Bright spots are stories that show our teachers' impact on our school and district. Please take a look at the moments from this year of the great things happening in Amesbury Public Schools. When I see a bright spot moment, you will be given a token that states, "You Blew Me Away." Have it as a memento of what great teachers we have in Amesbury Public Schools.
Year 2022-2023
Megan Butler
During the past month, Megan Butler helped prepare and plan to facilitate CSI Day. Megan worked with her colleagues to make sure all teachers in her grade level knew the plan. Megan also motivated teachers and students in her grade level about CSI Day by playing up the storyline for the past couple of weeks. The storyline is that someone steals her beloved speaker that she uses to play the song Friday everyday Friday. Megan set up the crime scene, helped get the alibi videos, helped get the resource officers onboard, and helped through the CSI day. Megan has taken on the leadership role of supporting STEM days like these. I would also like to note other leadership roles Megan has taken on this year. Megan took on a student teacher and has given the student-teacher feedback throughout the year to support their practice. Megan ran her first professional development PD with me at the ST Math Champion PD day about bringing STEM into your math classroom. Megan also took on a pilot of the ST Math Fluency program at the end of the school year, where students can meet with ST Math later this week and give their feedback about the program. Due to how Megan has taken on leadership roles around supporting teachers and STEM initiatives, she is my next Bright Spot Moment.
Kelly Caruso
In the past few weeks, Kelly Caruso took a risk to pilot the new ST Math lessons through their core curriculum. Kelly took on learning the ST Math LMS and facilitating two lessons in front of ST Math. Kelly took on this responsibility with no hesitation and thrived during the lessons. During the lessons, Kelly had students use manipulatives to measure JiJi, the penguin, as students discussed which measurement tool would be the best. Students collaborated together to measure JiJi. Kelly then had students discuss why tiles could be a difficult measurement tool for such a big JiJi. After discussions, students were introduced to using rulers as a better measurement tool and then used that tool to find the measurement. She ended the lesson with students writing about why using a ruler is a better measurement tool. Kelly had students collaborating, discussing, and using conceptual understanding in the lesson to deepen students' knowledge of measurement. Due to this, Kelly is my next Bright Spot Moment.
Kara Bostic, Jessica Ladd, Meghan Elliott and Jane Geary
During the past month, Kara, Jessica, Meghan and Jane have worked hard to get students to understand the science standards around organisms' structure and functions. They had students doing labs around teeth and leaves structures to give students a strong understanding. As this was happening they also supported students to have knowledge around collaboration through their Wit and Wisdom unit and taught students to disagree respectively, how to share ideas and the big theme of how to have a great figurative heart. Last week they had students create their own animal prosthesis, having students apply the work they did in the science and ELA class all month. Through conversations you could see the strong understanding students have about the standards through their vocabulary around structure and function. The classrooms were well facilitated with all adults in the room taking part in a productive way through facilitated questions to take students thinking further. Students finished the week with their presentations enthusiastically explaining their projects to the third grade. They gave students agency, collaboration and communication skills and had them engaged throughout the integration of ELA and science standards with their application of the question, "How do I design a model prosthesis to help an injured animal survive in its natural habitat?" Students also answered the bigger question of what it means to have a great figurative heart. Due to this you are my next Bright Spot Moment!
Rachel Kezer, Stacey Fijalkowski, Derek Bent and Kerin Bryne
Rachel, Stacey, Kerin and Derek during the past month prepped, planned and put a lot of work into doing the statewide STEM Week Challenge. This is actually Rachel's third time doing the STEM Week Challenge. This group of teachers showed that STEM is for all subjects as they combined the projects between their ELA and science classes. They put in a lot of time and effort to get all the STEM professionals for the Career Fair that all students were engaged in. They then took the time to have students present in front of their peers in the AMS PC and then participated in the STEM Week Showcase in Boston. They gave students agency, had them communicate and collaborate and had them thinking about the future. Due to this they are my next Bright Spot Moments!
Year 2021-2022
Lindsay Foustoukos
March, 2022
When walking into Lindsay Foustoukos' room you could see how engaged and excited students were around the volume unit they were starting. Lindsay first had students estimate how many cubes would fit inside different containers. Then students had agency to pick a container and a measuring amount of different sized cubes (10 cube shape, 64 cube shape etc.) Students were motivated to figure out how many cubes they could fit inside the container and used different strategies of what they would use to put in the container, one student keeping count using a calculator, one student using the same size shapes repeatedly, while other students used paper to keep track. After this she would have students learn the formulas to see how close they came to the volume with using the manipulatives. This is a lesson based on conceptual understanding that will have a lasting impact on the students. Due to this you are my next bright spot moment.
Jennifer Ghezzi
March, 2022
Every time you walk into Jenn Ghezzi's room students are engaged and excited to learn math. Jenn has a fantastic ability to question students when she gets students to go deeper into the content and truly understand the reasoning behind the math and also extend it to, let’s keep connecting. In her first activity she had students drawing inequalities and had the pattern of, all the numbers, each inequality sign and 1. She wrote all the numbers instead of a variable to make sure it was accessible to all students. Jenn also made sure to use 1 as a way for students to really see the pattern. The inequality discovery activity she created is a well designed activity where students truly had a chance to go and seek a pattern and understand why we need to reverse inequality signs sometimes. She related this to a science lab and how we are seeking evidence to make a claim. In her classroom students were modeling how mathematicians are pattern seekers. Due to how Jenn facilitated her instruction to have students discovering patterns while discussing how they saw their patterns she is my next Bright Spot Moment.
Sarah Varnerin
December 2021
Sarah Varernin took a resource from the pacing guide and made it her own! Students' throughout her lesson were engaged. It was truly a hands-on lesson with students collaborating with their groups to make a line on the classroom sized graph. She gave students explicit instructions for how to do the activity as well as if students were not the group up she had them have laminated graph paper where they still collaborated with their groups to answer the question. Students who were struggling with the concept of graphing a line in slope intercept form had a growth mindset when doing the hands-on activity as they learned through movement. When students struggled Sarah asked, "Is that a straight line?" Students again had a growth mindset throughout the activity as she timed them to try to beat their past time. Due to how Sarah's students were engaged in this hands-on activity and how students were learning throughout the activity as they used themselves to make a line Sarah is my next Bright Spot Moment.
Kristin Fitzgerald and Derek Bent
December 2021
Kristin Fitzgerald and Derek Bent are our next Bright Spot Moment. Kristin and Derek are a great science duo with how they collaborate together to plan the best instruction for students. Kristin and Derek did a water filter project with students where they were tasked with cleaning dirty water. Students were given different materials to filter out the dirty water. All students were engaged in this hands-on activity. Students rushed over when a group tested their dirty water with a water filter to see if it was successful. Students throughout had to reflect on the design process as as they explained what happened in their test, what materials they used, what didn't work in their test and what they could do to improve it. Students then reiterated their designs to try to make their water clearer. Due to how students were engaged, reflecting and explaining their thinking Kristin and Derek are my next Bright Spot Moment!
Megan Butler
November 2021
We have our next BRIGHT SPOT MOMENT.
Megan Butler is our next Bright Spot Moment. Megan started using Illustrative Mathematics for the first time this year. Megan's students were engaged for the entire lesson and were excited to participate to explain how they were thinking about the math. She created a safe environment in her classroom where she can be silly with students but students still stay on task. She asked students to explain which expressions went with the fractional area model. Students went up and explained their thinking. One student showed the expression 14/3 X 4 went with the area model. Megan prompted the student with questions of where is the 14/3 in the diagram? The student was able to phone a friend and together they explained and showed on the diagram where that came from. Another student then came up to show where they saw 56/3 in the diagram and explained that there were 4 rows of 14/3 and that is how she found 56/3. Throughout the lesson students were discussing their thinking of the problem using in-depth conceptual understanding. Due to how students used their conceptual understanding to discuss how to find a fractional area Megan is our next Bright Spot Moment!
India Kolman and Mark Rinaldi
October 2021
We have our FIRST Bright Spot Moment of the 2020-2021 year! We also for the first time have TWO people to spotlight at the same time.
Bright spots are stories that show the impact that our teachers are having on our school and district. When I see a bright spot moment you will be given a token that states, "You Blew Me Away." Have it as a momento of what great teachers we have in Amesbury Public Schools.
India Kolman and Mark Rinaldi are our Bright Spot Moments. They both have started a new curriculum this year using the Desbook. India did a paper lesson where she had students in groups discussing the problems together. Students were engaged and used conceptual understanding to describe how to find an area of a parallelogram. As students worked in groups she floated around the room to have deeper conversations with students about their work. When students finished she had them do an exit ticket and had them do a ST Math assignment connected to what you were doing in class. Mark did an online Desmos lesson where he had students on their chromebooks to answer questions on Desmos. He had students work on one slide at a time and walked around to have discussions with students as they worked. He asked students questions such as, "why did that work?" When he pulled students back to the whole group to have a discussion he asked students, "how did that work," and then used students' work to have further discussions. He continually made students explain their answers in-depth. Both educators facilitated the Desmos curriculum differently but still used student centered techniques such as having students explain or show their own thinking to check on their understanding. Due to these great lessons India and Mark are my next Bright Spot Moment (the first of 2020-2021!). Thank you India and Mark for the positive impact you make in Amesbury Public Schools.
Year 2020-2021
Mark Rinaldi
May 2021
Mark Rinaldi is our next Bright Spot Moment. Mark made a difficult concept of finding the area of the shaded region not only accessible to all students but made it fun and engaging to students. Students were to select all the expressions that they could use to find the shaded area of the region. A student at first said, 4 X 7 X 2. Instead of Mark telling the student whether she was correct or incorrect, he took a consensus of the class of what other students thought, he then asked, "what do others think?" He then had another student give another expression and they explained in detail why that expression would work. He then had multiple other students explain their thinking on other expressions. All students were engaged and excited to participate in the discussion. You could tell students felt comfortable in the environment making mistakes and explaining their thinking. Before ending the select all process he asked students if any other expressions would give an equivalent area? The class went one by one through them to find the value of each. One student had a misconception about an expression and together with the class he concretely showed the student why that expression would not work. Due to how Mark used student discourse and student engagement inside his class he is our next Bright Spot Moment!
Ashley Osborn
April 2021
Ashley Osborn is our next Bright Spot Moment. Ashley made estimating engaging for all students when this topic can be difficult to teach. Students without probing wrote down the important information from the word problems to make them able to conceptualize what they were solving for. Ashley then had students explain their thinking about how they estimated to solve the problem. Students gave different examples and Ashley kept prompting by asking students why they solved that way. One student had said they estimated 24.32 to 24 and left 16 and then did 24 divided by 16. The student said the answer to that was 1.20. Instead of telling the student they used the remainder incorrectly she had the student explain their steps that they got 1 remainder 8 and what that 8 meant in the context of the problem. The student then said wait the answer is 1. Ashley said, "Why? And I am going to keep asking why, this does not mean you are wrong I just want to understand your thinking." She told students throughout the lesson she wanted them to argue what they thought was the best way to estimate. She told students there was no right or wrong way to do it as long as they could explain their reasoning why. Ashley prompted by saying, " let me understand your thinking." Throughout her lesson she had all students engaged and waving their hands up in excitement to be able to explain what they were thinking. She did this all while dressed as a shark for, "One in a Million," day. She showed students passion while dressed up and joking, brrring I'm calling someone for help as well as positive reinforcement giving out tickets to students participating and showing effort. Due to how Ashley used student discourse and student engagement inside her class she is our next Bright Spot Moment!
Lindsay Foustoukos
March 2021
Lindsay Foustoukos is our next Bright Spot winner. This pandemic has been difficult for all students and educators but in Lindsay's room you could see how safe students felt. Students were comfortable, participating and asking questions throughout her entire session. Students in her room felt comfortable taking risks and attempted any problem she gave to them. Lindsay used the vocabulary to support their thinking throughout her lesson. Students even gave real-world examples when asked. At a time when social emotional learning is so important Lindsay has shown that it can be done with students who struggle with mathematics. Due to this great lesson you are my next Bright Spot Moment. Due to how Lindsay uses SEL strategies inside her classroom she is our next Bright Spot Moment.
Megan Butler
January 2021
Megan Butler is our next Bright Spot winner. Megan took a risk and tried something new in her classroom called a ST Math Chat. After being taught it the same day she quickly mastered how to use the program. Megan is always up for trying new things inside her classroom to see if it will support her students. She started the lesson getting all students comfortable with coming back to in person learning and then got them onto the warm up on Desmos. From there she used conceptual understanding and facilitated questions through her lesson. She asked students to explain their thinking as well as had students add onto the conversation. Examples of questions she asked were, "why would someone put their answer as 18-20," "do we agree or disagree with what this student said." She had students support their thinking by asking them to use tools while doing ST Math. She had students use numbers and paper and pencil to support thinking. All students were engaged throughout the lesson and students were eager to participate. By the end of the lesson you could tell the majority of students understood what it meant to estimate with multiplication. She did this while also keeping students engaged that were live streaming. This is a difficult task but she made sure to check in on the students that were remote and made sure they were also engaged. She encouraged students throughout to participate which helped to build students' confidence and growth mindset. Do to how Megan took a risk and used facilitated questions in her lesson she is our next Bright Spot Moment.
India Kolman
November 2020
India Kolman is our next bright spot winner. India uses conceptual understanding and facilitated questions throughout her lessons. She starts her warm ups with conceptual understanding and asks them what they notice is happening. She did this today when she had students write about what they noticed about nets that they had to put together on a geogebra program. From there she had students go on Desmos and took snapshots of students' work to showcase students' brilliance as well as to use student language to explain the nets. When a student was having difficulty on ST Math India had them share their screen and had a puzzle talk with them. She asked the student facilitating questions throughout and asked, "What do you notice is happening on the screen?" This had the student slow down and try to conceptually understand what it means to multiply two digits by two digits. She asked the student to connect the place value diagram on the st math screen to the computation problem so that she would have a deeper understanding of what the problem was asking. She also encouraged the student throughout to build her confidence and promote a growth mindset. It is also worth pointing out that India is a lead on her 6th grade math team getting the Desmos and Peardeck lessons ready for the week. She goes through each slide to make sure it is ready for her math team. Due to how India uses conceptual understanding alongside facilitated questions she is our next Bright Spot Moment.
Jennifer Ghezzi
October 2020
Jennifer Ghezzi is our next bright spot moment winner. Jenn uses deep conversations and differentiation in her classroom in a meaningful way. She has students work on their own pace throughout her lesson using our new pilot core curriculum Desmos. When Jenn sees a student struggling she asks them to explain their thinking. Examples of this is when she said, "explain to me what you are doing," and "I want to hear your thinking on this problem." Jenn makes sure students don't just understand a concept on the surface level but dig down deep to hear their conceptual understanding of the problems. An example of this is when a student gave an answer using just the procedural understanding Jenn had that student explain his thinking and reiterated to him to make sure to understand the problem and that the procedure isn't for everyone. In Jenn's lesson she only asked students facilitating questions throughout and never gave students the answers. When students finished the two assignments they were doing in class she had a plan C for students and the students knew exactly the routine to do when done the assignment. At the end of Jenn's lesson the majority of students said they understood the math in the lesson. Due to how Jenn differentiated and asked students facilitating questions to explain their thinking she is our next Bright Spot Moment.
Mike Wesolowski
September 2020
Mike is having a lot of fun with teaching our new pilot curriculum Desmos. He uses humor throughout his class to engage his students. He also told students they should start to know their anonymous mathematician name ( a Desmos feature) because in the future they will be doing an autobiography on that person-- what an amazing idea! However, this is not why he is getting our Bright Spot Moment. When entering Mike's room you can hear the deep conversations students are having around the content of transformations they are working on. An example of this is when Mike asked students, "what do you think the misconception students are having on this slide?" Mike also was having conversations with students about the word flip and if that would be categorized under reflection and rotation and why? He showed them with paper what a flip could look like on his steaming video. Due to the student centered approach and deep conversations Mike is having with students he gets our first Bright Spot Moment!
Thanks Mike for all you do! Who will be our next Bright Spot Moment?
