masthead updated
Issue: #22February 2012
In This Issue
Featured Article
STEM Fair Winners
CA eLearning Framework
Mental Health Grant
SMCOE Construction
Facebook Here We Come
 STEM Fair
Featured Article
Winners at the County STEM Fair display their projects. 

STEM Fair Highlights Talents of San Mateo County Students

  

 

The Hiller Aviation Museum was filled with the buzz of hundreds of students talking science at the San Mateo County Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics STEM Fair(STEM) Fair at the beginning of February. More than 300 students (5th through 12th grade) entered projects, from close to 40 public and private schools throughout San Mateo County. The projects were in the categories of: technology, engineering, materials; biological; behavioral/health/social; physical; earth/space/environmental; and mathematics.

 

This was the 25th anniversary for what began as the annual countywide Science Fair, then became the Science and Math Fair, and has now been re-focused as the STEM Fair.

 

Winning projects included Karen Chee's "The Secret Table," a project investigating number theory (San Mateo High School; High School Math 1st Place and High School Scholarship ); Ian Bennett's valve-less pulsejet engine that maintains a self-sustained periodic combustion process (Sacred Heart Prep; High School Engineering 1st Place and Hiller Aviation award ); and Ariele and Ben Ladabaum's "San Carlos Teens Solve the National Debt Crisis" - a project that explains a graduated income tax and how it would work (Central Middle School; 8th Grade Behavioral 1st Place).

 

More than 100 volunteer scientists, engineers, doctors and other professionals from companies throughout the Bay Area, including Genentech, Gilead, Kaiser Permanente, Life Technologies, Oracle, Amgen, Electronic Arts, San Mateo County Fair, and Wells Fargo, served as judges for the awards. A special awards ceremony was held on February 3 at the Hiller Aviation Museum.
 

In addition to the STEM Fair awards, several organizations, including the Hiller Aviation Museum, RecycleWorks, Electronic Arts, Association of Women Geologists (AWG), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Audubon Society, San Mateo County Outdoor Education, and San Mateo County Water Pollution Prevention, also gave out special awards focused on their fields of interest. Representatives from these organizations were on hand to present these awards, and many served as judges as well.

 

Winning projects will now go on to the Bay Area and State Science Fairs.

 

 

California eLearning Framework Provides Guidance for Learning in the Digital Age

   

  

iPads, tablets, digital textbooks, online learning, blended learning and the list goes on--the explosion in eLearning options and directions can be bewildering to teachers, administrators and students. To help school districts forge a path through the abundance of choices in digital media and curriculum, the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) has created the California eLearning Framework.

 

 "The framework doesn't tell districts what digital media to buy or what type of program to implement but rather provides questions to ask, and guidance on how to make decisions," notes Lorrie Owens, Administrator, Information Technology Services, at SMCOE. Both Lorrie Owens and Gary Waddell, Deputy Superintendent, Instructional Services, have been involved on CCSESA subcommittees that worked on drafting the framework.

 

Online learning refers to teacher-led instruction, delivered primarily via the Internet that includes software to provide a structured learning environment, and where the student and teacher are separated geographically. Blended learning is defined as students learning at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home, and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.

 

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Center, under the leadership of Christi Harter, and currently under construction at SMCOE, will be the hub for eLearning in the county. At the STEM Center, SMCOE staff will have the opportunity to do professional development through webinars and video conferencing. (See related article on SMCOE construction projects in this e-newsletter.)

 

At SMCOE, Christi Harter,Lorrie Owens, Sandy Somera, Educational Technology Coordinator, and Carol Quigley, Network Services Manager, recently gave presentations on the eLearning Framework to district curriculum leaders, technology directors and coordinators, as well as district chief business officials and SMCOE managers.

 

Some questions that districts will need to consider include whether the eLearning program will be self-paced or cohort-based, open entry/open exit; what the goals are for individualizing the program to meet student needs; and whether to buy, build, license or employ a mix for content acquisition.

 

"Two key principles of the California eLearning Framework are that digital media need to be curriculum based, focusing on the needs of students, and technology staff need to be involved in the decision-making process from the beginning," adds Owens. Schools need to consider their technology infrastructure needs, and what devices will be used. Choices need to be viable and sustainable.

 

Two upcoming professional development sessions at SMCOE will delve deeper into eLearning and the California eLearning Framework. On February 28, at "Blended-Learning Curriculum Options," district personnel will have the opportunity to learn and develop uses of Open Education resources, including Khan Academy, OER Commons, PBS and online textbook resources. On March 23, there will be a California eLearning Framework District Planning session for district staff to begin development of their district's/school's blended and online learning plan.

 

 

Learn more about the CA eLearning Framework and related professional development opportunities at SMCOE here.

 

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CalMHSA Grant Fosters Collaboration Among Schools and Mental Health Agencies

   

 

Early identification and prevention, and streamlined access to mental health services for K-8 students is the focus of a $14,802,917 three-year statewide grant the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) recently awarded to the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA).

 

The grant, divided up among the 58 county offices of education throughout the state, is designed to promote collaboration among schools, mental health partner agencies and prevention service providers. The Marin County Office of Education is leading the efforts in this region and the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) will receive $102,578 over a three-year period from this grant.

 

 

"With this grant, our role is not to provide direct services," notes Mefula Fairley, Director, Compliance, Assessment and Special Projects at SMCOE. "We're focusing on providing the infrastructure for cross-system collaboration between local health agencies and schools, and promoting the best practices for getting students access to the services they need."

 

With the help of this grant, SMCOE staff will be providing training and technical assistance to school district staff around mental health, early identification, and anti-bullying initiatives. "We hope to tie this grant money into the anti-bullying initiative that is already in place at SMCOE, " adds Fairley. "Our other goal is to increase the number of agencies participating county-wide in early identification and prevention efforts."

 

One of the objectives of the grant is to have K-12 education agencies engage and provide input to the county's existing Mental Health Plan. SMCOE and local school districts will be working closely with the San Mateo County Health System in the review and updates to the plan.

 

The first step in the process is to conduct a baseline survey of current cross-system collaborative activities so that progress in this area can be measured over the next three years.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Upgrades and New Construction Bring State Of the Art  Facilities to SMCOE  

   

  

The sounds of buzz saws and jackhammers have become familiar at three San Mateo County Office of Education facilities where upgrades and new construction are near completion. The completed projects, made possible through deferred maintenance funds, will provide updated enhanced learning environments to serve students and staff.

  

At the County Office of Education, the

STEM Center
Construction is underway for the new STEM Center at SMCOE.

new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Center, which has been in the planning since March 2011, is beginning to take shape and is due to be completed by mid-April. It will have state-of-the-art tools including a video conference room, Web-enabled cameras for webinars, data connections for 22 computer connections and data access, interactive white boards, SMART boards and two 52-inch flat screen TV monitors to be used with Web-enabled cameras.

 

"Once complete, it will allow us to meet our County Office goal of being the premier provider of professional development for STEM," says Denise Porterfield, Deputy Superintendent, Fiscal and Operational Services Division, who has been overseeing the construction along with STEM Center Director Christi Harter.

  

At the Early Childhood Education (ECE) site at Tower Road in San Mateo, a new infant playground has been installed with ADA compliant playground equipment, making it fully accessible to young children with special needs. The old playground dated back to the 1950s and was in need of a makeover. In addition to a new tricycle path, sandbox, and tables for outdoor activities, the grass area is now flat and fenced in, making it more accessible for wheelchairs and students with disabilities.

 

Two new portables have replaced old ones at the Commodore School site in San Bruno, which serves K-12 special education students in county special day classes. The newly refurbished portables have complete kitchens with microwave ovens, stoves and dishwashers, and upgraded electrical wiring. Each portable has its own bathroom, and the d�cor includes more modern blue, white and gray colors. Both are ADA compliant with ramps, two exits and entrances. "These portables provide a much better environment for our workability program for teaching life skills," notes Porterfield. "In the planning stage, we engaged the staff to figure out what features would be most desirable in these new units."

 

"All of these construction projects demonstrate that the County Office of Education is making a commitment to our kids and the programs we provide for them, insuring they will be the best that they can be," adds Porterfield.

 

 

 

 

SMCOE Provides Leadership in Transition to Common Core State Standards

   

 

Since California adopted the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics in August 2010, instructional services staff at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) have been busily working toward implementation of these standards, both at the state and county level. While the standards are in place now, the next several years will see accompanying new curriculum frameworks, instructional materials, and assessments developed.

 

A first step in the process was the creation of a statewide toolkit to be used in training for Common Core Standards implementation. The process began last April and was completed in January. Under the auspices of the state-level Curriculum and Instruction Steering Committee of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) that created the toolkit, SMCOE instructional services staff Gary Waddell, Lori Musso, Mefula Fairley, and April Cherrington were integrally involved in the crafting of these statewide professional development materials.

 

"The toolkit provides a step-by-step process for implementation of the Common Core State Standards," notes SMCOE Deputy Superintendent Waddell."More than 40 county office content specialists participated in creating this detailed document which gives an overview of the Common Core State Standards, describes what is new and different about the standards, and begins to explore what quality instruction should look like when implementing the Common Core."

 

The Common Core State Standards were written to ensure that students meet college and career expectations, are provided a vision of what it means to be an academically literate person in the twenty-first century, are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society, and are provided with rigorous content and applications of higher knowledge through higher order thinking skills.

 

On March 12, a training of trainers on the Common Core will take place at SMCOE. More than 100 County Office of Education trainers from throughout the state will come to learn about the toolkit at this sold-out event. In May, SMCOE curriculum services staff will conduct training sessions in English Language Arts and Mathematics for San Mateo County school district teams. The first session will be held May 17 and 18 for elementary staff and the second, for secondary staff, will be held on May 24.

 

"The Common Core State Standards are different from the previous California State Standards," Waddell adds. "They present a bold opportunity to take a new look at what students should know and be able to do, and how we design the type of instruction that gets them there."

 

 

   

 

 

 

Check Us Out on Facebook

   

 

The San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) now has a page on Facebook. We'll be providing frequent updfacebook logoates on SMCOE events and education news of interest, adding groups of interest, and linking to other education organizations. Check us out and "like" us today on Facebook!  
 
Like us on Facebook 

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

About the San Mateo County Office of Education
 
The San Mateo County Office of Education provides a variety of instructional, business and consulting services to the County's twenty-three public school districts, charter schools, the Community College District, and County Office of Education staff.

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