October 2008 News at Oliverian School

NEWS AT OLIVERIAN SCHOOL

December 2008

12.15.2008
Ice Storm Brings Early Vacation
The Northeastern United States made national weather news recently with its first crippling ice storm in years - the ice storm of December 11-12, 2008. Many compared it to the ice storm which struck Vermont and New Hampshire in 1998, an ice storm which left residents without power for a week or more. This current ice storm left residents of New Hampshire and Massachussets in particularly dire straits, with Maine, Vermont and New York residents suffering somewhat lighter but still serious power outages. Some residents in New Hampshire were without power for about a week.

Thanks to the efforts of an extremely dedicated staff, Oliverian weathered the storm gracefully. Generators were employed to keep several buildings warm and equipped with power. Female students and staff were relocated to a Comfort Inn in St. Johnsbury, Vermont where there was power and facilities to keep students entertained during the disruption. Male students were taken on day trips to the movies and the like, and in the evening gathered in Clifford House, Bolton House and the Student Center for entertainment and to weather the storm's effects together. Staff worked around the clock to keep the other buildings from freezing up and sustaining damage from the lack of heat.

After the initial storm, the weather turned warm throughout New Hampshire, causing ice-ladden branches to snap back into position, and in many cases, destroy electric repairs that had already been made. When Oliverian heard the predictions that it might take as much as a week to restore power, the decision was made to dismiss students early for their Christmas break. Student returned home from campus on Monday, December 15th instead of the originally scheduled Friday, December 19th.

Happily, full power has been restored to the Northeast, and thanks to the efforts of many dedicated staff members, our campus sustained no damage. A news team visited Oliverian during the outage and interviewed our Assistant Headmaster, Greg Vogel, about the outage. View the news story here.

12.03.2008
Intersession Trips 2009
Intersession at the Oliverian School is an extraordinary week in February for students to travel to another region, take part in cultural understanding, enjoy adventure-based experiences, gain artistic knowledge, and partake in community service. From many perspectives, the most valuable piece of the Intersession experience is the service component. This year, Intersession trips will focus on service to others as a major element to the trips.

Trip #1:
Ecuador, Bosque Seco Lalo Loor
Oliverian students will be working and living in the village, Bosque Seco Lalo Loor. Each day they will have the chance to help Peace Corps volunteers on local projects, reforestation projects, or assist with data collection. To celebrate the end of the trip the group will venture to the beach for a day of sand, sun, and surf.

As an academic institution, growth and learning is critical, not only for the students and families we work with, but for the school as well. We have been very proud of the courses offered in the past and the experiences students brought back to share with everyone campus.

12.02.2008
Peer Tutoring Program
Center for School Success’ Senior Learning Specialist, Beth Reed, recently developed and delivered specialized training to Oliverian students active in the Peer Tutoring program. Oliverian utilizes peer tutoring because of its proven learning success for both the tutor and the tutee.

Beth’s training focused on identifying common stumbling blocks to homework completion as well as how to help struggling students get through common obstacles. Peer tutors are advised not do the work for their peers or label the breakdown areas, such as: attention, language, or memory weaknesses

Beth shared concrete ideas and strategies for tutors to try out in the tutoring environment. Strategies and ideas included: ask the struggling student to identify where they are stuck and then walk them through the expectations of each task. Together, the tutor and tutee will then break down the problem and identify which steps the tutee can do successfully.

Beth also provided the tutors and faculty advisers a list of ideas to experiment with, depending on where the student is having trouble, such as: getting started, understanding reading, picking out important details, getting ideas on the page staying focused, etc. The peer tutors will work closely with the students, advisers and the student's teachers. Peer tutoring has proven successful for the tutees, but is also a learning tool for the tutor as they learn skills more thoroughly while teaching it to someone else.

12.01.2008
Martial Arts Class Takes Off
Oliverian School has added Martial Arts to its line up of activities for students! Offered on Monday evenings from 8:30 - 9:30 pm (after evening study hall and just prior to curfew), the martial arts class focuses on Kenpo, a Japanese art form which concentrates on discipline and self-defense. Sensai Joe Champagne, our local instuctor, offered this class during Summer Session 2008 and was met with great enthusiasm from the students who participated. This fall, Sensai Joe offers a class for faculty, children of faculty, and the community, followed by the Oliverian student class. So far, the classes have been well received and continue to grow!