Saturday, November 20, 2004

Meeting on Citizenship an inspiration

The meeting on citizenship held at the Sullivan School on Monday, Nov. 15, was a bit of a departure for the CPC. Instead of focusing on a problem, we were able to highlight some great citizenship-building programs that are in place across the city. First of all, State Senator Steve Panagiotakos spoke about what it takes to be a good citizen: helping others, speaking out against injustice, trying hard in school and honoring veterans. (He added voting as a key responsibility for older citizens).

Using the topic of "Citizenship" as a springboard, representatives from four different schools talked about how they try to build better citizenship skills in their schools. Working from the premise that a good citizen must feel sense of personal responsibility as well a wider sense of belonging to a community, the schools use such techniques as "Morning Meetings", "All-School Meetings", "Citizen of the Month" awards and other activities to help students become more motivated and take responsibility for their own behavior.

We also heard about "Making Meaning," a program which is being used in all K-6 classrooms this year. "Making Meaning" seeks to incorporate social skills into the read aloud portion of the balanced literacy program. Children learn right away what is expected of them during the read aloud and there are opportunities to discuss the rules, set goals and reflect on progress. It makes sense. Instead of ignoring the fact that all children don't bring the same social skills to school with them, "Making Meaning" helps teachers deal with the problems in a constructive fashion.

It was great to have students and administrators from the MacAvinnue, the Murkland, the McAuliffe and, of course, our host school, the Sullivan at our meeting to explain and illustrate what they are doing to promote citizenship for students. We also had the pleasure of hearing the UML Strings program perform before our meeting. They played four selections and did a great job. It was all part of an inspiring, positive evening. If you weren't able to attend, tune into Lowell Educational Television (LET), Channel 22, for a rebroadcast.


Monday, November 15, 2004

CPC meeting tonight!

Please join us for a very special meeting tonight at the Sullivan School at 7 pm. Featuring State Senator Steve Panagiotakos as keynote speaker, the topic will be "Citizenship: how to help children become caring and responsible citizens." In addition to Senator Panagiotakos, we will hear from principals who will describe programs in place at their schools that promote civility and responsibility in daily life. There will also be a performance by the UML Strings Program. The CPC offers free babysitting by LHS students. In addition, we will have a bake sale to benefit a Sullivan School 7th grader who is going to China as a student ambassador. Hope to see you there!


Wednesday, November 10, 2004

LHS Distinguished Alumni Night

The "First Annual LHS Distinguished Alumni Award Night" was held on Oct. 27. It was a time to be proud of our city and high school. The ROTC kids were serious and distinguished as they showed guests in to the auditorium, the culinary program students served wonderful hors d'oeuvres, the band kids played some rousing tunes including the "Lowell Fight" song, band faculty members performed cool jazz while food was being served. It was a great night, but the unexpected bonus was the stirring quality of the acceptance speeches.

George Behrakis, Elkin and Donna McCallum, Prof. Hilary Holladay, accepting for Jack Kerouac and Nikki Tsongas accepting for Paul Tsongas all gave testimony to the great beginning the honorees had all received from LHS. My son is in the band and I'm thrilled that he was listening (at least I hope he was listening) to these very different, yet all very inspiring stories of success.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Election Day

I hope everyone got out and voted today. I worked as a volunteer poll observer, stationed at the Rogers Middle School from 7 a.m. until noon and was impressed with the quiet, yet cheerful attitude at the school. The other poll workers were also impressed by the behavior of the Rogers School students and were vocal in their praise when school staff members came by.

One teacher was passing the polling location with a small group of students and gave them an impromptu civics lesson in voting. The elections clerk for the precinct (a former teacher) rallied to the occasion and walked the students through the voting process, showing them the sign-in process, what the ballot looked like and how the machine works. It was nice to see democracy and education working together.