NCVPS/LEO Strategic Plan

Follow this link to see the NCVPS/LEO Strategic Plan.

Curriculum and Instruction Celebrations

NCVPS Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to Emily Parrish who has been selected to be the 2010 NCVPS Teacher of the Year!

Emily is a Credit Recovery and OCS teacher as well as the Credit Recovery Department Chair. Her nomination has been sent to SREB to put her in the running for the National Online Teacher of the Year. I know you will all join me in congratulating Emily!

We also want to congratulate the following individuals for being nominated by their peers for this honor:

Beth Wolz, Rebecca Stone-Danahy, Kendra Gallos, John Spicer, Stephanie Thurow, Heather Yungbluth, Robin Filter, Karen Carroll, Maguy Yancey, Jose Sequera, Elizabeth Lovelady-Alfonso, Celine Ascas-Wormhood, John Chen, Kim Small, Dolka Vindas, and Consuelo Schwatrz.


National Art Education Award

We are excited to announce that Rebecca Stone-Danahy, one of our Digital Photography teachers, has been named the National Art Education Association National Art Honor Society Sponsor of the Year!! This is also exciting because last year’s recipient was Arts Department Chair, Debra Pylypiw. Back-to-back honors for NCVPS AND North Carolina Art Educators.

LOCK Session: NCVPS's Funding Formula

John Brim, NCVPS's Chief Operation's Officer, discusses the NCVPS funding formula.

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP, EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

[Blog post by Melissa Davis, Virtual Learning Consultant]

Interestingly, during this time of economic hardship, many best practices in e-Learning have emerged in North Carolina’s public schools. During recent site visits throughout Region 4, I witnessed educators who have embraced the digital learning era and are providing students with optimal access to online and blended learning opportunities. Many factors have influenced this shift in educating our young people. Perhaps the economic downturn forced educators to reevaluate modes of delivery, cost effectiveness of various programs, and implement best practices that are supported by data that tracks student success.

High flying districts across the state have embraced the digital age and are providing students with a variety of learning opportunities through the use of blended and online instruction. In my recent visits to Gaston County Public Schools, Union County Public Schools and Charlotte-Mecklenberg Public Schools, I noted several common threads in this paradigm shift taking place in education today.

Around the World in One Hour: A World Language Tour with NCVPS

Catch the tour here! This is the archive from Nov. 30 where NCVPS presented a webinar that give parents and schools a primer on what NCVPS offers, why world languages are critical to 21st-century future-ready students, and why NCVPS is a leader in online world languages.

The Virtual Advantage Digest highligts our recent blogs, tweets, bookmarks, check ins, e-lerts, and social mentions. Read the Nov. 29 Digest here.

Latin Culture Cafe Session Nov. 18

Check out the Latin Culture Cafe Session at the NCVPS Culture Cafe. This archived session was live on November 18th. The event was hosted by NCVPS teachers Lisa Stanioch, Robin Farber, Frank Williams, and Tom Sears. Former and current students joined in the discussion.

Watch the archived session here:

Follow the link to SchoolTube here.

Curriculum and Instruction Celebrations

Congrats to the C+I team on their most recent success!

Culture Cafe

On November 16th our former Spanish student Brandon J. presented in Spanish and English "La Comida Típica de las Comunidades de España". 30 students participated actively in the session. Brandon took Spanish I through IV with NCVPS. He is actually studying Chinese I with NCVPS and teaching himself Italian! He is going to present another Culture Café session for his Chinese class. We are proud of Brandon!


National Boards

Congratulations to Andrea Stewart and Lorie Poff who got their National Boards renewal. Congratulations to health teacher Sonya Smith who passed her National Boards.

Karen Ragazzo (AP GOovt.), David Phillips (AP Euro), and Frank Felicelli (AP Euro) have met and passed all of the requirements for their National Board Certification.

District Recognition

Anthony Barton (African American Studies) was chosen as the Certified Employee of the Month for the Public Schools Of Robeson County.

History Department

Matt McLean (World History) paid a visit to his students at West Montgomery High School on November 4th. He got the chance to meet his students and they got the chance to meet their teacher face to face!


NC Science Teachers Association Conference

At the NC Science Teachers Association Conference, Carrie Jones won the election for Treasurer, and Sam Wheeler won the District Director election for Wake and its surrounding counties. Congratulations to both Carrie and Sam.


CTE Department

Congratulations to the Early Calendar Success 101 team who had 3 sections with a 100% and 2 sections with 97% Pass Rate.

Congratulations to the Early Calendar Health team. Their final grade for the 9 week course was 96%.


The Arts

The North Carolina Poet Laureate, Cathy Bowers was in Residency with the Advanced Placement Music Theory course. The Poet Laureate discussed the use of metaphor and the use of an abiding image. Tom Moncrief, AP Music Theory teacher, used the music of Beethoven to illustrate the use of the musical motif in relationship to the key components of the literary arts. This Virtual Residency was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council. Great example of using our Wimba Tools to bring this exciting opportunity to our courses.

The North Carolina Art Education Association recently held its annual Professional Development Conference in New Bern. Many of our teachers were selected to give presentations. These included Debra Pylypiw, Rebecca Stone-Danahy, Michelle Harrell, and Sara Gant.

Birth Announcement

Congratulations to our own Ann Spencer! Ann teaches CR Physical Science and her family has expanded by one. Asa Ray Spencer was born at 10:55 PM on November 20th. Asa was 8 pounds and 3 ounces, 20 inches long. Everyone is doing great!

Around the World in One Hour: A World Language Tour with NCVPS

NCVPS will be presenting a webinar to give parents and schools a primer on what NCVPS offers, why world languages are critical to 21st-century future-ready students, and why NCVPS is a leader in online world languages.

DATES:
 Tuesday, November 30 at 8:00 pm
 Thursday, December 9 at 8:00 pm

LOG ON INFO:
Access via the web at -
http://ncvpsclassroom.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=_ncvps_s__4100_1_883357

PIN number for conference – 15007821

Call In Access – (201) 549-7595
* Use same PIN number for phone access.

Modular Learning

The modular learning concept was born from this question: "Why should we wait until a students fail a course to offer them credit recovery help?" Now when students fall behind in a course, schools can now enroll them into any one of our 24 modules from English, math, digital communications, and science courses. Students will have the opportunity to master the module's concept (usually over a 1-2 week period) and catch back up with their peers in class.

Right now modular courses are open just to pilot districts, but they will be offered statewide in Spring 2011.

Watch the Flypaper presentation here: http://www.ncvps.org/preso/Modular%20Blended%20Learning/

Thanks to Jennifer Nobles, one of our modular learning specialists, for the great presentation.

Virtual Advantage Digest for Nov. 12, 2010

The Virtual Advantage Digest highligts our recent blogs, tweets, bookmarks, check ins, e-lerts, and social mentions. Click here to see the digest.

NCVPS OCS Courses: Blending Learning

Michelle Lourcey, our Director for Credit Recovery and Occupational Course of Study, discusses NCVPS OCS courses for Spring 11.

Please follow the two links below to view the archives for the Nov. 9 presentation. The third link takes you to our OCS page.

1) OCS Blended Learning Part 1: Michelle gives an overview of the program and gives numerous testimonials from the pilot districts.

http://www.schooltube.com/video/71262ea7f4aecc0552ad/OCS-Part-1

2) OCS Blended Learning Part 2: Michelle explains how to register for OCS courses and what training is involved for the classroom EC teacher.

http://www.schooltube.com/video/3e275d869bea24e5424f/OCS-Part-2

3) Here's the link to our OCS information page. Schools will need to complete the survey before they can register for OCS courses. The survey will be available on Nov. 15.

http://www.ncvps.org/courses/ocs/