SchoolMatters Blog

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