L I M I T L E S S

As part of our Strategic Plan Pillar 1: Our Students and Pillar 2: Our Team, the Valley Park School District has committed to developing student-centered classrooms and personalized learning experiences for all students.

As outlined in our plan, we are committed to providing high-quality, sustainable professional learning that positively impacts student learning. Included in Pillar 1 is a commitment to provide project-based learning (PBL) opportunities to all students in Valley Park We are thrilled to continue this 3-year journey with PBL beginning, Cohort #2, that was chosen this month!

Valley Park will continue to offer a high-quality professional learning experience for PBL by bringing in the experts, our partners at New Tech High School in Napa, California. This PBL professional development opportunity will continue through 2024 The second of the three cohorts will begin this summer and will continue with additional PD days during the school year and ongoing coaching and support straight from New Tech High, The Center for Excellence New Tech High provides cutting edge professional development, training, and support for educators, schools, and districts looking to transform their practices.

Congratulations to the teachers of our second cohort! We can't wait to see what limitless learning opportunities these special cohorts will continue to bring to the students at Valley Park School District!

Connecting Academic Content To Real World Business Applications

Meghan Aydelott, College, Career, and Success-Ready Director, applied and was awarded the Missouri Career Pathways Grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for $11,204. The purpose of the this grant is to design and implement a Missouri Career Pathways Program at Valley Park School District for the 22-23 school year. This program will help our educators connect local education agency LEA academic content to real world business and industry applications. Many of these high-demand occupations fall into the science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) categories

In alignment with the VPSD Strategic Plan and in order for our students to be truly college and career ready, it is imperative that our teachers have current and up to date knowledge of the post secondary world. Our teachers need to know the labor market in our St. Louis region. By visiting and learning directly from local business and industry, our teachers will have better insight to the world beyond high school that awaits our students One example of connecting academic content to the real world was a recent Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Flight and Space student field trip to Valley Technologies. Students in the class were mapping the Mars Rover journey using coding skills and spheros. Valley Technologies, located in Valley Park, MO, had been tasked in creating a supply needed for NASA to complete the Mars Rover. Our students got to visit and tour Valley Technologies and see first hand where a part from the Mars Rover was created for a once in a lifetime experience.

Teachers involved in the college and career readiness strand of Profess Dev for the 22-23 school year will be the first cohort to participate in this grant.