Virginia School Leaders 4th Annual Conference
This conference is for Superintendents, Principals, Central Office and other School Leaders and was held on June 21, 2021 from 8:00 am to 3:05 pm.
Western Virginia Public Education Consortium concluded the fourth annual Virginia Schools Leaders Hot Topics Conference! We were in the new Pulaski County Middle School.. Thank you to Dr. Kevin Siers and Ms. Rebecah Smith for their hospitality.
A brief outline of the day follows with the availability of the PowerPoint presentations.
First session: Equity.
Dr. Karen Eley Sanders, Vice Provost for College Access at Virginia Tech
Presentation is available below
Dr. Kenna Colley, Executive Director of Pupil Services, Radford City Public Schools
Presentation is available below.
Second session: Roundtable Presentations
Ms Holly Coy - "Cultural Competency" Contact Ms Coy at holly.coy@doe.virginia.gov
Mr. Rusty Fairheart - "Pandemic Relief Funding" Contact this office.
Annie Whitaker, Jonathan Shulz, and Dominck F. McKee - "Alternate Routes to Licensure" Contact Ms Whitaker at anniewhitaker@mcps.org .
The final session was an update on current legal issues in public education.
Micah B Schwarz - "Recent Developments in Education Law" - Contact this office
Professional Development: For the Love of Literacy
WVPEC & Simply Achieve Present "For the Love of Literacy: A Story to Share" on April 21st at 12:30 t
COVID19 has taught educators everywhere the importance of social and emotional health. In this high energy workshop you will discover fun and new ways to engage students and provide them with tools to address some of their emotional challenges. Reading to children, provides a wonderful opportunity to develop social and emotional competencies. In this session, educators will learn strategies for using stories to stimulate critical thinking and perspective-taking skills and allow children to make connections to real life events.
Workshop Objectives:
- Recognize the importance of developing children's social emotional learning skills through shared reading.
- Identify techniques for engaging children in shared book reading.
- Identify approaches for encouraging children to gain deeper meaning from the stories they hear.
- Engage with colleagues around the state.
- LEAVE the workshop with SUPER cool tools you can use in your classroom the next day!
Professional Development: Inspiring K-5 STEM Activities
Inspiring
Join Dr. Rod Brame and the WVPEC for this virtual learning session
COMPLETED
Wednesday March 24, 2021
12:30 to 3:30 p.m. (K-5)
How are we going to inspire students to be excited about learning Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math?Dr. Roderic Brame shares:
- K-5 Integrated STEM Lessons,
- the need for making STEM education meaningful, and
- ways to optimize STEM education.
- Several “Hands-On Minds-On” student centered activities that integrate STEM are provided along with how to adapt them for different grades and learners.
Dr. Brame is an expert in providing positive, engaging, and meaningful experiences in STEM for schools across the country. He leads by example and spends many days in elementary school classrooms giving inspiring STEM lessons for students. He is a product of Radford University and Virginia Tech and has taught many Science Methods and Integrated STEM education courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Establishing programs that inspire innovation, invention, and Engineering Design in K-5 education are key initiatives advocated by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Brame incorporates these initiatives in cutting edge efforts to optimize STEM education at every level of teaching and learning. Elementary school is an especially important level to engage students in inquiry and design thinking because they are some of the most intellectually developing years. These wonderful and valuable experiences have the potential to advance student achievement especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
