Teacher Times #21
March 4, 2013

Pic Of The Week

Professional Development and Student Opportunities

Professional development and student opportunities are posted on the PD and Student Opportunities page. This week’s highlights include:

§  Attend on February 28: Experience Eternal Echoes at Barclays Center
§  Apply by March 1: Summer Programs in Engineering for High School Students
§  Register by March 4: Children's Museum of Manhattan Parent Series—Bedtime Strategies
§  Register by March 6:  A South Bronx Outreach Project with NYC Coalition Against Hunger
§  Participate on March 6: Read It Forward on World Read Aloud Day
§  Open March 8–9: NYC FIRST Mega Celebration
§  Register by March 12: From Crisis to Community—Lessons Learned from 9/11
§  Participate on March 13: Teacher Workshop– Implementing a Successful Elementary Science Fair
§  Register by March 14: Mentor & Tutor Young Children in East Harlem
§  Participate on March 25–29: 2012 STEM Matters DNA Science Camp
§  Attend in March or April: Therapeutic Crisis Intervention Course for Principals
§  Participate in March or April: Developing Science Literacy Performance Tasks for 6th Grade Weather Unit
§  Apply Now: British American Business Foundation Scholarship

Agency Ceremony

School Events Board

 If you noticed last week, there is now a whiteboard next to where the punch in/out machine is outside of the office. This is an effort to try and make it as convenient for you as possible to update myself and staff with any school events that are happening for the month, in case we missed it VIA EMAIL. It is also a way to book a school editor, radio reporter, or photographer for one of your trips if you would choose to. 
What to do...

1. Write it: Literally write on the board the event you're having. Follow my example, it's the first written in event. All events should be approved by Ron, so use this wall after approval. This wall is more of a request for a student group to cover your event or as an informative wall for the staff.
2. No Space Use the paper and pins: If there is no space then simply write your event on the post it with the request in advanced. 

Remember the wall is just one of several ways you can inform the school of your events. I still think emailing is the best way to facilitate this, but for those of you who would like to simply have a place to write down your events and requests, please use the wall. If you would like to have your events posted on the blog or website, please email me or Mr. Link with the event and the proper information. Thank you

Distribution of Teacher's Choice Funds

The Teacher's Choice Program provides an opportunity for teachers to purchase instructional materials and supplies for use in their classrooms. The second round of Teacher’s Choice funds will be distributed this week. Participants enrolled in direct deposit should have received their allocation on February 25; participants who are not enrolled in direct deposit will receive a debit card with their paycheck on February 28. This distribution is intended to provide funds to participants who were reported as being mistakenly excluded in the initial distribution of funds in December; to be included in this distribution, notification was due to the Teacher’s Choice Program office on February 1.

The third, and final, distribution of Teacher’s Choice funds for eligible staff who have not been included thus far will occur at the end of May. If you identify any staff members who were mistakenly excluded from earlier distributions, you should email specialprojects@schools.nyc.gov  by April 3.

For additional information or assistance, contact the Teacher’s Choice Program at specialprojects@schools.nyc.gov or 718-935-3304.

Grant Opportunities

Grant opportunities are posted on the Grants website (you can visit the page on any computer using this link). This week’s highlights include:

§  Free Letter Writing Boot Camp
§  USA Today Education Grant