#vted = #vtexcellence

A number of Vermont educators have been in the news lately, achieving and being recognized for the amazing work they do inside the classroom and out.

A Presidential Award for Math at Edmunds

Tarrant Institute partner educator and 6th grade math educator Laura Botte, was honored in August with The Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science. Botte has been a frequent co-collaborator with the Tarrant Institute, partnering with us most notably on building ARIS place-based mobile device games with the Echo Lake Aquarium and Science Center.

Meg O’Donnell recognized as UVM Teacher of the Year

Shelburne Community School selected Meg O’Donnell, a 6th-8th grade teacher for this year’s UVM Teacher of the Year. She joins 72 other educators in being recognized as a statewide leader supporting a student-centered vision for middle school.

Shelburne educator’s action research published in Middle Grades Review

Social studies educator Sam Nelson’s action research has been published in the current issue of Middle Grades Review, an online journal moderated by the Middle Grades Collaborative organization. Nelson’s work, “Growing Independence: Making Practice Collaborative, Flexible and Meaningful” posits that:

The concept of practice, from a middle school student’s perspective, is mundane, redundant, perhaps yawn-inducing. This essay explains a first-hand account of an educator moving to a proficiency-based learning format and discovering how student proficiency does not often improve without engaging and flexible practice opportunities. Using middle level concepts and brain-based research, changes in the educator’s practice came to accommodate the needs of students and take away the stigma of practice as being boring or repetitive. The essay includes examples of learning targets, in-class activities, and curriculum structures.

The full essay is available online as a pdf here.

University of Vermont’s student-centered research appears in AMLE

University of Vermont Assistant Professor of Education Jessica DeMink-Carthew, along with Edmunds Middle School educator Jeremy DeMink, have new research into student-centered learning published by the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE).

Bishop receives highest award from AMLE

And of course, our own organization’s director, Penny Bishop, was the recipient in October of AMLE’s highest award: the John H. Lounsbury Award. The award recognizes “individuals whose scholarship, service, leadership, and contributions to the theory and practice of the middle level education ideal have been extraordinary.” Bishop received it at AMLE’s national conference in Austin this past October.

Congratulations to Penny Bishop, recip of the Lounsbury Award! pic.twitter.com/OZSDceFsif

— AMLE (@AMLE) October 11, 2016

 

Please join us in congratulating these partner educators on their continued devotion to innovative learning and #vtexcellence.