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Front Page News:

February 4, 2009


 

NH Education Commissioner Tracy Visits Pittsfield Schools

 

 

Commissioner Tracy interacts with students in the Pittsfield Middle High School Library


New Hampshire Commissioner of Education, Dr. Lyonel Tracy, visited our Pittsfield Schools on Monday, January 26, 2009.  Dr. Tracy stated that he believes it important that the Commissioner maintain contact with students and school staff.  Dr. Tracy devoted his full day – 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. – to Pittsfield.


Dr. Tracy began the day at Pittsfield Elementary School.  Two PES sixth grade students provided the Commissioner with a guided tour of the school building.  Next, Dr. Tracy visited three classrooms where he observed children and teachers working together.


Ms. Eade’s first grade classroom was the first classroom visited by Dr. Tracy.  There he observed children actively engaged in an element of the school’s literacy program known as Working with Words.  Next, the Commissioner walked upstairs to visit with Ms. Kaplan’s sixth grade class where he observed another literacy lesson in the Guided Reading component.  Here, the focus of instruction was on reading comprehension.


Finally, Dr. Tracy visited Ms. Berry’s fourth grade classroom for a math lesson.  This was the site of a school development strategy known as Japanese Lesson Study.  Dr. Tracy joined other fourth grade and special education teachers in observing Ms. Berry’s lesson with the aims of learning from the teacher’s instructional methods and providing feedback to Ms. Berry on her work with students.


Dr. Tracy commented on the importance of continuous improvement in schools.  He was positively impressed with the teachers’ work with Japanese Lesson Study to refine teaching practices and to ensure that each child is receiving adequate instruction and support.  A proponent of personalizing education for each student, Dr. Tracy commended the school’s determined work to support students who are challenged by mathematics.


In addition to a school tour at Pittsfield Middle High School and lunch with students during the PMHS’s second high school lunch period, Dr. Tracy visited three middle school classrooms.  First, he visited with seventh grade students in Ms. Schou’s language arts classroom.  There he participated in classroom reading activities as well as discussion of current events using primary sources.


In Ms. Ingerson’s seventh grade science class, Dr. Tracy looked on as students formed collaborative workgroups to engage in scientific research using classroom computers.  Finally, the Commissioner observed the first day of the new quarter in Mr. Oliveras’s world cultures classroom.  Here, first-day students were learning and speaking basic Spanish phrases.


Dr. Tracy’s classroom observations concluded with visits to four high school classrooms.  These included his observation of students working with individual mock checkbooks and discussing simulated financial profiles in Ms. Gardner’s personal finance class.  In addition, the Commissioner visited Mr. Smith’s math classroom for a geometry lesson and Ms. Armour’s physics classroom for a laboratory lesson on vectors.


Ms. Plante’s Eleventh Grade English classroom was the last stop of the day for Dr. Tracy.  Here, he participated in the class’s review of their mid-year examination that expanded into a discussion of test taking strategies with a look forward to the SATs.  Dr. Tracy commended Ms. Plante for her work with students on metacognition, or thinking about their own thinking.


In remarks to the faculty at the end of the day, Dr. Tracy reflected on the positive atmosphere of our Pittsfield schools, the close connections that students enjoy with their teachers, the quality of the lessons and teachers that he had observed, and the personalization of instruction.  Speaking about the personalization of instruction, one of the Commissioner’s main goals for the schools of New Hampshire, Dr. Tracy observed that “no schools personalize instruction better than Pittsfield’s schools.”

 

 

Left to Right; Principal Doug Kilmister, Commissioner Tracy, & Superintendent John Freeman at Pittsfield Elementary School.

 


 


 

 











 
 

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