Southington's Flanders School Teachers Are Featured in State Education Videos

The three fourth-grade teachers at Flanders Elementary School have starring roles in a series of training videos recently released by the CT Department of Education. 

Kristen Raposa, Alexandra Grigerek and Rachel Pitino were selected to participate in a training video for the education initiative. 

Patricia Avallone, Consultant to the CT Department of Education, School, Family and Community Partnerships said in a statement, “I knew Flanders was the place to do this project the minute I walked into the building. From the principal, to the front office, to the custodian and the teachers and staff, and especially the students, I witnessed a warm dedicated an energetic group of teachers and leaners. The parents who volunteered to be a part of our video echoed this feeling, and also felt that they were a vital part of the school learning community”.

In the videos, the Flanders teachers model how to share educational data effectively with parents and introduced protocols that outline how teachers and parents can work together to help students develop crucial academic skills.  The programs were recorded in the library at Flanders Elementary and featured several Flanders parents as well.

Judy Carson, Ph.D., School-Family-Community Partnerships Project Manager for the Connecticut State Department of Education said in the statement, “I showed clips from the video at the National Family Engagement Conference in April. Members of the audience said that the teacher-parent relationships they saw clearly focused on student success and that is exactly what they would like to promote in their own schools.”

“We were very impressed with Ms. Raposa, Ms. Grigerek and Ms. Pitino. They did a phenomenal job and we are very pleased with the results”, said Avallone. “Kudos to Pat Mazzarella and her wonderful staff for making this day possible and creating an environment for learning”. The videos will help to educate and inform thousands of teachers throughout Connecticut and other parts of the country.

You can see the videos at the Connecticut Parent School Compant website: http://ctschoolparentcompact.org/learning­