As Fletcher Elementary students prepare to bring the calendar year to a close at the end of next week and begin their December break, it is a great time to reflect on how our students’ and teachers’ work aligns with the Franklin West Supervisory Union’s four Action Plan targets: Proficiency-Based Personalized Learning, Leadership, Flexible Learning Environments, and Engaged Community Partners. Our year in review offers up two photos for each target. Happy new year (a little early!)
Proficiency-Based Personalized Learning
Proficiency-Based Personalized Learning is important to both students and teachers. Here, teachers explore the online resource Discovery Education and the use of Schoology to organize learning materials and create courses that students can access independently. Discovery Education is an online digital clearinghouse of text, photos, and videos on a variety of topics. Teacher embed this resource into their Schoology classes to bring topics to life in the classroom.
Opportunities for students to engage in real-world learning that is relevant to them are essential. Here, Kaegon displays an audio circuit that he created during an independent academic time.
Leadership
Fletcher Elementary School was one of a handful of Vermont schools designated as a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (P.B.I.S.) Exemplar School last fall. The designation recognizes that F.E.S. increased academic achievement while decreasing problem behavior.
Fletcher Elementary International Education Day last month. Our building-based leadership team shared stories of international culture during a whole-school read aloud.
Flexible Learning Environment
Fire Safety Day is an annual tradition at Fletcher Elementary. Facilitated by the Cambridge Fire Department, students have an opportunity to learn important lessons that keep them safe. They also get to sit in the fire truck and learn all about the many pieces of equipment that firefighters use.
F.E.S. kindergarten students have a longstanding tradition of visiting Chapin Orchard in Essex Junction. At the orchard, they learn about apples and bees. They also pick apples and make cider. Students use the apples they pick to make applesauce that is served at Open House.
Engaged Community Partners
Grandparent Sal Wiggins volunteers during the Four Winds Nature Program in Preschool. Four Winds is a hands-on science education program that supports students in understanding, appreciating and protecting the natural environment. The program is coordinated in kindergarten through sixth grade by Instructional Coach Denette Locke, but relies heavily on on community volunteers to help facilitate. Read more about the Four Winds Nature Institute here.
Third-grade students worked with the Vermont Department of Health and the Healthy Roots Collaborative to visit the Jeffersonville-based West Farm to learn how food is produced and to study the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Following the trip, students donated some of the food they harvested to local food shelves and held a family cooking class at the school during which they created multiple recipes with the produce and ate family-style.
Christopher Dodge is the Principal of Fletcher Elementary School and is a regular contributor to THE FWSU STORY. You can follow him on Twitter @FletcherFalcon
The FWSU Story 