IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Fall 2019

Baldwin-Whitehall WHITEHALL ELEMENTARY WELCOMES JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT Baldwin High School student representatives visited Whitehall Elementary to present Junior Achievement lessons to students in second, third, fourth, and fifth grades. Lessons focused on various types of entrepreneurship. The lessons were targeted towards appropriate grade-levels and were student-centered. Children learned how various resources (specifically human, natural, and capital) have an impact on the region’s economy. The lessons began with students identifying character-traits of an entrepreneur, followed by self-reflection to determine which attributes they personally possess. Students were encouraged to create their own businesses, from advertisement to operations. The lesson culminated with students presenting their business plans to their peers. What a great way to inspire the interest of some future business leaders of America! DOT & DASH ROBOTS HELP PAYNTER STUDENTS LEARN TO CODE The Baldwin-Whitehall School District is committed to preparing students for a successful future. One of the ways in which Baldwin High School prepares seniors for their next steps after high school is through the course Careers and Society. The course teaches students essential life-skills, such as drafting a budget, paying taxes, formatting a résumé, and interviewing for a job. Natalie Grattan, Senior Social Studies Teacher, shares, “this course walks students through all the things we do as an adult every day. We’re really preparing students for life after school.” If students are interested in a particular field, they can elect to participate in a day of job-shadowing as part of the course. Senior Hailee Slavonic was interested in real estate, so she participated in a job-shadow with local firm Keller Williams. “This experience was not just a job-shadow, it was more of an outlook on my future,” Slavonic shared. “They all made the process so simple yet so informative to help me understand the life of real estate and how much work and effort goes into it.” The job- shadow blossomed into much more. Keller Williams has given Slavonic a full scholarship to attend the REALTORS® Education Institute over the summer and then a job with them once she’s obtained her real-estate license. DEBBIE REYNOLDS SELECTED AS ALBERT EINSTEIN DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR FELLOW TO SERVE IN WASHINGTON Harrison Middle School teacher Debbie Reynolds has been selected for a national honor. Nine accomplished K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers from across the United States have been named 2019–2020 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellows. The fellows spend 11 months serving in a Federal agency or U.S. Congressional offices in Washington, D.C., engaged in the national STEM education arena. Ms. Reynolds will serve her fellowship with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, at the Naval base in Bethesda, Maryland. Throughout her 11-month fellowship, Reynolds will conduct STEM outreach with the Navy, assist the Navy with curriculum development, and meet regularly with the other Einstein Fellows for collaboration. 74 BRENTWOOD-BALDWIN-WHITEHALL Tamara Rellick, a first grade teacher at Paynter Elementary School, introduced her classroom to coding with the Dot and Dash Robot Wonder Pack, thanks to a $1,000 faculty education grant from the Baldwin-Whitehall Educational Foundation (BWEF). “It was great to see our kids start out basic and then advance to harder apps as they gained new coding skills and built confidence in using them.” Her students had an opportunity to meet Governor Wolf at an Allegheny Intermediate Unit event, where one of Rellick’s first grade girls was able to showcase how their class uses the robots. “I definitely saw a higher number of female students expressing a love for science or math as compared to previous years thanks to the fun they had using the robots,” Rellick says. MCANNULTY STUDENTS CREATE THEIR OWN BOOKS Recently students at McAnnulty Elementary worked towards writing their own books, which utilized question marks and exclamation points. Students wrote rough drafts, edited their writing, and typed the final books using Chromebooks. After the books were bound and completed, the final step was to share each awesome story with first- grade friends in Mrs. Hustava’s class. The classroom is filled with great storytellers and it will be exciting to see what they publish next! STUDENTS EXPLORE AREAS OF INTEREST THROUGH GENIUS HOUR Students at Paynter Elementary are engaging in a new initiative called Genius Hour. Genius Hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. Some first-grade classrooms are exploring personalized learning through passion projects. Students are challenged to explore topics of their choice. They spend several weeks researching the topics before creating projects to share with an audience. Some examples of passion projects include pyramid and mummy research, how markers are made, and making their own Squishies. BRENTWOOD-BALDWIN-WHITEHALL ❘ FALL 2019 75

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