Mascoma Curriculum Newsletter
October 2024
Professional Development Committee
The Professional Development (PD) Committee meets monthly on the last Thursday of the month. The members of the PD Committee oversee the development, implementation and evaluation of the PD Master Plan as well as provide feedback to teachers and monitor PD opportunities and activities in the district.
Click the button below to check out a brief overview of MVRSD Professional Development plan and what hours are required for teachers, paras and nurses.
Need Help with Frontline? Attend PD Help Sessions.
Did you know? Each building hosts after school help sessions to help you with Frontline! See your PD building reps for more information. Remember, your PD reps are happy to help you when they are not teaching or working with students. Please be respectful of their time and attend after school help sessions.
September Early Release Day
Gina McGuire brought her decades of experience as a Registered Nurse, Certified Health Teacher, and Fitness/Yoga Instructor, to Mascoma Valley Regional School District on September 25th. She brought her passionate message about self-care for the amazing human body and mind through her J.O.Y. To the World ™: Finding Your Meaning and Purpose presentation. Gina got everyone up, dancing, and singing throughout her presentation.
I hope you were able to reflect on the self-care practices that were shared. Here are some of my takeaways from this presentation.
1. Wake up every morning and move your spine. Spinal movement will help when you are feeling anxious.
2. If you have a nervous, nervous system, just breathe. Breathing is a powerful tool for our bodies!
3. Sitting in gratitude for 12 seconds will change our outlook.
4. Don't silence your passions, remember to share them with the world.
5. Always remember to get up and move. Movement breaks are not just for kids.
Mandatory Trainings
You need to make sure to submit this form in order to get marked off as having completed the Mandatory Training videos. NH state law requires these training for any employee of a school district. If you have any questions or need help. Please contact me (aguinness@mvrsd.org).
Important Links
NHED
Check out our Mascoma Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment Google Classroom for professional development materials, Grit materials & new videos, K-8 math pacing guides, scope and sequence documents, and more. 📚 📏 📖
Course Code: cshmptt
Mascoma IM Pacing Guides K-8
- 🖍️ Kindergarten
- 📏 First Grade
- 🎲 Second Grade
- ⏲️ Third Grade
- 🧮 Fourth Grade
- ✏️ Fifth Grade
- 📐Sixth Grade
- 📊 Seventh Grade
- 📉 Eighth Grade
IM Professional Development slides by Jess Jacques
Working with Jess Jacques, the Merrimack Valley School District Math Coach, we have developed pacing guides based on Mascoma I Can Statements laying out the quarter by quarter plan for teaching the IM curriculum. Each document includes helpful suggestions and links.
Accessing Opening Source Curriculum
IM has created many videos that give you a K-5 Overview and delve into different aspects of the curriculum. There are a number of features of IM K - 5 that were highlighted as especially helpful:
Math Routines are embedded: act it out, choral count, estimation exploration, how many do you see (subitizing), notice and wonder, number talk, true/false, which one doesn't belong, etc.
Center suggestions - actual new ideas that are clearly connected and engaging
Worksheets can be customized to better align to your instruction
Multiple strategies and ways to solve problems are utilized throughout the program
I recommend that you start the Registration Process to access the open source curriculum so that you can see the curriculum yourself when you're ready and have time. This won't happen all at once and everyone will need to start learning about the resources at their own pace. Here is a video from Jess Jacques on how to navigate IM Teacher Materials and one as an example of how to customize IM presentations & materials.