Video Department Recieves an Award

I am proud to announce that the Penn-Trafford Video Department has won $25,000 in awards from a contest they entered.  Mr. Steve Vinton, the adviser to the club (and the teacher in the class) shared the following with me. 

Prior to the holiday break my students worked very hard writing, directing, and editing videos for the West Penn Power "Ways to Save Electricity" video contest.  I am extremely pleased to tell you that they have won 1st and 3rd place in the contest for a total of $25,000 in prize money.    Both groups are from the Video II class.

1st Place  $20,000  Electractula-Alyssa Waldron, Mike Malloy, Brian Dulemba

3rd Place $5,000     Energy Draft- Josh Bujakowski, Evan Davis, Kris Vucelich, Robert Crawford

I am extremely proud of them!

Steve Vinton

The videos can be found at  http://www.ways2savecontest.com/

This is just great news for the school district.  Not only does it showcase the talents of our students, it also shows that engaging students in their interests will allow them to shine.  School districts must focus on putting students in situations where they can shine.  I believe this can best be accomplished by engaging students in projects that facilitate their learning. Learning is not accomplished by a "sit and get" mentality where students are empty vessels that are filled with information from a teacher.  Rather learning occurs when students interact with their environment and create something based on their existing (and new) knowledge.  I look forward to our school district shifting more to this type of learning. 

2013-2014 School Calendar

The School Board tentatively approved the 2013-2014 school calendar during their meeting on January 14th.  The calendar is similar to the calendar used this year.  The Board must approve the calendar twice.  The final approval will be during the February meeting.  We have tried to avoid all known conflicts on the proposed calendar.  The proposed calendar can be found here.

Algebra in the High School

I am very proud to share with you another example of Penn-Trafford leading on the cutting edge in instructing our students.  Mr. Inglese has written a blog entry explaining a new initiative in teaching at the high school.

Algebra for the 21st Century

Two high school math teachers, Tiffany Stewart and Lew McCracken together have reinvented how Algebra 1 is taught at Penn Trafford High School.  They are team teaching to integrate 21^st Century Learning strategies into their classroom.  They have made abstract algebraic concepts easy to understand using a variety of different strategies such as Inquiry Based Learning, a “pseudo” flipped classroom, Project Based Learning, Blended Schools, Penn Literacy Network, Differentiated Instruction, adapted lessons based upon Formative Assessments, Video/Conceptual Based Learning (based upon Dan Meyer’s research), and Keystone questioning techniques and strategies.  

Feedback from students and parents has been outstanding.  Students who have always struggled with math are now seeing success.  Failures are nearly non-existent and the number of A’s and B’s are significantly higher.  These students now enjoy math class and look forward to it as one of the bright spots in their day.

Local school districts have taken notice about what is happening at Penn Trafford.  These districts are very interested to hear how these teachers have transformed Algebra from traditional teaching and learning to 21^st Century teaching and learning.  Before Christmas break, they presented their program to over 60 teachers and administrators at the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit, and they are scheduled to present at the STEM Education Conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in February.

The teachers at the high school plan to expand these practices in Geometry next year and in Algebra 2 the following year.