Click on the link for the article on Summer Career Camp at St. Georges.

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Kelly Bench, a Social Studies teacher at Hodgson, was named our District Teacher of the Year on May 19, 2010. Kelly joined our district in 2006, and while she has been a teacher for just four years, she has made many contributions in her classroom and beyond. Kelly is described by colleagues, students, and parents as dedicated and having a burning passion for teaching. She is admired for her ability to craft thoughtful and creative lessons. Her classroom is characterized as energetic, interactive, safe, and focused. In her time at Hodgson, she has earned a reputation as someone that teachers of all disciplines can depend on, and she builds deep connections with her students through her presence in their career areas. Also known as someone always willing to go the extra mile, Kelly is a Hodgson Technology Building representative, Advisor for the National Honors Society, a class advisor for the Class of 2013, and co-founder of the Hodgson "Golden Wrench" Award. Throughout the 2010-2011 school year Kelly will serve as an ambassador for our school district and in the fall, will represent us at a state-wide dinner with 18 other Teachers of the Year from across the state.

The "P-Cubed" project is run by the Delaware Mathematics Coalition in partnership with the University of Delaware's Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center (MSERC). P-Cubed (or P3) is short for Powerful Pedagogical Practices and is attended by more than 100 secondary mathematics teachers and principals from all 19 Delaware school districts and one charter school. The overarching ambition of P3 is to "problematize" certain assumptions about high school mathematics. As students, many of us experienced high school mathematics in teacher-centered classrooms. Increasingly, however, research suggests that students learn best when they are able to inquire actively into meaningful problems in mathematics. Classrooms structured around problem-based learning seem to promote deep and lasting knowledge of important mathematical concepts.

District participants with Math Specialist Darnel Grandell are:
Delcastle - Dave Jezyk, Carrie Barber, Lisa Myers
Howard - Mitch Weiss, Fran Smart, Kristy Thompson
Hodgson - Jane Trochimowicz, Rita Fry, Nancy Rudolph
St. George's - Eric Wells, Cathy Kappel, Kathy Wilson

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The New Castle County Vo-Tech School District offers free or reduced-price meals to any student who qualifies. To apply for these benefits, a Meal Benefit Form must be completed. Forms are available online, in the Guidance Office, or from the school cafeteria manager. Forms should be completed and then returned to Guidance or the Cafeteria. You will be notified by mail with the results. You may apply at any time during the school year should your income change or should you become unemployed. Please remember in this changing, stressful economy, that these meal benefits are available through our school district. Thank you.

Congratulations to Bonnie Lane, Health and PE instructor at Delcastle, who was named the National Health Education Professional of the Year by the American Association for Health Education. The AAHE "seeks to recognize those who enrich the depth and scope of health-related activities" and to reward outstanding contributions in the health education field. Bonnie will receive her award at the AAHE national convention in Tampa, Florida, on Friday, April 3rd. This is a huge honor and a great deal of work! Congratulations, Bonnie!

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Hodgson students' project produced raised garden beds and access pathways for residents at Emily P. Bissell Hospital. See the story by visiting the News Journal link:

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Delcastle Graphic Arts students designed a Disability Awareness poster to be used in schools across Delaware.

If you are interested in using the Disability Awareness poster designed by Delcastle Graphic Arts students, please click to DOWNLOAD (7.05 MB PDF - opens in new window).

Read more at:

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Every summer, middle schoolers fill the classrooms of Howard High School of Technology to explore future careers. The campers spend four half days in their chosen areas and seem to have a common complaint: "It's just not long enough." For more information click on Career Camp.

Hodgson's Art Club spent several Saturdays at the Delaware City Arts Center designing and painting a mural for their Between Fences exhibit. The exhibit, located at 60 Clinton Street, officially opened March 21st and will run through May 1st.

The Between Fences Exhibit is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Delaware Humanities Forum. The Art Club mural featured several images depicting Delaware City's unique flavor...the Fire Hall, Crabby Dick's restaurant, the park benches, a Fort Delaware soldier, the Edwin Reybold house, etc.

The mural served as a backdrop for the exhibit, which explores the importance of fences in defining American history. The Arts Center will host several lectures and events to further explore the Between Fences theme in the coming weeks.

Participants in mural: Shakena Corbett, Taylor Murphy, Anna Henry, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Stumpf, Jillian Ousey, Kelly Boyle, Erin Foraker, Bryana Hahn, Gloria Hahn (advisor), and Rolinda Roper (advisor).

"Bake the Night Away" was an overnight effort by Delcastle's culinary arts students designed to make 500 dozen cookies for hundreds of police officers statewide. The 6,000 cookies were contributed to "Cookies for Cops," an annual program sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving as a holiday thank you to police for trying to keep impaired drivers off the highways.

Congratulations to Delcastle Graphic Arts students who were winners in the Delaware Department of Natural Resources Conservation Youth Poster Design Contest, New Castle County division. Emily Hunter won 1st Place; Tiffany Noel, 2nd place; and Ammon Hutt, 3rd place. The students were recognized in an assembly on December 16 and received certificates and cash awards. Emily's poster can be viewed at the DNREC web site by clicking on More Info.

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Temperatures hovering below 30 degrees with a wind chill that made it feel like 17, made for ideal ice-sculpting weather for three carvers on Saturday morning, January 31st on the Boardwalk outside the Atlantic Sands Hotel.

Chef Gerry Treese, a culinary teacher at Hodgson Vocational School, started with a 300 lb. block of ice and transformed it into an airplane in just a couple of hours.

To read more about the contest, click on more info.

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As part of a special arrangement between Brader Elementary School and the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District, Hodgson's Dental Assisting students learn workplace skills while under-insured children receive free dental care.

Students from Howard's Academy of Finance and Business and their instructors, Mr. Matt Kane and Tim Johnson, hosted the kickoff of Howard's participation in Wilmington's "Dollar Wi$e" Campaign last week. Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker, the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League (MWUL), the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and Citigroup announced Wilmington's participation in this national program - a collaborative effort created by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to help citizens achieve better financial security through a series of free financial literacy training classes. The campaign targets Wilmington residents of all income levels and urges citizens to be financially literate and save for the future. The free financial literacy classes will be co-hosted by MWUL and the Delaware Money School.

You can watch our students in the WPVI-TV piece by clicking on the link:

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Howard started a structural steel detailing program four years ago and is one of the only schools in the country -- if not the only one -- with such a program. Other schools might have a detailing class, but not a three-year program like the one at Howard High, said Patrick Mulhern, who teaches the trade at the school.

If you thought the only connection between hair and furniture would involve the action of a vacuum cleaner, think again. Howard cosmetology students are working with a famous designer, incorporating their braided creations into furniture.

GLASGOW, DEL. - May 29, 2008 (WPVI, By Laura Wilson) -- Students at Hodgson Vo-Tech High School will have one up on other newcomers in the electrical trade industry.

Thanks to a company that specializes in renewable industry, and a $10,000 grant from the Delaware Department of Energy, these kids installed solar panels to a portion of their own school. The students learned about solar energy by reading books supplied by the General Electric company, and by doing their own Internet research. "I think we're the first people in the nation to install that in a high school. To me, it's kind of a great experience," said junior Brian Ksiazek.

As for why this project is so important, junior Steve Lebischak said "we're going to run out of fossil fuels sooner or later and we're going to need some way to power America."

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