
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003092152
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: E-4   EDITION: EAST 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN SCHOOL

\ JOHN BOYD NOFTSINGER JR., son of Mary K. Noftsinger of 3730 Greenland Ave. N.W. and the late John B. Noftsinger Sr., has been appointed director of continuing education and external programs at James Madison University. He also was named director of the Valley of Virginia Consortium for Higher Education.

Noftsinger is a 1985 graduate of JMU and has a master of arts degree in higher education from Ohio State University.

\ WILLIAM C. DOWNIE, a social studies teacher at William Byrd Middle School, is one of 40 civics and government teachers in Virginia selected to participate in the 1989-90 Virginia Law and Government Project. The program is administered by the Virginia Institute for Law and Citizenship Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The project, which is designed to enhance the participants' understanding of state law and government, consists of three one-day seminars in Richmond during the school year and a week-long summer institute.

\ JANE AMBROSE-COSBY, an English teacher at Hidden Valley Junior High School, has had an article published Ambrose-Cosby the fall 1989 state professional journal Virginia English Bulletin.

The article "Poetry and Art: In Pursuit of Writing as a `Life Sport,' " describes an interdisciplinary middle-school unit that Cosby designed and taught cooperatively with art teacher Susan Watson.

A poem written as part of this unit by one of Ambrose-Cosby's students, Andrea Stewart, won second place in the age 15-18 division of the 1989 Virginia Highlands Festival creative-writing contest. Stewart is the daughter Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Stewart of Roanoke.

Ambrose-Cosby also recently received the 1989 Virginia Association of Teachers of English Service Award.

by CNB