ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 22, 1994                   TAG: 9411220090
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LAURA ZIVKOVICH
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long


ALL FACETS OF EDUCATION WERE HONORED

Schools in the New River Valley celebrated American Education Week last week with special events and programs that highlighted teaching, reading, writing and future goals attainable only through education.

RINER ELEMENTARY focused its school week around the central theme of "Building the Future One Student at a Time." Pupils wrote and illustrated visions of their own futures. Parents from each grade level had a chance to visit the school in the mornings to view the works and enjoy juice and doughnuts with their children.

Special guests representing the professions of veterinarian, coach, lawyer, housewife and artist spoke about their careers each day during the morning announcements.

At CHRISTIANSBURG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL pupils read selections from their favorite books on the morning announcements.

In Kathy Martin's fourth-grade class, children invited their parents to a young authors' celebration where they read science-related stories they had written and bound as part of an interdisciplinary science unit.

At DALTON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL, Radford City School Board members and administrators took to the classroom to try a hand at teaching.

Superintendent Michael Wright; Bruce Criswell, director of elementary education; Robert Young, principal; and board members Chris Strange, Guy Wohlford, Carter Effler, Guy Gentry and John Craig taught classes in politics, drama, insurance, local history, reading, band and the Jeffersonian Era.

The fourth-grade classes of Ellen Maxwell and Pat Schooler at ELLISTON-LAFAYETTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL got a taste of Virginia military history by reading "Ghost Cadet" by Elaine Marie Alphin.

The book describes a young boy's friendship with the ghost of William Hugh McDowell whom he meets while spending his spring vacation at his grandmother's house in New Market, Va.

Although the book is fiction, McDowell was a real person who attended Virginia Military Institute and fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.

As a grand finale to the unit of study, the classes spent Veterans Day on the Virginia Military Institute campus. The pupils toured the campus with a VMI cadet and flooded him with questions about his life and studies. They watched the school's parade, visited the museum, dressed up in old uniforms and visited the grave site of McDowell who died in the Battle of New Market.

Critzer Elementary's Partners In Learning and Understanding with Students Program kicked off its community TUTOR-MENTOR PROJECT Thursday with a reception for parents, students and tutors.

The project matches students with volunteers from the community who help students reach their potential by encouraging self-esteem and achievement.

Critzer's Business Partners in Education group that includes Wal-Mart, McCready Lumber Company, Premier Bank and Jefferson Mills among others, offers monetary donations, supplies and employees' time to the program.

For participation information, call Michael Amstein, principal, or Connie Pratt, guidance counselor, at Critzer Elementary, 980-4000.

Auburn Middle School sixth-grader BRANDON BULL won an honorable mention ribbon in the National Ecology Poster Contest.

Brandon made the poster while participating in Riner Elementary's Ecology Awareness Program sponsored by the Modern Woodmen of America. The poster won first place in the local poster contest and was sent to Rock Island, Ill., for the national competition.

The judges selected Brandon's poster from approximately 300 entries.

Blacksburg Middle School pupils learned about book illustration techniques last week and made posters with their new skills that emphasize literacy, all in honor of the American Library Association's READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY.

Each day last week guest readers visited morning and afternoon classes; students and faculty paused at surprise 10-minute "Drop Everything And Read" times to encourage reading for pleasure.

The Gilbert Linkous Elementary Safety Patrol will sponsor its annual BREAKFAST WITH SANTA Dec. 3 from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at the school.

The event is open to all. Admission is $2.75 for adults and $1.75 for children. Children will have the opportunity to have their photos taken with Santa.

The school requests registration by Monday. For more information, call the school at 951-5727.

The Kipps Elementary School Safety Patrol will sponsor a PARENTS NIGHT OUT Dec. 2 from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at the school.

The event, supervised by safety patrol sponsors and parent volunteers, is open to kindergarten through fifth-grade pupils.

Refreshments will be served.

Admission is $5 for one child, $8 for two children and $10 for three or more children.

For registration information, call 951-5760.

Bethel Elementary School seeks vendors for its third annual DECEMBER CRAFT SHOW AND SALE on Dec. 3 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the school.

Proceeds from the sale will fund the fifth-grade trip to Washington, D.C.

Crafters may contact the school at 633-3215 to reserve a spot.

The Radford City Parent Resource Center will hold a "Smooth Sailing Through Homework" WORKSHOP Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Belle Heth Elementary School library.

Shirley Chapman Meador, educational consultant with the Child Development Clinic of Roanoke Valley, will speak on homework strategies, games, contracts and organization.

Child care will be provided.

For more information, call 731-3679.

Margaret Beeks Elementary's Odyssey of the Mind Program is sponsoring a WORKSHOP on problem solving and group dynamics for all Montgomery County kindergarten through fifth-grade pupils tonight from 7 to 7:45 p.m. in Beeks' multipurpose room.

To register for the workshops, contact the Odyssey of the MInd coordinator at your child's school.

Radford City Schools seeks donations of outgrown COMPUTER EQUIPMENT still in good condition to help homebound students or teachers with special needs.

Receipts for tax purposes will be given in exchange for the equipment.

For more information, call 731-3669 or 639-2202.

Meetings

Montgomery County Public Schools' GIFTED ADVISORY COMMITTEE will meet tonight at 7:30 in the executive board room of the Montgomery County School Board Office in Christiansburg.

For more information, call 382-5100.

The Montgomery County School Board seeks public input for HEARINGS on the development of the 1995-96 school year's operating budget. The board will meet at the following times:

Tonight, 7:30 p.m., Christiansburg High School auditorium

Nov. 29, 7:30 p.m., Shawsville High School auditorium

To sign up in advance to speak at a meeting, call Revonda Brumfield, clerk of the board, at 382-5138.



 by CNB