Black Bear Award - John Bianchi

Congratulations to John Bianchi who was given the Black Bear Award at Wednesday's all-school meeting. John is a twelfth grade Alpine athlete who comes to KMS from Hingham, MA. He was nominated for this award by World Language Department co-chair, Claudia Revenko-Bowen for his work with ninth grade K-term students. Claudia and Robert Cavanna have been working with the class on the topic of climate change, focusing on its impact on the snow sports industry. Inspired by a recent guest speaker from the Vermont Folklife Center who worked with some KMS students this fall, showing them how to create vox pops. A vox pop is a tool used in many forms of media to provide a snapshot of public opinion via a short "on the street" type interview. Claudia and Robert decided they wanted the ninth grade students to create vox pops of their own as a final K-term project, and they asked John if he might be willing to come teach the students about them as he'd completed one himself during the women's World Cup event held in Killington this November.

Claudia shared, "John was instrumental this week in teaching our ninth grade K-term students how to create a vox pop for their final project. He not only met with me to plan lessons, but he also volunteered to work with students to help them understand the process from start to finish. He also helped them develop appropriate questions for when they completed their own interviews. It was inspiring to see him teach younger students! He did an incredible job and we look forward to having him back in class again later this week!"

Congratulations, John; thank you for contributing in such a valuable way to the KMS community.