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MassPIRG held a sock drive, during which students purchased socks, mittens, and hats for $1 to donate to the Louison House, a regional homeless and transitional shelter. Students also hosted a Hunger Banquet, during which students and members of the public played roles to experience various levels of poverty.
“The goal is to show that poverty does exist, but there are ways to change it,” said Melissa Bruhn, the MassPIRG organizer at MCLA.
The College also invited Louison House Director Paul Gadge to speak with students about poverty. MCLA students volunteered with the Berkshire Food Project to prepare a free Thanksgiving dinner for the North Adams community. Several surrounding restaurants donated food for the meal. The Zombie Walk for Hunger on Halloween, where students dressed as zombies and walked around North Adams as part of MassPIRG’s campaign against Hunger and Homelessness, was the organization’s largest event during the fall semester.
“The students who came were very enthusiastic,” said Bruhn.
Public Interest Research Groups are independent statewide student organizations that work on a variety of issues. MassPIRG volunteers devote much of their time at MCLA to hunger and homelessness and zero-waste efforts.
“Last year, the Student Government Association (SGA) was looking for volunteers around Thanksgiving, so I decided to give it a go,” said Krason, who serves as the public relations chair for SGA. Krason walks from MCLA’s campus to the Berkshire Food Project’s home at the First Congregational Church one day each week. She arrives by 9 a.m. to prepare the daily meal. She also helps serve the meal at noon and stays after to help clean dishes.
“Volunteering makes me appreciate what I have a lot more,” Krason said. “I don’t take what I have right now for granted,” she continued. “I’m more respectful and tolerant of people now. I’m not so quick to judge.”
Krason is so invested in her volunteer work that she reached out to other MCLA clubs and organizations and her fellow SGA members to recruit more volunteers for the Food Project.
“I send out a sign-up sheet at SGA trying to get people to jump on the bandwagon,” she said. Currently, three other SGA members regularly volunteer their time with Krason.
The Berkshire Food Project was started in 1986 by a group of Williams College students looking to create a regular free-lunch program in North Adams. On average, the Berkshire Food Project provides 13,000 free meals per week to the community at the First Congregational Church.
The program offers the following courses: GED Preparation, Pre-College Skills, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and Basic Skills.
The Basic Computer Skills class is available to all students enrolled in at least one other class.
New courses include Next Steps, a class to help students plan for post-secondary education and career goals; and GED Fast Track, a 12-week test preparation course.
All classes, books, and materials are free for enrolled students.
NORTH ADAMS, MA—Pearson Higher Education recently published Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Primer for K-12 Teachers by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Education Professor Roselle K. Chartock.
The textbook, which draws on Dr. Chartock’s 43 years of experience as a high school teacher and college professor, helps educators talk to young people about diversity, social justice, and building community.
“There is a fear of difference in our society, and I think education is the only way you can get across the realities that those fears are really unwarranted,” she says.
Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching includes 40 lesson plans on diversity, building community, teaching students who speak English as a second language, honoring students’ cultural backgrounds, and other subjects.
For example, says Dr. Chartock, social justice themes can be added to a math lesson by examining the percentages of ethnic groups in a city. She worked on the book for four years.
“This is an important book, and it showcases Roselle’s passion for culturally responsive~teaching and her experience as an educator,” says Dr. Cynthia Brown, vice president for Academic Affairs at MCLA. “She is a distinguished member of our faculty and community, as well as an active researcher and scholar.”
Before joining the faculty at MCLA 23 years ago, Dr. Chartock was a teacher at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington. She says teachers sometimes see students from another culture as a challenge in the classroom rather than an opportunity.
“It’s a very complex topic,” she says, but it often comes down to how teachers relate to their students.
In her classes at MCLA, for example, Dr. Chartock gives her students questionnaires so she can better understand their academic needs. “I feel like I know them, not only to learn their names but to connect,” she says. “Students talk about their interests and their classmates see them as individuals. Students respond to that.”
The book also helps educators become aware of their own prejudices and attitudes and offers different perspectives.
“We can change attitudes,” she says. “If you can change the thinking early, you can have the population that realizes how destructive prejudice is.”
Dr. Chartock says educators need to respects students’ commonalities and differences with regard to language, gender, ability, and culture.
“Every teacher should teach in a way that recognizes those contradictions,” she says. “When they teach with a one-size-fits-all attitude, they’re not doing their job.”
Each chapter of Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching includes art by people with disabilities who participate in the Community Access to the Arts (CATA) program in Great Barrington.
“There are not a lot of books like this, and I know it will play an important role in helping educators and their students succeed in today’s complex classrooms,” says Dr. Ellen Barber, chair of the Education Department at MCLA. “The whole department is very excited to read and use this work.”
Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching is Dr. Chartock’s third book. She is currently doing research for her next book, a study of the former Windsor Mountain School in Lenox, a pioneering multicultural boarding school.
Dr. Chartock grew up in Hudson, NY, and earned her undergraduate degree from Skidmore College, her master’s degree from Hunter College, and her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts.
A community outreach collaboration BCC Players and “VOICES” Theatre Company presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens a staged reading and holiday sing-a-long adapted and directed by Sally Filkins co-directed by Judy McNutt -featuring-
Charlie Wright (Ebenezer Scrooge) Judy McNutt (Main Caroler and Narrator) Sally Filkins (A Narrator) Marie Allocca (A Narrator/Mrs. Fezziwig/Mrs. Cratchit/A Businesswoman) Diedre Devere Bollinger (Jacob Marley/Ghost of Christmas Past/Nephew Fred/Laundress/+) Jeremy Gray (Bob Cratchit/Schoolboy Scrooge/Young Scrooge) Dana Grieb (Fan/Ghost of Christmas Present/A Businesswoman/Undertaker’s Man) Tia Marie MacQuesten (A Businesswoman/Belle/Martha Cratchit/Fred’s Wife/Old Joe/Lass) Alex Martinez (Tiny Tim/Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come) Jane Skorput (Mr.Fezziwig/A Cratchit Child/Charwoman)
Sunday, December 20 at 2pm Main Street Stage, 57 Main St. North Adams
…for a local child needing the brightest blessings… All proceeds benefit an 11-month-old diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. His parents have been forced into unemployment to attend him. MassHealth repeatedly denied coverage for tests to determine if the tumor was cancerous, content to wait and see if the baby got sicker, a decision that has made it hard to obtain appropriate care, and to connect this young North Adams family with community networks that might be of aid. Desperate, with no recourse but to have paid for the biopsy on credit cards, they learned this is a fast-growing cancer on the brain stem. The need for support is dire. Please help us raise money for this cause.
Tickets with BCC’s Student Life: 413-236-1660 or at-the-door
Pay-what-you-can. No one is turned away for lack of money. Suggested donation $5.00. Tax deductible checks may be made payable to “Compassionate Care Trust” 230 Mohawk Forest North Adams, MA 01247
North Adams, MA - Volunteers are needed to help with the 2010 Bay State Winter Games January 22-24. Call Dale Waterman at 413.663.8111 or Brittany Rheault at 781.932.6555 or e-mail [email protected]
North Adams, MA - A reading of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” will be presented free at Western Gateway Heritage State Park on Saturday, December 19 at 4 pm. On Sunday, December 20 at 4 pm, enjoy a presentation of the Winter Solstice Astronomy Sky Theater. Call 413.663.6312 for information.
North Adams, MA - Performing on Friday, December 18 beginning at 10 pm, Harbor Grace brings a blend of melodic hard rock to the stage at the Alley, 23 Eagle Street. Call 413.662.2223.
North Adams, MA - The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition is seeking community minded individuals to take part in a Community Outreach Initiative. No prior education or experience necessary. Send resumes no later than December 30th to 61 Main Street Suite 218, North Adams, MA 01247 or email to [email protected]
North Adams, MA - Taylor's Steak and Seafood is hosting an Open House Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 23 from 5:30-7:30 pm and everyone is invited for a complimentary hors d'oeuvres buffet. Located at 34 Holden Street, call 413.664.4500, [email protected]
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