TEACHERS' MESSAGES 2006
TEACHERS' MESSAGES 2006APRIL 27, 2006
Make your voice count on teacher working conditions! Teachers statewide have until May 1 to complete the Teacher Working Conditions Survey, which is available online at www.northcarolinatwc.org. This confidential survey provides information to help your principal and other district leaders improve working conditions and highlights schools where positive working conditions are making a difference. We also review the results at the state level to help identify ways that state policies can make a difference. It is important that at least 40 percent of each school's teachers respond so that the survey results are valid. Each teacher should have received anonymous access codes to allow them to complete the survey. The survey can be completed from any computer with an Internet connection. It's not too late to make your voice count!
Regards,
June Atkinson
The State Board of Education will meet next Wednesday and Thursday, May 3-4,
in the 7th Floor Board Room, Education Building, Raleigh. On Wednesday, Board
members will meet at 8 a.m. in the State Board of Education Office (2nd Floor)
where they will depart to attend the 9 a.m. Education Appropriations Subcommittee
Meeting where State Board Chairman Howard Lee will present. The Board will
return to the Education Building and begin its regular agenda at 9:30 a.m.
Action items include exemption requests under the Innovative Education Initiatives
Act and revision of the add-on licensure policy. Discussion items include
approval of supplemental education service providers for 2006-07 and response
to the report on professional development from the Center for School Leadership
Development. Board members also will hold Issues Sessions on Education for
the 21st Century and an Update on Technology in the Schools. The full agenda
will be available on the State Board of Education's Web site by Monday morning
at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/sbe_meetings/
by clicking on the appropriate link.
As a reminder, the monthly State Board of Education meetings are audio streamed
for those who can't attend. To listen to the sessions, please go online to
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/sbe_meetings/
and scroll to the Live Audio Stream links.
Meningococcal Disease Awareness Campaign
The NC Department of Public Instruction, NC Healthy Schools, NC Immunization Branch, Woman's Club of Raleigh, Wake County Medical Society, and Enloe High School's video production class have teamed up and created an outreach campaign designed to educate parents and students about the potentially fatal meningococcal meningitis disease and the available vaccine that may help prevent it. Campaign materials, which specifically target high school seniors and encourages them to receive the vaccine before entering college, will be sent to every School Health Advisory Council and high school principal. For additional information visit http://www.immunizenc.com or contact Amanda Dayton at 919.707.5565.
2006 Middle Math Summer Institutes
The NCDPI Division of Middle Grades Education Mathematics and Science Section in partnership with the North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network will offer Middle Math Summer Institutes at eight locations statewide. Middle Math Summer Institutes are two days in length and provide grade level institutes focused on content knowledge, effective teaching strategies and assessment methods that align with student academic performance standards in North Carolina. For more information, including dates and locations for the workshops and how to register, please go online to http://www.unc.edu/depts/cmse or contact Elizabeth Murray at emurray@dpi.state.nc.us or 919.807.3936. The registration deadline is May 15.
Elementary School Conference to be Held in October
The NC Association of Elementary Educators will be hosting the third annual Elementary School Conference to on Oct. 9-10 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel, Research Triangle Park. For more information, including registration and call for program proposal forms (must be postmarked by June 16), please visit www.ncelementary.org.
Learn NC's April update is now online and includes such items as Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations; Making reading passages comprehensible for English language learners; Remote sensing and coral reefs: a curriculum for 4th-6th grade students; Designing your gym class; The North Carolina mountains in the early 1900s through the writing and photography of Horace Kephart; For new teachers: Winding down the year; Focus on Planet Earth; and National Poetry Month. Check it out at www.learnnc.org.
Business and Education Featured on OPEN/net
Watch OPEN/net on Tuesday, May 2, from 8-9 p.m., to join a discussion about the relationship between business and education. Guests will talk about how and why North Carolina businesses are involved with K-12 education in our state and what the future holds for these strategic partnerships. Panelists include Bill Shore, director of Community Affairs for GlaxoSmithKline and member of the N.C. Business Committee for Education; Dr. Shirley Carraway, superintendent of Orange County Schools; and Joe Freddoso, director of Site Operations for Cisco Systems, Inc. in Research Triangle Park and a member of the Board of Directors of the N.C. Business Committee for Education. Send in your questions and comments by email to open@ncmail.net or call in, toll free, to 1.888.228.6736. To find your local cable channel that carries OPEN/net on APT's Web site please go online to www.ncapt.tv/local.htm.