Working Together Making Success Happen at Lincoln

Thank you for your continued efforts to help our students achieve success here at Lincoln.  We could not achieve the successes we are achieving without the combined efforts of our faculty and our family members of the school community!  Here are some recent highlights of the great work we are doing!

 Through our training in differentiated instruction and under the guidance of David Cormier, we are implementing more tiered lessons and more inquiry-based cooperative group learning throughout the school.  Differentiated instruction is “educationese” for teaching to the individual needs of each student in a classroom.

 We have also adopted our first round of Spencer Henry Strategies school-wide and they are beginning to have an impact and referrals to the office are diminishing.  Spencer Henry, a noted professional in the field of classroom management and de-escalation techniques, worked with the Lincoln staff at our October professional development.  He gave us a large set of tools teachers can use in their classrooms to help students remain engaged and on-task.

 In addition, we have received training last week on creating Performance Assessments, the third leg of our three legged stool (Student Behavior: Spencer Henry – Differentiated Instruction: David Cormier– Rigorous Curriculum: Performance Assessments).  A performance Assessment is a series of performance tasks focused on one central theme or idea and is based on the state standards.  Performance Assessments are designed to be interdisciplinary and spur the imagination and creativity among students, provide extra support or enrichment for those needing a faster or slower pace, make connections between subjects while increasing the overall rigor in the delivery of the curriculum.

 Finally, for students needing additional time or support to reach success, our tier two and tier three support classes (strategies) are moving forward and students are receiving targeted instruction based on their greatest areas of need.  Lincoln’s Strategies classes are based on the belief that; (1) becoming proficient in reading and mathematics is a priority for each child’s success; (2) each child is fully capable of becoming proficient in reading or in mathematics, and: (3) each child will continuously work towards becoming proficient in reading and mathematics.

 These four areas are tremendously important for our students’ success.  The administrative team is very proud of this work you, our students, parents and teachers, are accomplishing in partnership here at Lincoln! 

 Together, we are making the success for every child at Lincoln our number one priority!

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Connecticut Association of Schools Proclaims October “Month of the Young Adolescent”

Earle Bidwell, assistant executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) officially announced that October has been designated as the Month of the Young Adolescent (MOYA) in Connecticut.  Accompanying the announcement was a porclimation signed by Commissioner of Education Mark K. McQuillan.

Initiated by the National Middle School Association (NMSA) and endorsed by more than forty national organizations focusing on youth, MOYA is intended to bring attention to the unique needs of young adolescents.  In his landmark book, “Understanding and Appreciating the Wonder Years,” John H. Lounsbury states, “No other age level is of more importance to the future of individuals, and, literally, to that of scoiety; because these are the years when youngsters crystallize their beliefs about themselves and firm up their self-concepts, their philosophies of life and their values – the things that are the ultimate determinants of their behaviors.”  Because young adolescents experience more physical, mental and social emotional growth than at any other time in their lives except infancy, educational curriculum, organization for instruction and school climate all need to be geared to their unique needs.

The literature on middle level schools shows a preponderance of evidence that exemplary schools, those with high achieving, well adjusted, happy students have:

  • Standards based curricula that is relevant, challenging, integrative and exploritory
  • Delivery of instruction that is varied, challenging and age appropriate, which recognizes that all children can achieve at high levels
  • Educators that are specifically trained to recognize and teach the unique characteristics of young adolescents
  • Organizational arrangements that allow for flexible scheduling, adult advocates for all students and participatory governance involving administrators, teachers and students
  • Safe and healthy school environments
  • Parental and community support

During the Month of the Young Adolescent, Connecticut middle level educators will join their colleagues from around the world in providing parents and other adults with information on how they can support the natural maturation process of ten to fifteen year olds, including educational, health and social development.

Lincoln Middle School is proud to join CAS and NMSA in recognizing October as the “Month of the Young Adolescent” in Connecticut.

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Lincoln Students and Staff Prepare for Emergencies through Monthly Practice

During the month of October, students and staff and Lincoln Middle School will be practicing a safety drill in the event of a school-wide emergency.  This month’s drill will focus on procedures in the event there is a threat outside of the school building.

In order to ensure student safety, we practice one type of drill each month including fire drills, evacuation drills, lock down drills and other types of emergency drills.  We regularly communicate with local police and fire authorities in order to make sure we are using “best practice” to continually improve our ability to keep our students and faculty safe in the event of any emergency.

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President Barack Obama to Give Welcome Back to School Speech

On Monday, President Barack Obama will be addressing the students with a brief welcome back to school speech.  I understand the President will be conveying the following points to our students:

  • The importance of staying in school
  • The importance of working hard
  • The importance of taking responsibility for your own learning and,
  • The importance of graduating from high school and going on to college

Arrangements have been made for all of our students to watch President Obama give his speech.  This is a historic event following similar addresses given by past presidents.

If there are any parents or guardians who do not want their student to watch the speech, please send the child to school with a note signed a parent or guardian stating they should not watch the speech and they will be excused from watching.  On Tuesday morning, students are asked to tell their teacher if they are supposed to be or would like to be excused.

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Lincoln and Borders Team-Up to Celebrate Reading

On Tuesday, August 18th I visited Borders Books in the Meriden Mall to greet Lincoln students who had been working to meet the Governor’s Summer reading challenge. We had asked students to pick one of the books they have been reading over the Summer, and write a brief response about one aspect they enjoyed about it. They brought their responses to Borders and received a few goodies from the store, had their face painted (if they wanted to) ad entered into a drawing to win a Borders Gift Card.

Thank you to all who participated to make the afternoon fun for us! A special thank you to Mrs. Joanne Conte, Meriden Schools Literacy Facilitator and Borders Books For hosting the event.

Here is a photo of the event. Enjoy!

Lincoln Student Emily Lowett smiles along side Borders Marketing Manager, Theresa MacNaughton

Lincoln Student Emily Lowett smiles along side Borders Manager, Theresa MacNaughton
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Lincoln Welcomes New Faculty

I am pleased to welcome three new team members to the Lincoln Middle School faculty. First, Laura Boates comes to Lincoln to teach choral music. She will be teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade chorus as well as general music. In addition, Ed Tartaglia is joining the 8th grade as an integrated language arts (ILA) teacher. Finally, Tim Walls is joining the 7th grade as an ILA teacher.

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Welcome to Principal Lavallee’s Edu Blog

Leo_Lavallee-March_2011 Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you will come here often to check up on recent LMS events and news! Check here also for my weekly words of wisdom to students.

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