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National Teachers Hall of Fame: Nominations
The National Teachers Hall of Fame honors exceptional career teachers, encourages excellence in teaching, and preserves the rich heritage of the teaching profession in the United States.
Maximum award: $2,000.
Eligibility: Nominees must have a minimum of 20 years full-time preK-12 teaching experience, and hold a valid teaching certificate or license from the state in which he or she teaches or has taught.
Deadline: January 4, 2010.
http://www.nthf.org/nominate.htm
Toshiba/NSTA: ExploraVision Awards
All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem solving. The Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision Awards Program encourages kids to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with the tools of science.
Maximum award: $10,000.
Eligibility: students K-12.
Deadline: February 2, 2010.
http://www.exploravision.org/about/
From BEESS Weekly Memo
Autism Spectrum Disorder Resources – CARD-USF is pleased to offer educators and administrators new materials for download. Please check our Web site at card-usf.fmhi.usf.edu for trainings, tutorials, and links of interest in addition to an array of materials to support your work in schools.
Tips for Supporting People with Autism Spectrum Disorders in the Community:
Autism & Mental Health:
Autism and Mental Health Issues – A guidebook on mental health issues affecting individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This booklet was specifically designed with educators in mind.
- Link: card-usf.fmhi.usf.edu
- Link: Airports, Airplanes, & Autism
- Link: Autism & The Hospital Emergency Room
- Link: Autism & The Faith Community
- Link: Autism and Mental Health Issues
- Contact: Dr. Karen A. Berkman, Executive Director, Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, at KBerkman@fmhi.usf.edu or (800) 333-4530
USF Spring 2010 Semester Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Course Offering
EBD 6246: Educating Students with Autism
Online: 1/11/10 – 5/7/10, Stipends are available to qualified applicants.
Application Deadline 12/1/09.
http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/departments/sped/PDP/Autism.htm
For more information contact chindman@coedu.usf.edu or 813-974-5783
Free Live Webinar: Using Data to Improve Student Achievement
| December 1, 2009 | ||
| 3:00 pm | to | 4:00 pm |
Tuesday, December 1, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time
Also available “on demand” anytime 24 hours after the event
Free registration is now open.
Partly because of the No Child Left Behind Act and partly because of advances in technology, a major push is under way to gather data about student achievement that can be used to inform a wide range of educational decisions. Through funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states are now being encouraged to create statewide longitudinal data systems to help track student achievement. But is the increased collection of student data yielding commensurate improvements in achievement? Join us for an in-depth discussion of why data is helpful, how best to collect it, and how it can be used to help support achievement.
Martha Greenway, deputy superintendent of organizational advancement, Fulton County, Ga., schools
Baron Rodriguez, director of state data systems, Data Quality Campaign
From BEESS Weekly Memo
Resources on Autism Spectrum Disorders – The National Professional Development Center is offering an online introductory course on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) including recommended and evidence-based practices for early identification and diagnosis, as well as for intervention and education. The course is open to interested persons in our partner states to expand the professional development activities provided by the National Professional Development Center on ASD. The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders is a multi-university center, funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs to promote the use of evidence-based practices for children and youth with autism spectrum disorders. Information on becoming a state partner is available at http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~autismPDC/training/index.cfm.
- Link: http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~autismPDC/training/index.cfm
- Contact: (888) 718-7303 or autismpdc@mail.fpg.unc.edu
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Seizures and You: Epilepsy Toolkit and Lesson Plans for Teachers and Trainers – One in 100 teenagers has epilepsy and one in ten people will have a seizure in their lifetime. Teens who have epilepsy face many challenges, such as explaining seizures to people, wondering how their friends are going to react, or never knowing when the next seizure is going to happen. To help middle and high school students learn about epilepsy, the Epilepsy Foundation created the Seizures and You: Take Charge of the Facts Toolkit for teachers and trainers. The toolkit includes one 45-minute basic lesson, facilitators’ guide, PPT presentation, fact sheet, and a student matching worksheet and quiz. The three Extended Learning lessons for health education, science and English classes cover Epilepsy, Stigma & Teens; Epilepsy & Discrimination; and an Epilepsy Research Project. To download the toolkit and lesson plans go to http://www.takechargeteens.org/about_takecharge.html. If you have additional questions, or need further information, please send an email to takecharge@efa.org.
For more information about epilepsy go to: The Epilepsy Foundation at www.epilepsyfoundation.org, Understanding Epilepsy at http://www.discoveryeducation.com/epilepsy, American Epilepsy Society at www.aesnet.org, American Academy of Neurology at http://www.aan.com, and American Clinical Neurophysiology Society at http://www.acns.org/.
- Link: http://www.takechargeteens.org/about_takecharge.html
- Link: www.epilepsyfoundation.org
- Link: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/epilepsy
- Link: www.aesnet.org
- Link: http://www.aan.com
- Link: https://www.acns.org/
- Contact: If you have additional questions or need further information, please send an email to takecharge@efa.org
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Global Gateway – Global Gateway is a program developed by the British Council to promote international dialogue through international school linking. Many special schools (schools that serve students with disabilities) in the United Kingdom are interested in partnering with special schools in the United States. If you are interested in establishing a link with a school in another country, you can find out more information online.
Forty percent of America’s K-12 teachers disheartened
A new report from Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates offers a comprehensive look at how teachers across the country differ in perspectives on their profession. The study, based on a nationwide survey with more than 100 questions of nearly 900 teachers, revealed three broad categories that the researchers labeled Disheartened, Contented, and Idealistic. The view that teaching is “so demanding, it’s a wonder more people don’t burn out” is pervasive, particularly among the Disheartened. This group, which accounts for 40 percent of K-12 teachers in the United States, tends to have been teaching longer and be older than the Idealists. More than half teach in low-income schools. By contrast, teachers in the Contented group (37 percent of teachers overall) view teaching as a lifelong career. These teachers tend to be veterans — 94 percent have been teaching for more than 10 years, the majority have graduate degrees, and about two-thirds are teaching in middle-income or affluent schools. However, it is the Idealists — 23 percent of teachers overall — who voice the strongest sense of mission about teaching. More than half are 32 or younger and teach in elementary schools, and 36 percent say that although they intend to stay in education, they do plan to leave classroom teaching for other jobs in the field.
Read more: http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/three-distinct-sensibilities
Arts education boosts graduation
A study from the Center for Arts Education looks at the relationship between school-based arts education and high school graduation rates in New York City public schools, and concludes the arts play a key role in keeping students in high school and graduating on time. Analyzing data from more than 200 New York City schools over a two-year period, the report found that schools in the top third in graduation rates offered students the most access to arts education and the most resources that support arts education. Schools in the bottom third in graduation rates consistently offer the least access and fewest resources. This pattern held true for nine key indicators that researchers felt conveyed a school’s commitment to arts education: certified arts teachers, dedicated arts classrooms, appropriately equipped arts classrooms, arts and cultural partnerships, external funds to support the arts, coursework in the arts, access to multi-year arts sequence, school sponsorship of arts participation, and school sponsorship of arts field trips. “Beyond the traditional benefits that an arts education provides,” the report states, “the arts cut across learning styles and language barriers and engage students who might otherwise be uninterested in school and on a path to dropping out.”
Read more: http://www.cae-nyc.org/sites/default/files/docs/CAE_Arts_and_Graduation_Report.pdf
Teachers Are the Center of Education: Eight Profiles of Teachers
To salute the great work of teachers everywhere, the College Board developed a project that would highlight the critical importance of teachers and recognize them as the center of education—an endeavor in which PDK International is proud to partner. We are pleased to present Teachers Are the Center of Education: Eight Profiles of Teachers, a co-publication from the College Board and PDK. Read or download this inspirational report now!
http://www.pdkintl.org/publications/docs/Teachers_Center.pdf to go directly to the document.
Combining teachers to build on their differences
The goals of a new wave of timely reforms — recruiting more talent into the teaching profession, and raising stakes and incentives for existing teachers, especially in high need schools — are worthy, in the view a report from Education Sector, but they are destined to fail without a fundamental overhaul of the way teachers’ work is organized within schools. Today, most teachers’ work is isolated and fragmented, with no defined pathways for career development, few mechanisms for feedback, and a schedule disconnected from the reality of what teachers actually do and what students actually need. A new model developed by Furman Brown and his colleagues and piloted at the Brooklyn Generation public high school in New York City organizes teachers into grade and subject-based teams, designed to blend different types of expertise and levels of experience. The daily schedule and calendar are designed with time for regular and ongoing teacher collaboration and planning, giving teachers “time to learn from each other and to learn from their work,” Brown says. “We get the best teachers we can. But then what do we do with them? We combine them, build on their differences.”
Read more: http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=1058462
