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Portsmouth Public SchoolsOffice of Curriculum and Instruction

School Board ReportMarch 21, 2019

Office of EnglishThe Office of Reading and English Education would like to thank all school board members, city council members, government officials, community partners, parents, school and district leaders for volunteering their time to read to students for Read Across America Day held on March 1, 2019. Thanks for all you do to support literacy in Portsmouth Public Schools!

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Office of MathematicsThe Grade 6 Math Challenge will be held Friday, March 29th at Victory Elementary. Our “mathaletes” are in final preparation. The Math 7H Math Madness II will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday April 9 – Churchland Middle SchoolWednesday April 10 – W. E. Waters Middle SchoolThursday April 11 – Cradock Middle School

The division mathematics program specialists presented sessions at the Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference in Farmville, VA during the conference on March 8th and 9th.

Fourteen of our nineteen schools participated in Digital Learning Day https://digitallearningday.org/. Activities included Education City, ebooks reading, textbook interactive activities, Gizmos, Desmos, coding, Google slides for student created presentations, and video clips that show mathematics in real life applications.

Office of ScienceStudents who conducted authentic research last semester with Heather Overkamp, in the Experimental Design course and after school research club, have been asked to present their research at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at James Madison University on Thursday, March 14 and Friday, March 15.

Students attending:Trinity Allen- The Effects of Smartphones on Students' SuccessAshleigh Thomas- The Effects of Light on Dinoflagellate ProductivityOreolu Abayomi-Paul & Lishonda Williams- The Effects of Flytrap Reaction on Action PotentialAmya Clark- The Effects of Treatments on Bacterial InfectionsKennadi Carver- The Effects of Fresh Methods on FruitKeeshara Harris- The Effects of Resolution on Animation QualityImani Ferguson- The Effects of Exercise on Heart RateDonesha Smith- The Effects of Antibacterial Agents on BacteriaTaliyah Simmons- The Effects of Coaster Angle on Speed

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Kayla Parada- The Effects of Location on Water QualityReauna Towns- The Effects of Parental Involvement on Student SuccessLoren Vincent (WHS)- The Effects of Drinks on ElectrolytesCortney Vincent & Sabine Newburn (WHS)- Testing for Unknown Meds in Drinks

Office of Social StudiesThe Office of Social Studies is “Portsmouth Proud” of I.C. Norcom, Churchland, and Wilson High Schools for representing PPS well at the Old Dominion University Model United Nations Conference 2019. They were focused, energetic, and poised as they debated to influence international policy.

The following students participated:

I.C. Norcom High School Jeremy Baker (Chaperone)Amexem Bowden, 12Amanda York, 12Darek Early-Bennett, 11Bryson Boone, 11J-La Bennett, 11

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Jadelyn Perry, 11Amaiah Nix, 11

Churchland High SchoolMichael Gardner (Chaperone)Melody Moody (Chaperone)Sahdaia Cox, 12Erin Childress, 12Hind Chokri, 11Hope Radford, 11Allison Wilson, 9Aira Bermudez, 9Joy Bethea, 10David Justice, 12Alex Moody, 11

Wilson High SchoolHigdon Herrington (Chaperone)Claudette Woodhouse(Chaperone)Melanie PinedaMegan LesoineLaTasha ThomasDayonce BullockArlie CorbettDave Blechmen

Office of ArtThe Daughters of the American Revolution recently donated $500.00 to CHS for the benefit of the Art Scholars. Their membership has become aware of the Art Scholars through the murals that they have painted around town and the students’ participation in local art shows.

Scholastic Art and Writing Competition: Churchland High School AP art student, Alyson Mae Olaso is a 2019 Gold Key Art Recipient in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition for the eight states that compose the Southeastern Art Region at Large. Alyson's painting "Ki Vale" has now advanced to NYC for considered at the national level. In all, approximately 350,000 works of art are submitted nationwide. In addition to the Gold Key Award, we also had six honorable mentions from CHS. They are: Maggie Powers, Val McMillan, Breann Ralston, Iyana Graham, Hannah Ebbings, and LaMiyah Robertson.

Alex Powers, an art Scholar at CHS, has been awarded a $1,000.00 scholarship from the Chesapeake Bay Artist Association.

The Ladies of the Links recently posed for the Art Scholars and AP Art Students to allow the students to draw from life. Over the years the Links have been very supportive of the visual arts in PPS, sponsoring an art contest each year and acknowledging students with monetary awards. This month, School Board Member Costella Williams organized ladies of the Links to pose for the Art Scholars and AP art student. The models came dressed in finery and wearing wonderful hats for life drawing sessions. The students were very appreciative and are already

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asking when they can do it again. The models spent time looking at all of the drawings that resulted from the experience, as well as taking time to view the art work displayed in the show cases in the halls at CHS.

Office of Instructional Technology and Media Services

Instructional TechnologyTRTs have been working with Google Expeditions and iPad to create virtual and augmented reality lessons for students and teachers. They were excited to find out that we can now run these two simultaneously in a classroom using the Google Expeditions HUB. This allows students to participate in both VR and AR as the teacher or TRT leads the lesson. Students have been highly engaged with the expeditions and we look forward to getting them into more classrooms.

Library MediaOn March 4th, all elementary schools launched the Virginia Reads One Book program. Each student received a copy of the book Cleo Edison Oliver: Millionaire Playground. The purpose of this program is to promote family engagement around literacy. Students are reading the book at school, home, and with friends. Audio recordings of the book can be found on the division website as well.

Several PPS Librarians attended the Annual Spring VAASL Conference in Hampton on Friday, March 8th. They were able to attend valuable sessions on creating a Future Ready Library. The focus for the Library Media Centers has been to create student-centered activities that encourage creativity, collaboration, STEM, and literacy.

Respectfully submitted,

Anita S. Wynn

Dr. Anita S. WynnAssistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction