Portland Public School Department

The Portland Public Schools will begin a new program for four-year-olds on October 2 at Nathan Clifford Elementary School, 180 Falmouth Street. The program will serve several children with special needs as well as typically developing youngsters.

The program will meet Monday through Thursday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. (session one) and from 12:30 to 3 p.m. (session two). Enrollment will be limited to 14 children per session.

Parents will need to provide transportation but there will be no fees charged. Funding will come from grants, MaineCare billing and other sources. For more information, please call 874-8180.

Allison Villani, an art teacher at Portland High School, has won an Unsung Heroes Award for innovative teaching practices from ING Financial Services. She will use the $2,000 award to work with students in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class to document their lives.

Villani began the “My Life” project with her ESL art fundamentals class a few years ago. The award will pay the costs of students producing books with their life stories. Writers and artists will visit the class to help students improve their storytelling and illustrations. The students will share their completed books with children at Reiche Elementary School and at the Portland Public Library.

Students at Portland High School come from more than 30 countries and speak more than 50 languages. “The project helps break down barriers,” said Villani. “The whole class gets to see a different side of students when they present their work.” Students also learn about career opportunities in writing and illustration, she said.

Each year, 100 Unsung Heroes Awards are given to teachers throughout the country pioneering new teaching methods and techniques that improve learning. Villani was one of two winners in Maine.

Villani is beginning her ninth year as a Portland High teacher. She previously taught at Lyman Moore Middle School, the West School program and St. Joseph’s Parish School.

Deering High School will begin an advising program this year to help create a stronger sense of community in the district’s largest school. Groups of up to 14 students will meet with a teacher-advisor for about a half-hour per week throughout their four years of high school.

The groups will work on a curriculum appropriate to each grade level. Freshmen will focus on orientation to high school, learning about one’s self and setting goals. This year’s sophomores will use a similar curriculum. Juniors will work on preparing for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Seniors will plan for life after high school, including post-secondary education.

The Deering Coaching Plan, as it is called, aims to help students feel more connected to school, to increase involvement in extracurricular activities and to improve the graduation rate, said Eli Small, the teacher who is coordinating the program. The program will be evaluated and refined over time, he added.

Portland High School and Casco Bay High School also have advising programs.

METRO, the greater Portland transit district, is giving free bus passes to Portland middle and high school students. The passes will allow student to ride METRO free through December.

“We are pleased to be able to offer this busing option to our students and are most appreciative of the role that METRO has played in seeing this idea to fruition,” said Portland Superintendent Mary Jo O’Connor.

The TenRide passes are intended to encourage young people to use the bus service. “We want students and their parents to discover the convenience of using METRO to travel the Greater Portland area,” said Jeffrey Monroe, president of the METRO board of directors.

METRO provides more than 800 bus stops located on eight routes. All buses are also equipped with bike racks.

For more information, please call METRO at 774-0351 or visit their website: www.gpmetrobus.com

    David Sproul, a longtime biology teacher at Deering High School in Portland, has won the National Association of Biology Teachers’ 2006 Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for Maine. 
    The award recognizes one biology and life science educator from each state for excellence in classroom instruction and contributions to the biology profession.  Sproul will be honored on October 13 during a National Association of Biology Teachers conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
    Sproul was a student teacher at Deering in 1982 and joined the faculty a year later.  He teaches anatomy and physiology as well as biology.
    “I enjoy teaching these subjects because they have real connections to everyday life,” he said. “I try to stay current by doing a lot of reading, since science and technology are forever changing.
    “I try to use hands-on lab experiences whenever possible and engage students in their own learning,” Sproul said.  “I also try to model a real passion for the subject matter…If I can encourage several of my students to pursue science beyond high school,” he added, “I feel I have made some contribution.”
    Sproul earned his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Maine.  He holds a master’s from the University of Southern Maine.  He continues to grow as a teacher by attending workshops and talking to colleagues.
    “I always try to incorporate at least one thing that is new and different,” he said.