| Volume 46, Issue 7 March 2012 |
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...still learning
James T. Langlois, Ed.D.
Building Bridges
Driving into work this morning along the last stretch of Route 202 that leads into the center of Yorktown Heights, I felt like the President or a five-star general reviewing an honor guard. Standing at attention in each driveway (well, maybe not exactly at attention) were a parent and a child, waiting for the school bus. As I drove by each pair -- the child often a miniature version of the parent -- I couldn't help but smile to myself. After all, what I was looking at was the beginning and the end of our educational enterprise: a child or a teenager (or even an adult) as they are now set beside a vision of who they are to become. What we do at BOCES is build the bridge between that child and that adult.
For those of us who are teachers, just like the pairs on the driveways this morning, next to each one of your students hovers that adult they will someday become. And because of that, each of us has a double responsibility. First, we work with the student to make sure she is learning all the things she needs to grow toward becoming that adult. But we also have to keep an eye on each one of those hovering visions of adults, because they can shift and change too. We are not only responsible for the well-being of the student. We also are responsible for the well-being of his vision of himself as an adult.
Take a moment from time to time to check on the well-being of each of your student's future adult self. "What do you want to do when you grow up?" is only a small part of the conversation. More important perhaps is, "Who do you want to be?" "What are the values you want to live your life by?" "How do you want to be remembered?" Just as we work to strengthen our students and help them grow, we should also work with them to nourish and strengthen their vision of themselves as adults.
And for those of us whose work supports our teachers, let us all remember how important that support is. It is our work that enables our teachers to work with our students to create the adults of the future and build the bridges that enable those students to cross over into adulthood.
Just like the driveways on Route 202 this morning, we want to have a strong, healthy adult next to each student -- their future self waiting patiently for them to arrive
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Tom Gill to Retire this Month
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Tom Gill, Director of Special Education
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"Gone Running!" is the sign Tom Gill plans to hang on his office door the day he retires, March 31.
PNW BOCES Director of Special Education, Tom is a tri-athlete, committed to running, swimming and biking every day possible. Ask him what he plans to do when he retires and the short answer is "Run."
A BOCES administrator for 29 years, Tom joined this BOCES in 1999, but prior to that was a supervisor of special education at Southern Westchester BOCES for 10 years and director of special education at Dutchess BOCES for six years. "I call myself an itinerant Taconic Parkway administrator," he says cheerily. Prior to his BOCES positions, he was a teacher aide, pre-school teacher and administrator at the Astor Home in Poughkeepsie, where he did everything from taking out the trash to driving children home. "It was great training," he said.
But working at this BOCES, Tom said, "is the best job I've had in my career." Our BOCES is a "mom and pop" sort of organization - not rural, as Dutchess was, or corporate, as Southern Westchester, but comfortably school-like, he said. "It has a unique aspect to it." He realized that when he first arrived, that this BOCES Board didn't think of the agency as a kind of IBM, but as a school.
Tom is a graduate of Marist College, where he met his wife, Barbara, also a teacher and administrator. They have two children - Robert, 23, a Vassar alumnus and graduate student in speech therapy at SUNY New Paltz, and Bernadette, 21, a graduate of the University of Vermont,
just starting a new job as a digital marketing analyst in Wilton, CT.
As for the running, Tom said he's been doing that "close to 25 years." Every year on his birthday, he runs in the mountains at Lake Minnewaska. It's his gift to himself. "What I like is getting outdoors for an amount of time most days," he said. Even when it snows? "Oh yeah, particularly when it snows. I love running in snow storms as long as the snow's not too deep. Running in a snowstorm is one of the first things a real runner does... It's unique... the sound of it... the smell of it."
While Tom's daughter and son are runners, his wife is a spectator, he said, and sometimes a cheerleader when he competes in triathlon events.
Does he plan to work after retirement? "No. I'm planning on being in really good shape, running, biking, swimming. Just not working."
Still, he said, "I remain committed to the ideals that got me here. So, outside of 9 to 5, for a professional organization? Who knows?"
Meanwhile, staff and friends will be gathering to bid Tom farewell and deliver best wishes on March 23,
Superintendent's Conference Day at 3:30 p.m. at Piatto Grill in Yorktown.
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CIA IN ACTION
Sharing and Using Technology
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INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY newsletter editor Catherine Armisto, a teacher at Fox Meadow. |
Technology assists and challenges us all. Now, thanks to new efforts of the BOCES Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee (CIA), discoveries and inroads into the growing field of instructional technology are being shared enthusiastically across the agency.
Programs and ideas developed by teachers on the Fox Meadow campus are being discussed and shared with the staff of The Tech Center, with Walden and with Pines Bridge... and vice versa. With representatives of all BOCES programs involved, the newly formed CIA Instructional Technology Committee, meets monthly with the goal of sharing what's new, what's valuable and what really works.
"This is a grass-roots endeavor," said Judith Ashby, school library systems coordinator and an active committee member. "It's a shared learning opportunity. What we provide for districts, we want to offer to our own teachers as well."
Other committee members include Christian Brunelli, Sharlene Bass, Josephine Scala, Steve Lowery and John Bellucci, Tech Center; Alyson Kistinger, Adult & Continuing Education; Michele Smail, Pines Bridge; Diane Dursi, Information Technology; and Catherine Armisto, Fox Meadow.
Catherine edits and distributes an instructional technology newsletter via email each month that gives both the uninitiated and the technologically savvy a broad idea of what's available. The newsletter includes articles written by staff from each content area, Catherine said. They discuss different technology resources and explain how they can be shared. For instance, the February edition discussed internet etiquette; instructional motivators; SkyDrive, a Microsoft app for viewing files on the go; an upcoming conference and the use of iSmartboard.com.
The next issue of the Instructional Technology newsletter will be emailed mid-March. |
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Liz Marques Leads Peekskill Parade
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LIZ MARQUES, Peekskill parade
Grand Marshal |
BOCES TV Production and Digital Film teacher
Liz Marques led the Peekskill St. Patrick's Day Parade March 10 as Grand Marshal, an honor reflecting both her long-standing community service and Irish heritage.
A BOCES teacher for 22 years, Liz previously worked at Continental Cablevision in Peekskill where she was responsible for arranging the city's first live telecast of the Peekskill St. Patrick's Day Parade.
"We had to get lights," she remembered because the parade then started in the late afternoon on a Thursday before the New York City parade.
The present parade on Saturday, followed a ceremonial mass at the Church of the Assumption and a gala breakfast at the Elk's Club. Joe Brady, the piper who leads the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City, led the Peekskill parade.
Liz followed wearing a top hat and sash. "The whole thing's pretty cool," she said, adding that she was even interviewed live on BBC Radio in Northern Ireland about the honor. "I've gone international," she said.
Liz, who lives in Cortlandt Manor, has been involved in Peekskill/Cortlandt community activities since her daughters joined the Girl Scouts years ago. "I have always helped out in the community," she said, "and want to maintain a connection to Peekskill/Cortlandt."
The Peekskill St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee also honored Liz at an installation dinner earlier this month at the Colonial Terrace. |
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Storms Exhibit Draws 1,000
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BOCES 'SUN' is one of many Monster Storms exhibits created by CEE staffers including Rachel Wade and Ryan McCormick.
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Storms were brewing in the West Conference Room of the School Services Building last week.
The Center for Environmental Education's annual Monster Storms exhibit drew nearly 1,000 students from eight Putnam and Westchester school districts to learn about the sun, tsunamis, tornados and other environmental and meteorological phenomena.
The exhibit, designed and built by the CEE staff and Dorna Schroeter, CEE coordinator, is an entertaining collection of facts and hands-on displays, from animal skins to hail-stone replicas to model village landscapes that can be flooded on the spot.
This year, a giant "sun," crafted from a beach ball painted in Steve Zavodsky's Tech Center auto body shop - complete with "sun spots" - is its centerpiece.
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OWL INTRO by Mary Catherine Graziano, assistant to the CEE coordinator, mesmerizes Mahopac Middle School students. |
"The real sun is one big magnet," explained Rachel Wade, one of CEE's environmental educators. "It is one big ball of gasses sending positive and negative rays out into our atmosphere," -- rays that, among other things, influence weather and cell phone reception. "Don't blame your phone for problems this month," Rachel said. Along with the exhibit, visiting students attended a lively session led by Mary Catherine Graziano, assistant to the CEE coordinator, about "animal meteorologists," featuring a live owl, and a program on weather forecasting by local weather man Jim Witt. |
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Cardiovascular Checkup Offered
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CARDIOVASCULAR screening is being offered free to BOCES employees March 12 and 16. Debbie Johnson, Vein Care administrator, registers one of more than 100 participants for a previous screening.
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Vein Care of New York is coming back to the Yorktown campus March 12 and 16, offering free cardiovascular screening for BOCES employees from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Projects Building. A similar screening in January drew more than 100 participants.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to find out what's going on with your health," said Patty Gallo, health and physical education teacher at Fox Meadow, one of numerous walk-ins during the previous event.
Interested employees are encouraged to pre-register by emailing their names, date and availability to: register@veincareofnewyork.com
to arrange an appointment. Drop-ins are welcome however.
During the previous screening, three technicians from Vein Care took participants' blood pressure, reviewed results, scanned carotid arteries and discussed risk factors with each individual. Debbie Johnson, Vein Care's Westchester administrator, said her colleagues didn't even stop for lunch, they were so busy. Vein Care has been offering this program to schools throughout the county for more than a year, she said. It is privately funded.
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FRED ENDE, BOCES regional science coordinator, shepherding the Science 21 program, recently published an article in the National Science Teachers' Association journal, Science Scope, entitled "Not Another Science Lab." He was interviewed for the NSTA podcast Lab Outloud.
Here's the podcast link:
http://laboutloud.com/2012/03/episode-76-not-another-lab-report/.
APPOINTMENTS
Robert Behrens, teacher aide, Walden
Sabrina Beringer, teacher aide, Walden
Brianna Shost, teacher aide, Walden
PROMOTION
Brian Bucchignano, from teaching assistant to teacher, Walden
Candice Percopo, from teacher aide to teaching assistant, Walden
COMING EVENT
BOCES Wellness Committee has organized a retirement planning seminar for staff March 19 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Front Conference Room of the School Services Building. Valerie Verini from VALIC Financial Advisors will speak, focusing on new retirement realities, managing five risks of retirement and essential income planning. Participants will receive a workbook to assist in retirement planning. There is no need to RSVP but an email response to mmuenkel@pnwboces.org from those who expect to attend would be welcome. |
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March
Birthdays
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Oscar Agudelo, Stephanie Alter, Linda Applebee-Brady, Roman Barabash, Scott Bartholdi, Robert Behrens, Nancy Bochichio, Lauren Broggy, Christian Brunelli, Melanie Burch, Virginia Carlotti, Stacey Chiarella, Margaret Cioffi, Thomas Colwell, Gricel DeCuffa, Michele DeMicco, Jacqueline DiPierro, Louise Dutra, Joseph Facchiano, Jay Ferris, S. William Foglia, Peter Garcia, Douglas Geer, John Giacomini, Lucio Hurtado, Lisa Jonassen, Kenneth Kardon, Alyson Kistinger, Rose Anne Korsak, Robin Levine, Debra Maiorano, Stella Marchionna, Mary Ellen Matranga, Cindy McCaffery, Edward Miraglia, Linda Nelli, Andrew Niguidula, Patricia O'Neill, Maureen O'Shea, Jemale Palevic, John Paul Pegoli, Leo Penzine, Maria Pereira, Krista Promnitz, Marta Ramirez, Patti Slobogin, Michael Sowul, Christine Spano, Mary Ann Stefanik, MaryBeth Swansen, Michael Tomaseski, Deirdre Toolan, Roberta Trotta, Karen Velazquez, Carlo Vidrini, Regina Viggiano and Edward Walsh. |
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We hope you've enjoyed receiving the BOCES Reporter as an email newsletter.
Our goal is to make the news and views of BOCES staff easily accessible to you.
Let us know what you think. Suggestions and comments are always welcome.
Barbara Coats, editor: bcoats@pnwboces.org or ext. 818
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BOCES Reporter
Dr. James Langlois, Superintendent Barbara Coats, Editor Valerie Laudato, Designer Click here to visit www. pnwboces.org |
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