December 2024

Welcome to Teaching & Learning Today! As we approach the holiday season, we hope each of you will enjoy a different pace of life to finish out 2024 – a pace that will be filled with family, friends, and celebrations without the pressing demands of your job. And please indulge in self-care along the way. We hope you will review all the opportunities in this edition and look forward to 2025 with great anticipation! Thanks for all you’ve done in 2024 in the name of quality education!

Updates from Teaching & Learning

VEA Learning Portal

NEW VEA Learning Portal Course Catalog!

This catalog is designed to serve as a guide to the courses* offered on the VEA Learning Portal. It allows members and potential members to view courses available for enrollment without the need to log into the Portal. Check out the VEA Learning Portal Course Catalog here!

*Note: All courses on the VEA Learning Portal are asynchronous unless otherwise indicated.

SVEA Aspiring Educators

THIS IS MY FIRST YEAR AS A TEACHER MEMBER, IS THERE A REBATE?

Professional Membership are entitled to a special rebate. The rebate is $20 for each year of membership as an Aspiring Educator (Student Member) for up to 4 years. Someone who joined the AE program for one year can apply for a $20-dollar rebate. And an AE member for 4 years is entitled to apply for an $80-rebate! More information can be found at www.nea.org/aerebate.

If you were a SVEA-AE member in Virginia, you would also qualify for an additional $5 per year of student membership (up to 4 years). Use this form to submit your VEA rebate.

SVEA Aspiring Educators - Continued

HAVE YOU RENEWED MEMBERSHIP FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR?

If you want to continue your student membership for the 2024-25 school year which began September 1, you may do so right online at www.veanea.org/svea/.

ALREADY TEACHING? WANT TO JOIN NEA AS A TEACHER?

For those of you who have graduated and secured employment as a teacher, congratulations! If you are unsure how to join VEA as a teacher member, visit www.veanea.org/join.

Special Education

From our friends at William and Mary TTAC, check out Link Lines! There are several topics to read on and get additional information on how to add to your toolbox:

Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)
Executive Function
Language
Transition
Literacy
AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

Upcoming Opportunities

ESP Input Needed about the ParaPro Assessment

Excellence in the Classroom

2025 VITAL Conference February 6 & 8, 2025 Register Today!

Register for VEA's 2025 Educators of Color Summit

State Stipends for NBCTs

NBCT state awards that are usually paid in December have been delayed this year because of a mismatch between budget language and the Board’s current award guidelines. Awards will likely not be paid until early 2025.

This presentation was part of a work session to discuss the situation on December 2. This agenda item was to be added to the December 3 VBOE meeting.

NBCT Legislation

VEA will initiate legislation and budget items to scale the initial and continuing state supplement for National Board Certification Incentive Awards and cover fees for educators seeking certification to encourage high-quality professional development.

If you would like to know how to support this bill, contact Melinda Bright, mbright@veanea.org.

To learn more about National Board Certification, visit our website or go to www.nbpts.org.

From our friends at VDOE

Virginia Literacy Act (VLA) Updates

The VDOE has released the November update to the VLA. You can read about it here. To find out all the information about the VLA, check out the VDOE landing page here.

Who's Who in Teaching and Learning

The work of the Department of Teaching and Learning extends out of headquarters and works directly with members. This month, we will be featuring 2 of our mini grant recipients:

Name: Lacey Lynch

Local: Rockbridge-Lexington Education Association

Summary of the mini-grant: Lacey Lynch, a music teacher for Rockbridge County Public Schools, used her mini-grant funding to purchase literature, puppets, and an ocean drum for her classroom. Lacey used the puppets to teach concepts such as vocal exploration, sound levels and beats. The ocean drum’s sound effects were incorporated into the Spring music program. The books helped Lacey’s students to understand rhythm and rhyming words and form connections between music and literacy. This project also assisted students struggling with anxiety to participate in class.

Name: Daniel Reschke

Local: Stafford Education Association

Summary of the mini-grant: Daniel Reschke, a history teacher for Stafford County Public Schools, used his mini-grant funding to purchase giant Jenga blocks for his classroom. The Jenga blocks provided an interactive way for his World History and Geography students to study for their SOL and helped his A.P. U.S. Government and Politics classes to prepare for their unit tests and AP exam. Daniel shared his project at a school-wide professional development training so that other educators could learn how to utilize the activity for vocabulary review.

The Latest from VEA

Teaching & Learning Today: December 2024