Friday, May 17, 2013
Fairfax County School Board will hold listening sessions next week to help develop a strategic plan for digital learning.
Teachers, students and parents in Fairfax County didn't have the smoothest experience with digital learning in 2012-2013. As Fairfax County Public Schools rolled out a new online math program in Fall 2012, students and teachers complained they had difficulty navigating the books, saying there were publisher errors and inconsistencies, technology roadblocks and student difficulty in accessing the information, among other complaints, like a lack of teacher buy-in to the program. They said the program, instead of advancing learning and achievement, was pushing it back, calling the $10.4 million initiative "a big disaster" with no clear solution. The short-term solution was to re-negotiate contracts to get some hard copy books back in the …
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The early education program helps prepare students for K-12 education, but more than 800 are waiting for services.
Lillian Hill’s Head Start classroom at Camelot Elementary School in Annandale is bustling and filled with kids the Friday before Mother’s Day. Hill teaches 16 kids -- a full classroom. Head Start has 89 classrooms across 62 Fairfax County elementary schools, but it's not enough to meet the demand. The program is at capacity but a lack of funds for expansion, partly because of sequestration, means 800 children will stay on a waiting list for Head Start, leaving them less prepared than their peers to enter kindergarten and to learn. The White House estimates that because of the sequester, 70,000 children nationally who would have been served by Head Start will not have access to the program by the end of the year. On this day in Hill's …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Teacher pay and foreign language cutbacks are also concerns as Fairfax County School Board looks for another $30 million in reductions for next year's budget.
If push came to shove, Jane Lipp would give her right kidney to keep an instructional coach at her school. The principal of South County High School, which has a 49 percent minority population, said that's the kind of sacrifice she'd make, drama aside, to keep a position that's been 'instrumental" in helping her teachers push the school's diverse student body to succeed. More than a dozen of the 40 speakers who addressed the school board Tuesday night in a public hearing about Fairfax County Public Schools' budget spoke about the role coaches play in the day to day lives of teachers and students, including their help toward narrowing student achievement gaps. The public hearing comes as the school board prepares to adopt a $2.5 billion …
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
District Tournament started at Mount Vernon High School.
UPDATE: The Majors won their game Tuesday night, 23 to 2 against Falls Church High School. Way to go! --- The Mount Vernon Majors girls softball team will host the district tournament Tuesday night beginning at 6 p.m. at Mount Vernon High School, 8515 Old Mount Vernon Road. They'll be playing Falls Church High School. Go Majors! See you at the game!
38.726039
-77.094519
Mount Vernon High School
8515 Old Mount Vernon Rd, Alexandria, VA
/articles/photo-mount-vernon-majors-girls-softball-at-6-p-m-tuesday
1430684
/locations/9389111
For anyone in the neighborhood who was wondering what happened last week.
Last Friday, Washington Mill Elementary, 9100 Cherry Tree Dr., was briefly in lockdown because of police activity outside the building, according to a letter (see full letter, PDF) that went home to parents from the principal. A 25-year-old wanted man tried to run away from authorities when confronted by officers, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. The incident was reported at 10 a.m. Friday on the 4400 block of Blyth Place in Mount Vernon. Police said that they had tried to apprehend Donnie White, of Alexandria, but White ran away from police. White was caught and was served with outstanding warrants. He was also charged with driving on a suspended license, speeding to elude police, and driving while under the …
38.710358
-77.103126
Washington Mill Elementary School
9100 Cherrytree Dr, Alexandria, VA
/articles/washington-mill-elementary-briefly-in-lockdown-last-friday
1278363
/locations/9387326
38.719383
-77.107568
4400 Blyth Pl, Alexandria, VA
/articles/washington-mill-elementary-briefly-in-lockdown-last-friday
/locations/9387327
Officials say no funding for consultant as school board members say there is a "facilities crisis and a capacity crisis."
The Fairfax County School Board decided Monday to postpone re-evaluating how to determine the order in which county schools are renovated. Heeding the recommendation of the county’s Facilities Planning Advisory Council, Board members agreed they need more time to discuss the matter to implement any real changes. The board develops its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) every five years, which includes new schools, renovations, capacity enhancements, additions and infrastructure management. Schools currently receive improvements in the order in which they're ranked on the system's renovation queue, driven by a list of weighted criteria ranging from how the buildings serve "Fundamental Educational Requirements (FER)," to their age and physical …
Monday, May 13, 2013
Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools had surgery for an aortic aneurysm May 7.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Dale was released from the hospital Sunday after emergency heart surgery May 7. FCPS spokesman John Torre told Patch in an email Monday that Dale had been released from the hospital to recover from surgery at home. Dale was taken to INOVA Fairfax Hospital on May 7 after telling coworkers he hadn’t been feeling well that day. He had surgery after suffering an aortic aneurysm that night. Torre said Dale was expected to return to work sometime in early June. “He is making progress and is not expected to return to work until early June on a part time basis,” he wrote in his email. Dale is planning to retire this summer. Deputy Superintendent Richard Moniuszko is managing superintendent duties …
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Democratic gubernatorial candidate laid out platform at George Mason's Arlington campus.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said Thursday he would push to reform the state's Standards of Learning, or SOL, tests if he is elected in November. "The current, once-a-year, high-stakes, multiple-choice testing isn't working for students, parents or teachers," he told a crowd of more than 300 people at George Mason University's Arlington campus, to rousing applause. Under the current system, a fifth-grade teacher who raises a child from a first-grade reading level to a fourth-grade reading level is considered a failure, he said. Teachers who want to break up the test into smaller portions, or test at different levels based on student achievement should be encouraged, he said. McAuliffe also said he would establish a "…
Dale underwent surgery for an aortic aneurism Tuesday evening.
Jack Dale, the outgoing Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent, underwent emergency heart surgery Tuesday evening after suffering an aortic aneurism. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Dale, 64, was conscious and resting at the intensive care unit of Fairfax Inova Hospital in Falls Church. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance Tuesday evening after telling coworkers he was feeling unwell, the Post reported. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was in stable condition. Hospital officials were unable to comment further on Dale’s condition Thursday afternoon. Dale is planning to retire this summer but it’s unclear whether he will return to his post after recovering from surgery. FCPS spokesman John Torre told Patch on …
Monday, May 6, 2013
Show your appreciation for teachers on Patch.
Most adults can credit their work ethic and career choices to teachers who inspired them. Tuesday marks National Teacher Day, which is sponsored by the National Education Association to encourage people to recognize and thank their favorite teachers, past and present. Nonprofit organiztion Kars4Kids recently surveyed 1,000 American adults to measure how teachers impacted adults and ways adults have expressed their appreciation. The survey found the following: In recognition of National Teacher Day, we want to know about your favorite educator. Whether it was your band teacher who encouraged you to continue studying the trombone, or a literature professor who fostered your love for Jane Austen, tell us about your favorite teacher in the …
Sandra
3:44 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
The online programs they support should be tailored to what teachers and students can use. The online math books were nothing more than regular texts that were scanned and put online. They were hard to use (especially if you needed to page back and forth to find topics), and they were not downloadable and pages could not be printed. That meant that students could only access their texts in … more ›