Date: Fri 21-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

schools-teacher-excellence

Full Text:

State Education Department Recognizes Local Teachers

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

Each year, the state Department of Education honors teachers from across

Connecticut for their outstanding work. Of the 52 educators named this year,

three of them teach in Newtown.

Lorrie Arsenian of Newtown Middle School and Ann Burke and Karen Martin from

Sandy Hook School were this year's winners of the Celebration of Excellence

Awards. Their work with students was judged to have gone above and beyond the

call of duty. Each received money prizes to be used to further their

"excellence" in teaching.

All three will attend an intensive four-day workshop this summer where they

will share their work with other teachers from across the state.

"These three individuals are wonderful people and teachers, and I'm glad to

see them get the recognition," said Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed.

"It's a healthy thing. I think teachers need to get recognition from their

peers."

How Does Your Garden Grow?

At Sandy Hook School, Ms Burke and Mrs Martin have been working together for

the past four years to provide a more enriched learning experience for their

students. In a process called "looping," the teachers remain with students for

two years instead of one in an effort to get to know them better, thus,

becoming more familiar with their academic strengths and weaknesses.

"Since we do the `looping,' we wanted something that we could tie in during

the summer," Ms Burke explained.

Planting and tending a garden was a logical idea.

"We use the garden as a project to stay in touch with the students over the

summer," Mrs Martin added.

The garden seeds are planted in the spring in the Sandy Hook School courtyard

and maintained by students, teachers and parents through the summer.

In the fall, the students hold a harvest festival where they sing garden

songs, pop pop corn, decorate pumpkins and cook vegetable soup.

The teachers say the projects integrate math, science, art and music into

students' learning.

As for "looping," the teachers say it provides consistency and cohesiveness

for the students and comfort for parents who know their child will be with the

same teacher for two years.

"For teachers, the best part is being able to start right in on the first day

of the second year," Mrs Martin explained.

Media Awareness

Mrs Arsenian's project entitled, "Kids and Communications," was a prelude to

8th grade interdisciplinary unit on the Industrial Revolution.

The goal of the project was to increase students' awareness of the media and

its effects on society and consumers. Students learned about the persuasive

techniques used in the competitive world of advertising and marketing. Mrs

Arsenian said the project also honed her students' language arts skills.

To start off, Mrs Arsenian invited representatives from Charter Communication

cable company to show examples of commercials they tape. Students were

challenged to pick out the persuasive techniques in each of the ads.

As part of the interdisciplinary unit, all middle school eighth graders are

required to create/invent a product. But Mrs Arsenian's class took the task

one step further, actually thinking up ways to advertise them. Some students

made commercial videos of their product, others made billboards and magazine

ads, while a few taped radio spots.

Next year, Mrs Arsenian plans to have her students research countries from

around the world and the problems facing their cultures. The students will

then be assigned to develop a product to market and sell to the country's

targeted audience.