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       <title>News and Information: 2010-2011 News Releases</title>
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           <title>CTE at Kettle Run Wins Regional Award</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11789</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[Kettle Run High School’s career and technical education department received a regional “Creating Excellence Award” from Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia Wright, on behalf of Governor Bob McDonnell, at a June 16 ceremony in Richmond. Gov. McDonnell and the Virginia Department of Education this month recognized outstanding programs of the private sector and local educators in creating, improving and promoting CTE programs. Kettle Run’s career and technical education department received the award for its career exploration assignment, a cross-curricular assignment that helps students explore career options while eliminating duplication of efforts among the department’s six teachers.
 
Meaghan Brill, agricultural teacher at KRHS, explained how the project evolved from discussion among her CTE colleagues.

“As a CTE department, the six of us were trying to help our students reach state competencies, some of which related to finding jobs and attaining career skills,” she said. “We realized we were overlapping in what we were doing in our classes so we came together and decided to design one large project that would better prepare our students for a career.”

The assignment is multi-layered. Students begin by researching one job in which they’re interested and writing a one-page paper on it. Secondly, they must prepare a resume, one that is completely factual, Ms. Brill said, reflecting personal experience and accomplishments. Students must write a cover letter to a potential employer; depending on the subject, this step may also include preparation of a portfolio of individual work as well, for instance, photographs of hairstyles rendered by cosmetology students or business cards by graphic design students. Students must fill out a job application and then participate in a mock interview conducted by a CTE teacher who is not their instructor. If students take a CTE course each semester, they have an opportunity to be interviewed twice in a year.

“We have had really positive feedback from it,” said Ms. Brill. “Several students said they have been through more interviews at Kettle Run than their siblings have been through in college.”

In conjunction with the career exploration assignment project, this year the CTE department organized a career fair, inviting businesses and companies representing a wide range of career fields. Students were given the opportunity to ask questions and hear the pros and cons of various professions. Participating in the career fair were Legends Catering, Fauquier Springs, Fauquier Hospital, Fauquier County Extension Service, Designs by Teresa, Shenandoah University, Eldon Farm, CMW Soil Consultants, Department of Defense, F1 Computer Solutions, Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office, Hardwood Artisans, Realty Direct, Virginia Department of Forestry, Campbell Paris Engineering, Bright Eye Designs, M.C. Dean, Jafra Cosmetic Products, Operational Intelligence, Tritek Corporation, Oak View Bank, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Haircuttery, James Madison University, Art Institute, Lord Fairfax Community College and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

“We hope this will help students find something they’re interested in and entice them to think about getting vocational education after high school,” said Ms. Brill. “That was the idea behind the career fair.”

Three of Kettle Run’s CTE teachers – Ms. Brill, Bill Davidson and Karen Frye – along with Sarah Frye, the school division’s instructional supervisor of CTE – attended the June 16 luncheon in Richmond to receive a plaque in honor of their regional award. The other CTE teachers at KRHS are Tanya Smith, Cindi Drakeford and Debbie Toms. Ms. Brill said the six teachers were pleased that their collaborative effort received recognition.

“If our efforts were going to overlap, we thought we should work together and make it bigger – to reach out to our students and find a neat way to do it together,” she said. “Now the challenge is to tweak [the project] and make it even better.”]]>
           </description>
           <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11789</guid>
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           <title>Retired Admiral Recounts Arctic Expedition</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11790</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[“I want to grow up and be like him,” said an Auburn Middle School sixth grader as he filed out of the Forum after hearing retired Rear Admiral Richard Thompson’s exciting account of an Arctic naval expedition of which he was a part. The 79-year-old retired Navy man visited Auburn in May to recount his role in the groundbreaking expedition of the first nuclear submarine through the Northwest Passage in 1960.

Adm. Thompson came at the invitation of Auburn Principal Steve Kadilak, who told the 190 sixth graders, “The story you are going to hear is true, it is part of history, and it is remarkable.”

To set the stage for what the world was like when the historic expedition occurred, Adm. Thompson reminded the Auburn adolescents that 1960 was a time of black and white TV’s, tape recorders with large reels, and cameras with flash bulbs. There was no Dulles Airport, no Disney World, no Busch Gardens and no Kings Dominion, he said. As for the Navy, submarines communicated from ship to shore only via Morse Code. “It was pretty slow, and we had to be close to the surface to do it,” he said. It was during this time that officials in the U.S. Defense Department began to ponder the possibility of helping the nation’s defense by finding a shorter Arctic route for atomic submarines to move from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
 
Thompson told the students he was 29 years old at the time, serving aboard the USS Seadragon as the communications, sonar, and electronics officer. Seadragon’s mission was a secret one.

“We were to explore going through the Northwest Passage. No sub had ever been through the Northwest Passage; it was ice-covered with thick and shallow parts,” he said, “and no one had ever gotten pictures of what was under the ice so we were asked to do that.”

When the sub was outfitted with cameras prior to deployment, it was a new experience for the crew of 102. “Back then a video recorder was the size of six refrigerator-size cabinets, which simply couldn’t go on a sub,” he said, “so they had to miniaturize it. They boiled the video recorder down to 21 inches in diameter and 50 inches long – down to torpedo size.” The sub was outfitted with other special equipment as well, including an iceberg detector developed by an electronics engineer from Disney.
 
Departing from Portsmouth, NH, on August 2, 1960, and traveling to the Canadian Archipelago near Greenland, Adm. Thompson and the rest of the Seadragon crew traversed the Northwest Passage, completing the first submarine transit of the Passage on August 21, having operated, for the first time, around and under icebergs.

“Everyone was in great spirits,” Adm. Thompson recalled, noting that the Seadragon traveled below icebergs 22 times during its historic voyage. “Some were so huge we had trouble with the measuring equipment.” 

The icebergs presented an interesting challenge. “When you have packed ice overhead, you can’t surface anytime you want,” Thompson said matter of factly. Water temperatures and conditions along with wind and ocean currents presented certain problems, he said. At one strategic point this challenge became crucial.

“Arrangements were made to put some scientists out on an iceberg with cameras so they could get some ‘PR’ pictures of our sub surfacing and submerging vertically,” he said. “At one point, though, we couldn’t find the hole to go back up in. For five hours we couldn’t find the hole so we just found a weak part of the ice to come through.”

Adm. Thompson recalled other significant aspects of the expedition – like seeing, on a TV monitor, the eerie panorama of ice passing overhead and then receiving a boatload of congratulatory messages upon traversing the Northwest Passage, including one from the President of the United States.

Its transit of the Northwest Passage complete, Seadragon headed for the North Pole which it reached on August 25, becoming the third submarine to surface there. 

One of Adm. Thompson’s favorite memories associated with the epic voyage was a lighthearted one. When Seadragon reached the North Pole, crewmembers crawled out of the sub and laid out a softball diamond for a game on the ice. The enlisted crew beat the officers and chief petty officers 13-10, he said.

The sub pulled in to its new home port of Honolulu, HI, on September 14, 1960. Adm. Thompson said he remembers the very moment Seadragon radioed to Pearl Harbor, “Reporting for duty.” The submarine’s mission and its historic voyage were complete. Though Seadragon was gone for six weeks, its crew had proved a submarine could get from the East Coast to Pearl Harbor in two. Seadragon had made history navigating its way through the Northwest Passage successfully, capturing never-before-seen images on black and white film. Two years later, all the film from the expedition was edited together, and ABC featured it on its “Expedition!” series, billed as “true stories of man’s quest for the unknown” and hosted by Col. John D. Train. The retired admiral aired the crackling documentary for the enthralled sixth graders, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Before departing Auburn, Adm. Thompson shared one final memory that elicited smiles and laughter from the students and teachers.

“When we got back, the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies challenged us to play his team,” he said. “We told him we’d accept – as long as the game was on our field at the North Pole!”]]>
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           <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11790</guid>
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           <title>FHS Mixes It Up</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11791</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[At any school on any given day, it is no big surprise that when lunchtime arrives, students gravitate to the same group of friends each day. The “Mix-It-Up at Lunch” program is a national campaign that helps K-12 students, faculty and staff build community and raise awareness to improve intergroup relationships as students are encouraged to sit with a new group at lunch. This event provides students the occasion to meet students that they might not otherwise meet in their classes or during social events. It is an opportunity to practice social skills and experience the uniqueness of others.

Fauquier High School Diversity Committee members, administration and student leadership researched activities and then planned and implemented a Mix-It-Up at Lunch activity prior to year’s end. Lunch tables were reorganized into small clusters. All students were given name tags to facilitate introductions. A member of the student leadership hosted each table and recorded answers to questions such as “What makes you unique or special?” on a Diversity Square card. Students could dress “mixed-up wacky” for the day. Ice cream coupons, provided by the administration, were distributed to all students for participating. 
 
The cafeteria staff prepared a diverse menu for the event: an All American for breakfast and choice of Asian, African, or Middle Eastern for lunch.

Prior to the event, teachers were invited to participate in ice-breaker activities with their advisory blocks, the school newspaper The Falconer ran an article to advertise and explain the event, and the faculty participated in a Mix-It-Up faculty meeting on to better understand and experience the coming event.

Reports from students, faculty and administration were very positive; many look forward to another Mix-It-Up day event next year.]]>
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           <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11791</guid>
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           <title>FCPS Elementary School Choruses Sing at Potomac Nationals Game</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11783</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[The Pierce Elementary School chorus traveled to Woodbridge last month to perform at a Potomac Nationals game. Even though it was a rainy day, the 22 fourth and fifth graders had high spirits and eagerly awaited their turn. During the seventh-inning stretch, the students energetically took the field at the third base line to sing a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for the attending crowd.
 
“The students were thrilled to see themselves on the big screen, to enjoy the ballgame and to have the opportunity to sing” at the event, said Pierce music teacher Christina Shaffer, who directed the chorus’ performance.

Earlier that evening the Bradley Elementary School chorus, under the direction of music teacher Arlene Thorpe, performed the National Anthem to kick off the game.]]>
           </description>
           <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11783</guid>
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           <title>Pierce Student Wins Writing Contest</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11784</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[“In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb,” a short story written by Pierce Elementary School student Payton O’Hara, is a first-place winner on the state level in the PBS Kids Go! Writing Contest. She received the award June 8 when a representative from PBS television station WCVE visited her school to surprise Payton with the news. Pierce fourth-grade teacher Elizabeth Carney entered Payton’s story in the writing contest, which is open to children in kindergarten through fifth grade who want to write and illustrate their own stories. 
 
A month before winning at the state level, Payton’s story was selected as the first-place winner among fourth graders at the regional level (Northern and Eastern Virginia area). On Sunday, May 8, the regional winners received their awards at the studios of WCVE PBS where they also were recorded narrating their stories; digital versions will be available on www.classroomclips.org in coming weeks.]]>
           </description>
           <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11784</guid>
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           <title>Excellence in Writing Award to FCPS Information Coordinator</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11785</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[Karen Parkinson, coordinator of information for Fauquier County Public Schools, received an Award of Merit in the excellence in writing category in the National School Public Relations Association’s 2011 Publications and Electronic Media Contest. The competition, open to all public or private schools and school divisions, is held annually to earn national recognition for school communication efforts. This year’s contest garnered 532 entries in the publications category, which were judged for “clear, concise and vibrant writing.”

Mrs. Parkinson received the award for a news release entitled “Chef Visits Thompson Elementary School,” which detailed a visit by U.S. Foodservice Executive Chef Marty Bermpohl to Thompson Elementary School as part of the federal “Chefs Move to Schools” program. The article is posted on the school division’s website on the News and Information page with all other school year 2010-2011 news releases.]]>
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           <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11785</guid>
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           <title>Civil War Trust Honors KRHS Teacher</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11786</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[Richard Deardoff, history and government teacher at Kettle Run High School, is this year’s recipient of the Civil War Trust’s Preservationist Teacher of the Year Award. During the organization’s annual conference in Chantilly, VA, Civil War Trust President James Lighthizer presented the award to Mr. Deardoff.

Mr. Lighthizer described the Fauquier County teacher and other Preservation Award recipients as “the unsung heroes of historic preservation” whose work would be felt for generations to come.

Every year the Trust recognizes an outstanding teacher for motivating students to become more involved in battlefield preservation. Mr. Deardoff was recognized for the rigorous curriculum of his American Civil War senior elective course, which requires students to volunteer at nearby sites (Cedar Mountain, Brandy Station, Remington) for at least eight hours per semester. His course includes a study of Fauquier County’s role in the conflict, including politics, individuals and events. His students examine reminders of the Civil War remaining in Fauquier and efforts to preserve them.
While very pleased at his faculty member’s award, Kettle Run High School Principal Major Warner wasn’t particularly surprised that Mr. Deardoff had won such an honor.

“Rich has an excellent rapport with our students, and his insight makes history come alive,” he said.

Born in New York City, Mr. Deardoff has lived in Virginia since 1976 when he began teaching history at Fauquier High School. He transferred to Kettle Run when the school opened three years ago.

The Preservationist Teacher of the Year explained recently why he devotes so much time and effort to Civil War preservation and why he feels it’s important for students to perform community service in this area: “In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln said that the world ‘...will never forget what they did here.’ But certainly we were not remembering when Fair Oaks Shopping Mall was built on the site of the Battle of Chantilly, or when a Formula One racetrack was planned at Brandy Station, the most fought-over site in American history with 22 separate battles and skirmishes there,” he said. “People have not forgotten; most times they were never aware of the history in our own backyards. History is not only to be read about but something that can be felt by being present where it occurred and contributing to its preservation. This active participation makes the past a part of our present.”

The preservationist award is one of several accolades bestowed upon Mr. Deardoff in the past several years. In 2007 the Brandy Station Foundation honored him as its “Volunteer of the Year” for historic preservation efforts he and his students undertook at the Graffiti House, Kelly’s Ford and St. James Cemetery. In 2008 and again in 2009 Mr. Deardoff was voted “Best Teacher” in Warrenton Lifestyle magazine’s “Best of Warrenton” contest. 

“Mr. Deardoff has taught two generations of Fauquier County students,” said Dr. Pat Downey, the school division’s instructional supervisor for social studies. “He is an outstanding teacher, who combines substance, drama, and humor in every class.”

In addition to the courses he teaches, Mr. Deardoff also conducts historical walking tours of Warrenton for the school division’s professional development program and for the Fauquier Historical Society’s “Heritage Day.”

“Teachers new to Fauquier County as well as those born and raised here participate in his walking tours year after year because he always has something new to add – a new story to tell, or a way to connect the past with the present,” Dr. Downey said. 
 
Mr. Deardoff is a regular speaker for Civil War Roundtables, the Sons of American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution, the Southern Fauquier Historical Society, and the Liberty Heritage Society. On Thursday, June 30, he will be addressing James Madison University’s Content Academy on Civil War and Reconstruction.]]>
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           <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11786</guid>
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           <title>MMS Students Display Power of Words</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11787</link>
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               <![CDATA[In the closing weeks of school, a group of Marshall Middle School students set out to produce a visual representation of the power of everyday words to change the lives of others. After watching the short, powerful video clip “The Power of Words,” Lanelle Hilling’s enrichment class engaged in a lively discussion of the film’s theme – “Change your words, change your world.” Students then used their observations to create “Wordles,” word clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Ms. Hilling said the final collage, on display for students and visitors at the school to view, was “a powerful, personalized testimony to the power of words in the lives of individual students.”]]>
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           <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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           <title>Auburn Exceeds Reading Goal -- Again!</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11788</link>
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               <![CDATA[For the seventh year in a row Auburn Middle School students exceeded their annual reading goal, which this year was set at 6,150 books, a 10 percent increase over the previous year’s goal.

When the school opened in the year 2004, the principal and librarian set a goal for students and faculty to read 2,004 books by the end of the school year. Auburn met that goal, and every year since, the school has set and met higher goals. 

For reaching the annual goal, Auburn celebrates each year with a special assembly to reward students. This year students were treated to a performance by a Bluemont Artists-in-Education performer, James Scott, “the LOUD Poetry Guy,” who entertained students in two assemblies. Mr. Scott, who lives in Chesapeake, is the author of two poetry books and a veteran performer in schools where he dynamically recites popular poetry by Shel Silverstein and other children’s poets. Mr. Scott also sat in on a meeting of Auburn’s 6th grade Principal’s Brown Bag Lunch Bunch Book Club and shared with the sixth graders that he is currently reading the Harry Potter series with his sixth-grade daughter. Following lunch, he led three poetry writing workshops with 30 students from each grade level participating. Following the example of a structured writing style that Mr. Scott presented, students wrote their own poems. Laughter rang as the students read the results of their work.]]>
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           <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
           <guid>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11788</guid>
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           <title>Students Earn Industry Certification</title>
           <link>http://www.fcps1.org/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiondetailid=43726&amp;viewType=detail&amp;id=11780</link>
           <description>
               <![CDATA[Three members of Fauquier County Public Schools’ Class of 2011 recently earned an industry certification from the American Design Drafting Association (ADDA). Stephen Bailey, Andrew Kirch and Timothy Janowitz took the ADDA certification test at Fauquier High School after completing technology education and trade and industrial drafting and design classes at FHS. According to the association’s website, the ADDA professional certification enables drafters to demonstrate their knowledge of internationally recognized standards and practices and helps employers in identifying quality employees.]]>
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           <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
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