The International & ESOL office has officially moved to its new location at the Northside Library! The International & ESOL Welcome Center welcomes new international families to our schools and programs, registers families for school, provides language interpreters and translation services, and facilitates professional learning. You can assist us with spreading the word about our new location by sharing this flyer with families who come in contact with or ask about our office. We always recommend that families call our Welcome Center (434-296-6517) prior to dropping by, since staff may be out at schools or assisting other families.
Author Archives: Division Compass
benefitsFOCUS: BE informed about coming benefits options and BE ready for Open Enrollment in August!
What’s the BIG news?
Effective October 1, 2016, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield will partner with Albemarle County and Albemarle County Public Schools to provide medical, prescription drug and dental benefits coverage for our covered members. With Anthem, you will have access to a nationwide PPO network and see greatly enhanced member services (including educational tools like videos, web-based cost comparison tools, mobile apps and online physician consultations—giving members 24-hour a day access to a physician at one low flat fee). We’re very excited about this change and look forward to introducing you to your new Anthem benefits in the coming weeks! Continue reading
Policy Updates: May & June 2016
Albemarle County Public Schools maintains over 600 policies. Our policies are locally developed through our work with the Virginia School Boards Association and they are tied to Virginia Code. Several are locally developed. Our policies translate our core values of excellence, young people, community and respect into the backbone of our daily operations and aspirations for students. You can stay up-to-date on policy revisions, additions and deletions through the ACPS website! View the May & June 2016 policy updates (ACPS login required).
Two Days Left to Donate Items for WV Flood Victims
The Jefferson Area Motor Squad is collecting donations for the victims of the recent devastating flooding in West Virginia. Drop-off locations have been established throughout the County to collect supplies. Items will be collected through Thursday, July 7, at which time members from the squad will deliver the aids to West Virginia to be distributed.
Donation boxes will be set up in the following locations until July 7, 2016: Continue reading
Paper Paystubs Will Soon Be a Thing of the Past
Albemarle County local government and schools have considered the efficiencies and savings of transitioning away from paper paystubs to online paystubs. Albemarle County already provides every employee with online (paperless) paystubs through a secure website (Greenshades), and effective August 31, 2016, paper paystubs will no longer be distributed. Learn more »
Summer Compressed Work Week: ACPS Procedure Brief
Policy Reference GCA, Personnel Definitions
School and central office staff may institute a compressed work week for the dates ranging from June 20 through July 22, 2016. A compressed work week gives us the benefit of an extra day off by allowing employees to work the usual number of hours in fewer days per week. Our work week is defined as a 40-hour work week. We propose that, during the work weeks in the range here defined, employees working during the summer may work four 10-hour days each week and have a three-day weekend. Continue reading
To Help Kids Thrive, Coach Their Parents
In 1986, in a few of the poorest neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica, a team of researchers from the University of the West Indies embarked on an experiment that has done a great deal, over time, to change our thinking about how to help children succeed, especially those living in poverty. Its message: Help children by supporting and coaching their parents. Keep reading in The New York Times »
The Jamaica experiment helps make the case that if we want to improve children’s opportunities for success, one of the most powerful potential levers for change is not the children themselves, but rather the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of the adults who surround them.
Trigonometry Miniature Golf
Cutting wood with a band saw is just plain fun. I have not found a trigonometry student yet who disagrees. This is one of the reasons that I have built the Trigonometry Miniature Golf project into my Trigonometry curriculum. Read more in Mathematics Teacher (MT), an official journal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics »
Author Tim Hickey is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and the math department chair at Monticello High School.
Toshiba America Foundation Wants to Help Teachers Make Math & Science More Engaging
Toshiba wants to provide K-12 teachers with additional funds to increase student engagement in math or science instruction:
Applications for grades 6-12 for grants less than $5,000 are accepted anytime. For requests of more than $5,000, deadlines are February 1 and August 1. Learn how to apply »
K-5 teachers are invited to apply for a $1,000 grant to help bring an innovative hands-on project into their classroom. Applications are due on October 1 each year. Learn how to apply »
Brooklyn Elementary School Creates Test Alternative to Assess Students
The Brooklyn New School, a progressive lottery-based elementary school in Carroll Gardens, has taken a stance against the state’s standardized math and English tests: Roughly 95 percent of its families opted out this year.
While the school — which is one of the city’s most sought after — has made clear that it opposes standardized tests, it’s now working on clarifying what it supports when it comes to measuring student progress, principal Anna Allanbrook said. Keep reading in DNAinfo »