Roanoke’s Fallon Park Elementary School makes a cameo in a new book about the country’s top urban schools and their best practices.

The book Teaching Practices from America’s Best Urban Schools comes from several leaders from the San Diego-based National Center for Urban School Transformation. You might remember Fallon Park was previously recognized by the center.

Roanoke Times I File photo

The recently released book, written by Joseph Johnson Jr., Lynne Perez and Cynthia Uline, outlines teaching methods that help student achievement. It is billed as a practical guide for teachers with examples of what works and how to implement such practices in the classroom.

You can read an excerpt from the book here. It’s from chapter five and chronicles how to connect with students. You might notice a couple Virginia schools are also mentioned there.

Fallon Park Elementary makes its appearance on page 107 in a passage about enthusiastic teaching. In the book, the authors relay students talking excitedly about hands on learning and teachers who engage them. The authors write that students are more likely to learn when teachers show enthusiasm for the content they are teaching.

A new grant will help several of the state’s community colleges, including Virginia Western Community College, train students for jobs in geospatial technology.

*Scratches head*

What’s geospatial technology?

Think careers using GIS and GPS, which provides positioning and navigation data. It’s a high growth field and according to a news release from Virginia Western employment in the field is expected to increase 35 percent by 2020.

Roanoke Times I File photo

The release states the grant, from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program, is giving $899,870 to a partnership comprised of four Virginia community colleges, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, and the Virginia Geospatial Extension Program, based in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.

The goal is to help community colleges train more geospatial technicians.

The participating community colleges include: Virginia Western Community College, Thomas Nelson Community College, Southwest Virginia Community College and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.

“The geospatial industry is causing a social and economic transformation that is impacting almost every sector of the society,” John McGee, geospatial extension specialist in Virginia Tech’s Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation said in a statement.  “This project engages stakeholders from many different sectors to ensure that the region is well poised to support the geospatial technology workforce demand of the future.”

The Virginia Department of Education recently launched a  new service to directly get teachers Standards of Learning resources and information.

TeacherDirect, which was rolled out last week and currently has about 6,500 subscribers, allows educators to subscribe to free weekly email updates, department spokesman Charles Pyle said in an email.

The updates link teachers to content on the new TeacherDirect section of the Virginia Department of Education’s website. The site has information on new instructional resources, upcoming professional development, as well as a database of searchable conferences and webinars and an SOL library with catalogs of resources for English, math, science, history and social studies teachers.

“I want teachers to know about a new SOL resource or professional development opportunity as soon as the information is available so they and their students can benefit sooner rather than later,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said in a statement.

Teachers interested in subscribing can log on here.

According to a press release from the education department, TeacherDirect came to fruition after a survey of Virginia school teachers showed educators prefer to receive information via email rather than through social media.

Thoughts? Are you a teacher who subscribes, has it been helpful? Never heard of TeacherDirect? Plan to subscribe now?

Ever have a great teacher that made you feel like you hit the jackpot? Well, the Virginia Lottery wants to know about it.

Roanoke Times I File photo

The lottery’s Super Teacher Awards honor and thank the state’s best public school teachers, according to a statement from the lottery. The group is currently taking nominations for the award.

Anyone 18 years or older may nominate a teacher online. The deadline to nominate someone is Feb. 15.

Eight teachers will receive the 2013 Virginia Lottery Super Teacher awards. Each will receive a $2,000 cash prize from the Virginia Lottery and a $2,000 classroom supply credit from the Supply Room Companies. Winning teachers will be surprised with a presentation.

Since its inception in 2008, the awards program has honored 40 Virginia educators.

Cave Spring Middle School administration and staff will hold an open house on Sunday for community members to tour the newly rebuilt school.

Roanoke Times I File photo

The new Cave Spring Middle opened this fall and is more than twice the size of the old building, which was demolished in 2011 except for the auditorium and gymnasium. The $26.8 million project added plenty of space for students and staff. The school is 132,000 square feet and accommodates 900 students.

The original facility was built in 1956 as a high school.

For those interested in taking a look at the new school, Sunday’s open house will begin at 2 p.m. with a ribbon cutting. Tours of the facility will be available afterwards until 5 p.m.

In the event of inclement weather , the open house will be held  Sunday, Feb. 24.

Something that came up briefly in both Roanoke and Roanoke County school board meetings last week was Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to give teachers a 2 percent raise and just what that means locally.

Just because a 2 percent raise has been proposed doesn’t mean teachers will end up with a bit more in their paychecks.

Associated Press

While McDonnell’s proposed budget does call for a raise for teachers (and even last week there was talk about kicking in the money for support staff too), local education officials said funding their portion of such raises might be tough.

Penny Hodge, Roanoke County Public Schools assistant superintendent of finance, said for the county to give teachers raises it will cost about $1.9 million. But with a lean budget where would that money come from?

“We don’t have the revenue so the choice has to be what do you not do,” Hodge said of any new expenditures.

If the system is short and there’s no new revenue, officials would have to look to cutting things from the budget to fund a potential increase.

“It’s a very real possibility school systems will have to turn down salary incentive money,” Hodge said.

Over in the city, officials there have also discussed the costs locally to give such raises. During a meeting earlier this month, Deputy Superintendent Curt Baker said the proposal would mean an increase of about $1 million in state revenues in the city system’s budget to cover the proposed raise for educators. But, he said, after funding an additional step in the Virginia Retirement System and the local portion of a salary increase, the system’s budget would be up by just $800,000.

Of course right now McDonnell’s budget is simply being discussed and it is also worth noting those raises were tied to lawmakers making changes to teacher evaluations and contracts. The General Assembly is also just several weeks into the session and the final budget is likely to look different than what the governor proposed in December.

Still, last week Roanoke County officials, who did give educators raises last year, appeared frustrated lawmakers in Richmond weren’t willing to consider that fact. Some officials visited Richmond on Thursday.

“No one wanted to even think about what we did last year,” board chairman Jerry Canada said during a Thursday evening board meeting. “We’re still swinging. We’re still at the plate. We’re still swinging.”

Roanoke Times I File photo

Get plenty of rest, eat a good breakfast, sharpen your No. 2 pencils and clear that snow because the SATs scheduled in Roanoke on Saturday will continue despite today’s nasty weather.

Roanoke City Schools Spokesman Justin McLeod said the SATs at Patrick Henry High School and William Fleming High School will continue as scheduled Saturday. Students come from near and far to take the tests so spread the word.

Welcome to our third (yes, third) installment of the Friday link roundup. It’s another Friday snow day for lots of you and there’s lots to share on the statewide front and some interesting local stories too. So here we go.

Roanoke Times I File photo

– First up, some local news. Thursday night the Roanoke County School Board took up the school calendar. With the a pre-Labor Day start still up in the air, officials are poised to adopt a later start next month if the General Assembly doesn’t act soon to grant flexilbility. Officials are also putting out a request for proposals on various security measures.

Also this week nine people sounded off to Roanoke City Council about what they think officials should do with the site of the former Huff Lane Intermediate School.

Nearby, in Franklin County students remember a deadly car crash but are moving forward by helping others. The Wounded Eagle Fund was intended to help the families of students involved in the crash, which happened a year ago. But the families declined the help, saying others needed it more. The group raises money and offers assistants to other students attending Franklin County High School.

– Statewide, 81 percent of Virginia high schoolers are graduating on time. This is part of national trend where the country’s graduation rate is on an upswing.

In other state news, Virginia gets a C- in its teacher prep programs, Gov. Bob McDonnell’s education agenda has advanced somewhat, a bill offering in state tuition to undocumented students is advancing, lawmakers in Richmond discussed student eligibility for sports and (and I think this is the most interesting) remember McDonnell’s 2 percent pay raise proposal? Well, the state might pay its share of that for support staff too. Disclaimer: if that state kicks in that two percent raise, localities still have to pay their share.

Snow covered Christiansburg last Friday.

– Elsewhere, Amherst County is saying farewell to well liked Superintendent Brian Ratliff who is moving on to lead schools in Washington County. Sidebar: I can see why folks are sad to see him go. As a reporter who worked with him he was always open, accessible and just a nice guy.

In Powhatan County, a TV weatherman turned educator will soon teach a new course about meteorology and forecasting. Wonder what Kevin Myatt would have to say about that?

Down the road the University of Virginia College at Wise had a scare Wednesday night, which turned out to be a hoax. There were reports of an alleged gunman on campus.

– There was also another school shooting this week. This time in a community college in Houston, Texas. Three people were wounded.

– And finally, looking for a job as an elementary school teacher? Well, so are a lot of people. According to Education Week, colleges are overproducing elementary school teachers some states produce more than twice as many as needed.

So, what have I left out? What stories caught your eye this week?

Will they or won’t they? There are several proposals in the General Assembly that would do away with Virginia’s so-called “Kings Dominion law,” which requires school systems to begin school after Labor Day unless they acquire a waiver. But just a few weeks into the session, it’s hard to know how things will shake out.

Associated Press

In the meantime, here’s a few things for you to chew on.

At tonight’s Roanoke County School Board meeting, officials are expected to discuss the system’s 2013-14 school calendar. It is just discussion, but according to the agenda materials staff has crafted a proposal that includes a post Labor Day start since the system doesn’t currently qualify for a waiver for next year and the law is still the law, at least for now.

The law, FYI, has been on the books for decades and was intended to protect the tourism industry. Lobbyists argued earlier start dates would affect family vacations.

You might recall area schools leaders meeting with legislators in November to talk about opposition to the “Kings Dominion law.” At that time Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, said he pre-filed a bill to put an end to the law and give school system’s the authority to set their own calendar.

Where’s the bill now?

According to the county calendar proposal (keyword proposal), school would begin on Tuesday, Sept. 3 and end on Thursday, June 5. Click here for the complete calendar proposal.

And according to the Virginian Pilot, a recent poll conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University shows a majority of Virginians support allowing school systems to begin prior to Labor Day.

So what do you think? Should school system officials be able to set their own calendar? Will an earlier start date stifle tourism?

So here I was fixing up a nice blog post about President Obama’s inauguration speech and education when I see a much more entertaining post on that subject has already been written.

Associated Press

Me? I perk up when I hear the president talk about education. After all it seems education is so infrequently the topic of the national dialogue. It’s all jobs, deficit, debt ceiling these days. I understand these are important issues and I’m not minimizing them. I’m just pointing out when national folks talk education it’s a good thing. It was so disheartening to see education play such a small role during the presidential campaign.

Anyway, as the president was talking about the need for science and math teachers apparently not everyone was a riveted as yours truly.

It was the mention of science and math teachers that caught my attention.

“No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.”

The President also of course touched on school safety.

“Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.”

Both issues have had no shortage of attention here in the Roanoke area. School security has been discussed at length in recent weeks.

You’ll also recall Gov. Bob McDonnell has talked about the importance of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) teachers and has plans to offer incentives to attract those educators to Virginia’s middle and high schools. There’s also a new STEM academy in Roanoke County, which is one of 15 across the state, and talks of one in Botetourt County.

So, what did you think of the speech?