All too often, it seems, we are writing on this page about our schools and the children in them who need so much educational help – help ranging from better teachers to better classrooms to better elected and appointed leadership.
Today is different.
– Today we are bragging about the 1,500 families of pre-K and kindergarten students who have signed up to receive three texts a week reminding them to nurture the brains of their infants and toddlers by reading, singing and pointing with the youngsters to build their vocabularies. About 35 organizations in the county partnered to make this happen. After all, 80 percent of brain development happens in a child’s first three years of life.
– We’re delighted to note our county is home to a growing top teacher mentoring and recruitment effort. The competitive Project Inspire began with eight middle and high school math and science teaching residents, but it will have 50 by 2018. The residents receive a living stipend while they student-teach for a year in classrooms with state-rated “highly effective teachers.” Along the way these residents work to earn a master’s degree in education while being mentored by the Public Education Foundation here. When the residency is done, they will teach in Hamilton County for at least four years.
– Science is getting a boost in fourth-grade classes, and art is back in second-grade classes with the help of $60,000 in grants from the Footprint Foundation, a spin-off of the Lyndhurst Foundation. A local teacher group writes the curriculum and provides the necessary teacher training, while the Footprint Foundation funds and provides all the supplies needed for the classrooms.