BI-COUNTY BRIEF - JANUARY 2010
| Volume 4, Issue No. 6 | January 2010 |
ILLINOIS SCHOOLS RACE TO THE TOP
Federal stimulus money for education is prompting Illinois to embrace reforms promoted by the U.S. Department of Education. District superintendents, school board presidents and teachers' union leaders are being asked by ISBE to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to accompany the state's Race to the Top (RT3) application that is due January 19, 2010. Illinois will be applying for $400 million, of which $200 million will be distributed to local districts per the Title I formula.
Key components of the state's application include tying student performance to the evaluations of teachers and principals by FY2013, aligning curriculum to the revised Illinois Learning Standards by FY2012, developing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)–related programs at middle and high schools, implementing a statewide longitudinal data system to ensure data quality, using student data to improve classroom instruction, improving teacher and principal preparation programs, and increasing support for new teachers and principals.
Additionally, districts may choose to agree to a set of reforms that includes establishing a compensation system based on performance and providing autonomy for principals of Illinois priority schools to select and assign teachers to the school to establish an effective teaching staff as quickly as possible.
State Superintendent Christopher Koch is urging Illinois school boards to meet between January 4 and 8 to commit to the RT3 program, which proposes major changes worthy of careful thought and consideration.
JUDITH WOLTERS IS 2009 IBEA OUTSTANDING SECONDARY TEACHER
Congratulations go out to Judith Wolters, 2009 Illinois Business Education Association Outstanding Secondary Teacher of the Year. Currently a business teacher at Chester High School, Ms. Wolters is also a member of IBEA and SWABEA and has previously received the W. C. Simmons Scholarship and the EIU College of Business Dean's Award. CHS Principal Keith Kittell commends Ms. Wolters: "As a teacher she challenges her students to be the best they can be. She has taken over the Accounting Department and has her students energized." A colleague writes, "Judy works diligently to make her classes current, relevant and enjoyable. She brings many years of management experience to real-world examples and assignments," and another agrees: "Judy is a professional business teacher of the highest caliber."
IT'S NOT TOO LATE!
It's not just about reading. It's not just about writing. It's about strategies that will improve your students' learning: "the reading strategies have provided me with extra tools to teach the students how to get important information from text," explains one participant. There are still three chances to attend the Best Reading Practices in the Content Areas workshops, You owe it to yourself and your students. Check out "Writing to Enhance Comprehension" on January 12, "Assessments & Planning" on February 23 and "Creating a Reading Enhanced Classroom" on April 20 at SWIC's Red Bud Campus from 8:00 to 3:30. Contact Gertie, geshom@roe45.org, at the ROE for a registration form. Don't miss this opportunity!
BI-COUNTY BOASTS SEVEN MASTER TEACHERS
Monroe and Randolph counties are proud of their Master teachers: Randy Halleran, Jane Huebner, Judith McDermott and Richard McDermott, Waterloo H.S.; Kara Lavoie, Rogers Elementary; Debra McCutcheon, Red Bud H.S.; and Jennifer Ramirez, Red Bud Elementary. For this National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, these teachers have undergone an extensive series of performance-based assessments that included teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and thorough analyses of classroom teaching and student learning. These teachers also completed a series of written exercises that probed the depth of their subject-matter knowledge and their understanding of how to teach those subjects to their students. Congratulations, once again.
BI-COUNTY SCHOOLS RECYCLE OVER 30 TONS
Schools that have recycled technology on any of the ROE's four Technology Recycling Days since April 2009 should feel good about themselves. Through their cooperation with Vintage Tech Recyclers of Plainfield, Illinois, 60,855 pounds of retired computers, televisions and other electronic equipment have been saved from landfills. Nearly 60% of all electronics can be reused and another 38% can be fully recycled back to their raw state. By participating in Technology Recycling Days, schools are being responsible and preserving our natural resources.
NEW ADVISORY BOARD GETS BUSY
Eleven certificated teachers and administrators joined ROE personnel to form a new Advisory Board that will meet to discuss and develop ideas for professional development workshops and institutes. At its first meeting last month the Board shared best practices used in area schools and presented ideas for trainings. Talented educators in the group include Patti Miles, Beck Area Career Center; Jaime Lodge, Chester Grade School; Beth Horner, Columbia CUSD; Karyn Albers, Coulterville; Carol Root, Perandoe; Laurie Wright, Prairie du Rocher; Sandra Daniels, Red Bud Elementary; Lynda Loesing, Sparta High School; Cheryl Kuhlman, Steeleville Elementary; Mary Niebruegge, Valmeyer CUSD; and Hattie Doyle, Waterloo CUSD, who will work with Marc Kiehna, Kelton Davis, Rosie Gardner, Steve Laur and Mary Ann Quivey from the ROE.
HAMLET JOINS THE RESOURCE LIBRARY
Arguably William Shakespeare's most influential play, Hamlet is the tragic story of how Hamlet takes revenge for his father's murder, as his Uncle Claudius takes the throne as king of Denmark and Hamlet's mother as his wife. Forty-five copies of the Penguin Classic edition, "an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors…who understand that these are plays for performance as well as great texts for contemplation," are now on loan from the Resource Library. Just some of the other 35-copy reading kits available by phoning Red Brick at 282-7722 are The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Black Like Me; The Canterbury Tales; Night; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; and The Giver.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ILLINOIS STATE SCHOLARS
Bi-county high schools can be proud of their 2009–10 Illinois State Scholars, who have been chosen based on standardized test scores and performance-based academic data reported by the high school. Approximately the top ten percent of Illinois high school graduates are announced as State Scholars each year.
| Chester High Amy Araiza Caleb Courier Aaron Grah Mollie Laramore Ashley Lindsay Jamie Long Patrick Strickler Daysha Westerman Rachel Young Columbia High Andrew Baugh Connor Brennan Mackenzie Burkemper Lydia Cooper Alyssa Dewees Olivia Fahnestock Sara Fohrell Jacob Galeski William Haag, IV Mindi Haas Tiffany Maglasang Stephanie Mueller Tyler Perjak Benjamin Riggins |
Andrew Roth Ryan Schlemer Zachary Simmons Jeffrey Stoecker Mallory Stumpf Abigail Woltering Coulterville High Kourtney Gimber Gibault High Cole Blechle Brittany Davis William Gregorich Benjamin Kloess Rachel Kreher Christopher Kuester Kaila Lavoie Julia Means Eric Meyer Alexandra Purcell Haley Riebeling Lana Rottler Red Bud High Brianna Barbeau Jerald Dehne Michael Letcher |
Maegan Reichling |
Michael Brooks Erin Chapman Rosemary Chapple Coral Christopher Megan Crawford Madison Dodd EmilyEhrenstrom William Holmes Jessica Hulett Maeve Juenger Kayla Kelley Michael Mayer Kirsten Nold Madison Pleimann Jessica Reifschneider Kristen Reifschneider Bradley Richards Cassandra Robinson Carrie Schremp Samantha Schweigert Tara Seboldt Christopher Shelsky Amy Smith Zachary Voss Alexandra Wood |
CALENDAR OF EVENT 8:30 a.m. -
January 12, 2010
Best Reading Preactices, Grades 4-12
SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152
8:30 a.m. -
3:30 p.m.
January 14, 2010
English Language Learning
SWIC, Red Bud - Perf. Arts
8:30 a.m. -
3:30 p.m.
January 26, 2010
Gifted Education Seminar
SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152
8:30 a.m. -
3:30 p.m.
January 28, 2010
Advisory Board
SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152
12:00 noon -
3:00 p.m.
February 8, 9, 10, 2010
Team Quest
Hope Christian Church
2:30 p.m.
February 9, 2010
Gifted Education Seminar
SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152
8:30 a.m. -
3:30 p.m.
February 17, 2010
Gifted Education Seminar
SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152
8:30 a.m. -
3:30 p.m.
February 18, 2010
Gifted Education Seminar
SWIC, Red Bud - Rm. 152
8:30 a.m. -
3:30 p.m.
February 19, 2010
Art du Jour
SWIC, Red Bud