Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Contents

ESL Praxis Practice Classes – for All Administrators
STAR Teacher Nominations ??? Due December 10th – for All Administrators
Hour of Code??? – for All Administrators
Kidzone Open and Close Dates (Winter Break) – for District staff and Kidzone Parents

ESL Praxis Practice Classes

From Kristen Scott

Principals,

Please forward this link to your staff. We are gathering information on when to specifically have Praxis Practice Classes and need to also know who is interested. We need this first step completed by December 11th.

http://goo.gl/forms/vMCoR91JVi

STAR Teacher Nominations ??? Due December 10th

From Gail Taylor
Many thanks to all of you that have submitted your STAR Teacher nominations.

Requirements for STAR Teacher:
The teacher must have a minimum of five years of teaching experience, strong pedagogy, should have professional affiliations and be involved in the community through service or volunteer programs. The five years of teaching experience that we list on the application is a combination of USD#500 and the state of Kansas teaching experience.
The teacher should be exceptionally skilled, dedicated, and inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn.
The candidate should have the respect and admiration of students, parents, and colleagues and should play an active and useful role in the community as well as in the school.
The award carries with it a number of public appearances; therefore, the nominee should be poised, articulate, and possess the energy to with stand a busy schedule.
The nominee must be committed to serving as a leader in efforts to improve schools, student performance, and the teaching profession in Kansas.
The state nominees must be classroom teachers; however, the district STAR teachers can be licensed professionals covered by the teachers bargaining unit (such as librarians, counselors, school nurses, speech language pathologists, school psychologists, occupational therapists, etc.).

December 10th will be here before we know it; please remember we need only the names at this time.

STAR Teacher Nomination Form

Hour of Code???

From Julie Leach
Next week is the ‘Hour of Code??????! The ‘Hour of Code???’ is a worldwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and computer programming during the week of December 7-11.

I am excited to announce that KCKPS has over 125 teachers participating in ‘Hour of Code?????? sometime next week. We would love for you to get out, if time permits, go to a class and code with them! Feel free to take a laptop or iPad if you have one available.

Please click on the link below for a spreadsheet of participating classrooms. The spreadsheet will include school, teacher and time of event. Be aware, the list does not include all the teachers who have signed up via the ‘Hour of Code?????? website and list is constantly changing, so check back often.

KCKPS Participating Classrooms
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uuKsX1ccADroP1xkO1xbxL_QwRJYvcuzqx3Oe8LqBuA/edit?usp=sharing

Again, I am so excited so many of our students will be exposed to computer science this next week!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Julie

Julie Leach
21st Century Teacher Leader
Kansas City, KS Public Schools
Julie.leach@kckps.org

Kidzone open and close dates (Winter Break)

From Daryel Garrison
This notice is to inform district staff and Kidzone parents. Kidzone will be closed from Monday, December 21st, 2015 through January 1st. Kidzone will resume on Monday, January 4th, 2016.