Colchester High School’s faculty and staff Zach Kramer, Morgan Samler, Sean MacArdle, Steve Fiske, Beth Albright, Maureen Gillard, Chris Lang, Andrea Boehmcke, and Danielle Grise at the Vermont Corporate Cup race in Montpelier on May 16.
Colchester School District takes wellness efforts seriously. Our vision and strategic plan speaks to it, and we are responding in kind both in and out of the classroom. We are committed to health and wellness for our students and community members every day. Please join us!
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The In Shape and In Season program—a proud health and wellness initiative we strategized that was generously funded through a $11,760 grant from Fletcher Allen Health Care’s Community Benefit Fund—has drawn to a close, and it was a hugely successful venture.
In Shape and In Season was designed to make steps toward reducing childhood malnutrition and childhood obesity. It was strategically developed to serve as a collaborative, family-based, multidisciplinary approach to nutrition and wellness that incorporated:
access to nutritious foods emphasizing seasonal produce
hands-on, interactive education in wholesome food preparation
engaging education about healthy physical activity, and
information about a variety of services available through area organizations.
The foundation of the program was the idea that, through fostering understanding about the benefits of good nutrition and exercise, malnutrition and obesity may be reduced over time. Research has shown that young people are more likely to make healthier food choices if they are already familiar with healthy food, and they are also more likely to regularly exercise if they are encouraged to do so—resulting in a lifelong impact on their health and well-being. Furthermore, nutrition has been shown to be a critical component of optimal child development and academic performance … and that education about and access to nutritious food choices is an integral part of best positioning students for healthy and successful lives.
The program was comprehensive, consisting of a summer series and follow-up sessions in fall, winter, and spring. (To view a short video from the first session, which took place on July 23, click here.)
It provided nutritious ingredients for preparation at home and informational take-home recipe booklets to the participants, incorporated child-friendly recipes in order to encourage child participation, offered education about ways in which entire families can be physically active together, provided on-site child care to facilitate parent participation, hosted family-style dinners with the participants immediately following the cooking classes, provided additional professional training for CSD’s food service professionals—which in turn benefited the school district’s meal offerings for the entire school community—and more.
As part of the grant-funded program, participants received a gift of a professional sauce pan, measuring spoons, a chef knife, measuring cups, a meat thermometer, and a knife sharpener.
We are very proud of the work that was done throughout the program and for all of its successes! Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed!
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Asked why he was willing to offer himself up for possible dunking, UMS Principal Antonicci good-naturedly replied, “I love baseball, and I know the kids will have a lot of fun with it. There’s no way I could say no!”
UMS Principal Antonicci gets dunked by a student
“I’ve seen my kids throw a ball, and I’m pretty confident they’ll be able to sink me!” MBS Principal Benay said before the event. “I know Colchester’s many volunteers work hard to provide kids with plenty of healthy options for recreation, sports, and exercise. At the high school level, parent ‘boosters’ raise tens of thousands of dollars to support athletics; research tells us that students who are involved in extracurricular activities tend to stay in school, learn to manage their time, and succeed in school. I’m happy to do my small part to help out!”
MBS Principal Julie Benay perches above the dunk tank while a student takes aim
Way to go, principals! Excellent show of community spirit and good sportsmanship. Well done!
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And nearly 80 percent of the students—and twenty-six adults—walked during their May 1 lunch break as part of the effort!
Both Oscar the Osprey and Champ made an appearance, and the MBS band welcomed the participants arriving at MBS with a song.
Porters Point School also recently partnered with Vermont Safe Routes to School, and on May 3, 188 PPS students (approximately 75 percent of the student population) and 60 staff members and parents participated in a walk-to-school event.
PPS Principal Marshall with a group of students at the May 3 walk-to-school event
PPS kindergarten teacher Diane Trombley leads a group of students
To see more photographs from the PPS event, please visit the PPS’s PBIS blog here.
And finally, Colchester Middle School also got in on the walk-to-school action. On May 9, each house participated in its own individually determined walk route and time, and virtually every student in the school participated!
The Partnership for a Walkable America created Walk to School Day in 1997 in order to build awareness about the need for walkable communities, and it has since grown to involve participants all over the world. MBS, PPS, and CMS were enthusiastic to take part.
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Students collected, analyzed, and compared soil samples from various locations around the farm, searched for earthworms, and visited with the animals among various other related activities.
Designed for students interested in exploring the various aspects of food, the health course covers an eclectic assortment of subject matters like nutrition and obesity, conventional versus organic agriculture, food miles, sustainability, the treatment of animals in food production, and the global implications of the production and transportation of our food supply. Real-world connections to abstract classroom learning are important because they pique student engagement and attention—thus encouraging out-of-the-box thinking. Field trips often serve to strengthen students’ observational skills and allow them to become more actively engaged in their learning, providing additional sensory activities and expanding their curiosity.
This exploration and discovery speaks directly to some of the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017′s pathways, including Pathway A: High Standards, Expectations, and Individual Engagement for All Learners;Pathway C: Learning Outside Our Four Walls;Pathway E: Parent, Community, and School Partnerships Among Lifelong Learners; and Pathway F: Wellness-Oriented, Balanced, and Healthy Learners.
Please take a moment to check out the classroom blog here for more pictures and information!
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In collaboration with Centerpoint Services, Colchester High School has created a research-based partnership called Project Checkpoint, a screening and brief intervention program designed to assist students with substance abuse issues.
As a result of the partnership, students will have increased access to a variety of supports aimed at fortifying school success, addressing substance abuse and/or mental health concerns, and promoting well-being and personal health.
CHS Assistant Principal Justin Brown said of the partnership, “Some exciting aspects are that we have been able to design this service from the ground up so that it is based in research. It comes with its own funding stream so that it costs the district virtually nothing for three years, and despite just starting, we are already receiving inquiries from surrounding school districts asking how they can copy our model.”
This partnership speaks directly to the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017 which has important pathways to which this effort directly relates, including Pathway E: Parent, Community, and School Partnerships Among Lifelong Learners and Pathway F: Wellness-Oriented, Balanced, and Healthy Learners.
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• Our community cares for its young people;
• The parents are involved in the schools;
• We have responsible and respectful students; and
• We have invested and talented employees.
Malletts Bay School—in collaboration with the National Honor Society, the MBS PTO, and the MBS Unified Arts team—recently hosted a Lucky Day Carnival and dance party for more than two hundred students.
Nearly a month of planning went into the carnival extravaganza. Principal Julie Benay and the MBS physical education teachers organized carnival-style games, including Ramp-O-Rama, Pin the Hat on the Leprechaun, bowling for leprechauns, a bean bag toss, a leprechaun costume contest, and more. Eleven members of Colchester High School’s National Honor Society students ran the games for the MBS Ospreys, while Sheila Clark’s fifth graders demonstrated Irish dancing that they learned in music class, and Jenny Bittner organized face painting and crafts. The MBS PTO provided decorations, music, prizes, and a snack bar.
It was an evening of physically active, tech-free fun for the students, which also speaks to the district’s wellness initiatives (you can read the district’s wellness blog here).
We talk a great deal about the many ways in which our school communities and our greater community support one another, and it is really important because community spirit has a snowballing effect; when our community members see our students making substantial efforts, they are more likely to support our students … and when our students feel supported, they are more likely to give back. The entire community benefits when everyone commits to making ongoing positive contributions. For many people, the term community simply boils down to a feeling—a feeling of camaraderie, of shared vision, of similar desires for the present and hopes for the future.
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Mr. Pecor lures the panda (yes, it’s really a panda—work with us here) to PPS with a tasty snack of bamboo
(Pandas love bamboo!)
Since the PPS Pandas have been participating in the national Jump Rope for Heart annual event, which not only promotes physical activity and heart-healthy living but also raises money for the American Heart Association—supporting research and public education about heart-related health—Mr. Pecor thought that the mystery panda might be able to help inspire the students. After all, the Colchester School District Vision and Strategic Plan 2012–2017 includes Pathway E: Parent, Community, and School Partnerships Among Lifelong Learners and Pathway F: Wellness-Oriented, Balanced, and Healthy Learners.
It may come as a surprise to some, but jump roping is a competitive international sport, and there are demonstration teams all across the country and around the world. Just a few examples include the Ohio-based Comet Skippers, the Colorado-based JumpNRope, Ltd., the Washington-based Ropeworks, the Texas-based USA Jump Rope, the West Virginia–based Jump Company USA, World Jump Rope, FISAC–IRSF, and many more. There is even a jump rope demonstration team right here in Vermont … called the Vernon Tornadoes at Vernon Elementary School. In addition to all of that, jump roping—especially synchronized jump roping or collaborative jumping with multiple ropes and props—teaches clear communication, sportsmanship, excellent cooperation, trust building, and how to function as a collective unit in which every participant is vitally important. (There are some great videos on these websites if you would like to see some truly fancy footwork—footwork performed by those who do not need to be coaxed with the promise of tasty bamboo and by those who actually still actively jump on a regular basis.)
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The SHI is a way of engaging a cross-school community team in a meaningful and productive discussion about school health policies and programs. Using the SHI, we are actively assessing the current wellness in the school district in order to identify our existing strengths and to address our current challenges by formulating concrete action plans. What is particularly exciting about this is that it is a proactive measure to ensure excellence. As a means of collecting data in order to measure our effectiveness and to chart our forward action planning, the district is beginning with assessments of four of the eight SHI components—to include health and safety policies, physical education, nutrition services, and one other of each school’s choosing. These assessments will be completed by the end of the school year and addressed over the summer to help identify how our schools can enhance current wellness policies and practices.
For more information about our wellness initiatives, please visit our wellness blog or e-mail the district’s wellness coordinator, Jaycie Puttlitz, at puttlitzj@csdvt.org.
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Through this grant, we are working to institute a comprehensive, sustainable, integrated farm-to-school program focusing upon fresh and nutritious foods by integrating farm-to-school concepts into our cafeterias, incorporating more farm-fresh foods into our school community, and further integrating farm-to-school concepts into classroom content areas. As we’ve said before, nutrition is a critical component of optimal child development and academic performance; education about and access to nutritious food choices is an integral part of best positioning young people for healthy and successful lives. (These concepts are also the foundation for the grant-funded “In Shape and In Season” nutrition program currently under way at Porters Point School.)
As is stated here, farm-to-school efforts within Vermont are led by Vermont Food Education Every Day (VT FEED), a collaborative project of the Food Works, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, and Shelburne Farms. VT FEED was designed with the goal of creating food system change and was organized on three levels (the three Cs):
1. The classroom, with standard-based food, farm, and nutrition-based curriculum that involves in-depth, graduate-level teacher training, including summer workshops and in-class mentoring;
2. The cafeteria, through the integration of local food and nutrition education through food service institutes, in-cafeteria mentoring, and peer support;
3. The community, through reconnecting people to their food sources—the farms and farmers.
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