Principal helps faculty implement new programs

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — School is under way for another year and six teachers, brand new to the district, have joined Principal Alla Vayda-Manzo’s staff at Bloomfield Middle School.

In an interview earlier this week, Vayda-Manzo, who is beginning her seventh year as principal, said there will also be two new courses offered as electives to all students that has been developed by Project Lead the Way. According to a website for Purdue and Indiana universities, PLTW is “a non-profit organization offering project-based STEM education curricula for K-12 students.” The PLTW curriculum focuses on computer science, engineering and biomedical science.

The two courses at the middle school are Medical Detectives and Design and Modeling, and Vayda-Manzo said rigorous training and certification were required for instructors Irene Cohen and Derya Kurt.

Design and Modeling will introduce students to the influence of creativity in their lives, according to Vayda-Manzo. The course goal is to design a therapeutic toy for a child with cerebral palsy.

“In Medical Detectives, students will collect data to diagnose diseases,” she said. “It’s pretty cool. Both courses focus on hands-on activities and looking at the engineering process. The core principle of these classes is STEM. Our first goal at the middle school is to use the four C’s of 21st-century learning.”

The four C’s, she said, are collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking.
“That’s for all coursework,” she said, “but these two courses really hit on it.”

At the school there is also a small poster which states that the goals for 2019-2020 utilize “SAMR.” Vayda-Manzo said these letters stand for substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition, which will be used to evaluate how instructors use technology. SAMR, she said, is a guide so that instructors are not just substituting similar ways of teaching, but teaching so that a child’s progress defines what it means to be a student in the 21st century.

“You use SAMR as an instructor to ask what the lesson plan is doing,” she said.
Another goal at the middle school is for instructors to routinely inform one another about best practices. This is done in “communities” of professional learning.

“We have a specific time for teachers to sit together and share their best practices, what’s working well for them,” Vayda-Manzo said. “This is on a daily basis, in addition to lunch and prep time. It’s 42 minutes.”

The foundation for this knowledge-sharing time is the book “Mindset,” by Carol Dweck.
“It’s required reading,” the principal said. “It’s about learning to fulfill your potential.”

For students, Introduction to Computer Science is entering its second year while the popular Music Technology is entering its third year. Vayda-Manzo said that through various STEM initiatives she hopes to increase the diversity among students taking STEM-related courses. Foremost in her mind is getting more girls involved in them, she said.

The Builders Club, the middle school auxiliary of the Bloomfield High School Key Club, a Kiwanis-sponsored activity, is now registered with Sandy Hook Promise as a SAVE Promise Club, Vayda-Manzo said. The acronym SAVE stands for “Students Against Violence Everywhere.” Sandy Hook Promise is a nonprofit that provides programs “to protect children against gun violence,” according to its website. It was established in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut.

“Builders Club students will help organize events of Sandy Hook Promise ideals,” Vayda-Manzo said. “They are taking charge of Start with Hello Week. That’s the third week of September.”

There is also trauma-informed professional development for BMS teachers.
“A team of instructors is being trained to train other teachers,” the principal said. “It’s focused on addressing the social and emotional needs of students.”

Training will include relationship building, creating empathy and understanding that students bring various life experiences to school.
“We also have student groups, run by staff, that helps students with social and emotional learning,” Vayda-Manzo said. “And we have a team of teachers trained in the signs of a possible suicide. As with all initiative, this is districtwide. It’s important to address social and emotional learning, especially in the middle school. The students are in transition.”

Enrollment is up at the middle school with a total of 1,036 students: 523 seventh-graders and 511 eighth-graders.

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