Friday, May 17, 2013
Fairfax County School Board will hold listening sessions next week to help develop a strategic plan for digital learning.
Teachers, students and parents in Fairfax County didn't have the smoothest experience with digital learning in 2012-2013. As Fairfax County Public Schools rolled out a new online math program in Fall 2012, students and teachers complained they had difficulty navigating the books, saying there were publisher errors and inconsistencies, technology roadblocks and student difficulty in accessing the information, among other complaints, like a lack of teacher buy-in to the program. They said the program, instead of advancing learning and achievement, was pushing it back, calling the $10.4 million initiative "a big disaster" with no clear solution. The short-term solution was to re-negotiate contracts to get some hard copy books back in the …
Here's the story of Marlene Konkoly, who found creative ways to spend less and save more so she can retire at 50. This story is the first in our series about Extreme Savers.
Americans may be living longer, but our retirement plans aren’t keeping up. And that means people are living longer with smaller bank accounts. But Marlene Konkoly will retire at age 50. How did she do it? She contributes a whopping 45 percent of the gross annual income she earns as a procurement officer for an automotive finance company to her retirement—all while owning a home and remaining debt-free. Konkoly is actually well ahead of the retirement savings curve compared to many of her fellow Americans. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, fewer than half of Americans even know how much money they would need to retire. And nearly a third of employees who had access to a defined contribution plan such as a 401(k) did not …
Thousands of delegates will gather in Richmond this weekend to nominate candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
The Virginia Republican party will gather for its state convention in Richmond this Friday and Saturday to nominate candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general for the November election. Richmond will see an influx of 13,000 delegates to the convention – party activists who will nominate the candidates they think can maintain the party’s interests and win on November 5. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli became the party’s only nominee for governor when current Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling dropped out last year. Cuccinelli will be formally nominated this weekend and is expected to deliver an acceptance speech Saturday. A senior council in Virginia’s Republican Party made a last-minute decision to hold a convention instead of a …
A list of eight best-paying summer jobs. Provided by Jobs at AOL.
The following story was provided by AOLJobs.com By David Schepp Getting a summer job is a rite of passage for many young people. In addition to earning wages to help pay for tuition or make car payments, it's where many first-time employees learn the fundamentals of work -- showing up on time, teamwork, communicating effectively, managing workloads and more. But summer jobs can also be fun, giving teenagers an opportunity to bond and hang out with a group of people beyond their schools and neighborhoods. In recent years, because of the recession and subsequent slow recovery in the labor market, summer jobs have been hard to come by for many teenagers. This year, many economic indicators point to an improved job market, suggesting that …
Calling all boutique employees, local shoppers and anyone with a passion for fashion. We want to see your ideas on Patch!
Patch is seeking fashion experts to contribute to our Local Voices platform and help educate the masses on the right shoes to wear with that pencil skirt, next season's top color trends and more. We would love for owners or employees of local boutiques to post an "Outfit of the Week" or for a savvy consumer to keep us up-to-date on the latest trends with regular posts on what's happening in the fashion world. If you love to photograph fashion, you can showcase that passion as well in a Local Voices post. Part of the Patch mission is to strengthen communities and improve the lives of their residents, but we can't do it without you. Our Local Voices section allows members of the community—from cooking enthusiasts to local politicians and …
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Find the best deals this weekend in Northern Virginia with this map.
Fairfax Community Yard Sale at Pickett's Reserve When/Where: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at 3430 Preservation Drive What: Multiple family yard sale. More information at the listing. Vienna Multi-family Yard Sale When/Where: 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday at Rocky Branch Road What: Community yard sale. More information at the listing. Herndon Estate Sale When/Where: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday 3152 Ramesses Court What: Dining room tabe, baby grand piano. More information at the listing. Estate Sale When/Where: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday at 1157 Taji Court What: Antiques, electronics, Japanese prints. More information at the listing. Annandale Community Yard Sale When/Where: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. …
The Virginia Republican Party will nominate its candidates during a convention this week, and some experts have weighed in on the system.
When Virginia’s Republican Party made a last-minute decision to nominate candidates for the 2013 election in a convention instead of a primary, as originally planned, it prompted Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling to withdraw his name from the race for governor. The move made the especially conservative Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s current attorney general, the GOP’s de facto nominee for governor. He's expected to be officially nominated during the Virginia Republican Convention this week on May 17 and 18 in Richmond. (See our guide to the convention right here.) See Also: Poll: Does the Virginia GOP Convention Represent True Democracy? Bolling said he dropped out of the race because he didn’t agree with the convention system, arguing that it made the …
The little buggers emerging from hibernation aren't just noisy; they can be a danger to animals.
As the Brood II 17-year cicadas emerge from the ground throughout Herndon and the Mid-Atlantic, here's a healthy reminder: Don't let your dogs or cats feast on them. The Humane Society warns that cicadas’ exoskeletons are not digestible, so eating too many could cause constipation or vomiting. Animals could also choke on cicadas’ legs and wings. The Humane Society also noted that cicadas are like little flying toys to dogs and cats — they’re small (but not too small), they fly slowly and usually stay pretty low to the ground. In addition, the exoskeletons of cicadas contain chitin, and some pets may have an allergic reaction. Chitin may affect some humans, too, according to Science Daily. If your dog or cat vomits more than twice or seems…
Around 14,000 commuters throughout the D.C. Metro area are expected to bike to work this Friday.
This Friday, thousands of D.C./Virginia/Maryland residents will participate in the 13th annual Bike to Work Day - and the Town of Herndon is gearing up to host a fun-filled local pitstop in honor of the event. The pitstop is just one of a whopping 72 pitstops throughout the D.C. Metro area where riders can expect to be wooed and celebrated, as organizers and sponsors encourage area commuters to consider biking as a "viable form of transportation" to be used more often. In Herndon, the Town will host a pitstop at the Town Hall Green, sponsored by A1 Cycling, with support from several other businesses as well, including MOM's Organic Market, Herndon Environmental Network, Green Lizard Cycling, Dunkin' Donuts, Herndon’s Pedestrian and Bicycle…
The early education program helps prepare students for K-12 education, but more than 800 are waiting for services.
Lillian Hill’s Head Start classroom at Camelot Elementary School is bustling and filled with kids the Friday before Mother’s Day. Hill teaches 16 kids -- a full classroom. Head Start has 89 classrooms across 62 Fairfax County elementary schools, but it's not enough to meet the demand. The program is at capacity but a lack of funds for expansion, partly because of sequestration, means 800 children will stay on a waiting list for Head Start, leaving them less prepared than their peers to enter kindergarten and to learn. The White House estimates that because of the sequester, 70,000 children nationally who would have been served by Head Start will not have access to the program by the end of the year. On this day in Hill's classroom, she is …
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Sandra
3:44 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
The online programs they support should be tailored to what teachers and students can use. The online math books were nothing more than regular texts that were scanned and put online. They were hard to use (especially if you needed to page back and forth to find topics), and they were not downloadable and pages could not be printed. That meant that students could only access their texts in … more ›