Paying it forward-Bulletin Board

Paying it forward

The Fulton School girls basketball team, along with head coach Denis Shine, spent part of their last week of winter break in January giving back to the community at St. Patrick Center in St. Louis.

Along with stocking food, the team helped with paperwork in both the mental health and housing departments of the St. Patrick Center, a provider of housing, employment and health opportunities for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The center assists more than 9,000 people each year.

 

Peabody Energy Leader

A Chesterfield Day School math teacher received a pleasant surprise last month when she walked into a room at the school and cheering students greeted her with a check for $1,000.

Susan Sullivan was named a Peabody Energy Leader in Education for the 2012-13 school year. Her recognition comes with an award of $1,000 for her compassion and commitment to students.

Sullivan takes the term “math teacher” to a whole new level by incorporating innovative techniques to keep math learning at Chesterfield Day at a high standard. She adopted the Singapore Math curriculum and is responsible for spearheading efforts to allow her students to operate the school’s store, providing hands-on experience in store operations such as purchasing, pricing, managing and selling inventory. Sullivan’s outside-the-box teaching methods helped her students win 13 Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics Awards this year.

The Peabody Energy Leaders in Education program rewards dedicated education professionals, from teachers and coaches to librarians and counselors, who inspire and motivate youth to succeed. A committee of top educators and business leaders throughout the year select the award recipients.

 

Excellence in marketing

The Learning Resources Network, an international association in lifelong learning, honored Rockwood Communication Education for excellence in marketing.

At its annual conference in November, LERN recognized Rockwood Community Education for its rebranding effort launched last year that included a new logo series for all program areas and a redesign of all marketing materials, including the department website, e-newsletter and printed program guide.

“The goal of the rebranding effort was to effectively communicate the variety of programs and services available to residents of the district through Community Education,” said Michael Seppi, Community Education director. “Our Community Education program offers adult education and literacy, aquatics, outdoor education, enrichment, school-age child care, visual and performing arts and youth and adult sports.”

Rockwood Community Education was selected from a field of more than 100 entries from four countries. Selection was based on originality, innovation, appropriateness and adaptability as well as being a leader in the field of lifelong learning. Julie Coates, vice president of Information Services for LERN, said that this year’s award nominees were among the highest quality ever submitted.

 

ROSE Award nominations

The Rockwood School District’s 24th annual ROSE (Rockwood Outstanding Service in Education) Award program is in full bloom, and nominations are being accepted.

The prestigious ROSE Award is bestowed upon individuals who show excellence of character, performance, leadership and service to the Rockwood School District and is presented to a maximum of 15 individuals each year. The 2013 ROSE Awards will be presented on Sunday, May 5, at the DoubleTree Hotel St. Louis at Westport.

To nominate an individual, visit rockwood.k12.mo.us.

Nominees will be notified in early February. The ROSE committee co-chairs will visit each of the ROSE Award recipients with balloons and flowers on Tuesday, March 5, to surprise the honorees with one of the district’s greatest honors.

Top performing district

The Parkway School District is one of the top performing districts in the state of Missouri, according to preliminary data the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released. Parkway earned a 98.2-percent score in the new state rating system. This ranks the district in the top 3 percent of school districts in Missouri.

School districts are rated on: academic achievement, subgroup achievement, college and career readiness, attendance and graduation.

 

Nominate a Pillar for Parkway

Instead of the usual thank you note, bouquet of flowers or box of candy for a special staff member or parent volunteer, parents can give so much more and nominate someone for a Pillar of Parkway award by Friday, Feb. 1.

Pillars of Parkway will be honored on Monday, April 22, at Appreciation Evening, along with Teachers of the Year, retirees and service award recipients.

 

Seeking volunteer judges

The Academy of Science – St. Louis is seeking volunteers with advanced degrees or certification to evaluate collegiate-quality student science projects.

Honors judging consists of a morning round of discipline-specific judges and projects. Judges work in teams with a detailed rubric. The afternoon session is an opportunity for the top 10 students to present and translate their science to an interdisciplinary audience.

Students with award-winning projects receive college scholarships and are invited to attend the Academy’s 2013 Annual Outstanding St. Louis Scientists Awards Dinner, and two students are invited to travel to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix from May 12-17, to represent the Academy of Science – St. Louis Science Fair.

Volunteers must respond by Saturday, Jan. 26. For more information, call (314) 533-8291.

 

Lego champ

For Rossman sixth-grader Divya Srihari, success is about more than winning. Not that the First Lego League Robotics competitor is a stranger to victory. In November, Srihari’s team, “Out of the Bots,” was one of five teams selected at the FLL St. Louis area regional qualifier to advance to the Eastern Missouri State Regional competition. However, Srihari says it was her team’s receipt of the special award for Gracious Professionalism that was the highlight of the experience.

“I was thrilled to be recognized not just for our performance scores but for also exemplifying strong character in a competitive setting,” said Srihari, who has been involved in FLL for two years.

Srihari credits Rossman for nurturing the character development that helped her team win this award.

“I believe that Rossman’s fundamental values of kindness, honesty, respect and responsibility, which are instilled in us from junior kindergarten through sixth grade, guided me throughout the tournament,” she said.

An international robotics program for 9- to 14-year-olds, FLL is designed to get children excited about technology and teach them valuable employment and life skills. In the organization’s annual robotics challenge, teams are judged, in part, on how well they demonstrate the FLL Core Values: gracious professionalism, friendly competition, teamwork, sharing and mutual respect.

The three-part competition also requires teams to create and present an innovative solution to a real-life, science-related problem and put their custom-built and programmed robots to the test in a series of related challenges. In this year’s Senior Solutions Challenge, Srihari’s team addressed medication safety in senior citizens with their Senior Solutions Project and excelled in the Robot Game with its four-wheeled robot called “Roo.”

 

St. Mark’s open house

St. Mark’s Lutheran will host its annual open house on Sunday, Feb. 3 from 1-3 p.m. Families are invited to tour the property, meet St. Mark’s nationally accredited teachers, staff and learn about St. Mark’s Christ-centered educational offerings.

This year, St. Mark’s will offer all new families, kindergarten through eighth grade, 50 percent off their first year’s tuition rate.

For more information call 938-4432 or visit stmlm.org.