• Members of Leadership Centre County visit BASD

    lcc22When Bellefonte Area High School Vice Principal Becky Michaels talked about student interaction with members of Leadership Centre County, she enthusiastically described them as being “amazing!”

    On March 16, members of this year’s Leadership Centre County class visited schools within Bellefonte Area School District for its annual Education Day. Each district in the county hosted LCC members along with local charter schools.

    “It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase our students, schools, teachers and everything we do at Bellefonte,” Director of Curriculum and Instruction Kris Vancas said as he presented more information to the school board.

    The day included morning and afternoon sessions with school tours, a luncheon provided by the food service department, visits to various classes, a technology presentation, superintendent’s panel, debriefing session and more. They were even serenaded by musicians from the district’s performing and fine arts department.

    One of their stops was also to teacher Jordan Eccher’s tech ed class at Bellefonte Area Middle School. There, members got to see first hand the interactive projects sixth-grade students have been working on, which includes making a tool box. In doing so, they practice what's called the "marking method" where students mark the length of tool box handles, cut it to size and install it to complete the projects.

    The goal of middle school tech ed, Eccher said, is to build student skill levels in 3D modeling, hands on learning and problem solving.
     
    "It's important to showcase their work because it's so much more than hammering wood together and building stuff," he said. "We talk about different ways to join material, separate material, proper tool usage, how to overcome challenges when projects don't end up as we planned, how to work with our peers to overcome challenges through perseverance rather than giving up, learning through previous experiences to apply to new experiences and the fact that this field is consistently growing and there are so many job opportunities out there for skilled workers."

    At the high school, Michaels said two tours were given with the help of students from the school’s Raider Revolution club and who also discussed information about academics, athletics, clubs and more.

    “Our students did amazing,” Michaels said. “The adults on the tour were so impressed by the way they conducted themselves, how they presented themselves and the building, and how involved those students are in a wide array of things.”

    Many of the topics discussed were artwork on the ceiling tiles, student resource officers, guidance, technology and even had the chance to observe English teacher Kaysey Beury’s class that was acting out a scene from a Shakespeare book they had been studying in class. They also gave a tour of the technology wing and hallway that features the school's Family and Consumer Sciences programs, in addition to the TV studio in teacher Carla Cipro’s room, woodshop labs, world languages department and more.

    Students who are a part of Raider Revolution had the opportunity to sign up to help give the tours, including several students with past experience giving school tours to new students. The mission of Raider Revolution is to create and promote a safe and positive school environment that establishes a welcoming atmosphere, enhances student learning, and encourages student growth by demonstrating and recognizing positive behavior.

    *By Brit Milazzo, public relations director, BASD. Logo provided by LCC and used with permission.

  • Students who participated in the tours

    • Ashleigh Auckerman
    • Jace Beauton
    • Kaley Fisher
    • Davis Folnsbee
    • Isaac Gearhart
    • Paige Kephart
    • Alexis Kopcha
    • Leo McKean
    • Hana Rados
    • Amy Shearer
    • Ella Underwood

    Technology presentation

    If there is one thing Arlin Roth knows best, it’s technology. On March 16, the longtime district instructional technology specialist was part of a group of district employees working with members of Leadership Centre County to showcase the district during its annual Education Day. Roth said he provided an overview of how the district works to use technology in purposeful ways for teaching and learning, and how having Chromebooks for all students and Google Classroom helped in the transition to remote learning during the pandemic. Using photos in a slideshow presentation, it better provided guests with examples of how technology is used at different grade levels. To learn more, visit this link: Technology presentation

    More LCC information

    lcclogo

    Two district employees are also members of this year’s LCC class – Bellefonte Area High School Principal Mike Fedisson and high school social studies teacher Matt Maris. According to Zach Barton, executive director of LCC, both were assigned to visit various schools within the county. Saying he purposefully split them up, Barton said it was a meaningful way to experience as many other educational facilities as possible and bring that information back to Bellefonte. Fedisson visited charter schools including Centre Learning Community, Nittany Valley and Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania. Maris, on the other hand, visited PA Cyber and Bald Eagle Area School District. Superintendent Tammie Burnaford, who was part of LCC’s Class of 2018, participated in the superintendent's session that included a conversation with five local superintendents.

    To learn more about Leadership Centre County, visit this link: LCC