Let Me Introduce Myself
November 7th, 2007Nancy M. Mark
Welcome to my BLOG:
I’m proud to serve as the principal of the Mettawee Community School. I moved to Vermont with my family over 25 years ago from Southern California and have been an elementary principal for the past twenty years. I was Principal of the Pawlet Schools for the 10 years prior to forming the Mettawee Community School with neighboring Rupert and have been Mettawee’s principal for the ten-year history of the union of Pawlet and Rupert, The Mettawee Community School. It has been an honor to be chosen to lead the new Mettawee Community School and to be able to help design our wonderful school building.
I love coming to school each day and treasure the special culture of our school where everyone is supported and encouraged to do their best, where parents, community members and teachers team together in support of our students and where respect and care prevail. Our school is committed to the philosophy and practices of the Responsive Classroom and we all benefit from traditions such as Morning Meetings, All-School Meeting, “Buddy Classes,” Multi-aged Advisories and a culture of positive, welcoming, warm relationships.
We are equally committed to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory and work hard to put Gardener’s provocative ideas into action. This is one of the reasons why our school is so strongly dedicated to programming in the arts. Our hallways are graced with beautiful examples of our students’ artwork and we love performing music at concerts and meetings. In addition all students in grades 1-6 have the opportunity to take violin lessons at no charge with generous sponsorship from a community benefactor. Each year we have a tradition of staging at least two very ambitious musical performances. Our holiday musical in December involves every single student in our prekindergaraten through sixth grade school. This year we are performing the “Wizard of Oz” as a revival of the same play performed ten years ago. Previously we’ve done “Peter Pan,” “Oliver,” “Annie,” and many other large-cast classics. Towards the end of the school year, our sixth graders do a play themselves. Even though the class might have only 30 students, they still do an outstanding job presenting challenging material. Recent sixth grade plays have included two Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, “Pirates of Penzance” and “HMS Pinafore.”
Our teachers and staff are dedicated and devoted and have pledged themselves to continue to find ways to serve all our students. Through engagement with rigorous professional development such as The Vermont Math Partnership, The Vermont Reads Institute and Lesley College’s Literacy for All, we work to ensure that we are helping each child reach his full potential.
As for me, I am a resident of Castleton, Vermont and have a B.A. in English Literature from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Education Administration from Castleton State College.
In the year 2000 our entire school community shared the excitement of my award as the Vermont Elementary School Principal of the Year. I have included the picture taken at the recognition ceremony at the Vermont State House surrounded by my husband, friends and colleagues.
