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Click here to receive future eNewsletters, webinar invites and updates to your school's VariQuest tools!

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year! We hope you had a relaxing summer, and are looking forward to the year ahead. Your school is a valued VariQuest customer, and we hope you pull many new ideas from this eNewsletter for your school's VariQuest tools. As always, we would love to hear how you use VariQuest Visual Learning Tools in your classroom. Contact us at variquestenews@bradycorp.com or on Facebook and Twitter. We wish you and your students all the best for a successful academic year!

Teacher Feature

Beverly Rath
Grades 10-12, Special Education Vocational Classes
CBVAT Program, Osseo Area Schools (District 279)
Brooklyn Park, MN

Give an example of a lesson you teach that incorporates visual learning?
A: We use the Poster Maker to print words that relate to character education, referring to specific vocabulary throughout the year.

Who or what motivates and inspires you to be a teacher?
A: I am motivated to be a teacher because I can positively influence a student through teaching and make a difference in their lives.

What teaching strategy do you find helps your students best grasp a lesson?
A: My students work best with concrete, hands-on lessons and the VariQuest tools provide that opportunity.

Name the most important thing you hope students take away from your class.
A: I want my students to have the skills, an understanding, and belief that they are capable, young people with choices in their life.

What’s your favorite quote or comment from a student?
A: As students were leaving for summer break, they commented on how they would miss our classroom and wanted to come back in the fall.

Events

Stop by the VariQuest booth at a conference near you!

October Events:
October 12-15 – ALAS (Association of Latino Administrators & Superintendents) Summit on Hispanic Education in San Francisco, California

October 16-18 – 45th Annual Alaskan Principal Conference in Anchorage, Alaska

October 20-21 – North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders Fall Conference in Bismarck, North Dakota

If you have an idea for future content, feedback, questions or comments about this issue, we’d love to hear from you. Please click here to send us your feedback.

School Spotlight

South Atlanta School of Health and Medical Sciences

The second you step into the halls of South Atlanta School of Health and Medical Sciences in Atlanta, Georgia, it's easy to see the commitment to preparing students for entry into the workforce, higher education and careers in health and medical sciences. It's also very clear that student recognition is an important piece in building student success! Read more.

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In the Know

Teach Students About Healthy Eating Habits with Free MyPlate eBook Activity Guide

Based on MyPlate, the new dietary guidelines published by the USDA*, the free VariQuest eBook offers five learning activities for grades PreK-6. The activities focus on nutrition, food groups and healthy lifestyle choices using posters and cutouts from the VariQuest Poster Maker and Cutout Maker.

Download the MyPlate eBook Activity Guide today at www.variquest.com!
*Icon from USDA. USDA does not endorse any products, services or organizations.

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Upcoming VariQuest Professional Development Webinars

Don't miss out on the upcoming webinars from the VariQuest Professional Development Series. Topics in this year's free webinar series include how to use your VariQuest tools to support students with special needs, enhance your early learning program, provide instructional strategies for English language learners, and more! Visit www.variquest.com/webinars to see which upcoming webinars match your needs.

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VariQuest Tip of the Month: Product Care

In this back-to-school issue we thought sharing some simple product care and maintenance tips would be helpful to ensure ease of use and quality cutouts, posters, awards and stickers throughout the year. Click here for product care tips for each component of the VariQuest suite.

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VariQuest Application Ideas from Julia

Julia is a VariQuest content specialist and former teacher.

The new school year has arrived, which means it's time to prepare your classroom for another year of student learning, growth and development! The following tips will show you how to use VariQuest Visual Learning Tools to transform your classroom into a visually stimulating learning environment to help all of your students thrive.

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Assess the visual space available in your classroom.

The space you have available for displaying visuals will determine the type of materials you will need to create. The size and relation of these spaces to the rest of your classroom will determine the type of information you are able to display in each space. Read more.

Decide upon the information you want to communicate.

Take both the space you have available and the type of information you will be communicating into consideration when planning the visual arrangement of information in your classroom. Read more.

Use the VariQuest tools to create a visually stimulating learning environment.

Make poster and banner-sized visuals for walls using the Poster Maker, and use the Cutout Maker to create bulletin boards with borders, letters, shapes and collections cut out of construction paper or cardstock. Read more.