Target 3 – Flexible Learning Environments. FWSU will maximize flexible learning environments by redefining the school day, promoting learning experiences that extend beyond the school classroom, and fostering creativity, innovation, and differentiated learning opportunities for all.

Action Step – Provide students w/ access to content, resources, and methods for learning beyond the school day and beyond the school walls.

Indicator of Success – Students are engaged in answering authentic questions and solving problems in collaborative settings.

Bellows Free Academy held its school completion to select a student to send to the State Poetry Out Loud Competition.  There were 7 students who emerged from the classroom competitions and as school finalists.

English teacher Fred Griffin shares, ” I’ve been doing Poetry Out Loud in all my classes for six years now. Kids know about it before they step through the classroom door. The reaction of new students is pretty much the same. They range from dubious to anxious.  But after they’ve practiced for a week and gone to the front of the room to perform and watched their classmates perform, attitudes change. By the time we hold our class competition kids are locked in not only on their poems but the poems of others. The classroom draws together as kids pull for each other to do well.”

The competition this year was particularly strong. Mr. Griffin summed this up best as he was announcing the top three; “There are 7 winners, but different scores”.

Victoria Howard will represent BFA Fairfax at the state competition.  Luke Rebeor finished second and Cooper Gonyaw was third.

In summarizing the experience Victoria said “By reading and memorizing the poems, they become a part of you. You fall in love with them. You understand and feel what the writer is trying to say.”