Day advances in MCAS standings for 6th year in a row

by N.G. and M.W.

This year’s MCAS scores have arrived and for the sixth year in a row, Day has moved up in the standings. “[I am] Very happy with the scores. I think our kids performed beautifully.” said Gina Healy, F. A. Day’s interim principal.

The results vary from grade to grade with 6th grade math scores being the highest and 8th grade science and technology being the lowest.

In 6th grade math, Day scored a huge 48% in “advanced” 29% in “proficient”, 17% in “needs improvement” and only 6% in “warning”. “The kids did fantastically compared to the state averages” said Healy. The state averaged 17% in “advanced”, 26% in “proficient”, 32% in “needs improvement” and 25% in “warning”.

“I think the best way to look at the scores is to add the ‘advanced’ and the ‘proficient’ together, and then to look at the ‘warning’ [and the] ‘needs improvement’. While Day did the best in the district, the other district scores were comparable.”

Day improved at every level since last year. “In the 2003 MCAS, we had 46% of the kids in ‘advanced’ where we had 48% [in advanced].”

“We’re up on ‘proficient’, down on ‘needs improvement’ and down on ‘warning’ which is exactly where you want to be. So across the board our scores have improved.”

The 7th Grade English Language Arts scores have remained basically the same. “I would say, statistically we haven’t changed much. I would say that our performance has been pretty consistent in terms of English Language Arts at the seventh grade.”

“In the 8th grade math, I think that we compare quite favorably with the last year[’s scores],” said Healy. In 8th grade math, the 8th graders scored 41% within the “advanced” level, 20% within the “proficient” level, 23% within the “needs improvement” level and 8% in the “warning” level.

Day did not do as well on the science and technology test as the other MCAS tests. “Our curriculum is not completely aligned with the state frameworks and this was not a test that ‘counted’ so to speak.” said Healy.

The science test is still in it’s pilot stage and the school’s curricula are not completely aligned with the state Frameworks. Day scored an 11% “advanced”, 43% in the “proficient” level, 36% in the “needs improvement” and an 11% in the “failing”. These scores are not as high as the other Day MCAS scores. “I don’t know if it’s because the frameworks [and curriculum] aren’t aligned, or if it’s because the kids don’t take the test as seriously, or if there is some combination of that, or if there are areas that we really need to look at. But what is happening is that the results of these tests are being forwarded to the teachers, the department leaders, and the teams, with disaggregated results. This way, we can use the item analysis to see which parts of the curriculum need to be reinforced.” said Healy.

When asked how she planned to improve scores, Healy said “It’s a two-pronged effort. First is the curricular approach. We look at disaggregated results and item analysis, and we see if there is a particular item that a large number of kids didn’t get. For example, if we see from the item analysis that students are weak at fractions, we can beef up the curriculum; reteach those lessons… ”

“We also use the results to identify the individual students whose skills need to be improved. We are offering extra classes for those students both in the English language arts and in the math whose 6th grade results were not what we hoped for,” Healy concluded.

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Pioneer program originated in Newton

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Day’s assistant principal S. B. spent summer in Poland teaching

by V. G. and A. R.

DAYTIME: When and why did you go to Poland?

S.B.: I went to Poland on June 29, 2004 as a volunteer to work in a summer school/camp where I got to teach English as a foreign language to native Polish speakers. Our mandate, in addition to teaching English, was to collaborate and create mutual understanding and tolerance of cultural differences in order to make us all more sensitive to the problems of the world. It was a wonderful experience. I met so many wonderful people and made many new Polish friends. At the end of the program we were all honored at a dinner with the head of the Polish Education Ministry and the Mayor of our region, where we were presented with certificates.

DAYTIME: Where was the school?

S.B.: The school where I taught is in a small farming village called Siennica. It is a public school during the school year and operates as a camp during the summer month of July. The kids were great and I taught the level one students. They were 11 – 13 years old and had very little English language skills. They were eager to learn and they made a lot of progress in the 3 weeks that we were there. The kids in the school/camp ranged from 11 – 18 years old and the older ones were pretty good at making themselves understood in English. They had learned British English and so they used different words and idiomatic expressions for some things in English, like “flat” instead of “Apartment” and “going on holiday” instead of “taking a vacation”. The volunteers taught every morning for 3 hours.

DAYTIME: Can you specify what the volunteers did?

S.B.: We got a 15 minute break after an hour and a half. In the afternoon we had various activities for the students. I had a scrapbooking club for the students. I gave them each a camera and a scrapbook (and there were lots of stickers, markers sequins and paints that I brought along) to document their stay at Siennica There were the usual basket ball and frisbee activities. and there was also a musical, GODSPELL, that students could be involved in. The “GODSPELL” production was the last night of camp. It was amazing how much work the students did, and in three weeks! They performed the musical in English!

Afternoons, we also went to a local orphanage run by an Italian group of Catholic nuns where we played games and interacted with the kids, teaching them English as well. I have a picture of the kids singing us a welcome song in the first week we were there. Another off campus activity involved working with children in a community center in a nearby town. We walked the 5 miles every day and took any of the kids who wanted to go. Counselors rotated as did students. You could sign up for a different activity each day.

DAYTIME: Where did you stay?

S.B.: Our living arrangements were spartan. We slept in barracks-style dorms from the Soviet era with the kids and were their counselors as well as their teachers. We all went to breakfast together (we ate all our meals together) where we had bread, a Kool-aid type drink, tea and cheese. Sometimes we got a slice of ham as well. Poland is still emerging from Soviet domination and we did without a lot of the luxuries that we are used to here in Newton. The beds were uncomfortable mattresses on top of wooden bed platforms. The bathrooms were about 40 years old and there was only one shower for thirty female students and 8 female counselors. Sometimes it ‘dribbled’ hot water but mostly it was luke warm with a very little dribble.

DAYTIME: What did you eat?

S.B.: At lunch we had soup that was mostly potatoes with some carrots and cauliflower or cabbage. The main course consisted of a piece of chicken or fish, cooked, with boiled potatoes and coleslaw. They often served candy bars or ice cream bars for dessert. This was considered the main meal of the day. For dinner we had bread and a slice of meat and cheese or a can of ground chicken (like Spam, only chicken). A package of cookies was usually dessert. Always to drink was the juice that reminded me of Kool-aid, it was so sweet.

DAYTIME: Did you take any field trips?

S.B.: Some days we went on Field trips. The most memorable field trip for me was the one to a place called Treblinka. It was a concentration camp. It was designed to look like a “relocation camp” which the Nazis told the Poles they were going to, but it was all a façade and once they walked through the gates, that illusion was gone. It is now a memorial to the Poles and people of many other nationalities who were brought there and exterminated. Most of the Polish people who were killed were the priests, scholars and anyone that was educated and, of course, the Polish Jews. The plan was to keep only those Poles who were uneducated and could work on a farm or do other manual labor.

DAYTIME: What did you learn in Poland?

S.B.: I learned quite a bit about Polish history and the resilience of the Polish people. Even though their country’s boundaries were changed several times and Poland as a self governing country even ceased to exist for a time, they never lost their language or their culture. It is a tribute to the Polish people that they are so warm and welcoming in the face of such a turbulent history. I can tell you, having traveled around Poland to Gdansk,on the Baltic Sea where the WWII started and where the gemstone amber was first discovered; Kazimierz Dolny, a small artists community; Crackow, the former capital, and Minsk Maz, the closest city to where we were staying, that they truly have a unique and wonderful culture. Did you know that in 1793 Poland actually had a constitution modeled after the U. S. constitution? It is true!

The Principal of the school, Pan (Mr.) Cjaka, was a former history teacher and has built a museum at the school of artifacts he has collected from around Poland that reflect the history of the country. We had all been to the museum, but one night at midnight, he came and got all the counselors and took us to the church next door to the school. This, he said, was a part of the museum we had never seen before. He showed us the graveyard and told us the stories of the people who were buried there. It was very spooky. He then opened the little door to the basement of the church and someone jumped out shrieking and scared us all! It turned out it was his son and they did this as a ‘little joke’. The church basement had been a ‘crypt” where the monks in the 15th and 16th century had been buried. The Russians stole everything of value and left the skeletons in more disarray. Mr. Cjaka and his sons put the crypt back together and reconstructed the skeletons in the coffins with what was left. It was a very eerie site but so interesting. The Polish people do whatever they can to hold on to whatever bits and pieces of authentic history they can, since over the years so much has been lost or destroyed.

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P. T. O. Auction raises funds for new equipment

Day students will benefit from state-of-the-art exercise equipment

by M. B. and A. S.

Students at Day will soon have the chance to use state of the art exercise equipment. Nearly 25 new machines, costing $20,000, have been placed in the exercise room. Day is the first middle school to have such equipment. Most of the funding for the new machines was raised at the P.T.O. auction last March.

As opposed to the old machines, which exercised muscles concentrically, the new equipment gives muscles a full range of motion and keeps muscles elastic. “40% of young adults are overweight and out of shape, but using this new equipment will make you healthier,” said, physical education teacher, Dr. W. M.

Former principal Dr. P.S. and the gym staff had the idea for this new fitness equipment. “This new equipment will offer a state of the art fitness program at Day,” said physical education teacher, A.T.

The exercise room is filled with many top of the line machines such as 6 high-class Nautilus pieces. There are 18 new Schwinn DX900 stationary bikes, in addition to 1 Tectrix bike and two rowing machines from Concept 2. Each Nautilus machine works on a different muscle. The first machine works on the abdominal muscles. The 2nd machine is called the Vertical Chest. This works on the pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, and triceps. Another machine, called the Overhead Press, works the deltoids, triceps, and upper trapezius.

The other side of the exercise gym will be used for stretching and other physical activities in addition to step aerobics, yoga, tae-bo, and also as an independent fitness area.

Other new machines include the Lat Pulldown which can be utilized to strengthen the latissimus dorsi, teres major biceps, branchii, middle trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, upper trapezius, and rectus abdominus. Leg Extension, a larger piece of machinery, can strengthen the quadriceps.

The gym staff hopes students and teachers alike will use the new equipment. The staff is looking for someone to supervise the exercise room before and after school. A.T. says, “The new equipment can be used by sports teams, too.”

In gym class, near the end of October and towards the start of November, students will use the exercise machines, until April, when the students go outside. “I feel very lucky,” says A.T., who believes this is a privilege for the Day students. “There is also room for a club,” says the physical education staff.

There are many possibilities for the new equipment, and the future for the Day strength and conditioning program looks bright. Says Dr.W.M., “We think the new gym equipment is the beginning of a new program of lifetime physical fitness.”