Kentucky Teacher

The Office of Career and Technical Education (CTE) has received a grant from the National Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) to provide technical assistance and professional development to districts to work with non-traditional students in the STEM programs.

NAPE sent applications for the professional development grants to the district CTE coordinators on January 7. For any questions regarding the application, contact Karla Tipton at (502) 564-4286 or karla.tipton@education.ky.gov.

The second annual TALK (Teaching Advocates Leading Kentucky) Conference has been scheduled June 16-17 in Louisville.

As a reminder, here is a flyer that can be printed and displayed.  Please help get the word out about this gathering for, by and about teachers.

The Student Voice Survey will be administered March 19 – April 2.

All teachers in the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES) pilot must participate. Districts are encouraged to include all teachers in the district in preparation for full implementation of the survey in 2014-2015.

A Student Voice Toolkit is now available to assist schools and districts in successfully completing the PGES Student Voice Survey. The Toolkit is located on the Student Voice web page and contains guidance documents, frequently asked questions and sample documents. The toolkit will be updated intermittently with timely information regarding survey preparation, administration and results.

Applications for the Minority Superintendent Internship Program (MSIP) are now being accepted.

The MSIP is designed to identify and train a pool of highly qualified and highly effective minority education leaders poised to transition into superintendent positions in Kentucky public school districts.  The two-year program provides opportunities for leadership development and training as candidates are supported and mentored by Kentucky’s successful superintendents and education leaders.

The MSIP application portfolio packet is available online.  The deadline for applications is 4:30 p.m. ET on Monday, January 30.  For more information, contact Jennifer Baker, Jennifer.baker@education.ky.gov, in the Division of Next Generation Professionals Diversification and Equity Branch.

The next PGES webcast is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 15. This webcast, previously scheduled to air on Dec. 13, will provide specific information on scaling the PGES work to full implementation, a pilot implementation check-in, an overview of new features to be released in EDS, and addressing frequently asked questions from the field.

The live webcast may be viewed via mms://video1.education.ky.gov/encoder3a. This webcast and all archived KDE webcasts can be found on the KDE Media Portal.

The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress.

The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to the study of Congress. Since 1978, the Congressional Research Grants program has invested more than $915,136 to support more than 425 projects. Applications are accepted at any time, but the deadline is March 1, 2014, for the annual selections, which are announced in April.

The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public  administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible.

The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their  dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who reside in the United States.

Organizations are not eligible. Research teams of two or more individuals are  eligible. No institutional overhead or indirect costs may be claimed against a Congressional Research Grant.

All proposals must be received no later than March 1, 2014.

Click here for an application or go to www.dirksencongressionalcenter.org for more information.

A call for proposals has been made for educator presentations at the 2014 Kentucky History Education Conference set for July 10, 2014 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in Frankfort.

This year’s conference will be based around the 2014-15 National History Day theme: Leadership and Legacy in History.

Educators who have innovative classroom practices (especially involving primary sources) are encouraged to submit a proposal to present and share their ideas. Those interested need to e-mail a short abstract (up to 200 words) and resume to Tim Talbott by April 11, 2014. Accepted presenters will have their conference fee waived and lunch provided.

For more information, contact Tim Talbott at (520) 564-1792, ext. 4428.

The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) has shifted to its winter operating schedule.

From Dec. 15, 2103, to March 7, 2014, the KHS history campus – Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, the Old State Capitol and the Kentucky Military History Museum at the State Arsenal – will be open to groups of 10 or more with an advance registration.

The sites are closed to walk-in visitors during winter operations, except on Jan. 11 and Feb.8.

Groups can call (502) 564-1792, ext. 4424 for advance reservations (seven days in advance is preferred).

Focusing on group visits during the winter – when walk-in traffic is typically lower – allows KHS staff to concentrate its efforts on processing the society’s 500,000 museum and special collections.

All other KHS services will be available throughout the winter season, including:

• Second Saturday genealogy workshops, in partnership with the Kentucky Genealogical Society, on Jan. 11 and Feb. 8. The entire      KHS history campus will be open to walk-in visitors these days. Continue Reading

To enforce stronger security measures, the KDE CIITS administrator will reset all educator CIITS user passwords Dec. 21.

After that, the next time you attempt to log in to CIITS, you will be prompted to reset your password. You will also receive an e-mail reminder to reset your password after Saturday.

Your CIITS password should contain a lowercase letter (a, b, c,); an uppercase letter (A, B, C,); and at least one number (1, 2, 3,). One way to create a strong password is by using a passphrase that is easy for you to remember, randomly capitalize various letters and turn some letters into numbers. As an example, take the phrase “CIITS Is Great” and change it to “CiitsIsGreat.” Next, turn some letters into numbers, such as “C11ts1sGr3at.” This is only an example; please do not use this as your password.

Student passwords will not be affected.

December 6th was the due date for districts to respond to let KDE know their intent to participate in Operation Preparation 2014 during the month of March.

If your district has not done so, please have the Operation Preparation contact person(s) fill out the following survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OPPOC2014to indicate the school’s/district’s intent to participate.  Even if your district does not plan on participating, we’d like to know that too, although I hope that is not the case.

Advising is a key strategy in reaching the goal that all districts have set of increasing their students’ college- and career-readiness rates by 50 percent by 2015.  In 2013, 114 districts participated in Operation Preparation; we hope that all of Kentucky’s 8th- and 10th- grade students will have the opportunity to participate in 2014.

Please visit the Operation Preparation webpage for a variety of helpful documents such as: a Planning and Support Toolkit, a Toolkit for Students with Unique Needs, an Advisor Recruitment Toolkit, a Communication and Promotion Toolkit and various other resources created to help schools implement Operation Preparation.