BI-COUNTY BRIEF - DECEMBER 2009

TEACH FINANCIAL BASICS
The National Endowment for Financial Education has teamed up with the Illinois Credit Union League, Illinois State Treasurer, Junior Achievement and Illinois Extension to offer the free High School Financial Planning Program that provides a solid, proven curriculum for financial education.  Units include Your Financial Plan: Where It All Begins, Budgeting: Making the Most of Your Money, Investing: Making Money Work for You, Good Debt, Bad Debt: Using Credit Wisely, Your Money: Keeping It Safe and Secure, Insurance: Protecting What You Have, and Your Career: Doing What Matters Most.  For more information, go to www.hsfpp.nefe.org or contact Melanie Murphy at 800-942-7124 or 630-983-3414.    

WHS'S MINDY MCDERMOTT IS AGRISCIENCE TEACHER OF THE YEAR
Waterloo High School teacher and FFA advisor Mindy McDermott took center stage at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis recently when she was named National Agriscience Teacher of the Year. McDermott feels the award, which recognizes outstanding agricultural educators who emphasize science concepts, principles and applications in their curriculum, "belongs to the students, the faculty and staff at WHS for making the school such a great place to work, the administration for providing support, and my family for serving as great role models as teachers."  "Her creativity in making agriscience applicable to real-life situations has attracted more students to her agriculture classes," noted the National FFA Organization, and Waterloo Superintendent Jim Helton was proud of McDermott's presentation: "Her dialogue was all about 'our school' and 'our kids' . . . not one bit about her."

MEET THE GREEN THUMB CHALLENGE
The Green Thumb Challenge, launched by the Green Education Foundation, challenges schools and groups to plant 10,000 indoor and outdoor gardens in the spring of 2010.  This sensory rich, hands-on education will teach environmental stewardship while promoting physical and emotional health and well-being.

Research shows that children learn better and have fewer emotional problems with regular exposure to nature.  According to the Institute of Medicine, the rate of obese 6- to 11-year-olds has also more than tripled over the past 30 years.  The Green Thumb Challenge provides a way for educators to combat nature-deficit disorder while simultaneously teaching students about proper nutrition.  At the end of the program students will literally enjoy the fruits of their labor!

GEF will provide all the necessary information, including gardening plans and instructions, vegetable and fruit selections, zone insights and a multitude of grade-appropriate, standards-based environmental lessons relating gardening and composting to science, math, language arts and more.  Enroll now at www.greenthumbchallenge.com or www.GreenEducationFoundation.org.  Those who sign up by December 15, 2009 will have the opportunity to win gardening kits that include tools, gloves and seeds.

DREAM BIG IN THE MICROSOFT BLINK WEB DESIGN COMPETITION
Technologically savvy high school students should dream big in the upcoming Microsoft bliink Web design competition.  With the theme "I Imagine a Green Future," students are invited to envision a world in which they would like to live.  Participants between the ages of 13 and 19 must compete in teams of 2–4, be sponsored by a teacher and register by February 17, 2010.  Final submissions must be received by 11:59PM PT on March 17, 2010 and will be judged on creativity/original ideas, communication, organization/navigation and visual presentation/design.

A school can request a free subscription to Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance that includes the Expression software for the contest by e-mailing ew4hs@innovativeteachers.us.  Participants will be allowed to install this software onto their home computers at no charge.  Tutorials and learning materials that allow any beginner to create a potentially winning site are available free at http://www.blinkcontest.com/learn.aspx. 

Each first place team member will receive a Zune HD 16 GB Video MP3 Player, $300 cash and a trip to the US Imagine Cup Finals in Washington, DC.  Second place, third place and honorable mention prizes will also be awarded.

TERRY MEYER RECEIVES ICON AWARD
Terry Meyer, Red Bud High School science teacher, was recently named the winner of the 2009 iCON Knowledge Builder Award, "developed to recognize the important role of education, research and training in fostering growth and in building the next generation of Midwest biotechnology and life sciences innovators and leaders."  iBIO Institute spokesman Jed Weiner stated, "Terry is certainly exemplary of those we want to honor and celebrate."  At the gala awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, former student and Red Bud High School alumna Rachel Steele expressed her opinion and those of others that Terry goes above and beyond to help his students: "While I was a student at RBHS, you brought to the classroom your entire self—energized, impassioned and informed—and you drew out in us an affinity for things not easily loved.  An almost impossible feat, you made science real and even fun."

DEBORAH FORSYTHE HONORED WITH RECOGNITION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Deborah Forsythe, English/drama teacher for the ROE's alternative education program at Beck Area Career Center, was presented with a Recognizing Achievement Award at the Illinois State Board of Education's October board meeting in Springfield.  Mrs. Forsythe was recognized for her outstanding efforts in organizing the "Outside the Box Improv Troupe" in 2003.  The troupe, which travels to local elementary and middle schools, has changed its focus over the years from the Illinois Learning Standards for drama to a multidisciplinary workshop for music, P.E. and drama to its current anti-bullying presentation "Captain Cool and the Courage Kids."  Mrs. Forsythe has indicated that "the Outside the Box Improv Troupe is about the most exhausting and riskiest thing she has ever done professionally, but is probably the most professionally rewarding in its success."  Her troupe members grow in responsibility, leadership abilities and confidence and benefit from bonds of friendship and trust.  They learn to trust others by becoming more trustworthy themselves.

HELP DEVELOP A GREAT LAKES YOUNG WIRITERS PROGRAM
A group led by Tom Leonard and including Albion College, Cranbrook schools, East Michigan Environment Action Council, University of Michigan, Great Lakes United, and the Michigan Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources is currently working on the following goals: 1) creating a Great Lakes Web site where all age groups can share their abbreviated works and correspond with their author-mentors, 2) developing a database of Great Lakes author-mentors who will visit schools and/or participate in extra-curricular activities to promote writing about the lakes and 3) forming partnerships with federal parks and historic sites for writing workshops highlighting local myths, legends and history. To explore opportunities for this program, contact Tom Leonard at tuleonard@msn.com.

ILLINOIS DEPT. OF NATURAL RESOURCES OFFERS PLETHORA OF TEACHING IDEAS
Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Division of Education offers contests, classroom materials, teacher workshops and other opportunities for education at http://dnr.state.il.us/education.  Just some of its offerings include ENTICE, which offers teacher-training workshops about natural resources; Earth Days in the Parks, where teachers and their students participate in natural resources stewardship activities in Illinois state parks; Schoolyard Habitat Action, a grant program that provides up to $600 to create a wildlife habitat on school grounds; and the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest, a "Conservation through the Arts"–themed art contest that highlights wetland waterfowl conservation.  There are also links to youth fishing, safety education and state park programs and Illinois state museums. 

GET FREE OUTDOORILLINOIS MAGAZINES WHILE SUPPLIES LAST
Surplus 2009 issues of OutdoorIllinois are being bundled and shipped at no charge on a first come, first served basis.  To be placed on the mailing list, visit dnr.illinois.gov/OutdoorIllinois.   Schools libraries can also receive a discounted one-year subscription for $10 by mailing subscription information on a school letterhead and a check made payable to OutdoorIllinois to Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, P. O. Box 19225, Dept. NL, Springfield, IL  62794-9225.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

December 8. 2009	Best Reading Practices Grades 4-12	SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152	8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
December 11, 2009	Guidance Counselors' Meeting	SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152	9:00 a.m. - 12: p.m.
December 15, 2009	Technology Coordinators Workshop	Monroe County Annex	9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
December 17, 2009	Superintendents' Council	J.Fires', Waterloo	9:00 a.m.
January 26, 2010	Gifted Education Seminal	SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152	8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
February 5, 2010	Principals' Meeting	SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152	8:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
February 8, 9, 10, 2010	Team Quest	Hope Christian Church	8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
February 19, 2010	Art du Jour	SWIC, Red Bud