Sheehan School Core Four Values
Respect and Not Neglect ♦ Voice the Right Choice ♦ Listen, Learn, Try, Ask Why ♦ School Wide Pride
Dear Sheehan Families,
I have some wonderful news to share with you. Last Friday evening, our very own Mrs. Catherine Starsiak was honored at the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers ceremony in Marlborough receiving the Joann Blum Inspiration In Environmental Education Award.
This award honors the memory of Joann Blum, an outstanding and inspirational teacher who encouraged her students and her colleagues to embrace the outdoor environment. The recipient of this award is a teacher who inspires his/her children to see science in the natural world around them. Mrs. Starsiask was the proud 2019 recipient of this award.
In the Spring of 2019, Catherine invited her students to engage in an Earth Day Challenge, “Reduce Landfill Waste.” Mrs. Starsiak’s second-grade students began linking the content in their previous science lessons to other environmental action ideas, realizing their own role in the environment, climate change, and culture. Second graders focused on asking and answering the questions that surrounded an ultimate action plan that would promote the use of our school’s existing, but neglected 3-bin composter system. They hoped that this would ultimately decrease their own landfill waste. Through class discussion, research, fieldwork, letter writing, and ultimately a face to face meeting with the stakeholders, students planned and carried out their investigation from the ground up. The students anticipated the questions that stakeholders would have about composting at school and used science journals to track progress towards their goal. In the end, their work ignited a firestorm!! The students realized the impact that composting could have on their environment and demanded that it be done on a grander scale. Due to their efforts and research as well as with the help of grant funding, all 5 elementary schools in Westwood have begun a compost pickup for lunch waste this school year! Thank you Mrs. Starsiak for your passion around teaching and for showing your students that they can have such a positive impact on their environment.
Congratulations to Mrs. Starsiak and to her 2019 Grade 2 classroom.
On behalf of the entire Sheehan community, we wish all families a beautiful holiday season.
Kristen Evans
