Kentucky Teacher

Summer reading programs at local Kentucky public libraries provide a wonderful opportunity for students to maintain reading skills. In summer 2013, readers of all ages will explore the wonders under our feet—buried treasure, evidence of ancient civilizations, insects, dinosaur bones, gardening, and more.

Teachers and parents are encouraged to help children use Find a Book, Kentucky to build personal reading lists for summer reading and then locate their selections at their school or public library or at a local bookstore. Find a Book, Kentucky uses the widely-adopted Lexile® measure to match a reader with books that will provide the right level of challenge to support reading growth. The new Find a Book app is the ultimate book search tool for educators, parents, librarians and students to download on their Android mobile phone. School and public librarians are ready to assist children and their parents as they make summer reading selections.

For more information about specific activities, contests, and reading events for the Summer Reading Program in your county, contact your local public library. Local public libraries across Kentucky have planned programs to keep children reading and learning all summer.  Continue Reading

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, and NanoRacks announce Mission 5 to the International Space Station – part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP).

This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education opportunity immerses grade 5-14 students in authentic, high visibility research, with the ability to design and propose real experiments to fly in low Earth orbit on the International Space Station.

Each participating school or district will be provided a real microgravity research mini-laboratory capable of supporting a single experiment, and all launch services to fly it to the Space Station in Spring 2014.  A nine week experiment design competition will be held September 9 through November 11, 2013 for student teams to design and formally propose real experiments vying for their community’s reserved mini-lab on Space Station. Content resources for teachers and students support foundational instruction on science in microgravity and experimental design.

SSEP is not designed for an individual class or a small number of students. All interested schools or districts are asked to assess interest with their staff and submit a letter of inquiry by June 30, 2013.

For more information go to ssep@ncesse.org or call contact: 301-395-0770.

Kentucky students were rewarded for their talents and research in history at the 51st Kentucky Junior Historical Society (KJHS) Conference and Kentucky History Day held at the University of Louisville.

Student activities included the impromptu exhibit contest, history test, quick-recall History Bowl and the Kentucky History Day contest. More than 600 students, parents and educators attended the events.

Kentucky History Day is affiliated with National History Day, a yearlong academic program focused on promoting historical research by students in grades 6-12. Kentucky History Day competitors work throughout the school year researching a personally chosen topic and present a final project as a dramatic performance, imaginative exhibit, multimedia documentary, website or research paper. Kentucky History Day winners have the opportunity to compete at the national level at the University of Maryland in June.

Click here to view the winners.

Recent Federal legislation, Public Law 110-234, The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, authorized funds for expansion of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) to all 50 States, the District of Columbia and Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Elementary schools that represent a State’s highest free and reduced price enrollment are eligible to participate in the Program and are given priority for being selected due to their high need level.   The purpose of the program is to increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption in elementary schools.

Kentucky has been allocated $2,780,123 for use during the period beginning July 1, 2013 and ending June 30, 2014.  The level of funds provided to any one school must be calculated by funding each student at $50 to $75 per year.

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), Office of Administration & Support is issuing a Request for Application (RFA) from elementary schools, schools containing grades PreK-6, or any combination thereof, to participate in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program during the upcoming 2013-2014 school year.  The RFA is posted on the KDE Competitive Grants web page.

The application deadline is Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 4:00 pm (EDT).

The Kentucky Department of Education invites teachers, administrators, district staff, parents, students and other education stakeholders to submit questions for Commissioner Terry Holliday’s Twitter Town Hall Wednesday, May 15, 4-5 p.m. ET. Questions can be tweeted both before May 15 and during the live event. Use the hash tag #AskDocH to send questions.

If you don’t have a Twitter account and would like to sign up for one, visit www.twitter.com. It’s a free service and also offers apps for smartphones if you’d rather follow along off of a traditional computer desktop or laptop.

Commissioner Holliday looks forward to answering your questions May 15.

The season finale of KET’s Education Matters will focus on early childhood learning and kindergarten readiness.

Host Bill Goodman and guests explore the Brigance Kindergarten Screen and take a look at how preschools, parents, and informal learning experiences can help young children arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed and thrive. “Kindergarten Readiness,” will air Monday evening, May 6 and then will stream on the KET website — http://www.ket.org/educationmatters— or on iTunes U!

The Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative is offering its Aquabots Summer Camp. This is an underwater robotics camp for girls entering grades 7-11 in the upcoming school year.

For more information or registration instructions, go to the Collaborative website.

The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation keeps music alive in schools by donating musical instruments to under-funded music programs. Applications are made available by invitation only.

If a school music program meets the criteria below, pre-qualification submissions are being accepted to be considered for the full application process. Because of the large number of schools requesting assistance, a school may be placed on a wait list for several months before review and notification.

• Public, private and charter schools may apply; however, schools must be Title 1 and/or serve a population of at least 65 percent that qualify for the National Lunch Program.
• Schools must have an established instrumental music program (i.e. concert band, marching band, jazz band and/or      orchestra) that takes place during the regular school day and is at least three years old. If your school offers Orff/classroom music only, it is not eligible to apply. Continue Reading

The deadline for teachers to apply for the Next-Generation Academies for the Integration of the Arts and World Languages has been extended two weeks to April 29. Two Academies are being offered:

• June 17-21 Integrating the Arts and World Languages
  Languages: Spanish and Japanese
  Location: Jesse Stuart Elementary School in Madisonville
• June 24-28 Integrating the Arts and World Languages
  Languages: Spanish and French
  Location: Danville High School in Danville

Note: preference will be given to teachers who apply as a team from the same school, in which the team consists of an arts teacher and a world language teacher. Teachers attending will receive a stipend of $500. The workshops will be hands-on, standards based and fully integrated, bringing together the arts, world languages and cultural studies.

The application is available online. For questions, contact Jeff Jamner at (502) 562-0703 or jjamner@kentuckycenter.org (e-mail preferred).

The Kentucky Science Teachers Association (KSTA) is accepting session proposals for its annual KSTA Conference at the Lexington Center and Lexington Hyatt Regency Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

The theme is Next Generation Science…NOW! and includes strands on the Next-Generation Science Standards; Science Literacy Reading and Writing; and Integrated Engineering Practices. Those interested can go to the KSTA website and click on one of the banners on the homepage to download a session proposal form.

The due date for conference proposals is May 31. Membership and conference forms also are available on the KSTA website.