All Pawtucket All The Time

 William E. Tolman Class of 1990 will hold their 20th Reunion on June 26, 2010 at Twelve Acres in Smithfield, RI. Information on many classmates is still needed! Please contact Sharon Day at 401-374-1146 or postalshar@aol.com for more information.

THINKING DAY!

Recently the Girl Scouts of Pawtucket held their annual Thinking Day Night at St. Teresa Church in Pawtucket. This night helps the girls celebrate World Thinking Day which is held each February so that the girls can learn about issues in other countries and to celebrate international friendships.

Girl Scouts of the USA is part of a global community-one of nearly 150 countries with Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

The theme this year was “Together we can end extreme poverty and Hunger.” The night started out with a flag ceremony at 6:15 were  10 troops participated this year and then they visited 5 tables based on other countries such as South Africa, Kuwait, Philippines, Peru and Germany. They learned about foods native to those countries, health issues, geographical concerns and some games & songs. The table on Germany taught the girls about the first Girl Scout troop called a Stamm which was started in 1909.  The table representing Peru, taught the girls about feeding a family of four on $1.00 a day & the table on the Philippines showed them about volcanos and nutrition and information on a traditional dance called the Sinulog.

The girls were treated to ice cream sundaes by the Pawtucket Service team members. Girl Scouts were asked to contribute to Dimes for Daisies and to bring a non-perishable food item(s) which were then donated to St. Leo’s Church food pantry. Over 100 food items were collected.

The atmosphere of school reform in Rhode Island over the past eight months compels me to suggest an alternative vision for improving Rhode Island schools. Policy makers often make use of international assessment data to compare US students to students around the world. They are quick to point out that students in the US do not compare favorably to international students, but they are less quick to point out that the US has fallen further behind since No Child Left Behind was passed into law in 2001. If we are to use international assessments as a comparative tool, it seems prudent to examine what nations with the highest achieving students do to ensure that their students reach high academic standards.

There are several commonalities among the nations with the highest achieving students that might serve as guidance for Rhode Island’s efforts to improve public education. First, schools in the highest achieving nations teach fewer topics but teach them more deeply. This allows teachers and students to focus on higher order thinking skills. In Rhode Island, teachers and students struggle with teaching and learning hundreds of standards (Grade Level / Grade Span Expectations). 

Second, the highest achieving nations emphasize project-based and inquiry-based learning. This type of education was intended to be the foundation of high school reform in Rhode Island until the Board of Regents voted to make passing the 11^th grade New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) worth one-third of a student’s graduation requirement.

Third, the highest achieving nations invest heavily in teacher education including emphasizing graduate level courses centered on how to teach as well as content-based courses. In addition to the emphasis on education and content courses, those nations provide high quality professional development that is sustained throughout the school year, not delivered in one-week spurts during the summer. Because high achieving nations invest in teaching, they trust their teachers to decide what to teach and how to teach it in ways that best meets the needs of the students in their care. While teacher certification requirements in Rhode Island have begun to deemphasize teaching courses and the budget for professional development has been eliminated, plans are in the works to allow some people to teach with only five weeks of training before entering the classroom.

The fourth thing that most high achieving nations do is to allow teachers to develop local assessments. The teachers then evaluate what students know and are able to do and teachers use those evaluations to inform instruction. Rhode Island uses NECAP as an assessment tool and teachers do not know what may or may not be on the test.  Furthermore, the tests are scored out of state and the scoring is returned so late in the school year that teachers cannot learn from the assessments in order to work with the students.

The fifth, and perhaps most important, thing that can be learned from the highest achieving nations is that they do not use tests to rank and punish schools or teachers. In fact, most of those nations have outlawed the use of assessment to rank and punish. Other nations use assessments as a tool to improve teaching and learning while Rhode Island uses tests to threaten and bully.

I believe that the Commissioner of Education, the Board of Regents, administrators, parents, and teachers all want students in Rhode Island to do better.  If Rhode Island, as a community, truly wants to improve public education for students it will abandon the existing reform model and implement the types of efforts made in the nations which regularly out perform the US. Those nations invest in teaching, trust teachers, and collaboratively involve the teachers in the process of improving schools. That is the vision of school improvement we should pursue.

John A. Walsh, Ph.D.

Warwick, RI

 Buses will not stop at the Pawtucket Transit Center between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm on March 6^th

Providence, Rhode Island, March 4, 2010 – The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) will detour 12 Pawtucket-based bus routes traveling on Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm to accommodate the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Pawtucket.

The inbound and outbound trips on the following routes will be affected:

            42 (Hope Street)

            51 (Charles Street)

            71 (Broad Street)

            72 (Weeden Street)

            73 (Fairlawn/CCRI.)

            75 (Dexter Street)

            76 (Central Avenue)

            77 (Benefit/Broadway)

            78 (Beverage Hill)

            79 (Columbus Ave.)

            80 (Armistice Boulevard)

            99 (Providence-Pawtucket)

These routes will pick up and drop off at the Navigant Credit Union located at Goff and Dexter Street.  These buses will not stop at the Pawtucket Transit Center between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm on March 6^th.  

Customers can call 781-9400 for the detoured route or visit ripta.com.

State Arts Council’s ‘Big Yellow School Bus’ Program is a Success At One-Month Anniversary

After its first month in operation, the State Arts Council’s new “Big Yellow School Bus” program has awarded over $10,000 in grants to Rhode Island schools to help transport close to 4,000 students to arts and cultural events. Schools throughout the state are participating in the program, which helps schools with transportation costs so their students can attend arts programs that compliment the instruction they receive in the classroom.

Randall Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, explained how important these small grants are to our state’s educators and students. “The arts have been designated by our state’s Board of Regents as a core subject area in Rhode Island schools, the same designation as math and science,” Rosenbaum said . “While math and science can best be learned in the classroom or laboratory, the arts are best experienced in museums and in the concert hall. These grants will help financially-challenged schools provide these high quality art experiences to their students.”

The first month of grants, funded in part by federal dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts, show the value of these community arts experiences. Students will attend performances of the Rhode Island Philharmonic at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, visit the RISD Museum, and attend theatre events at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket and at Rhode Island College. A class from Woonsocket High School will attend a “Reading Across Rhode Island” literature event in Narragansett, and a $400 grant will help to pay for buses so that 345 students from Vartan Gregorian Elementary School can attend a student performance at Nathaneal Green Middle School in May. A list of grants awarded to date can be found at http://www.arts.ri.gov/bus.

Maureen Kenner, special education teacher, described the value of these small but important grants. “The teachers, staff and families at Vartan Gregorian School at Fox Point have a history of building creative partnerships to promote community engagement and increase student achievement. With the RISCA’s Big Yellow School Bus transportation grant, our PreK-5 elementary school children will be able to support and be inspired by their fellow Providence school students at Nathanael Greene Middle School’s Performing Arts student production of “Alice in Wonderland”.

The State Arts Council’s “Big Yellow School Bus” grant program is a non-deadline application for grants of up to $400 per school per year to attend arts and cultural events. Information and an application form can be found on the State Arts Council’s website, at http://www.arts.ri.gov/bus.

RIbt Dancer Julia Valetta

“Rhode Island’s ballet theatre (RIbt)” announces the ballet stage performance training company will perform their Spring dance concert “Dancers, Dreams and Drums” at the Festival Ballet Providence’s Black Box Theater on Sunday, March 28 at 3pm.  Festival Ballet Providence is promoting the availability of the Black Box Theater for rent by small arts organizations.  RIbt Artistic Director Nancy McAuliffe says, ” This is a real benefit to small dance arts groups seeking to perform in the Providence area.  The seating is limited, but so is the cost, which makes it viable to present more dance-focused vice general-entertainment focused performances and to try more challenging choreography for our more advanced dancers. The setting is excellent for small ballet companies, especially training companies like ours.” The program will include several pieces from RIbt’s expansive repertoire, plus a new contemporary piece. 

The show will also feature a pas de deux performance from RIbt alumnus, Erin Gildea of East Greenwich.  Ms. Gildea was a charter member dancer with RIbt when it was first launched and a young dancer in its 1997 debut performance at RIC.  Ms. Gildea went on to graduate from Butler University with a Bachelor Arts Degree in Dance and currently performs with Festival Ballet Providence. She will be partnered by Festival Ballet dancer, Nathan Powell.  

Mr. Powell was formerly a student at Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Manitoba, Canada.

Tickets are $25 for the reserved seating performance and includes refreshments at intermission.  Call 401-847-5301 for ticket reservations.  For more information about RIbt visit its website at www.riballet.org.

[Rhode Island’s ballet theatre (RIbt) is a classical ballet company training talented young dancers for the stage. The company’s goal is to help promising young dancers reach their full potential through a stage performance training program consisting of weekly company class, regular Master Classes, professional evaluation & feedback, learning experiences with leading ballet companies, and ongoing performance opportunities. RIbt is a non-profit training company for the region’s 9-18 year old ballet dancers, and trains at RI Ballet Arts Academy, located at 7728 Post Road (Post Road Plaza), North Kingstown, RI.  The Company trains and rehearses on Thursday evenings. Admission to be a member of RIbt is through audition only, held twice a year. Call 401-847-5301 for more information or visit RIbt’s website  www.riballet.org.]

Shallcross Smith bill would allow adult adoptees access to their birth certificates

 STATE HOUSE – Rep. Mary Ann Shallcross Smith is sponsoring legislation to allow adult adoptees born in Rhode Island to obtain uncertified copies of their original birth certificates.

Currently in Rhode Island, when a child is adopted, he or she is issued an amended birth certificate listing his or her adoptive name and the names of his or her adoptive mother and father. The child’s original birth certificate is sealed after the final adoption decree has been made, preventing the adoptee from obtaining a copy of the original document.

“Adult adoptees deserve a better opportunity to learn about their own family history. It’s a matter of their personal health. There are so many situations in which a person’s family health history matters, and adult adoptees in Rhode Island have absolutely zero opportunity to learn anything about their inherited health conditions,” said Representative Shallcross Smith (D-Dist. 46, Lincoln, Pawtucket), whose stepson is adopted. “Allowing adults who were adopted to research their family history would allow them a chance to get a fuller picture of their health risks, which would allow them some opportunity for peace of mind.”

The legislation, which is in place in eight other states including Maine and New Hampshire, would allow adult adoptees to obtain a copy of their unaltered birth certificates by filling out a preadoption birth record application form. The bill would also permit a birth parent to express his or her preference regarding contact with the adoptee by filing a contact preference form with the registrar of vital records. Under the legislation, the birth parent would express desire for contact with his or her biological child in one of the three following ways: I would like to be contacted; I would like to be contacted but through an intermediary of my choosing, i.e. placing agency, personal friend, etc; or I do not want to be contacted. Birth parents would be permitted to change their preference for contact at any time by submitting an updated form.

The proposal, however, does not allow an adoptee or the general public any access to other documents, including counseling notes from work with a birth mother, discussions related to relationships, terminated pregnancies and court records of adoption hearings.

Critics of the current system say that the state has a long history of imposing secrecy on birth mothers whether they want it or not. Supporters of the legislation say the original purpose of sealing adoption records was not to prevent contact between adopted children and their birth parents, but to protect the confidentiality of those involved in adoptions from the stigmas of society at the time, which included shame over having or being an illegitimate child and the belief that those who adopt must be unable to conceive on their own.

The legislation is supported by the Rhode Island Adoption Coalition for Equality (T.R.A.C.E.), a grassroots effort dedicated to passing legislation allowing adult adoptees born in Rhode Island to have access to their original birth certificates. Members of T.R.A.C.E. believe that Rhode Island adoptees have been denied the human right granted to all other members of the state – to obtain an original copy of a birth certificate.

Current state law allows adoptees who are 21 or older to access only non-identifying biological information about themselves. However, those records are created at their birth, never to be updated again. T.R.A.C.E. argues that unless they have the ability to get updates on the health issues their birth families have experienced in the decades since their births, that information is of little use to adoptees.

“This is about giving adopted people the same chance at a healthy life that the rest of the population has,” said Representative Shallcross Smith. “Their original birth certificate holds the key to their personal health and history, and they, like everyone else, ought to have the right to access it.”

The Riverside Branch Library will present a workshop about Oriental Rugs
on Thursday, March 18th from 6:30 – 8:00pm.

Roz Rustigian, Oriental rug expert and owner of Rustigian Rugs in
Providence, will talk about the practical aspects of Oriental rug
ownership such as the repair, cleaning and maintenance of Oriental Rugs.
She will also discuss rug selection and use for decorating your home. She
will start with an identification overview and share a brief history of
Oriental Rugs along the Silk Road from Eastern Europe to China. Rugs will
be displayed and Roz will entertain questions at the end of the lecture.

This program is free and open to the public, no registration necessary.
For more information call (401) 433-4877.

Narragansett Council Creates theScout100.comWebsite to Showcase Local Eagle Scouts

February 24, 2010 – The Boy Scouts of America is celebrating its 100 year Anniversary in 2010. During the year, the Narragansett Council, Boy Scouts of America will also be celebrating its rich heritage by participating in celebrations that highlight its proud history as well as its large and growing presence in the local community. In honor of its Scouts, the Narrgansett Council has created www.theScout100.com to showcase outstanding Eagle Scouts from across Southern New England, who tell their individual project and Scouting stories.

The site will eventually showcase 100 Eagle Scouts from the Narragansett Council using video, photographs and text. Each week, the site will grow to include a few more Scouts and their stories until it reaches 100 by the end of the year.
“The site is a great testament to the caliber of young leaders that the Scouting program produces,” said Dave Anderson, Scout Executive for the Narragansett Council. “Anyone who sees this site will realize how blessed we are to have such an outstanding group of young leaders in our communities”

“It is also a terrific way for the public to learn about Scouting and appreciate the value it holds for our young people and the role it will play in our society over the next 100 years.” added Anderson.

On theScout100.com, Scouts describe their Eagle projects, discuss highlights from their Scouting experience and explain what it has meant to them. Each tells why he believes Scouting is still important to their communities and the nation after 100 years.

The stories range from accounts of large-scale projects, such as sending hygiene supplies to an orphanage in Nicaragua, to memories of Scouting for Food drives, to a decision to serve the country in the military based in part of values learned in Scouting.

“Scouting is important to our community because it raises young boys into fine gentlemen and adults, who can take on the greatest challenges life has to offer,” said Eagle Scout, Sean Marran, Troop 1 Kingston. “It is important to our nation because our nation needs leaders. Many of today’s leaders were Boy Scouts, and they have used skills from their Scouting to get to where they are today.”

The rank of Eagle Scout is the highest rank in Scouting. Nationally, only four percent of Boy Scouts reach the rank of Eagle Scout. To do so, a Scout must undertake an extensive service project, which they plan, organize, lead and manage. These projects require outstanding commitment and dedication, as is clearly displayed at theScout100.com.

An estimated 112 million American boys have benefited from the lessons of Scouting and in turn so has our country and community. The Narragansett Council itself serves over 17,000 young people annually, from New Bedford across to Uxbridge, Massachusetts and all of Rhode Island and Southeastern Connecticut.

Diane Hermenau, MS, OTR/L, CHT, of North Attleboro, has recently earned hand therapist certification. Diane is an occupational therapist at Southeastern Medical Center (SEMC), 60 Messenger Street, Plainville, MA, an affiliate site of Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. This designation demonstrates her expertise in upper limb rehabilitation.

She met all requirements set forth by the Hand Therapy Certification Commission, Inc. These requirements include: at least five years clinical experience as an occupational therapist, a minimum of 4,000 hours in direct practice in hand therapy, and successful completion of advanced clinical skills and theory in upper limb rehabilitation.

Diane has over 25 years experience treating surgical and nonsurgical upper limb and hand injuries and diseases. She has done extensive work in the area of ergonomics and injury prevention. For additional information on Diane Hermenau at SEMC, contact (508) 809-6428.

Picture: Diane Hermenau