BRIEFLY.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Young Writers Association offers classes

The Young Writers Association is offering an eight-week series of after-school Spring Teen Writing Workshops, all beginning the week of April 4 and running from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Middle School Workshop, with Deborah Wells, is Mondays at Barnes & Noble, 1163 Valley River Drive. For high-school students, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writing, with Nina Kiriki Hoffman, will be offered Mondays at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette St., and Creative Writing, with Carter McKenzie, on Wednesdays, also at Tsunami Books. Tuition is $64, with some partial scholarships available. Snacks and writing supplies will be provided.

A community reading by participants will be held at 7 p.m. on May 25 at Borders in the Oakway Center.

Family center offers parenting classes

Parents are invited to join the Bethel Village Family Center's "Parent Project," a six-week series of free classes beginning April 4 that will help parents find their strengths and areas for improvement and offer practical advice for dealing with the challenges of parenting. Parents will brainstorm ideas for improving family dynamics and learn new strategies. The Monday classes, which include a free dinner and care for children between the ages of 3 and 12, are from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., with no class April 25. Its focus will be issues for children first through fifth grades, such as family relationships and communication, discipline, alcohol and drug use, balancing work and family and handling stress. Registration is required. To register, call 461-6424, Ext. 3061, or 461-6421.

Springfield High holds pageant 

Springfield High School will hold its annual Miss Miller pageant at 7 p.m. Saturday in the school auditorium, 875 N. Seventh St. All proceeds from the fund-raiser will go to the Children's Miracle Network, which provides medical equipment to treat infants and children at Sacred Heart Medical Center. The contestants - Stacie Bronson, Aliya Dean, Margo Fultz, Elyse George, Emily Hartung, Kendra Iverson, Jenni Jolley, Stephanie Mitchell and Diana Sanchez - will be judged on their appearance in a variety of apparel, interviews, a dance routine and congeniality. Tickets are $3 for students and $5 for adults, and are on sale at the school office through April 1. For information, call 744-4700.

Agricultural scholarships available

The deadline is April 1 for $2,000 worth of scholarships donated by the Lane County Farm Bureau Chapter to the State Farm Bureau and Oregon Agricultural Education Foundation. The scholarships are for students who will have a positive impact on production agriculture and other agricultural fields. Another $2,000 has been donated specifically to help two Lane County students attend Oregon State University's College of Agriculture. For details, call [phone].

Science Factory offers courses for kids

The Science Factory has two four-week kids' science series scheduled in April. The Science Adventures Club "Webweavers" series, for students in grades three to five, runs each Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. beginning April 6. It offers in-depth investigation into science and technology. The ongoing "Magic School Bus Adventures," for children kindergarten through second grade, has a series focusing on boat building, gravity, pond life and fossils this month. It runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays beginning April 6 or 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays, starting April 7. The cost for either series is $40 for members or $50 for nonmembers. To register, call 682-7888.

LESD schedules workshops

The Lane Education Service District has several teacher workshops scheduled in April: "Protecting Our Children from Sexual Abuse," for K-12 teachers, school board members, principals, judges, law enforcement officials, child-care providers, social workers and youth volunteers, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 5; "Science Work Samples Benchmark III," for middle-school teachers, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on April 5; "Digital Cameras," for K-12 teachers, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on April 11; "Math Web Sites for Elementary Teachers," from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on April 12; "Catapults for Statistics and Probability," for teachers of grades four through seven, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on April 14; "Science Work Samples Benchmark CIM," for high school teachers, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on April 20; "OSX Tips and Tricks," from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on April 25; and "Create Your Own Movies in iMovie," for K-12 teachers, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on April 26. All workshops will be held at the Lane ESD office at 1200 Highway 99N. For information or to register, call 461-8200.

Video professionals to work with teens

A free, six-week class beginning April 4 at the Eugene Public Library will offer teens an extraordinary opportunity to get hands-on training with video professionals. Students will learn to plan, storyboard, script, shoot and edit with Apple iMovie. "Make Your Own Movies" runs each Monday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the downtown library. For information or an application, call 682-8316.

Blachly district has budget openings

The Blachly School District seeks volunteers to fill two vacancies on the 2005-06 budget committee. Candidates must be registered voters who have lived in the district at least one year. For information or an application, call the district at 925-3262.

Contest offers eco-remodeling grant

A contest open to kindergarten through sixth-grade classes at public or private schools offers up to $100,000 for a renovation to make the classroom more eco-responsible. Details on Ford's Radical Renovation: School Edition are available online at www.nationalgeographic.com/gogreen/ford/index.html. The best idea for a renovation wins, and teachers must postmark entries by April 7.

Dictionaries offered to schools

Republican Women of Central Lane County is looking for schools, both public and private, that are seeking dictionaries for their third- and fourth-graders as part of an ongoing dictionary donation program. The group has donated more than 300 copies of "A Student's Dictionary" to five local elementary schools in recent months. Interested schools may call Saundra Murray at 343-6975.

Information on The Dictionary Project, a South Carolina literacy advocacy organization with which Republican Women has a partnership, is online at www.dictionaryproject.org.