Each month, eSchool News compiles a list of the most current education grants expiring soon. This month’s grants are all relevant to research and STEM teaching and learning. Don’t miss out on these funding opportunities for teachers, students, parents, and administrators! Continue reading
Superintendent Blogs About Veterans Day
On Veterans Day, I am reminded to be thankful for the many citizens, mostly while still young adults, who have chosen to serve in U.S. military service over eight generations spanning the centuries since the American Revolution. I grew up in a family of “citizen soldiers” who served our nation on behalf of us all. My mother, ninety-three years and counting, served in Naval Intelligence in World War II. She once commented that it was the best work of her life, a time when she felt a sense of mission that was bigger than her or any other person who served with her. Read more of the Superintendent’s Veterans Day 2014 blog post »
TEDx Charlottesville: Complimentary Scholastic Outreach Tickets Available!
The 2nd annual TEDx Charlottesville event will be held this Friday, November 14, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at The Paramount Theater. Though the website says tickets are sold out, the TEDx Committee is offering COMPLIMENTARY scholastic outreach tickets to active students and educators in our community, available on a first-come, first-served basis! Visit the TEDx Charlottesville website to view the schedule and learn about the speakers, including Western Albemarle High School senior, Jack Marcus.
Interested in attending? Please contact Cathy von Storch, Education Coordinator, The Paramount Theater, at 434-293-1000 or catherinevonstorch@theparamount.net.
Additional Holiday Leave Granted to 12-Month Employees
At their November 6, 2014 meeting, the Albemarle County School Board voted to grant additional holiday leave to 12-month employees as follows: Close at Noon on Wednesday, November 26; close on January 2; and grant one floating holiday to be used by January 31.
Enjoy the extra time—you certainly have earned it!
Unique & FREE PD Opportunity for Teachers Next Weekend: Startup Weekend EDU
Classroom innovation has become foundational to our work as educators and it has been an important contributor to our success as one of the highest performing school divisions in Virginia. Next weekend, November 14-16, there is a special event at Monticello High School that promises to build upon these accomplishments. Startup Weekend EDU and Hardware Hackathon Charlottesville brings together students, pre-K to college educators, designers, computer programmers, engineers, and entrepreneurs, all around the goal of transforming ideas for improving education from concept to prototype. Continue reading
Making Connections: Feedback Requested by Nov. 14
The 2014 Making Connections Planning Team hopes your day this past Monday was full of energized learning and that you walked away with new connections and ideas! Please help us make future events and professional learning opportunities even more engaging and useful to you by taking a few minutes to complete our short “Making Reflections” exit slip. Please provide feedback by Friday, November 14! Thanks in advance.
Just Launched: New ACPS Digital Citizen Website!
Are you looking to provide your students with meaningful and age appropriate learning experiences about how to use technology safely and responsibly? Would you like a great resource to recommend to parents and guardians when they ask questions about how to best facilitate their children’s interaction with digital media and use of technology outside of school? Access our division’s new Digital Citizenship website and find answers to these questions and more. Continue reading
Policy Updates: September & October 2014
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 September & October 2014 policy updates (ACPS user name and password required).
Thinking About Applying for PDRP Funds?
The professional development budget was cut approximately $32,000 for 2014-15 over the 2013-14 budget. This has been difficult to accommodate given the volume of professional development done this summer and the discontinuation of the Safe Schools grant. The Professional Development Reimbursement Program (PDRP) is funded at $72,000 (roughly $60/teacher/year), and those funds are split across two “semesters,” July 1 – December 31 and January 1 – June30. The PD team has been able to supplement this funding in past years with monies not spent in other categories, like Opportunities workshops, Making Connections, New Teacher Academy, etc., but those are the areas from which the $32,000 in cuts came.
In an effort to remain under budget while also managing teacher expectations, we updated the PDRP website to indicate, “We will be instituting the priorities during this window of PDRP applications.” Continue reading
Free “Minecraft in the Classroom” Webinar Tonight at 7!
The Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) is offering a FREE “Minecraft in the Classroom” Webinar TONIGHT, November 3, at 7!
Join us to hear from educators who are using Minecraft with elementary students in engaging and exciting ways. They will discuss how they are using it as well as logistical issues related to implementation. Continue reading