| COMMODORE
MACDONOUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
66 Spring Street |
We invite you to learn more about our school community. Included here is an outline of the programs offered at Commodore Macdonough Elementary School. Please check back regularly for updates.
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Our mission is to ensure that there are dedicated professionals who through instruction and nurturance enable each student to become productive members of society.
Vision Statement
Commodore Macdonough School is dedicated to the education of all children through quality instruction, nurturance and high standards to ensure that all students will succeed and become productive members of our society.
Commodore Macdonough School provides challenges and experiences, which continually foster the development of each student's academic competencies, interests, abilities and attitudes. Equipped with motivation, skills, knowledge and values, Commodore Macdonough's students will be prepared to realize personal success and be responsible citizens.
Commodore Macdonough School's staff strives to ensure all students achieve at their highest potential by challenging them through a system structured around a common core of knowledge, skills, values, and a variety of educational experiences. Through partnerships with family and community, we promote the pursuit of lifelong learning, responsible citizenship and decision-making in a culturally diverse world.
We strive to make Commodore Macdonough School a "community school" through our school-based comprehensive health program, community-school programs, school-business partnerships, and family resource center. Commodore Macdonough School's focus is to provide quality education while promoting high standards and equal education for all students.
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Special Education at Commodore Macdonough School meets the needs some students through special education services. These are fully integrated into their regular education classroom. In our efforts to offer high quality education for all children, special education teachers collaborate daily with regular education teachers so the special education students are fully included in all programs, projects and activities. At grades 3 through 5 parents receive daily communication through each student's homework assignment log. Parents' responses are encouraged and welcomed. Commodore Macdonough special education staff develops and maintains a climate which promotes the understanding of and respect for all individuals, particularly those with special needs. Our total school community is committed to providing opportunities for all students to reach their fullest potential and to develop a sense of responsibility.
P.R.O.B.E. is Middletown's Gifted and Talented program. It is designed to meet the special needs and interests of our gifted students. These students' talents are nurtured to fulfill the promise of future leadership in our complex society. The PROBE program is differentiated from the regular classroom, and will be based on real-life problem solving. Critical thinking, creative problem solving, logic, risk taking and research skills are developed in our students to empower them to become self-learners.
Commodore Macdonough students attend the PROBE program once a week at Farm Hill Elementary School. Transportation is provided and the PROBE teachers collaborate with our teachers to extend the strategies and concepts in to our classrooms.
Computer Club is held after school. This very popular club provides students with the opportunity to use computers, explore the Internet, develop Hyperstudio presentations and maintain Commodore Macdonough School's classroom sites. As a culminating activity parents, and staff are invited to celebrate each child's computer project making a connection between school and home.
School Spirit Days are earned times throughout the school year when students have 'spelled' out a Character Counts pillar by showing the school community that they can display attributes of 'good character'. Students receive Mac Tickets from all staff members (teachers, custodians, paraprofessionals, administration . . .) when they emulate 'good character' which are then displayed on oversized letters of one pillar - i.e. RESPECT.
This project is an effort to enforce a positive and pro-active discipline plan that is also designed to bolster school spirit, increase student enthusiasm, bring interest into learning and celebrate our differences.
School Store and the book store alternate weekly. This is student run and is open to all students. The program, supervised by a special education teacher, develops students' mathematics, reading and writing skills. Our students learn how to display merchandise, assist shoppers, and make change. The profits from the store are used to purchase materials and support student activities.
Reading Incentive programs are held every year at Commodore Macdonough School. The month of March is designated as Reading Incentive Month. All students are encouraged to read at home in conjunction with our school wide reading incentive program. Last year's program was called Macdonough School Loves to Read. All students were given personal reading logs to keep track of at home reading. Students were awarded points for the time they spent reading and weekly incentives were awarded. Oversized classroom graphs provided a visual for students to chart their quantity of at home reading.
Instrumental Musicoffers musical enrichment during school hours and provided free to students in grades 4 & 5. Each year we realize an increase in the number of students participating. This year we have twenty-five (25) students receiving instrumental music lessons and participating in our school band.
The Kindergarten Buddy Program at Macdonough was organized in 1987. Kindergarten teachers and the upper grade teachers meet twice a month to plan activities. The Kindergarten student may dictate events for the journal to the upper grade student at each meeting. Activities also nclude holiday themes such as Friendship Salad during Thanksgiving and cookie decorating and letters to Santa. Activities included are reading to buddies, and computer tutors. The youngsters look out for their buddies on the playground and in the school. In the past, through the generosity of a Community and University Services for Education grant all buddies participated in a field trip to the West Hartford Science Museum. This has proven to be a program the students look forward to excitedly. Now many students have been the younger buddy and look forward to being the older buddy.
Student of the Weekis our student recognition program. It was developed to foster positive self-image, reward appropriate behavior and celebrate academic achievement. The classroom teacher nominates one child per classroom each week according to the Pillar represented schoolwide for that month. The child's photograph is taken and displayed on the bulletin board in the main hallway of Commodore Macdonough School. Children are then eligible to earn recognition stars for succeeding weeks. Once a child earns eight recognition stars, she or he earns an award such as a star student T-shirt, pencil case, or notebook with a star student logo. Awards programs are held during the school year to recognize those students. The Macdonough School PTA funds this program, in full.
English-As-A-Second-Language (ESL) is a part of our commitment to literacy. ESL is provided to our linguistically diverse students. ESL services prepare our students to participate in all educational programs in all of our school programs. The quality of schooling received by our ESL students is augmented by the collaborative efforts of ESL teachers and classroom teachers. ESL services are provided at five target elementary schools in Middletown.
Mouse Patrol is a service organization comprised of 4th and 5th grade students organized to assist teachers with technology. The members keep the all technology free of dust, learn how to operate the equipment, learn new software programs, turn computers on and off in classrooms, and do what ever their assigned teacher requests of them. The students are enthusiastic and give up many recesses to participate and learn more.
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The Rita Hayes Wellness Center is a school based health center located within the Macdonough Elementary School. The Wellness Center is staffed by a nurse practitioner, medical assistant, outreach worker, social worker, and center manager. The center provides medical and mental health services to enrolled students. For more information, please call or fax 860.344.9821.
Family Literacy workshops are presented to parents by teachers, social workers, and reading consultants.Commodore Macdonough School is committed to creating programs that demonstrate to parents ways to promote reading at home and expand parents' literacy development. Parents are presented with materials for use at home on a variety of topics all aimed at aiding them to assist their children at home. Students display their talents and are the "celebrities" in many presentations. Programs include family nights, video presentations, parent discussion groups and reading receptions where our first grade students read to their family, teachers and community guests. Through our Family Resource Center parents can access materials, magazines and literacy bags to borrow and use at home with their child. Literacy is a community activity.
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The after school tutorial program was formed in 1988 with Wesleyan University. Presently 75 students, grade 2 through 5, participate in this program. Staffed by volunteers, our children spend one and one-half hours weekly engaged in learning activities one to one with a student tutor.
Commodore Macdonough School Newsletter is a new initiative this school year, made possible through the collaboration of Macdonough School and Wesleyan's Work Study Program. A Wesleyan student comes to Macdonough School during our recess period to work with students on writing about the learning that is occurring within their classrooms. The Wesleyan student serves as the editor and assists students with writing for a purpose. Parents have enjoyed reading the newsletters and learning about what is happening in our school through the eyes of their children. This initiative is a success and supports our educational goals.
Oddfellows Neighborhood Troupes is an after school theater arts program for children in grades 1 through 5 offered by Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater. The program provides 30 children with a 1 hour class once a week for 8 weeks. The 8-week cycle is conducted 3 times during the school year so that approximately 90 students participate. Professional artists and Wesleyan student volunteers staff the program. Collaboration with Oddfellows Playhouse provides our students with enrichment activities that expand their universes and support in-school learning.
School-Family-Community Action Team
- · Parenting, Communication,
· Volunteering,
· Learning at Home,
· Decision Making,
· Collaborating with the Community.
The Middletown Public Schools Cultural Council recognizing the importance of arts in our culture, was formed. The Cultural Council is charged with the responsibility to provide our young children with exposure and experiences in the arts which will permit them to make intelligent judgments concerning the arts and to encourage active participation. As a result of the Cultural Council's efforts, Macdonough School students view art at Wesleyan's Zilkha Galleries, and display their own portraits and artwork at the Zilkha Galleries during our Middletown Public Schools Art Show in March.
This year, in the spring, our children will enjoy participating in workshops with storytellers from the Connecticut Storytelling Center in Residence at Connecticut College. With additional funds from our PTA this year we look forward to Play In Day involving fifth grade students and three days of storytellers working with grades 2, 3 and 4 in their individual classrooms.
Community and University Services for Education
Community and University Services for Education - C.A.U.S.E. Grants are offered to all teachers to develop mini-programs and/or projects which enhance or influence students' learning. Last year two Commodore Macdonough School teachers received funding to support two grant proposals. The grants were:
Macdonough School - Surfing the Web
Literacy Learning in the Classroom
The Community Health Center's Homeroom has an after school program for students in the area. Although Homeroom is no longer available on Macdonough's campus, we are fortunate to have the center nearby and easily accessible for our students.
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Our Mentor Program is a collaborative effort with Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, this program matches students with an adult mentor. The student and volunteer adult mentor meet weekly, usually during lunch and recess, to share experiences, play games, talk and have fun. On the days our mentors visit each child has that look of excitement and satisfaction knowing she or he will have special time with a friend. Macdonough presently has eleven students matched with mentors.
Pencil Pals is sponsored by Northeast Utilities. Conceived in 1993, our school-business partnership with Northeast Utilities has flourished.Our theme is Write a letter, touch a mind. Approximately 100 students are matched one to one with Northeast Utilities employees.Each month 2 letters are exchanged between the Pencil Pals. Students delight in the post cards, letters and stickers they each receive during the school year. At our annual culminating activity, Northeast Utilities employees meet their Pencil Pal in person and spent a day on a field trip to the Pequot Museum.
Northeast Utilities also provided funding and 'people power' for our CONNECT '96 on-line services. Our collective efforts in 1996, 1997, and 1998, resulted in the networking of our library, 10 classrooms and two offices.
Connect'96 is a state part of the national Net Day '96. September 28,1996 sponsors and volunteers from the students, parents, community, Northeast Utilities and Liberty Bank assisted wiring and connecting Macdonough School to the Internet. Again on May 17, 1997, volunteers continued pulling wire for each second through fifth grade classroom. In May,1998 the rooms were connected to a dial-up local area network . With the financial assistance and volunteers' help we are connected and able to enrich our curriculum with up to date information and communication.
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The Language Arts Writing teacher supports students in grade 3. This part time position is funded through the Priority School District Grant and local board of education funds. All students participate in Writer's Workshop lessons. Teachers organize and focus their instruction in ways that provide for student's development of abilities in writing. Writer's workshops, teacher-student writing conferences, author's chair and writing portfolios are examples of particular strategies and structures that are effectively implemented by our staff. The Macdonough School Language Arts Writing Support Program is one example of the district's efforts to improve student literacy in Grades K-3 in coordination with other district Priority Grant student achievement initiatives.
Goals 2000 Professional Development Schools Grant was awarded to three Middletown schools. The principals of Macdonough School, Bielefield School and Spencer School had specific goals while writing this grant. These included bringing together university and school staff to improve instruction and student performance in language arts, with an emphasis on writing. Literacy is an important focus for our students and is continually being monitored to meet our students needs in all domains.
Reading Recovery is an innovative program for at risk first graders. Macdonough School initially piloted the Reading Recovery Program during the 1993-1994 school year. The training of one Reading Recovery teacher was supported by Title I funds. Reading Recovery, an internationally recognized program, is a short-term, accelerated program for students who are identified as being at risk of failing to learn to read and write in first grade. Students selected for program participation receive daily intensive individual tutoring sessions for 30 minutes. The program allows most students to catch up and work with the average group of students in their class in approximately 12 to 20 weeks. Reading Recovery teachers are required to work with the lowest achieving students within a classroom. In 1994-1995, a second teacher was trained as a Reading Recovery teacher. The second teacher was necessary in order to fully implement the program; thereby enabling the lowest 20% of the first grade population to receive this early intervention program. Today we continue to have two trained teachers which enables all at risk first graders to receive support in reading and writing during the school year. Their careful planning, collaboration with staff and parents has allowed our students to make significant growth in text reading level and writing. Over the past four years the Reading Recovery teachers have provided tutoring and support to first graders.