Forest Hills High School - Forester Yearbook (Sidman, PA)

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Joanne Smay. Joanna Met . Don Salsgivcr, and Ia rena Penrod work on an arts and crafts Christmas project, which is a Christmas tree plaque made from eg}? cartons This project, begun in class, was completed during free time. Stressing the pre-vocational aspect of special education. Richard Pasierb explains to his class the importance of proper procedure in job application. Individuality Stressed In the special education department the program is basically the same as other departments. It is geared to each person s ability and background and is covered in a slow, non-pressured pace to insure that suf- ficient time is available for each student to receive enough attention and help to meet his needs. “In their program, students are presented a ‘prevocational curriculum designed to give them the basic tools to attend vocational and occupational programs at Portage (boys) and Ebensburg (girls).’ (Mr. Richard Pasierb) 19

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Aides Allotted More Time In order to relieve teachers of some routine chores and give them more time for actual teaching, the administration allotted more hours to teacher aides. With the added time, aides took on new responsibilities by actually assisting teachers in class work, such as helping with lab work. Working in the micro-lab was very different from my regular duties but I enjoyed the classroom work (Betty Smith) Other duties included typing and correcting tests, mimeographing, li- brary work. Xeroxing etc. The teacher aid program is the largest activity of the ESEA Title 1 Program. Checking library cards for overdue books is Mr. Wilma Beveridge, a teacher aide. Teacher aide Mrs. Betty Smith spends much of her time checking attendance records. Mrs. Wilma Owens waits for the copy machine to produce a book report requested by an English teacher. She often works as cashier at cafeteria. Looking through the library- files for a list of non-fiction material are teacher aides Kathy Gordon and Mrs. Twila Grattan who work part time 18

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Language Arts Department Initiates Mini-course Program Spurred by the weakness of the traditional approach to language arts, the English department, after extensive research and revision, initiated a mini-course program. Flexibility in scheduling, freedom in selection of materials, and teacher preference in staffing characterized the program. In the mini-course structure the students experienced more freedom. The number and variety of courses offered increased to as many as twenty-five and varied from Seman- tics to Broadway Musicals. Once the students satisfied a limited number of requirements, he was free to select courses of his own interest taught by a teacher who chose to teach them. In short, the program matched student interest and ability with teacher preference. For the first time seniors, juniors and sophomores were put together in a classroom. There were those who felt the sophomores could not compete with the upperclassmen, but others felt differently. “Stu- dent performance is independently achieved; it doesn’t make a signifi- cant difference in the long run. (Mr. Henry Polasko) In a survey it was found that most students felt the change was for the better. The change of teachers every six weeks was perhaps the greatest reason for liking the mini- courses. “It was great not to be stuck with the same teacher all year—this could be quite a drag. (John Moore) At open house David Knepper explains the basic concepts of the English mini-course program in talking to a concerned parent. Mrs. June Seese. 20