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Volume 5 | May 2017

Your monthly news & updates

Upcoming Events

This year’s golf outing has special significance. FORE! the kids has grown to become Pathway’s largest fund-raising event, and we are proud to share that this year marks the 20th time the great game of golf has been used to advance our program. The combination of athletic prowess, confidence, friendship and generosity gathered together by foursomes over the past 19 years represents a force that is impressive. Rain or shine, the collective philanthropic dedication has generated over $1 million!

Link to Additional Resources

The Pathway Player's Present:

A Year With Frog and Toad is a musical written by brothers Robert (music) and Willie Reale (book and lyrics), based on the Frog and Toad children's stories written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel . The musical follows the woodland adventures of two amphibious friends, a worrywart toad and a perky frog, with their assorted colorful hopping, crawling and flying companions, over the course of a year.

When: May 23rd @ 10:30 am & 1:15pm

May 24th @ 1:15pm & 6:00pm

Where: The Pathway School SALC Library

Staff and Scholar Spotlight

For over 8 years Dionne Small has supported Pathway in a variety of ways, including teacher assistance in the classroom, the liaison in the education office for school districts and staff and now helps welcome new scholars and families to Pathway as the Admissions Associate! With her vast experience within the organization, Dionne is able to connect with scholars and families and share with them Pathway’s success as a leader in the field of special education!

Thank you Dionne for supporting scholars, families and Pathway!

Big congratulations can go to Kahmal for completing his project that places him on the Progress Level in Pathway’s Emotional Support Program. In order to reach this level Kahmal was required to complete a community service project. His love of sports and especially basketball drove him to raise money for Pathway’s Physical Education Program. He surpassed his goal of $60.00 and raised $64.49 and his donation included two basketballs and one football! Kahmal encouraged his classmates to contribute by offering an ice cream party to the class that helped raise the most money. Ms. Lockwood’s class enjoyed this delicious ending to Kahmal’s project.

Kahmal summarized his efforts by developing a Power Point presentation and invited his class and Pathway’s administrative team to hear his story of success. He demonstrated gratitude to his teacher, Ms. Grant and his mentor, Ms. Long who were both very proud of his accomplishment. After his presentation and high fives all around, Kahmal and his class enjoyed a game of…basketball!

Kindness Challenge Sweeps Across Campus!

Upper School teacher, Jenifer Green, would always recognize and praise scholars who went out of their way to show kindness. While Ms. Green would see other teachers doing the same, she thought of a way to additionally reinforce kindness toward others by creating a “Kindness Challenge” for scholars in her Social Skills class. Starting on March 6th through April 7th every staff on campus was asked to take notice if witnessing a scholar displaying an act of kindness to a peer, teacher, administrator, support staff or those in the community during off campus trips.

Each scholar participating had a punch card. As the acts of kindness occurred, staff on campus offered praise and initialed the scholars's card. The goal was to encourage scholars to lead by positive example and inspire others with kindness. Cards were turned in daily and after the first two weeks of the challenge Ms. Green announced the three scholars leading the challenge, so everyone could congratulate them. The scholars were then further challenged as the weeks progressed to sit with someone they do not typically sit with during lunch and be their “buddy” at lunch for the week. They were encouraged to find something in common with a peer they do not typically socialize with by using a questionnaire.

The class eagerly participated in all of the challenges and at the end of the 5th week the scholars were rewarded with a pizza party and abundant high fives. In addition, the first, second and third place winners were rewarded with gift cards to Walmart.

Congratulations to the Kindness Challenge winners:

3rd Place: Aronde Smith

2nd Place: Dakota Diggs

1st Place: James Speaks

As the project came to a close, the scholars did a reflection writing assignment, on how the challenge changed them for the better and agreed to “pay it forward” from the end of the challenge until June.

Ms. Green said, “I am so proud of these kids! They really did an amazing job with this challenge, and even had random students, not in their social skills class, join in. These students decided to be kind, just because they can.”

Cooking with Mrs. Bleiman!

Alumni parent, Harriet Bleiman, met the scholars in Ms. Ziegler’s class in February during Pathway’s “Read Across America Celebration”. Everyone enjoyed the experience so much that a date was set for Mrs. Bleiman to return and lead a cooking class. On April 5th eight scholars had the privilege of learning how to make potato latkes. The class enthusiastically participated in the entire process to include set up, preparation, tasty enjoyment and clean up. As everyone was engaged in the cooking process, Mrs. Bleiman shared the story of Passover to the class and the history behind consuming unleavened bread during this holiday.

Many of the scholars had never tried potato latkes and those that have had them in the past were so excited to know how to make them at home! Thank you, Mrs. Bleiman, for sharing your time your knowledge and your cooking expertise!

Project-based Learning in Ms. Marzewski’s class!

Did you know that millions of children in Sudan are forced to walk up to 8 hours a day just to find clean water? Scholars in Ms. Marzewski’s class are currently working on a reading project based on the novel, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. The novel is a true story of two young children living in Sudan. The two children, a boy and a girl, do not know each other and their stories are years apart. Both characters’ stories take place in the war-torn African country and highlight their struggles to find clean water. Near the end of the novel, both characters are adults and they meet each other. Joyfully, one of the characters shares that they have developed a foundation that is dedicated to building wells in Sudan so that one day children will no longer need to walk 8 miles to find clean water for their families.

Each day, Ms. Marzewski’s scholars read a chapter and complete a part of a slideshow to explain the development of the novel. They are also working to create a presentation for all Pathway classes that may inspire others to join them in raising money to give to the Foundation and help to build more wells in Africa. They have named this fundraising effort “Penny Wars” and they hope to wage a war to meet this need and challenge each class to battle with them towards this noble goal.

Pathway Welcomes Kindergarten Scholars!

We are excited to announce that we have officially opened the Pathway Kindergarten Program and in April welcomed three young scholars to our campus! We are not sure who was more excited to get started, the students or their teacher, Ms. Morgan Stewart! In addition to enjoying their newly appointed room in the building known as Audubon, they enjoyed a hike on the campus walking trail and gathered on the outdoor observation deck and enjoyed nature.

They wasted no time getting to know one another and understanding the expectations of the classroom! We are looking forward to seeing each of these scholars grow in knowledge and size!

What a Night!

On Friday April 28th the Pathway students danced the night away at the prom! This years theme for the prom was All that Glitters is Gold! Thank you Hilton Garden Inn Valley Forge/Oaks for hosting us.