THE CUBE TUBE IS FULL!

We are excited about the fact that the students have filled the Cube Tube!  Cubes are handed out to students as recognition for positive behavior that is respectful, safe and responsible. We filled it once already this year.  Since the last time, we've had mini-goals along the way for small celebrations, including Cake and Cocoa, Camo Day, etc.  For our big celebration this time, we'll be treated to a concert on April 11th in the afternoon by A2VT; this is from their website. "Three young guys from Africa. When war broke out in our home countries, we were forced to leave. Eventually we arrived in Vermont, where we now live. Now that we are here, we want to show people what we can do. We write songs. We sing. We rap. We dance. We have recorded our first album, “Africa, Vermont” with grant funding from the Vermont Community Foundation. We think you will like what you hear!"  In addition to the concert, A2VT will visit with our 6th graders as they are currently studying Africa!   

April 1st Parent Night - Focus Substance Abuse

Please join us at the Second Annual World Café which will be held at the Stoweflake on April 1st from 7:00 - 9:00pm.  The focus of this event will be exploring substance use and abuse in our adolescents. Middle and High School Parents are encouraged to attend.

This event is sponsored by the Stowe High School Parent/Student/Teacher Team and is open to the Morrisville parents and surrounding communities.  

Skip Gates will begin the evening and will be followed by table discussions. Skip Gates's son, Will, died from a heroin overdose in 2009.  Skip is spending time now touring to educate as many people as possible of the harm in not only the drug, but how we are dealing with the problem in society.

For further information please contact Pierre Laflamme at Stowe High School pierre.laflamme@lssuvt.org, 253-7229 ext2209 or Peter Hathaway at Peoples Academy at 888-4600 x6144 or peter.hathaway@lssuvt.org.

Parent Teacher Conferences

On March 28th PAML will hold Parent-Teacher conferences. Please call 888-1401 to schedule a conference with your student's Core Team teacher. 

Winter Carnival 2014 at PAML

We had such a great day on Feb. 21st!  It was jammed packed, and rainy, but that didn't dampen the spirits of the students and teachers alike! Students were kind, safe, and respectful all day.  Judy Geer came and spoke with all of the students about her Olympic experience, her daughter Hannah's experience. and the importance of reading.  The connection she made about the difference in Hannah's world now with instant technology, news, etc. struck me in terms of the external pressures the Olympians face now.  Judy mentioned Hannah's blog, which many students had read.  You can learn a bit about Hannah Dreissigacker and see find a link to her blog here.  The ceremony was a wonderful ending for our Winter Olympic Reading Challenge.  We saw some great video, which Barbara Saxe created, depicting the hard work students did during the challenge and we enjoyed the Jamaica Bobsled dance, performed by the 5th grade students and teachers.

After the Olympic Ceremony we moved into the Talent Show.  All I can say, after seeing my first Talent Show is PAML HAS TALENT!  It was fantastic.  We saw student of all ages performing for their peers, which is not easy to do!  We had a nice mix of singing, dancing, instrumental and variety.  We even had a rap by our own Mr. Paige, of course it was about MATH!  (<-- view it here)

We made the best of the rainy time for Winter Carnival with students involved in indoor activities.  They could select from many, many options, including Trivia, Karaoke, Table Tennis, Team Building games, and much more.  We culminated the day with a short basketball game of the 8th grade boys playing the 7th and 8th grade girls.  It was a lot of fun to see the talent on those teams as well.  Mr. Maynard and Mr. Weiss wrapped it up with a school-wide Tug-of-War.  5th and 6th challenged each other, then 7th and 8th.  The winner of those two did another round.  8th graders were the overall winners this year, and they did a pull against the teachers, which was the best of 2 out of 3.  It took all three to declare the 8th graders the champions.  There was a lot of excitement in the gym, as the whole school looked on, I'm not sure who was rooting for which group, but everyone was in a great mood!!  I've heard rumbling of the teachers actually trying to strategize for the next encounter!

Feb 21st!

We have a lot planned for February 21st!

We'll start with our Reading Olympic Challenge Closing Ceremonies!  Our students have been excited to be "caught reading," guessing what teachers are reading and participating in DEAR Time (Drop Everything And Read). Students and Teachers have been blogging about what they read and commenting on other students are reading. We are halfway through our Challenge. 

After the Closing Ceremony, we will have our annual Talent Show. It was a difficult job for the audition committee as there was room for 16 acts and 23 acts auditioned. It's been narrowed down and there will be one winner determined for each of the 4 categories (singing, dancing, instrumental, variety) on the 21st. 

After lunch, we'll have a few hours of Winter Carnival fun. There will be outside options and a couple of inside options that afternoon. We'll end in the gym with some grade level competitions, led by our PE teacher, Stu Maynard. 

Yes, it's a lot packed into one day, but as a whole, it'll be fun and organized. It puts all of these special events into one day, which preserves our instructional time. Photos to follow! :-)

Reading Olympic Challenge at PAML!

We had a wonderful kick-off to our Reading Olympic Challenge today; ask your student about the event!!  We were fortunate to have Bobby Cochran, one of the famous Vermont Cochran Skiing Family, as our guest speaker.  The students were wonderful, completely attentive, and seem to be excited about the Reading Challenge.  Bobby brought his sister Barbara's Gold Medal in Slalom from 1972.  Not many people can say that they have seen an Olympic Gold Medal!!

A packed auditorium

Speaker Bobby Cochran

Barbara Cochran's Gold Medal!!

Senator Sanders at PAML

We were fortunate to have a US Senator drop in and visit with many 6th graders and a handful of 5th graders on Thursday, January 23rd.   The 6th grade team of teachers produced this video of the question and answer session he had with the students.

I was so impressed with the students' questions and attention during the visit.  The time was short so, unfortunately, Senator Sanders was unable to answer ALL the questions the students had, but they are working at finding the answers in other ways: email, checking his website, etc.

Our 8th grade students were invited to the high school assembly where they were able to listen to and ask questions of the senator with the 9th - 12th grade students.  Here is a view from the 8th grade seats:

It was an exciting day at school, and our students were engaged in authentic learning.