Flynn PTO Update 10/27/13

Hey There Flynn Families - Exciting week ahead for the kiddoes (and all us big kiddoes!).  Good luck trying to contain all the enthusiasm until Thursday night...  Can't wait to see our munchkins all dressed up and parading around at Birchwood.  Flynn school has been doing this for many years and the residents at the nursing home look forward to this special tradition.  A little human kindness goes a long way - so fortunate that we get to spread a little joy. 



Daylight Savings time Fall Back Bottle Drive this coming Saturday! Bring your returnables to Merola's on North Avenue, tell them that you are from Flynn school and that money goes to us for opportunities like trips to the Flynn theater, chess club, playground improvements, the school play...  Tell your friends and neighbors - we're not too proud to ask for bottles/cans!

Can You Help?  (yes, please!) Please contact Karen Carr if you can help put out school messages on the black signs OR  if you might be able to come in to school and clean out the recess cart (recess toys need to be sorted, broken stuff tossed and a list of replacement toys compiled for the PTO to restock)  Karen can be reached at kcarr@bsdvt.org

Halloween parade this Thursday at the Flynn Campus. 
Grades 1 and 2  will leave St. Joe's at 1:30 with costumes on. The parade begins at 1:50.  Students will exit near the cafeteria out to Starr Farm Rd and the Birchwood Nursing Home.  There will be an all school assembly following the parade just prior to dismissal.  Parties are at the discretion of each teacher and if happening, will take place prior to the parade.  Contact your room parents for more info regarding parties and whether they need volunteer help in the classroom.  Parents are welcome to come for the parade at 1:50 on the South side of the school (Starr Farm side).  As always, school costumes cannot be terribly gory (save those for the evening) and there is no makeup at school or devices of torture/violence (sabers, toy guns, scythes, daggers, swords...)

Fundraising Success at Flynn thanks to YOU!  The Meadow Farms fundraiser netted $4,923 to fund PTO initiatives this year.  As well, families have contributed $831 so far for Pay It Forward fund.

As always, the Book Fair and Pasta Dinner enjoyed a huge turnout last week.  On the Dinner end, a big public thank you to the following folks who organized, cooked, cleaned, moved tables, collected money and donated their time to pull off a successful dinner yet again this year:

Janet Green,   Tammy and Jon Kuypers, Scott Hook, Kate Wheeler, Kate Belluche, Betsy Ward , Miranda Purvis,  Lisa Tulkop, Shanta Eastman, Karen Carr, Mary Mitchell, Jessica A. Foerst-Bilodeau and Jon Ward. 

More thanks to the families that donated the raw materials for the dinner and yummy stuff for the bake sale.  Your generosity allowed us to turn a profit of $650.  Of that, $166 from the bake sale will go to the Library Staff to purchase items for their reading nook.  Yay for us - we win all around - books, food and fellowship and an inviting place for our kids to read!


Don't Miss this!!! Burlington/Winooski
 Partnership for Change: Community
 
Learning Conversation Saturday, November 2, 20139:30 am - 1:00 pm, Winooski High School

IMAGINE A SCHOOL SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR ALL LEARNERS

Winooski and Burlington are remodeling the education system to ensure that all learners will be successful- and that both communities will be strong and dynamic in the years ahead. We’re moving toward a more personalized learning environment that puts students at the center. Come help us envision a school system that allows all of our young people to reach their learning potential, meet their college and career goals, and contribute to a brighter future for our community. All voices are welcome!

9:30  Welcome Reception, Coffee and Pastries Served
10:00  Large Group Presentation
10:50  Student-Led Small Group Discussion
12:00  Lunch

CHILDCARE available at no cost to participants for children ages 3 and up. Please RSVP by email to info@partnershipvt.org

INTERPRETATION provided in Nepali, Burmese, French, Kirundi, Swahili, Somali, Maay Maay, Arabic, and Vietnamese.

Burlington Graduate Expectations  (just a preview of one of the new things you might learn about at the above meeting on Saturday...)
               

After several months of shared learning, engaged conversation, and deep thought on the part of students, educators, parents, business leaders, and community partners, the Partnership for Change is excited to share the Graduate Expectations for Winooski Middle/High School and Burlington High School.
Graduate Expectations are the habits, skills, and knowledge that our community decides are most important to the success of all students in college, careers, and civic engagement. These are proficiency-based Graduate Expectations, meaning students must demonstrate that they have learned each one in order to graduate. For more than 100 years, Burlington and Winooski schools, along with most schools across the country, have measured students’ readiness for graduation according to seat-time or how many classes they have taken in each content area. But our world has changed significantly over the past century. In moving toward proficiency-based Graduate Expectations, we can ensure that our young people are fully prepared for the rapidly changing, complex world they will soon inherit.
Our Process
Our journey toward Graduate Expectations began back in December 2012 with 35 neighborhood learning conversations that engaged more than 400 students, teachers, parents, and community members in a conversation about what our graduates need to succeed. Participants in these conversations helped to generate a list of 19 possible Graduate Expectations. On February 2, 2013, more than 300 Winooski and Burlington residents gathered in the Burlington High School cafeteria to learn about the work being done to redesign our schools and to rank which of the 19 Graduate Expectations were most important to them.
In March 2013, two teams of diverse stakeholders-one in Winooski and one in Burlington-were formed with the charge of delving deeper into this work. Guided by Sarah Bertucci, the Partnership’s Personalized and Proficiency-Based Learning fellow, each team combed through the community’s input and relevant research to create first drafts of Graduate Expectations for each city.
This spring, these drafts were shared widely with the public at a second round of 32 neighborhood learning conversations and on the Partnership’s website. We asked the community to provide feedback on the drafts as well as to help us envision how students might learn and demonstrate these Graduate Expectations in our schools. Between the online feedback form and the neighborhood learning conversations, nearly 150 people provided input on the draft Graduate Expectations for Winooski and another 250 provided feedback on the Burlington drafts.
Over the past two months, the Winooski and Burlington Graduate Expectations (GX) teams reconvened, once for a cross-district work retreat and later as individual teams, to finalize the drafts of Graduate Expectations for each city. Although the GX teams took the lead on analyzing the data, synthesizing the research, and writing the drafts, these Graduate Expectations are truly the product of our entire community’s best thinking and hard work.
Next Steps
While these drafts are exciting steps in our process, the journey toward proficiency-based Graduate Expectations in Winooski and Burlington schools does not end here.
“It is critical to understand that these Graduate Expectations are not going to be carved in stone and forgotten,” Sarah said. “There will be continued opportunity for learning, reflection, and feedback about these Graduate Expectations and their implementation next year.”
To start, during this summer’s School Development Institute (SDI), WMHS and BHS faculty will explore and plan how to incorporate the Graduate Expectations into their teaching next year. In July, a group of educators, students, and community partners will visit Eagle Rock School in Colorado to learn from their exceptional example of proficiency-based education. Then, throughout the 2013-14 school year, the Graduate Expectations will be piloted in certain lessons, classes, and programs, beginning with those areas in which students are already learning these critical habits. In conjunction with these pilots, the Partnership will continue to support targeted research and reflection. From this learning, we will be able to add more detail to the Graduate Expectations, particularly about what each means and encompasses.
As the work moves into the piloting and implementation phases, the Partnership will again turn to all of Winooski and Burlington’s parents, teachers, students, business leaders, and community partners for engagement and input. This confidence in the wisdom that exists within our own community is what gives our work the power to endure. With the continued participation of the whole community in the school change process, we can ensure bright and prosperous futures for our young people and, in turn, our cities.

Learn more about the thought process behind each Graduate Expectation for Burlington.

 

Save the date...

 

October 31 - Halloween parade to Birchwood Nursing Home - 1:50 pm - Students will exit for the nursing home out the back doors adjacent to the parking lot on Starr Farm.  All students will be at Flynn for the parade.
November 2- Flynn Bottle drive at Merola's!(9am-5pm)
November 2 - Partnership for Change - Community Learning Conversation - Winooski HS
November 3 - Daylight Savings - set those clocks back an hour!
November 7 - PTO meeting