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Volume 11, Issue 8

February 22, 2017

2017 Vermont Kindergarten Conference: The Arts as a Tool for Learning

Audience: Prekindergarten, Kindergarten, Primary Level Teachers, School and Program Administrators, Pre-Service Teachers, and Teacher Educators
The Vermont Agency of Education, the Early Childhood Education Program at the University of Vermont, and VAEYC invite you to celebrate young children at the 25th Annual Vermont Kindergarten Conference. The theme for this year’s conference is nurturing imagination and learning through the arts. Prekindergarten, kindergarten and primary level teachers, school and program administrators, pre-service teachers, and teacher educators are encouraged to attend. The conference will be held on April 7, 2017 at the Hilton in Burlington. Learn more about and register for the 2017 Vermont Kindergarten Conference .  Last year's conference filled to capacity so we encourage you to go online and register early.
Contact: Shirley Rawson at shirley.rawson@vermont.gov

School Safety Video

Audience: Superintendent’s, Principals, School Crisis Planning Team Members
The School Safety facilitated dialogue is designed to facilitate a conversation about how your school would respond to an intruder at your school.  This exercise will allow participants to become familiar with current school crisis planning policies, plans and procedures.
Contact: Rob Evans, Margolis Healy, at revans@margolishealy.com

2018 Food Service Equipment Grant Announcement

Audience: Food Service Managers, Business Managers, Superintendents, Principals
Funds are available to Vermont Schools participating in the School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs and to those schools who wish to implement the School Lunch or Breakfast Program. The grant funds are available as matching funds to support the purchase of food service equipment that will improve the infrastructure of healthy food production and storage, and to support the purchase of Computer Point of Sale meal counting and claiming systems to ensure program accountability and integrity. Application deadline is by 4:30 pm on April 7, 2017. Applications received after this date will not be accepted for this round.  Fax and email submissions will not be accepted.  The application for the 2018 Food Service Equipment Grant is available online.
Contact:  Cheryl Rogers at (802) 479-1360 or cheryl.rogers@vermont.gov

Education Census Data Collection

Audience: Superintendents, Educator Census Data Collection Contacts
A friendly reminder that the 2016-2017 Ed Census Data Collection due date of March 3, 2017 is fast approaching.
Contact: (802) 479-1044 for application issues, and Debi Price for data questions and issues at debora.price@vermont.gov

Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration Content Bank Ended

Audience: Anyone using the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) Content Bank for Virtual field trips, or Education Technology Personnel
The CLIC provided free virtual field trips to Vermont schools through a program worked out with the Agency of Education many years ago. That opportunity has now ended. No more virtual field trips will be approved by the Agency of Education, and future field trips need to be structured as a local school or supervisory union expenditure. There are no plans at this time to develop funding to continue the program.
Contact: Contact Peter Drescher at (802)479-1169 or peter.drescher@vermont.gov

Vermont Professional Learning Network February Newsletter

Check out Vermont Professional Learning Network's  (VT PLN) monthly newsletter. In the newsletter, you will find links to resources from the field, messages from the Agency of Education about professional learning and upcoming VT PLN activities.
Contact: Meaghan Foster at vtclg@ccebos.org


Courtesy Postings

Vermont High Schoolers Can Apply Now for the Governor's Institutes of Vermont

Any enthusiastic Vermont 9th-11th grader is invited to join the Governor's Institutes of Vermont (GIV) for their best summer yet! Our 11 summer institutes in the arts, sciences, current events, and more give talented students the chance to immerse themselves in a topic they love, make new friends from all over the state, and experience life on a college campus. GIV is dedicated to being accessible for every Vermonter, so our sliding scale tuition will make it affordable for you and your family. A brand new Institute in Architecture, Design, and Building ensures that there is something for everyone at GIV. Applications are open now and close throughout March based on school deadlines.
Contact: Madison Berry at madison@giv.org

Vermont Standards-Based Learning Symposium

Please join various experts, Vermont school and district personnel, and other guests for a day of thoughtful conversation about standards-based and proficiency-based teaching and learning. The overall focus this year will be on assessment within these two systems of learning. The keynote is Mr. Damian Cooper, an independent education consultant from Ontario, who specializes in helping schools and school districts improve their instructional and assessment skills.
Contact: Laurie Singer at daveandlauriesinger@gmail.com

Coder Camp for Girls

This camp is for Vermont girls ages 13 - 16 (geared for rising 8th - 10th graders) at  Vermont Technical College's (VTC) Williston Campus. This is a chance for girls to bring their creativity and translate that into an active software coding environment; experience developing a program of their own design. Participants will learn and use SCRATCH, a friendly robust program designed by MIT and others, and field trips, team building, and loads of fun are built into the five-day camp. The camp will run  8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  daily July 17-21, 2017. Very affordable, some scholarships available. Learn more on the VTC website.
Contact: Elissa Lee at (802)288-8915 or elee@vtc.vsc.edu

Social Media Tools for Teachers 

This one-day teacher workshop is to fine tune social connectivity skills and help to feature the great learning in classrooms. The workshop will be facilitated by Mike Berry at the Hampton Conference Center on June 28, 2017.  Register online through the Champlain Valley Educator Development Center.
Contact: info@cvedcvt.org

Dream Big 5K: Run, Walk and Roll

The EDD Memorial Fund is organizing an adaptive 5K and Fun Run for folks of all ages and abilities, in partnership with the Essex Town School District.  Come run, walk or roll with us on April 1, 2017 at the Essex Middle School. The event is a fundraiser to support EDD Memorial Fund Adaptive Sports programs, like our free adaptive sports clinics with St. Michael’s College and Castleton University teams. Register online by March 30, 2017. Race day registration will be available.
Contact: Gretchen Owens at events@eddfund.org

Symposium Series: "Language: The Missing Piece of Academics"

The Stern Center for Language and Learning introduces their three-part symposium series at the Main Street Landing Film House on March 10, 2017. The first workshop of the series is entitled “Language: The Missing Piece of Academics” and will focus on language as a skill in its own right, a skill that not only supports social interaction, but one that has the potential to foreshadow problems with reading comprehension and writing long before children have mastered the basic phonics skills. Participants will learn about the structure of language, the role that language plays in reading, writing, and math, how it is assessed, and activities to promote language development. This workshop will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for $300 for series or $125 per workshop. Register online.
Contact: Caitlin Niland, Intake Coordinator for Professional Learning, at (802)878-2332 or proflearning@sterncenter.org


Subscribe Online

The field memo has time-sensitive and relevant information designed for students, teachers, and staff. The agency encourages principals, headmasters, and superintendents to share the memo with their education community. Additionally, individuals can subscribe or unsubscribe online.

Questions? Email Ted Fisher at ted.fisher@vermont.gov.