Love Via Dance Machine Performs at Saxe MS

An up-and-coming boy band with local connections landed in New Canaan last week to appear at RamStock battle of the bands.

Love Via Dance Machine, the up-and-coming boy band made up of Wiley Eston, Jimmy Coberly, Alex Badanes, and Izaiah Yelle performed at Saxe Middle School on Thursday night as guests at the RamStock battle of the bands. For New Canaan native Badanes, it was more than another gig, it was a chance to return to his old middle school. “We were on a high school tour, this is our last stop for a week and then we’re doing a run of middle schools,” Badanes said. “It’s cool, we reach a lot of people who may not have heard our music. Then we have fans who already know us and think it’s cool that we’re playing at their school.” The four met their first year at Berklee College of Music — Badanes hailing from New Canaan, Eston from Redding, Coberly from …

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Connecticut Slips in Science Proficiency Ranking

35 percent of Connecticut eighth grade students reached proficiency in the subject in 2011 — the same percentage that reached proficiency in 2009 — however since then numerous other states have beefed-up their science programs.

As Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy prepares to sign the state's new education reform bill into law, a report from The National Center for Education Statistics shows that the state has dropped in the rankings for science proficiency. According to the report (see attached PDF), 35 percent of Connecticut eight grade students reached proficiency in the subject in 2011 — the same percentage that reached proficiency in 2009 — however since then numerous other states have beefed-up their science programs. As a result seven states have pushed ahead of Connecticut in the national ranking, according to the report. The report notes that although Connecticut has slipped in the rankings, its student proficiency rate in science is higher than the …

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Legislature Approves Education Reform Bill

The reform bill now goes to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for his signature.

  The Connecticut House of Representatives unanimously approved the education reform bill Tuesday night, after the state Senate approved the lengthy bill early Tuesday morning. The legislation is viewed as a compromise of sorts and ends months of controversy between Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Connecticut Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.  Malloy has pledged to sign the bill into law.  "I can say, with confidence, that this bill will allow us to begin fixing what is broken in our public schools," Malloy said during a hastily assembled press conference late Monday evening at the state Capitol to announce the agreement.  The state Senate then huddled in chambers for the better part of the night Monday into Tuesday …

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New Canaan High School Ranked 15th Best in the State

U.S. News and World Report's 2012 Best High Schools list ranks schools based on student performance on standardized tests as well as student participation in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs.

New Canaan High School is the fifteenth best high school in Connecticut and the 526th best in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report's 2012 Best High Schools ranking. The annual list ranks schools based on student performance on standardized tests as well as student participation in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Since 2009 the list has been expanded from 1,800 to 22,000 high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia (Nebraska did not report enough data to be included in this year's rankings), U.S. News reports. U.S. News says it partnered with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research in developing the ranking methodology. In addition U.S. News awarded more …

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Four Jacks

1:09 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012

Sorry to disagree with you ConcerndNCMOM. For example, today is the AP English exam. Some students of a certain AP teacher are going to spend the 4 hours drawing pictures because they have learned that the credits will not be accepted for college. The main reason that the students take the AP tests is because they won't get a weighted grade for the class if they don't take the test. Therefore, …   more ›

AIDS Researcher Delivers Keynote at UConn Graduate Commencement

The graduates, most of whom came from the university’s business school or teaching program, spanned a range of ages, interests, degrees and career goals.

[Editor's Note: This article was originally published on Farmington Patch:] Hundreds of University of Connecticut graduate students were presented with diplomas at the university’s graduate commencement Saturday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion. The graduates, most of whom came from the university’s business school or teaching program, spanned a range of ages, interests, degrees and career goals. While many of the students enrolled in their post-graduate programs right after getting their bachelor's degrees, many, including Edilia Mora, postponed their advanced degrees. “It’s just wonderful,” said Mora, who got her master's degree in business administration. “I actually stopped when I had my baby, so this was a goal for me.” At the ceremony, …

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Saxe Middle School Students Release Classroom Trout

The middle schoolers have cared for the growing fish as part of the Trout in the Classroom initiative since November and, on Monday afternoon, they were released into the Silvermine River.

For fifteen years, the Mianus Chapter of Trout Unlimited has supported Trout in the Classroom, a hands-on learning program that gets children engaged in the process of raising trout. "Teachers built it into the curriculum for their students," Dick O’Neill, Trout in the Classroom coordinator, said. "Each teacher puts their own spin on it." Schools begin preparing their tanks in the fall and 200 fertilized trout eggs arrive at each site in November where they hatch after two to three weeks. “It was my first year so I didn’t know how involved the kids would get, but they loved it,” Christen Veach, sixth grade science teacher at Saxe Middle School said. “In life science, we have an example, we can talk about this species in particular — why we…

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Sheryl Shaker

11:02 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012

What a great project! Just curious...why is there a trout shortage in Connecticut?   more ›

Over the Fence: New Canaan

NJ Dad on YouTube: Teachers Bullied My Autistic Son

Detailing the abuses of classroom aides he says made his disabled son's school life "a living hell," Cherry Hill, NJ, resident Stuart Chaifetz took his case public—with audio he captured secretly.

A Cherry Hill, NJ, father who says his autistic son was tormented for at least six months by public-school special education teachers and support staff has taken his case viral with damning, covertly gathered audio of the classroom in which he says his son was abused. In a 17-minute video, titled "Teacher/Bully: How My Son Was Humiliated and Tormented by his Teacher and Aide," Stuart Chaifetz replays portions of audio he attributes to "Kelly" and "Jodi," whom he says are his son Akian's former special education and resource teachers. The voices in the recording tell 10-year-old Akian that he is "such a bastard," order him to "shut [his] mouth," and antagonize him by telling him "no" when he asks for reassurances that he will see his father…

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