BBRSD Central Office Update
October 28, 2022
Department of Teaching and Learning
This week’s spotlight on education features learning opportunities for and by students, and a special invitation for adults. The first one comes to us from the Degliaberti family.
Very Cool Science
Congratulations to Maggie Degliaberti, a 4th-grade student at Boylston Elementary School, who won an award this summer from Cool Science, a free and public art competition held each fall for all K-12 artists. As part of her award, Maggie got to see her poster on the side of a Worcester city bus this July! According to her mom, Maggie had this to say about her experience: ”Cool Science is a lot of fun. My Meme and I worked together and I made a really cool poster about saving wetlands.”
If your child is interested in participating in the next Cool Science challenge, please see the information below:
The 11th annual Cool Science Artwork Competition is open to all students interested in the arts and/or sciences. This year, participants are asked to answer one of the following challenge questions with a visual work of art:
- How might your experience with extreme temperatures be different from kids in other places around the world?
- Draw someone who is getting ready for flooding where you live.
- Draw a public transportation system (like buses & trains) that keeps working in a severe storm.
The deadline for submission is January 13, 2023.
During this winter, Cool Science will select the best entries for display on public buses in 2023. The honorees will also be recognized at their art exhibit celebrations that year.
For further information about the contest, please visit https://www.coolscience.net/artwork-guidelines-rules. You can also join the Cool Science community on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Cool Science is a collaborative effort between UMass Lowell, UMass Boston, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, University of Kansas, and Kansas City Art Institute. In 2019, Cool Science received a National Science Foundation grant that helped it expand the project beyond Massachusetts to Kansas, Missouri, and Southern New Hampshire.
Talking with Children about Grief
Mrs. Patty-Anne Inwood, a fourth-grade teacher at Boylston Elementary School and founder of Hope Lives Here, Hope Lives Here, a non-profit organization to help people struggling with loss to heal their hearts and build hope, would like to extend an invitation to parents, families, and community members to hear Ms. Jodi Meltzer as she shares about talking to children about grief on November 3, 2022, from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm at Tahanto Regional Middle/High School. Please see the flyer below.
Museum Exhibit
Finally, many thanks to Ms. Kristin Hope, from the Tahanto History Department, who invited me into her class this past week to view the impressive museum exhibition on Christian and Muslim empires in the 6th to 11th centuries, curated by her freshman History I class. According to Ms. Hope, the goals were to understand the relationships between political power, religion, and cultural achievement, and to learn how to analyze different kinds of evidence. Each student conducted in-depth research, produced a museum artifact for one of the empires, and presented to the class: how does this artifact help tell the story of the time period? A sample of the student-designed artifacts appears below.
Carol Costello, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning
Cool Science Winner Maggie Deglialberti
Hope Lives Here Sponsors Speaker
Artifacts
Pupil Personnel Department
Berlin-Boylston Special Education and 504 Survey
SEPAC and Pupil Personnel Services request your help understanding what works for our special education families and what needs improving.
Please provide your input in this survey
SEPAC
The Berlin-Boylston Special Education Parent Advisory Council is a group of parents who are available to support other parents of students with disabilities. For more information: SEPAC
SEPAC Meetings
The November meeting will be on Monday, November 14th.
email info.bbrsd.sepac@gmail.com for the meeting link.
Preschool Information Night
Learn about the district’s preschool program and the application process for next school year at an information session on Tuesday, November 29th at 6:30 pm. Link to join Webinar
Jannel Fitzpatrick
Director of Pupil Personnel
Technology Department
Thank you to those parents that took the time to respond to the very brief survey on our new device insurance program. The survey is still open and can be found here if anyone else would still like to have their opinions heard. Again, your feedback will help guide our decision-making process around this topic.
We continue as a District to make personal devices available to all those that need them. If you are in need of a device at home to complete homework please reach out to me at my email address and we will try to accommodate your request.
Contact Us!
Email: parentquestions@bbrsd.org
Website: bbrsd.org
Location: 215 Main Street, Boylston, MA, USA
Phone: 508-869-2837