BPL’s Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski are featured on the Huffington Post addressing a national crisis – school drop outs.

“In his State of the Union Address, President Obama gave special attention to education and particularly to the persistent problem of high school dropouts. This is not the first time that the president has used a major speech to highlight this problem. Back in February 2009, in a speech to the Joint Session of Congress, the president stated that dropping out “is no longer an option.” Sadly, however, it remains an option for many young people. With about 1.3 million young people leaving high school each year without a diploma, surely, as Linda, Willy Loman’s wife, said, “Attention must be paid,” to both the problem and to the young people themselves. . .”

Click here to read article.

By BETH HURD
Insider Reporter

BPL’s Met Providence student Frank Santilli is featured in the Johnston Insider for combining his passion for learning and civic engagement by creating a M.A.D.D Garden.

To read complete article online: CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Positive Outcomes Charter School is in Camden, DE. First on Friday is a WHYY Video.

By Nick Miller

nickam@newsreview.com

Downtown’s The Met gets makeover, targets LEED, CHPS certifications. To read full online article: Click here

NEWPORT — Friday evening the documentary film “Food Inc.” was screened to a packed house at Empire Tea & Coffee. The free screening was the third in an environmentally themed film series organized by East Bay Met School student Corrine Clapper, as part of her senior thesis project.

The final film, “Fuel,” will be screened Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. at Empire Tea & Coffee.

“People don’t realize how vulnerable they are,” said Clapper, noting the scant three-day food supply in Rhode Island should shipments cease for whatever reason. “But people are talking about it and that’s what’s important.”

Clapper is a member of The East Bay Met School Green Team, a group of 17 students active in local food, waste, energy and water issues. Each learns real-world skills through internships.

For the past two years, Taylor Rock, the school’s Green Team coordinator, has helped students incubate their ideas for real-world change. In the past year, the team has earned three awards: a $1,000 grant from Britta to reduce plastics at the school; an EPA Environmental Merit Award; and a Citizens of the Year Award from the Aquidneck Island Watershed Council.

Nominated for an Oscar in 2008, “Food Inc.” is a stunning and graphic indictment of the industrial food system. While the images are disturbing, the arguments and facts are compellingly and persuasively presented.

Eric Schlosser traces the roots of the system to the impact of fast food. “These big, big fast-food chains want big suppliers. And now there are essentially a handful of companies controlling our food system.”

“Industrial food is not honest food,” said Joel Salatin, who runs a small family farm in Virginia and advocates for local food across the nation. “It’s not priced honestly; it’s not produced honestly; it’s not processed honestly. There’s nothing honest about that food.”

“It’s pretty scary,” said Brendon Simmons during a panel discussion following the film. “It pisses me off, something that big that controls us like that.”

Simmons, 18, works on the family’s Simmons Farm in Middletown, the largest organic farm on Aquidneck Island. He said the farm’s community-supported agriculture (CSA) program features organic eggs, vegetables and meat that are provided to members who buy a share in the weekly bounty.

Two Met School students, senior Abby Bianchi and junior Maggie Havey, joined Simmons on the stage following the two-hour screening. Each described their experiences growing food locally — Bianchi with hydroponic growing systems at Salve Regina University and the Met School and Havey at a local church community garden.

“I have a passion for sustainable food production,” said Bianchi, before showing off a bag of hydroponic kale she had just harvested. Bianchi described a scientific regimen of daily water testing and logging of data from the system she monitors under the tutelage of Salve Regina professor Jameson Chace.

10 to Watch for 2012 – Mike McCarthy

Student/freelance animator/member of Occupy Providence

Student, animator and activist Mike McCarthy in Kennedy Plaza’s Burnside Park, the hub of the Occupy Providence movement Photo by Jonathan Beller

To read the article – click on link: http://providenceonline.com/stories/Mike-McCarthy,573/p/stories/10-to-Watch-for-2012,574

Elm Street Academy, through its association with Big Picture Schools, is having a remarkable impact on the lives of area teens, the C-A BOCES Board of Education learned at its regular monthly meeting on December 7.

Elm Street Academy is an alternative high school started by BOCES about five years ago in a former Cuba Central School building. Shortly thereafter it began working with the Big Picture Company, based in Rhode Island. Big Picture has a network of schools for youths at risk of dropping out. It helps teens graduate high school by tailoring learning programs to their individual wants and needs, and by arranging internships and other ‘real world’ experiences to help them grow both socially and academically.

BOCES has two Big Picture locations, at Ellicottville Central School and Elm Street Academy, where the December board meeting was held. Elm Street principal Christopher McNell said both sites have experienced growth and success over the years.

Mr. McNell introduced Chelsey Currie, who attended West Valley Central before switching to the Ellicottville site. Her Big Picture advisor, Lynette Crowell, also attended.

ABOVE: Elm Street Academy principal Chris McNell introduces Big Picture senior Chelsey Currie, right, and her advisor Lynette Crowell.

“Before enrolling in Big Picture, I never really talked about going to college,” Chelsey said. “In fact it didn’t look like I would even finish high school.

Chelsey said her future was not something she considered much. “I didn’t care about homework or grades. I just cared about getting out of school so I could hang out with my friends.”

She said Big Picture has changed her life entirely. “Since I’ve been attending the program at Ellicottville, I care a lot more about where I’m heading in life.

“I’ve grown up a lot. I had a problem with authority. I didn’t get along with most of my teachers before. At Big Picture, it feels like every teacher cares about whether I succeed. When something needs to get done, they keep on you until it’s complete. Every teacher here has gone out of their way to see that you’re successful.”

Chelsey said the Big Picture approach is not for every student. “But for kids like me it definitely does. I feel bad for the students who don’t have this opportunity.

“Without Big Picture I doubt that I would be looking at graduating from high school and going to college,” she added.  She said she has applied to Cazenovia College, with hopes of someday attending Columbia University.

Mr. McNell also had an update on one of last year’s Big Picture graduates, Sean Lexer. Sean’s father Tim said in an email that Sean is flourishing at Ohio Diesel Tech in Cleveland.

“Sean has completed three different modules or sections of training since August when he started,” Mr. Lexer wrote. “He is scoring high 80′s or low 90′s on his class work and currently has about a 86 percent average for the school. Sean can not wait to leave on Monday morning to go back for class. He has only missed a couple of hours of class since he started and this was do to him coming upon a accident on his way to school.

“It is hard to believe that two and a half years ago Barb and I were hoping we could keep him in school long enough to get his GED. Then we heard about the Big Picture program. We were fortunate that Sean got placed in the program. We started seeing a change in Sean as far as going to school and completing his work. It no longer was a chore to get him to go to school. Then we started to think maybe we can get him to graduate. For him to go to college was something we never dreamed would happen.

Now we have a son in college who is enjoying college and doing well in school. He is bringing the things he learns back to the farm and using it on maintenance and repair of the farm equipment. Whatever he decides to do we know he will be well equipped to handle it.

Thanks to the Big Picture program and all the dedicated people involved with the program. You have turned a high school dropout into a kid going to college and doing well.”

Three local organizations which includes the East Bay Met School, are recognized by the Aquidneck Island Watershed Council for efforts on behalf of protecting the watershed.

By Jill Connors
November 30, 2011 – READ ARTICLE HERE

To view clip go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru89P8vJchU

In the forward of the report, Dr Kitty te Riele (UTS), states:

“This self-assessment takes an honest look at those aspects of program design that have been established as being relevant for all such alternative education projects by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum. Three findings stand out for me. First, the strong commitment to counter negative assumptions and deficit views about the young people in the Glebe Pathways Project – instead putting their interests and voices at the centre of the project. Second, the genuine collaboration among a range of institutional and community partners – turning their different cultures, expertise and priorities into complementary strengths to support the Project. Finally, the hard work and good will of the staff and volunteers in the Project, who make the personal and public benefits of education more real and achievable on a day-to-day basis”.

The report states that such programs can inform educational innovation. “Alternative programs may be better able to try out different approaches, such as the use of the Big Picture Curriculum in the Glebe Pathways Project. Therefore such programs can act as incubators of change and as showcases of innovation, informing new strategies that can be adopted by other schools for the benefit of their students.”

To read the full report, download the PDF here:  Pathways FF