Country Kids Child Care is a new child care program conveniently located at 114 Cross Street in Methuen with easy access to route 93 Pelham Street exit, Route 213, and Route 28 in Salem, New Hampshire. Country Kids Child Care is now enrolling children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age, as well as […]
By: Dani Langevin – December, 2015 I used to love my career. I was proud to be an educator. I woke up every day looking forward to the curriculum I taught, the students I got to inspire, and the colleagues with whom I collaborated. For 20 years I knew I was making a difference in […]
By: D.J. Deeb – December, 2015 November and December are traditionally busy months for school districts. This year too is no exception and there are several things to report on this month in the paragraphs that follow: The City Elections, John & Abigail Adams Scholarship, MHS Band Disney Trip, and the PSATs in Methuen. First […]
By: Ana DeBernardo – December, 2015 The sound of vehicles honking their horns at jaywalkers jolts me from my sleep. The smell of exhaust already suffocates me, barely letting me catch my first breath of the morning. It’s another frigid day in December, and I don’t have a coat or socks, or even shoes without holes. […]
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is due to make a formal recommendation on whether to adopt the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test or to continue with the MCAS test at their meeting on November 17. In the final weeks leading up to the decision, the debate […]
By: Ana DeBernardo – Nov. 2015 It’s a truth universally acknowledged that teenagers all come accompanied by a bad rep. Whether they’re being moody, stubborn, angry, or just plain brats, I’m pretty sure no one would want to be stuck living this age forever. Many people even view the teen years as nothing more than […]
By: Cheryl Hajjar, Nov. 2015 In days past, bullying was somewhat of a norm, or almost even seen as a rite of adolescent passage. Most kids at some point were victims of some sort of bullying whether it be physical, emotional, or a little of both. Today, it is recognized as a serious mental health […]
PERISOCOPE – With the advance of technology, The Valley Patriot is now using a cell phone application called Periscope to do live video interviews online. On Election Day, we were able to get out to Lawrence and Methuen to interview the candidates and some of their supporters. As soon as we got LIVE on the […]
By: Amy Berard – November, 2015 1. How often is the SpEd (Special Education) teacher in the inclusion classroom? At an IEP meeting, parents will be notified if their child is in an inclusion class. A class is labeled as an inclusion class when a SpEd teacher is pushing in to provide extra support for […]
By: Jeff Katz – November, 2015 For those of us with children of a certain age, we hear on a fairly regular basis about what is going right and what is going wrong with our schools. Sometimes, the observations are spot on and on some occasions they could not possibly be more wrong. Of course, […]
Kemal Bozkurt is the first Muslim elected to public office in Lawrence. Bozkurt, the city’s acting library director, ran a sticker campaign for school committee last month as there was not even one candidate on the ballot to fill the seat. Now, Bozkurt is being pressured by members of the city council to either […]
Last month, The Valley Patriot broke three exclusive stories on-line concerning cover-up situations in the Methuen and Lowell Public School systems. First: Lowell High School Headmaster Brian Martin and his administrative staff tried to cover up the fact that Lowell School Committeeman Steve Gendron’s son, Chris, was engaged in racist behavior at school. Gendron’s son […]
By: Al Kaprielian – November 2015 With summer over and fall here, we now look ahead to the winter. In this month’s article, I am going to talk about winter storms and how Meteorologists forecast them. Winter storms can bring snow, sleet, and freezing rain. There is a difference between sleet (ice pellets) and freezing […]
By: Dani Langevin – November, 2015 A study conducted by the America Federation of Teachers in 2013 revealed that U.S. students spent as much as thirty days taking practice tests and/or learning test-taking strategies. Considering how much rhetorical energy is spent by politicians and school administrators about time on learning, how is the time dedicated […]