Cape May County Special Services
The month of April marks Cape May County Special Services School District’s 11th year participating in the FACES annual “Bubbles 4 Autism” campaign.
Students and staff formed a “human ribbon” in an effort to display their support for increased Autism awareness.
The school has seven Autism classes which are multi-sensory, highly structured language enriched environments with visual and behavior supports enabling students to develop skills to function appropriately across all environments.
Dennis Township
Cindy Leatherwood, 8th grade Language Arts teacher, was recently announced as the recipient of the Dennis Township School District Teacher of the Year award. A veteran teacher in the district, Leatherwood is thrilled. “I am so honored to be recognized by my colleagues,” states Leatherwood. “I’m excited that my peers both see and appreciate what I’m doing in my classroom and the district.”
The Teacher of the Year committee, headed up by 4th grade teacher Kim Holman, changed up their nomination criteria and award structure this year. Rather than awarding two Teacher of the Year awards representing the primary/elementary school and the middle school, the committee chose to have one award based on the New Jersey State Teacher of the Year program.
The state program focuses on teacher leaders who demonstrate professional knowledge, excellence in instruction, student inspiration and leadership potential.
“Cindy meets and exceeds these qualifications and is highly deserving of this recognition,” Holman explains, adding, “[Leatherwood] has been at the forefront in our district in using instructional technology and promoting professional learning for the rest of us.”
Still enthusiastic about teaching after 26 years in the classroom, Leatherwood is a self-professed technology nerd. She loves incorporating instructional technology into teaching as much as possible and is pursuing certification to become a Google
Educator so she can assist other teachers in other schools to develop their own instructional technology plans.
“We’ve been using Edmodo to connect with similar classes in other schools ranging from another 8th grade class in Upper Township to a 9th grade English class in Iberia, Missouri,” explains Leatherwood. The students use technology to exchange documents and videoconference to discuss topics and questions related to reading novels such as “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
A graduate of Rowan University, Leatherwood has a BA in Elementary Education, is certified to teach pre-K through 8th grade, and is highly qualified in Language Arts and Social Studies for grades K-8.
While she has earned about 6 graduate level credits, Leatherwood focuses her efforts on becoming even more tech savvy by spending her free time attending online lectures, using Twitter to connect with other like-minded educators and exploring new educational technologies.
Leatherwood is also pursuing the Cape May County Teacher of the Year Award. “We are very proud of Ms. Leatherwood and support her wholeheartedly in her application for Cape May County Teacher of the Year,” states Dr. Joseph LaRosa, Jr., principal of Dennis Township Elementary/Middle Schools.
“I think she has a good shot at winning because of her experience, talent and passion for teaching, and we all wish her luck in the next level of competition.”
Dennisville – As a parent of a Tech student it would be great if the school would update their staff directory. So many old staff still listed and no new teachers listed. What gives?
