Dear Parents and Students of Grades 5-8,

          The Saint Johnsbury School has been awarded a grant from the State of Vermont Department for Children and Family Services to implement The Saturday Project-Based Learning Program. The Saturday Project-Based Learning Program will organize learning around projects that are complex, based on challenging questions or problems, and involve students in problem-solving decision making or investigative activities.

            The Saturday Project-Based Learning Program will be offered in “modules” that will last from 3-6 Saturdays in length. Each class will be four hours long. There will be no more than 12 students per facilitator or 24 students with two facilitators. Breakfast or lunch will be provided at each session.

            There will be a diverse offering of modules throughout the year. We are currently working on organizing a gaming module where students design their own video games. We are also working on a module where students will learn about healthy eating and living and then make some healthy meals. In the winter there will be a theatre arts module. As the year progresses we will continue to add new programs.

Parents and students will need to sign a contract that commits the student to attending all of the Saturday sessions in the module. The project learning will be very focused and missing one class may have serious impact on the final project. There will be a variety of offerings throughout the school year. 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at lercole@stjsd.org or check out the school website for Saturday School at http://www.stjsd.org/students/saturday_school/. 

Looking forward to some exciting weekends,

Leslie K. Ercole

Director, Saturday Project-Based Learning Program