SchoolMatters Weblog

First student-built LEED certified home in US

Great story on the cover of today's Daily Progress about our CATEC students working on what they expect to be the first student-built LEED certified (Green Building Council) home in the U.S. 
Brian Wheeler

12/26/07 * Daily Progress [full story]

Students building 'green' house

“Going green” has become a popular catchphrase in recent years, as environmental concerns have taken a more prominent place in the national consciousness.

At the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center, carpentry students are putting those words into action. Under the guidance of instructor Jason Ritter, students are constructing a house that is expected to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

“Because of the growing market for green buildings in this area, we feel like it is important to instruct our students about environmentally friendly building practices,” Ritter said.

Ritter and CATEC’s director, Darah Bonham, believe that this would the first LEED-certified house built by high school students.

Chinese surges in popularity: As economy ascends, so does language for area students

Monticello High School student Tom Campbell flattered his teacher of Chinese by declaring in class that he wants to take the language in college.

“Holy cow, you talk about having a calling card,” said Fred Tucker, the only instructor of Chinese in Albemarle County schools, to the aspiring biotechnology major. “If you know Chinese, the tech links that will evolve over time between China and the United States - Chinese will be of great assistance to you.”

The numbers support Tucker. China is expanding rapidly, and more in the academic realm are taking notice.

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Locally, the enrollment in Chinese 101 at the University of Virginia increased from 62 in Fall 2004 to 94 in Fall 2006, and 40 students were on the waiting list this past fall, said Ran Zhao, a professor of Chinese language at UVa.

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Albemarle County schools implemented a Chinese language course at Monticello three years ago, and the class has slowly gained interest. Fifteen students are now enrolled with Tucker, six more than last year.

English in demand: 2nd language classes growing rapidly

10/1/06 * Daily Progress [full story]

Both Charlottesville and Albemarle County schools have enrolled significantly more English as a Second Language students for the 2006-07 school year than last year, according to recent figures from the divisions.

Charlottesville schools have 330 ESL students, a 22.7 percent increase from last year, and Albemarle schools have 858 English as a Second or Other Language students, a 13.2 percent rise from a year ago.

Beverly Catlin, coordinator of instruction for Charlottesville schools, noted that 59 percent of city ESL students are at the lowest of the division’s three levels of English proficiency.

“This shows that of the ESL kids we have, a huge portion are beginning the language,” she said.

About one-third of ESOL students in Albemarle were born in the United States, said Courtney Stewart, instructional coordinator of the international and ESOL program for the county.

Motivating masses: Area teacher wins physical education award

9/17/06 * Daily Progress [full story]

The voice mail message of the Agnor-Hurt Elementary School physical education teacher is revealing: “Hi, this is Gwen Hairston … leave a message, and stay fit.”

Hairston, a PE teacher entering her 30th year, recently was recognized as the 2006 Southern District Elementary School Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

In a country where 20 percent of children and teenagers are projected to be overweight by 2010, according to a recent Institute of Medicine report, Hairston is helping Albemarle County schools redefine physical education.

“It’s not your grandmother’s PE class,” she said. “There is no more dodge ball. There is no more taking the ball and whaling it and knocking the devil out of somebody. Years and years ago everything [in gym class] was sports-related. You couldn’t do anything unless you were a jock, but it’s not like that anymore. It’s important that school principals, board members and the public understand how important physical education is. It’s not recess. We have a curriculum we have to follow.”

Hairston showed a 2-inch-thick binder as proof. Health and wellness are the focus now.

CATEC's Newcomer Center bridges educational gap

9/4/06 * Daily Progress [full story]

Two high school students from Mexico and one from Puerto Rico stood up, placed their right hands over their hearts and, while gazing at the 50 white stars and 13 red and white stripes, joined in on the Pledge of Allegiance.

“That’s pretty powerful,” said Courtney Stewart, glancing over her left shoulder at the teenagers.

The Newcomer Center, located in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center on Rio Road, is open for Albemarle County students whose education has been interrupted and who need an accelerated program to catch up with their peers. Harrisonburg and Falls Church have similar centers.

The four students who attend the center spend the morning at CATEC and are bused to division high schools in the afternoon, where they take elective classes such as art, mathematics and physical education.

Schools see rise in Hispanics

8/20/06 * Daily Progress [full story]

In terms of what happens inside classrooms, knowing how to inspire ESOL students to want to learn English can be a challenge.

“Hispanic kids born in the U.S. get stuck in between languages,” said Courtney Stewart, instructional coordinator for Albemarle schools’ international and ESOL program. “We need to teach them the academic language spoken in the classroom, which is English.”

Bev Ingram, an ESOL teacher at Agnor-Hurt Elementary in Albemarle, said her students are willing and anxious to grasp English.

The key to engaging them is to bring their culture into the classroom so they see that they contribute something unique, she said.

History teachers get boost for study

8/5/06 * Daily Progress [full story]

History teachers in five local school divisions will get a chance to “live and breathe” the story of Virginia’s role in American history, thanks to the University of Virginia’s Virginia Center for Digital History and a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Teachers in the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Greene, Madison and Orange counties will participate in the three-year program, titled “The Virginia Experiment: Growing Seeds of Democracy in Four Hundred Years of American History.”

About 70 local U.S. history teachers of grades four, five, six, seven and 11 will take part in the project, which will focus on lectures by scholars at state historical sites and the examination of primary documents using university online resources.

Teachers will be prepared for the program through a series of five-day summer courses that place them at the historical sites that they will teach about.

Podcasts offer look at history: County middle-schoolers use technology to share adventures

7/22/06 * Daily Progress [full story]

Two-dozen Albemarle County middle-schoolers have just taken history … to the extreme!

Armed with video iPods and digital cameras, the students hiked, biked and canoed through some of the most historically significant sites in the United States while recording their experiences.

The students then wrote, narrated and produced their own “vodcasts” - video Podcasts - to share what they learned during the two-week camp, which aimed to impress upon them the importance of preserving historic landmarks.

Take Your Legislator to School

In a given year, I manage about 70 visits to schools and community events as a School Board representative.  In the at-large seat on the School Board, I visit schools all over the County.  Today, I was happy to get back over to Meriwether Lewis Elementary on the occasion of the annual "Take Your Legislator to School" event.  Principal Sylvia Henderson gave a great tour to myself and 57th district Delegate-Elect David Toscano.  After we told David EVERYTHING he wanted to know about supporting public education in Richmond, we toured the school visiting a number of classrooms, a new computer lab and even got to test drive a SmartBoard.

Board members discuss local government with students at Albemarle High School

Yesterday, Diantha McKeel (School Board, Jack Jouett District) and I visited Melissa Wilson and Hal Hankins' Social Studies classes at Albemarle High School.  These students are studying state and local government and for the second year in a row elected officials made visits to the school.

Diantha and I decided we should try something a little more interactive this year, so we had a series of skits that tried to make the School Board's work a bit more relevant to these young people.

* Tax dollars--We handed out Jefferson $2 bills to the class and had the students "spend" them on No Child Left Behind mandated tests for grades 4, 6, 7 (SOLs we added in 2005) and on a new $1,000 teacher stipend rewarding National Board Certified Teachers.  We talked about the goal of recruiting, retaining and rewarding excellent educators.

* Discipline--We had a mock disciplinary hearing.  Our student volunteer handled herself very well and was a very good sport.

* Board Goals and Policy related to nutrition--We had some super-sized props from McDonalds and we discussed new vending machine and nutrition policies.  There was a big groan when the french fries and Coke fell into the trash can!

* Long Range Planning--We discussed redistricting of students, a topic that made the front page of the newspaper that day.

Brian Wheeler