Teaching and Learning Newsletter

Many exciting learning opportunities have, and continue, to be offered here in Holliston Public School district! In this newsletter, we are pleased to share a glimpse into our teaching and learning at all levels. Please take some time to discover the wonderful academic experiences and remember to click to see all of the newsletter.

Warmly,

Joanne Menard, Ed.D.

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction

Holliston Public Schools

The World Language Curriculum Review has sent out a community survey seeking feedback to improve the curriculum, resources, and programming accessibility. If you missed that communication, here is the link to the survey. Besides the Community Survey, the committee has developed World Language teacher and student surveys. It is all in an effort to build recommendations for the administration and school committee for change and improvement in the program, request new classroom materials and suggest adjustment to the curriculum.

The World Language Curriculum Review Committee, comprised of teachers from every level and language focus throughout the district, meets monthly. The most recent agenda items were the disbursement of sample resources from publishers. Each requested material is reviewed as it meets the Guiding Principles of the Massachusetts standards, piloting online programs, and creating a Holliston Language Proficiency chart based on time on learning. At each meeting, the committee adds to the list of things they would like to address in the recommendations, including suggested themes, clearer pathways, better communication, and a commitment to the Seal of Biliteracy.

The committee is expected to conclude their work by the end of the school year.

The ELA Curriculum Review final report including recommendations is currently under development and will be sent to the Superintendent in the coming week. It will include a series of recommended actions, both short and long term aimed at improving our Secondary ELA programming.

The Primary ELA Curriculum Review Committee met for the first time during the district-wide professional development day on January 31st. This spring, the committee will compile data, both qualitative and quantitative, about our current ELA Programming. This includes meeting with the Superintendent's Student Advisory Committee to gather feedback from our most important stakeholders.

The mathematics curriculum review has been going on for the past two years (list of team members). We have been meeting each month for between two and three hours. This process started back in November of 2023 with developing the district's vision of mathematics instruction followed by identifying what this instruction looks like in the classroom. Next we analyzed our current curricular resources utilizing a gap analysis to examine which of the state standards are covered in each grade level. After taking a deep look into our current curricular resources, we began looking at other data (such as MCAS) and what curricular resources neighboring towns use. We also sent out a survey to find out more about what characteristics in a curricular resource that the community values. Finally, we utilized DESE's CURATE and Edreports to narrow down curricular resources at each school. The Elementary Schools (Placentino and Miller) decided to recommend Great Minds Eureka Math Squared. RAMS is continuing to pilot McGraw Hill's Reveal Math. The High School decided to recommend McGraw Hill's Reveal Math.

The STE curriculum review started in September of this school year (2023). Here is our timeline for the curriculum review process. The curriculum review team is composed of members from all four schools. We started the process by creating a vision of STE education at Holliston Public schools. The next step in the curriculum review process was to look at our current curriculum and complete a gap analysis. We are currently in the process of analyzing this gap analysis to see what improvements can be made to STE instruction across the district. We have also identified areas that we would like to focus on as we move through this curriculum review.

The STE Curriculum Review Team proposed to put forth a recommendation to pursue a couple of Project Lead The Way Pathways (Biomedical, Engineering, and Computer Science) which will prepare our high school for the State Endorsed Innovation Pathways. This recommendation has been sent to the superintendent for approval to submit to the school committee.

Julie Day and Laura Leonard have done a remarkable job collaborating on the new health curriculum at Miller. In addition to units on safety, decision-making, navigating friendships and advocating for themselves and other, their curricula consistently reflect back to topics explicitly taught in Social Emotional Learning: managing stress, building empathy for others, identifying emotions, and controlling impulses. This investment in our students' mental health will only strengthen their resilience throughout their lives.

Holliston Public Schools welcomed Kati Preston, holocaust survivor and author, to both the middle school and high school. On March 27th Ms. Preston shared her experiences during the Holocaust with our 11th and 12th grade students and on April 8th she spoke with our 8th grade students. Learning about our history from an eyewitness like Ms. Preston is an important experience for our students. She talked about how important it is for our young people to learn about the past so that they can make better choices for our future. In May, our 9th and 10th grade students will hear from Ms. Janet Applefield, another survivor of the Holocaust, about her experience.

In the Spring of 2023, Ms. Preston published the graphic novel Hidden about her experiences.

Holliston Public Schools was awarded a Genocide Education Grant in the amount of $31,150 from the Department of Education (DESE) for the 2024-2025 school year. The grant will be used to support a partnership with Facing HIstory and Ourselves, a Brookline based international civic education organization. FHAO will provide professional development to teachers to strengthen their pedagogical content knowledge and expertise in genocide studies. The grant is offered to support districts as they implement the Genocide Education Law [Mass General Law Chapter 71 section 98(a)].

Elementary Visual Art teachers, Ms. Maureen DeBor and Ms. Michelle Poulos, explored the theme of hearts in their classrooms in a variety of ways. This year, Ms DeBor and Poulos have initiated a classroom system that gets rave reviews from students, teachers and administrators. Clear protocols and behavior expectations were taught and when students meet those expectations they earn a color on their classroom paint palette. When all the colors have been earned, students get to enjoy time to free-create using a wide variety of materials in the classroom. The innovation and improved classroom focus have been impressive to see.

The first annual Mathapalooza was held on March 14th (Pie Day) from 6:30-7:30. A huge shout out to Ashley Bouchard, our Elementary School Math Specialist who organized and ran this hugely successful event. Many families from both Placentino and Miller schools attended (there were over 700 students and parents in attendance!!!). Students had a ton of fun participating in STEM activities. If you were unable to attend this year, please consider attending next year.

The lower elementary French Immersion Teachers has continued to work with Kim Lockhart, an elementary French Immersion and Reading Remediation teacher in Kingston, Ontario and advocate for students with reading disabilities in Second Language Programs. Her work focuses on implementing evidence-based reading instruction in the French Immersion setting. In the March and April sessions, teachers learned more about vocabulary instruction and encoding in the French Immersion classroom.

6th grade students recently read A Long Walk to Water, a novel about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, Nya in 2008 who travels 2 hours on foot, twice a day to a pond for fresh water, and Salva in 1985, who becomes a “lost boy” of Sudan. The story is one of perseverance and hope. Students did research on the impact of water scarcity and water borne diseases and presented to various staff and community members the last week of January. They also pitched their ideas for a fundraiser. The winning fundraiser is Stall the Teacher!!! After spring break, students will collect coins by homeroom all week, and then on Friday, April 26th, the teacher will have to count all the money raised before starting class! Students will help out with making announcements, collecting coin jars, and rolling coins to bring to the bank on the final day

Students in the 7th grade ELA will soon start a Literature Circle unit focused on the theme of “overcoming adversity.” In small groups, students will have the opportunity to read one of the following books: Blended by Sharon Draper, When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, Ghost by Jason Reynolds, Wink by Rob Harrell, and House Arrest by K.S. Holt. Over the course of the unit, students will independently read and analyze the novels.

One of the new courses being offered this spring at Holliston High School is Fashion through the Ages. Developed by English Language Arts Teacher Shawna Frost and student Ishika Ghandi, the course “invites learners to explore culture, identity, and gender through the lens of fashion. From Billy Porter to Harry Styles, students will learn about the history of fashion and fashion icons who have influenced society by pushing boundaries and challenging the norm.” Students will engage with two powerful memoirs, A Visible Man, by Edward Enninful, and Unprotected, by Billy Porter. The course is centered around Project-Based Learning. Recently, students presented on traditional fashion in a variety of cultures.The course is based on a project that Ishika developed as an outcome of her work in her Intro to Global Citizenship class. Mrs. Frost and Ishika spent a year designing and planning the course and its projects. Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive. One student remarked that the “course helped broaden my understanding of culture and diversity in many ways, but one that specifically comes to mind was the very first project we did, which was researching the traditional dress of a culture we are either a part of or find interesting. I learned so much about the country I chose through this project, but I also learned so much about other cultures while watching my peers present their projects. It helped me to understand how traditions in fashion develop and how they differ over the world.” Another stated that, “This class helped me garner a better understanding of the impact of the fashion industry and fast fashion on the environment and of the world.”

Ms. Christine Petersen, and Ms. Lori York Anderson presented programs for grade 3 and Montessori grades 3/4 on Wednesday, March 27th, entitled "Play Party." Students in every classroom were highlighted as they sang, danced and played instruments to traditional favorites.

Students in Ms. McLean's AP Literature class created dynamic book displays. Each group adopted a shelf and designed scenery to correspond with each book's theme, using materials from the HHS Makerspace and PTO donations.

March 31st was International Transgender Visibility Day, and RAMS Librarian Kelly McDaniel had a remarkable display for students to peruse the titles available to them.

Librarian, Lynda Canal, produced a remarkable Scholastic Book Fair this year, which is an important fund raiser for the elementary libraries.