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image by Joe McMillan
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-ma).html

Four Corners is one of 38 Massachusetts schools pre-selected to be named a 2007 Commonwealth Compass School based on students' performance and improvement on the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) in 2006. During the 2004-05 and 2005-06 schools years, Four Corners demonstrated above target improvement in English Language Arts and Mathematics test scores, while maintaining moderate or higher performance levels for a population that included 40 percent or more disadvantaged students.

In a letter to Principal Healy, David Driscoll (MA Commissioner of Education) noted: "I commend you for the hard work you have engaged in, and applaud the improvement you have made in student achievement."The Compass School Program is a component of the Commonwealth's School and District Accountability System designed to recognize, celebrate, and support significant and continuous improvement in public schools across Massachusetts. As a 2007 Commonwealth Compass School, Four Corners will be awarded a $2,500 grant to help sustain improvement efforts.When asked to comment about the honor bestowed upon Four Corners, Principal Healy remarked: "Four Corners received the award because our 4th graders met AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) requirements, exceeding the state expectation by 16.7 points for Mathematics and by 9.7 points for English Language Arts. We attribute this success to three important factors. Teachers and staff at the school learned to:

* Work as a team of adults in a Responsive Classroom environment;* Analyze and disaggregate student assessment data; and

* Use assessment data to differentiate our teaching to improve student performance

Congratulations on a job well done Principal Healy, teachers, staff and students. We're very proud of you all!!!

GMS hosts youth conference

The Recorder
Thursday, April 12, 2007, pp. 1 and 8
By DIANE BRONCACCIO

GREENFIELD -- If you ran a Strawberries-style music and video store, and you wanted to hire a part-time customer service clerk, what qualities would you most want in a job applicant?

Five students from Greenfield High School, Pioneer and Mahar regional schools puzzled this out, examining groups of flash cards imprinted with either ''hard skills,'' such as computer skills or ''soft skills,'' such as caring and honesty. Out of dozens, they had to pick the 10 most important skills.

They were among at least 320 Franklin County students who participated in dozens of workshops and events at the 16th annual Youth Conference, sponsored by the Community Coalition for Teens, and held this year at Greenfield Middle School.

In a workshop called ''Build a Franken-Teen that Gets the Job,'' students talked about what skills are most important for getting an entry-level job and that first step on the career ladder.

''I think we should take out 'outgoing,' remarked C.N. of Greenfield High School. ''I think 'dependable' would be better than outgoing.''

''It doesn't really matter if you're 'hands-on' for Strawberries,'' said E. W., ''but I think it would be important to be a fast-learner.''

Near the Strawberries group, other groups of teens, who pretended to be employers, examined the skills they would want in a crew member at a McDonald's and for a recreational group leader trainee at the YMCA.

Some traits, like ''dependable'' and ''trustworthy,'' seemed to apply to all the jobs, while other traits, like ''outgoing'' or ''caring'' were more variable. But listing important skills gave the students an idea of what traits will most help them to get the jobs they want, said Gary Howe, coordinator of the Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board's School-to-Career program for Franklin County.

''How do these (skills) apply? When you choose your friends, do you choose 'trustworthy?' 'Dependable?' Or do you choose for 'fun?''' Howe asked the students. ''You find out what is successful for you. What we've been saying here is what employers have been saying all along.''

Howe said teens today are facing more obstacles than teens have at any other time in the last 30 years. He said teenage unemployment is at the highest it's ever been.

''You must have chutzpah for something that is worth pursuing,'' he said.

Howe told students their ''first job'' is to make it through high school. ''But, if you commit to a job, don't commit to anything you can't follow through on. If you last a month and quit or get fired, you're burning your bridges in a very small town.''

Howe suggested younger teens create their own entrepreneurial opportunities, such as mowing lawns, pet-sitting or berry-picking for farm stands. He also recommended volunteer work, as a way for teens to establish references that may later help them get jobs.

More information is available on the Web site: http:// www.FHYouth.org

The annual conference offered area students 26 workshops in areas ranging from drug-abuse prevention to ''Getting what you want without being a bully.'' There were programs on how to make one's voice heard, fighting homophobia, on energy sustainability and how to start one's own business.

Sarah Crowell and Kiara Sampson of Great Falls Middle School spent the morning attending the ''Think safe, think smart think sober'' workshop, where they got to try on ''beer goggles,'' which simulate how getting drunk can affect vision.

''That was so much fun. It was bleary, and I fell into people,'' said Sampson, who sported a T-shirt she won in the workshop.

Angela O'Dell of Franklin County Technical School attended a workshop on how to deal with stress while Atma Kaur Khalsa of Turners Falls High School attended a conflict-resolution workshop on how to express one's feelings without escalating a tense situation.

Many students wore stickers that revealed the high percentages of Franklin County's Grade 7 through 12 students who don't smoke, according to the most recent Communities That Care survey.

The sticker program was part of a positive social norms program to promote the good news that most young people in the county don't smoke.

Dustin Seppala, 13, of Athol-Royalston Middle School was spearheading a local effort to persuade tobacco retailers in the Orange-Athol area to remove tobacco advertising that is set up at child's-eye levels in local stores. Seppala is leading a Boys-to-Men group in a campaign called ''Quit Using Advertising to sell Cigarettes to Kids'' or QUACK. Besides a display of all the toxins in cigarettes, he was collecting youth signatures for a petition that would go to local retailers. He said about half the 20 tobacco retailers surveyed in the Athol-Orange area display cigarette ads at children's eye-level. While collecting signatures, he was also giving out raffle tickets for prizes that included gift certificates, movie tickets and an MP3 player, paid for with funds from the Tobacco Free Network.

Greenfield Middle School Principal Chris Collins said this is the first time the school has hosted the event and he was pleased with how well organized it was.

''There's been a lot of enthusiasm for this,'' he remarked. ''It doesn't look like kids at a dentist appointment: They're engaged. They (the workshops) are definitely connecting with students.''

Rachel Stoler, programs coordinator of the Community Coalition for Teens, said planners were very grateful to Greenfield Middle School. ''They accommodated a full school day and the conference, which is pretty incredible. Everybody was very positive about our being there, and that made a huge difference,'' she said.

Students came from every high school and middle school within Franklin County, as well as Four Rivers Charter School, and groups from Amherst, Northampton and Holyoke.

You can reach Diane Broncaccio at: dbronc@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 277.

Greenfield Public Schools
2nd Annual Art Exhibit

Artwork will be displayed in the following locations:

Downtown businesses
Artspace Community Arts Center
Each school's "Gallery"

from March 30th through April 13th.  

Why is there art in the Greenfield Public Schools?

Because children love to be creative and the work they produce is beautiful to see! Plus, research shows that: "...Young people in 'high-arts' groups perform better than those in 'low-arts' groups on measures of creativity, fluency, originality, elaboration and resistance to closure---capacities central to arts learning.**

"Pupils in arts-intensive settings [are] also strong in their abilities to express thoughts and ideas, exercise their imaginations and take risks in learning. In addition, they [are] described by their teachers as more cooperative and willing to display their learning publicly."**

Highlights
from
Art Celebrations
at
Four Corner School

Their engagement is real, the class virtual

The Recorder
Tuesday, March 17, 2007, p.3
By DIANE BRONCACCIO

GREENFIELD - When BG logs onto a computer in the Greenfield High School library, she's not surfing the Net, but working on her Virtual High School mathematics course: "Logic and Reasoning."

"I expected it to be a lot harder to understand, because you're on your own," the 11th-grader said. "But they explain things really well, so you don't have to ask so many questions." BG says she can do all her assignments within her five 50-minute class periods per week. "If you use your time wisely, you can do it all during school," she remarked.

But 12th-grader JD prefers to do most of his advanced placement physics assignments on Saturdays, at home. "This is AP Physics C, which is more advanced than Physics A or B," he explains. JD says he spends 10 to 15 hours working on physics and completes his "lab work" in the online classroom's "virtual lab." But if he does well enough on his final exams, the five credits he earns for the class will give him college credits.

CM, also a 12th-grader, says his Virtual High School course is more convenient "because you can do the work whenever you want." Although he has a designated period at school for his online course in "U.S. Government and Politics," CM can use that time for other class work, because he can log onto the Virtual High School whenever he wants.

They are among 17 Greenfield High School students who signed up this semester for their choice of about 240 courses offered by the online program this semester. About 457 schools in 28 states are members of the Virtual High School. Altogether, about 9,000 students are enrolled.

Here's a random list of the courses to be offered for the coming school year: 101 ways to write a short story; American Foreign Policy; Animation and Effects; AP Environmental Science; Digital Geography; International Business; Music Composition; Meteorology; Oceanography, a Virtual Semester at Sea. There are many core academic offerings as well.

This is BG's second online class at the high school. In the fall, she took an "Introduction to Human Anatomy" course, which explains how the basic systems of the body work, said BG, who is thinking of becoming a nurse. One of the class's final projects was to invent a disease and create a group Powerpoint presentation on how the disease attacks each area of the body. Since the students are from all over the country, each was responsible for presenting how the make-believe disease affected the body system they were assigned to study.

GHS teacher Tamara Grogan teaches creative writing through the Virtual High School to about 22 students, primarily from the Northeast, but students come from other parts of the country as well. She said it's one of the five classes she teaches at the school. Grogan said she began teaching the online course in the school year that began in the fall of 2000, but the program was cut for budgetary reasons after the first year. It was reinstated in the fall of 2005, with a grant from the Lower Pioneer Valley Education Collaborative, she said.

When the Virtual High School program began in the late 1990s, there was federal grant money for the first year, which paid for training teachers and school staff. After that year, it cost schools about $6,000 per year, plus a teacher's time for providing an online course. Today it costs about $6,500, plus a teacher's wages, and allows the high school to enroll up to 50 students per year in online courses of their choice. "That enables us to keep up with the 21st century," says Principal Nancy Athas. It also teaches the kids to be independent thinkers and independent students.

"It's a great opportunity to push yourself," Grogan agreed. Beth Fortin is the site coordinator for the program. "We try to reserve it for the upperclassmen, because they have a more vested interest (in their courses) and their study skills are more finely tuned. She said students taking online courses have to be self-disciplined. "We definitely let them know it's a different style of learning," she said.

Students who want to take one of the online courses begin with a training course that teaches them how to navigate the Virtual High School Web site, how to reach teachers when they have questions, how to post comments to the online discussion board of their classmates, and how to use other tools. BG says her class reads out of an online textbook, then is asked to answer questions at the back of each chapter. The teacher, who is from Connecticut, goes online a couple times a day to check assignments and respond to questions.

CM says posting to the discussion board counts toward credit in his government class. "You have a certain number of assignments to do in a week; you have to log in at least four times a week." He said they are occasionally assigned to watch movies on their computers. When asked what some of the drawbacks to online learning are, the students agreed: they don't always get their questions answered by the online teacher as quickly as they would in a real classroom; and they don't get much opportunity to talk to their online classmates about anything outside their studies. "It's not very social," said CM. "It's kind of cold, not being able to talk to people. But that's the only thing." BG said there are a lot of interesting kids in her class, including a student from Africa, and that she has had a chance to talk to some of them on social Web sites, such as MySpace or Facebook.

JD said he likes the online classes a lot better than traditional classes. "There's a lot more freedom than there is in a regular classroom," he said. He said he has a physics tutor to help him, because he can't always reach the teacher when he needs to. When asked what he'd tell younger students about the program, he said: "I'd tell them you will have a lot more freedom in this course, that it's a lot like a college course. The only way to do well in this course is by doing all your work. If you don't do your work, you will fail. And if you need help, your teacher will not always be there to help, so ask a teacher in school. If you take a science course, ask a science teacher."

You can reach Diane Broncaccio at: dbronc@recorder.com or: (413) 772-0261 Ext. 277.