Kristen Sloan Named First News Liaison of the Month by DCCO

Kristen Sloan, a sixth grade teacher at Forestville, has been named the first News Liaison of the Month by the Department of Communications and Community Outreach (DCCO). This new recognition program rewards school news liaisons for submitting newsworthy media tips and creative photographs. Sloan’s Media Tips submission about her alter ego, Perfectly Perplexed Priscilla, was picked up by the Great Falls Connection. To play the character, Sloan dons a dark wig and feather boa; she appears on the Forestville afternoon television show to encourage students to use critical thinking and problem solving skills to decipher problems. 

Sloan also submitted two photos for the home page of the FCPS web site. The first, which featured students holding their voting cards during an SCA election, was featured in an election day slide show on the FCPS home page.  Another photo featuring students acting out a story by visiting British author F. E. Higgins will be featured on the home page in the near future. Sloan, who just began her third year as a classroom teacher, received a $25 gift card from Starbucks for being named October’s News Liaison of the Month. 

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FCPS Teaching Channel 11 Moves to Channel 99

Effective November 18, FCPS Teaching Channel 11 became FCPS Teaching Channel 99 and moved to Channel 99 on the Cox Cable system. All programming and air times will remain the same without interruption. No additional equipment or changes, other than tuning your cable box or cable ready television set to Channel 99, will be necessary to view FCPS Teaching Channel 99. 

Fairfax County Public Schools operates three open cable TV channels—21, 25, and 99 (previously 11)—to serve the community. Funded mostly by franchise funds from Cox Communications, with additional funds from Comcast Communications and Verizon, these channels provide residents news and educational information on shows such as “SchoolScene,” “Insight,” and “Meet the Author.” FCPS also operates three closed channels, 85, 86 and 87, that can only be viewed by administrators and teachers. These closed channels offer administrative exchanges and supplemental programming, as well as the FCPS electronic classroom courses.

Several FCPS-produced news and information and curriculum-based programs also air regionally in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., area on broadcast television, Direct TV, and the Dish Network via the MHz Networks—an independent media group that has partnered with Fairfax County Public Schools. Visit MHz at http://www.mhznetworks.org for program descriptions and air times.

For more information about Fairfax County Public Schools public information and educational TV programming, visit http://www.fcps.edu/cable.htm.

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FCPS Spring Academy Catalog Available Online December 8

The FCPS Spring Academy catalog will be available online beginning December 8 at http://www.fcps.edu/plt/catalogs.htm.

Online registration for Academy courses will be available beginning January 5, 2009. All employees must register through My PLT. 

Follow these steps to use My PLT for the first time:

1. Go to http://www.fcps.edu/plt/MyPLT/index.html.
2. Click on the LOGIN button.
3. Type your FCPS domain name in the username field.
4. Type the same domain name in the password field.
5. Click on the LOGIN button.
6. You will be prompted to type a new password with a maximum length of 8 characters.

If you have problems with your user name or password, contact the IT Service Desk at 703-503-1600 or ITServiceDesk@fcps.edu.

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Nomination Deadline for Principal and Teacher of the Year Awards Is December 12

Nominations are now open for the 2008-09 Teacher and Principal of the Year Awards. Due to changes from the Washington Post, the sponsor of these awards, the nomination periods for Teacher and Principal of the Year are now concurrent and the deadline for both is December 12.

For nomination forms and more information, including information about other FCPS employee awards, visit the Employee Awards web site at www.fcps.edu/DHR/employees/awards/index.htm.

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Critical Teaching Fields Identified for 2009-10

The critical teaching fields for the 2009-10 school year are:

• Family and Consumer Science.
• Mathematics.
• Occupational Therapist.
• Physics.
• Speech Therapist.
• Special Education (All Areas).
• Technology Education.

Undergraduate courses begun during the year in which a field was identified as critical will be honored for additional salary credit during subsequent years. These courses must be taken after the conferral of a bachelor’s degree. Credit for the courses will be given when the critical endorsement field is added to the Virginia license. Teachers should contact the licensure office with questions.

Additional information can be found in Regulation 4621.4. 

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Fall WebStar Winners Announced

The new FCPS WebStar Awards (previously known as the Best Practices Awards) will be awarded three times each year by the Department of Communications and Community Outreach to the web curators of three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school for school web sites that best demonstrate the following criteria:

• Usefulness of content.
  
• Clarity of design.
  
• Ease of navigation.
  
• Adherence to FCPS web policies.

The fall WebStar winners are:

• Amy McFarlin and Amy Burk, Spring Hill Elementary.
• Sejal Parekh, Hybla Valley Elementary.
• Melinda Snyder, Hayfield Elementary.
• Heather Dorman, Cooper Middle.
• Anne McCracken, Mount Vernon High.

Nominations will be gathered during the months of September, December, and March, and all FCPS school and department web curators will vote on the entire list of nominees. All WebStar winners will automatically be eligible for the Best of the Web awards, to be given in May.

For more information, contact Nancy Moy at nancy.moy@fcps.edu or 571-423-1221.

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