Scot Graden's Blog

The newly renovated and expanded Saline District Library is now open for business. I was able to stop in today at 9:00am when the doors re-opened. The “official” grand opening is set for this Saturday, May 31st at 10:00am. Below are some pictures of the new facility.

There was a nice crowd downtown today to watch the Memorial Day Parade. Both our High School and Middle School bands marched in honor of those who have served our country.

Ms. Su-Fen Lin, director of our Pooh Corner pre-school recently gave me the book, “Blocks to Robots” by Marina Umachi Bers to read. I think this was because over the last several years as the Director of Community Education, Ms. Lin and I have had numerous philosophical conversations about early childhood education. These discussions often centered around what does the future hold for our youngest learners who are housed at Houghton School.

My first exposure to early childhood education curriculum was the High Scope philosophy that Pooh Corner used starting in the 1990’s. I then learned about the Reggio framework that we now have been incorporating into the early childhood curriculum. Both of these focus on “Key Experiences” that children may learn. For example, “Listening and Responding” is one of those experiences. You ask a child to “tell me where you want to play next.” They respond, “I want to play with the blocks. I want to build a castle today.” Throughout this conversation, the child is encouraged to “listen to the question and respond.” This curriculum also provides support for staff in creating developmentally appropriate play/learning spaces.

“Blocks to Robots” builds on the High Scope and the Reggio foundation. It emphasizes that playful learning can be blended with science, math and technology even with “blocks” and a variety of other play materials. If the above child played with blocks that tumbled in, a discussion can occur “why the castle fell down.” This fun activity provides children with complex concepts based on a constructivist approach to teaching and learning that is fundamental to their healthy development. I am eager to witness the creative, problem solving projects that our pre-school students will participate in next year using this approach.

On Tuesday, I was able to sit in on the final Heritage School Improvement meeting. The meeting was essentially an analysis of how the building had done in terms of the areas designated in their school improvement plan. They reviewed what worked well and what needed to be improved in a variety of areas. They included: The Reading Binder, Reading Apprenticeship, STAR Testing, Math Facts, Woodland Meadows/Heritage Reading Buddies among several others.

It was nice to listen as the staff responded to the various areas with honest and direct feedback. The information gained at the meeting will be reviewed by the School Improvement Steering Committee and used to help guide future professional development. I was very impressed at the number of staff who spoke up and contributed information about their experiences this year with their students. This is a very busy and hectic time of year – to see the staff take time for authentic review was great.

On May 15th the Washtenaw Intermediate School District hosted the Leadership and Design Team Institute Showcase. The event had 47 exhibits from around the county. Each exhibit highlighted local district projects based around five strands: Adolescent Literacy, School Improvement, Instructional Consultation Teams, High School Transformation and Equity.

I was very proud of the three Saline exhibits. Heritage School’s booth was titled “Focus on Reading” and was hosted by Ms. Jane McKie. The exhibit described the efforts by the staff to use common reading strategies and vocabulary to teach their students.

The Middle School’s booth was titled “Building a Community of Readers” was hosted by Ms. Laurie Erby and Ms. Jennifer Nelson. The exhibit highlighted the implementation of the Reading Apprenticeship framework. They detailed the increase in student reading comprehension and noted the increase in effective dialogue with literacy.

“The Freshman Transition Process” was our high school display and was hosted by Ms. Laura Washington. The program focused on supporting incoming freshman. Upper classman are selected to teach the freshman lessons on time management and organization. The program included the popular “Cocoa and Cram” event to support studying for the end of semester exams.

If you head over to Harvest Elementary, you will see that their building has been beautifully landscaped by a group of volunteers that included Joanne & Sean Skelly, Jill Wiedmeyer, Lisa MacDonald, Heidi & Doug Evans, David & Andrea Brown, and Kelli Gatecliff. We also had student support from Maeve & Bridget Skelly; Erin Lathrop; Madison, Mariah & Lucas Evans; Matthew & Andrew Brown; Gillian & George Gatecliff; and Katlin Walper. Even Mr. Sharon got out there and helped spread mulch!!

We greatly appreciate the support – the landscape looks great!

It was exciting to watch school board trustee, David Freise receive his “Certified Board Member” award at the Washtenaw Association of School Board’s Legislative Breakfast from Dr. William Miller, the WISD Superintendent. Mr. Freise completed his certification requirements in 12 months – this included classes on finance, curriculum, legal issues, technology and more.

The Legislative Breakfast provided an opportunity for Trustee’s Freise, Medley and VanHoek to share concerns and ideas with our state legislators. State Senator’s Brater and Richardville were present along with State Representative’s Alma Wheeler-Smith, Pam Byrnes and Rebecca Warren. As has been the case for the last several events – budget led the agenda. We also discussed high school graduation requirements, full day kindergarten and election reform.

It was nice to read the May 1st article in the Saline Reporter about recent graduate Brian Lane. The current Western Michigan University student was competitively selected to participate in the student portion of the Cannes International Film Festival. Brian is a writer and director specializing in adapting his creative writing to video. Check out the article here. He also happens to be the son of Ms. Jackie Lane, our own technology specialist, who is busy these days preparing PowerSchool for us for next fall.

I had the opportunity to stop in and see Mr. Juan Lauchu and several of his students give a presentation on what goes on in his Exercise Physiology class. The program was delivered for a reporter from the MEA Newsletter and for the Saline Area School Foundation that provided a grant to purchase a treadmill, exercise bike and testing equipment for the class. The uniqueness of the equipment allows the students to “isolate variables” and determine their effect on their exercise routine right in the classroom.

I was very impressed by the knowledge of the students. The six seniors were John Ogar, Pete Nelson, Amir Rad, Jarret Roe, Kayla Steinman and Kate Tolbert.

They were extremely articulate and in-depth with their responses. Following the discussion, they even demonstrated some of the physical testing they complete in class labs. The students seemed to really engage in the hands on research that they are able to perform to accomplish their individual class goals.

It’s getting closer….