year.

I can tell you that teachers spend a good deal of time preparing for your visits, and it means a great deal to them that so many parents turn out.  If you have thoughts about how we can make Open House 2015 even more successful I would love to hear about it.

MAP Testing Begins

Grade 5 students get ready for their first session!

With students and staff settling into the new school year, we've begun beginning of the year testing.  These assessments enable us to make better and more accurate decisions about student strengths and needs, and allow us to focus our efforts more effectively.  This process, which was new to us last year, is an important part of our effort to do a better job of teaching and learning.

Students in this picture are preparing to take a MAP test, a web-based assessment that self-adjusts its questions based on student answers.  Get too many wrong, the test questions get easier, Get several in a row correct, and the test adjusts to see if you are capable of more challenging work.

We will be sharing more information on these tests, and how our students did on them, in the coming weeks.

BMS Garden Update

As many of you know, students have been working hard on our School Garden project.  Led by Grade 3 Teacher Amy Donahoe, staff and students planted seeds last winter in classroom containers, which were transplanted outside in the spring.  All summer long families have volunteered to take turns tending the garden, weeding and watering, and harvesting crops as they were ready.  Our summer produce was often donated to the Berlin Food Pantry.

Fall is here, and our pumpkins and gourds are coming of age.  Today we enjoyed pumpkin cookies made from the pumpkins we started as seeds so long ago.

This has been a great experience for our students, and we are already hard at work planning for the spring planting season.

Mrs. Donahoe and students hard at work.

Gratitude for Teachers and Compassion for Kids | On Being

A wonderful blog by a gifted writer, I found this piece by Parker Palmer particularly appropriate as we start the school year!

Gratitude for Teachers and Compassion for Kids | On Being

Summer Reading Success!

Our summer reading program was a huge success!  One in three students surpassed our goal of 600 minutes of summer reading.  Altogether the kids read an average of 988 minutes - more than 16 hours for each child!

As promised, students who turned in - either on line or on paper - a qualified reading log got an extra recess on Friday afternoon.  Many of them played a game of kickball, myself included.  We all had a great time.

Thanks to all those parents who encouraged their children to read this summer.

First Day for New Teachers

It is the first day for new teachers here at the Berlin-Boylston school district.  It is a day when forms are filled, tours are held, and names are learned.  It is so exciting to see so many people at the beginning of their careers!

Getting Ready for Day One

The first day of school is almost here, and we are busy doing last second clean up.  There is so much to do just before the kids get back, and I worry every year that we will not be ready. Yet each year everything works out in the end.