shout out february vol 3 - alamance-burlington school ... · out to aoife o’neill! she is an...

Around Our Schools Shout Outs February 2012: Vol. 3

Shout Out to Our

Super Speller! Principal Greg Holland

from Western Middle

proudly shared the

following news:

“Congratulations to

Western Middle 6th

Grade student Meghna

Mahadevan for winning

the Times-News Spelling

Bee!” Check out the

story from the Times-

News

http://www.thetimesne

ws.com/articles/last-

52392-western-

spelling.html

Shout Out to Two Very SMART Staff Members!

Dottie Small teaches 5th

Gators at Garrett and is an

Advanced eCoach. She let

me know about this great

news: “Chris Small

(Woodlawn and my

husband!) and I have been

selected to teach a

SMARTboard session at

the annual North Carolina

Technology in Education

Society’s (NCTIES)

conference in Raleigh. This

is our second year! The

event is scheduled for

March and here’s our

session description: Chris

and Dottie will equip you with Smartboard lesson ideas for centers, whole group, small group,

and independent groups in all subject areas. You will leave this session inspired and prepared to

engage ALL students with your Smartboard.”

Thanks Chris and Dottie for sharing your SMARTS!


Shout Out to Sylvie and Ms.

Whitley’s Class!

Letitia Geary, music teacher for

the Blue Jays, sent this in:

“Sylvan’s mascot, Sylvie, has been

busy soaring from room to room

to encourage good attendance

from all students! She lands in the

classroom with the highest

attendance rate for the week.

Congratulations to Heather

Whitley’s 5th grade class for

earning a visit from Sylvie for the

second time! Sylvan students and

staff are continually discussing the

importance of good attendance,

and are tracking their individual,

classroom, grade level, and school-wide attendance rates.” Congratulations!

Shout Out to

Hillcrest!

Principal Dr. Devon

Carson shared news

about this great

partnership: “Jackie Kane

and the Alamance

Republic Women’s

Association donated

some books to Hillcrest

Elementary for their

2011 Literacy Project.

The group donated

books about the White

House and our

Government.”


Shout Out to Steven Cobb, WWHS Bulldog!

It is always amazing to find out about unique interests,

hobbies, and passions of our students and staff. Check

out this recent Times-News story about Steven Cobb,

Williams High senior, and his fave thing to do. How many

other high school licensed pilots do you know? http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/williams-52230-school-

cobb.html

There’s even more to this story………

Steven’s T-N story went NATIONAL on the Aircraft Owners

and Pilots Association website, too! Click on this link and

scroll down to the Pilot’s Spotlight section and you can

read the Times-News story featuring Steven from their

website: http://www.smartbrief.com/servlet/ArchiveServlet?issueid=1EF1D193-7BC5-45B3-B1A2-A6B1AE3F9B40&lmid=archives

Shout Out to Western High!

Remember last week’s story about the Western High robot team? Well, I got a report about the

event held at Elon University by “robot mom” Elke Ruggaber: “The scrimmage went really well!

Our team from Western won with the alliance of a home school team from Burlington. We had

a ton of fun as you can read in the link below from the Greensboro News & Record. http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/02/05/article/robots_scrimmage_at_elon

News 14 had us briefly on their program too—here is the script they ran:

AREA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS MET AT ELON UNIVERSITY YESTERDAY TO COMPETE.

GUILFORD AND ALAMANCE COUNTY STUDENTS TOOK PART IN A ROBOTICS

SCRIMMAGE...WITH STUDENT-BUILT ROBOTS.

IT'S PREPARATION FOR THE UPCOMING STATEWIDE "FIRST TECH CHALLENGE" IN

GREENSBORO. ON A 12-BY-12 FOOT FIELD...THE STUDENTS USED THEIR ROBOTS TO PLACE

RACQUETBALLS AND BOWLING BALLS INTO PLASTIC CRATES TO SCORE POINTS...AND

DEMONSTRATE CREATIVE AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS.

THE FIRST-TECH CHALLENGE TAKES PLACE FEBRUARY 25-TH AT NORTH CAROLINA A-

AND-T STATE UNIVERSITY.

That’s next Saturday! The kids are finalizing the robot design and finish up with their

programming.” Good luck Warriors!


Shout Out to Teachers” Aging

Gracefully” at A-W!

Carole Smith, curriculum facilitator, sent in

this “old wives’ tale” about some of her co-

workers:

“To celebrate the 100th day of school, some

Alexander-Wilson first and second grade

teachers went "all out". Second grade

teachers; Rachael Vanderford and Christy

Phillips and first grade teachers; Ashely

Vroom, Morgan Thompson and Janna

Shoffner "aged" 100 years! What a surprise

their students got when they found an "older"

teacher in their classroom. This surprise,

along with a lot of exciting 100th day

activities, was a great way to celebrate the

100th day of school.”

What fun!!

Hey, do they even make pink sponge curlers

anymore?


Shout Out to an Eastern

Eagle Flying High!

Assistant Principal Wendy

Nelms shared this great news

from the Eagles’ nest: “We at

EHS would like to give a Shout

Out to Aoife O’Neill! She is an

outstanding English teacher

here and she has been selected

to represent EHS at the district

level TOY competition! Ms.

O’Neill carries herself very

professionally and holds all of

her students to high standards.

Here are some of the words

written by a few colleagues:

Ms. O’Neill makes special

connections with students,

handles classroom

management and parent

communication

brilliantly…provides rigorous,

challenging work on a daily

basis…her students are actively engaged the entire class period. She stays very busy at EHS.

She is a leader with and extremely helpful to Mrs. Nelms with the Graduation Project.

She is on the Leadership Team and is Co-Sponsor of the Debate team. She stays after school to

help students and always says “yes” when asked if she can add on one more task to her busy

schedule. We are proud to have Ms. O’Neill represent EHS as TOY. We know she will do well!”

Shout Out to Haw River and Big Hearts!

Shadonna Gunn from HRE sent this in: “This fundraiser is headed by

our Kindergarten teacher, Sandy Peele.

Haw River Elementary annually participates in the “Pasta for

Pennies” fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Last

year, students donated $2041.00 which set our goal for this year.

Last week, students learned about the disease and participated in a

role play scenario that illustrated what happens with the blood cells

when they are not healthy. Based on the first week of participation, we are well on our way to

surpassing our goal! Our students have donated $1,143.75 so far! That’s the most we’ve ever

collected in the first week of the campaign!!! We are so proud of our students for being so

generous! They may be little, but their hearts are big!”


Shout Out to Teachers! Here is your personal invitation provided by NCAE District 4A:

NCAE District 4A is hosting the movie, MITCHELL 20, to inspire you and to remind you why you

love teaching and how important our skills are to the advancement of our profession. You are

cordially invited to a screening of “Mitchell 20” an inspirational movie about educators in

Phoenix, AZ. These teachers have the same types of students and poverty levels we see in our

district.

When: Saturday February 25 at 4 pm

Where: Graham Cinema

119 N. Main Street, Graham, NC 27253

Watch a copy of the trailer at:

http://www.mrmovietimes.com/movie-trailers/mitchell-20-teacher-quality-is-the-answer.html

Donations of $2 or $3 will be given to the NC Foundation for Public School Children.

Concessions available.

Bring everyone you know who cares about students; other teachers, principals, students,

young people, community members, elected officials.

Shout Out to Helping Kids Just Say No!

Gina Holmgren sent this in: “The ABSS Drug and Violence Prevention Specialists had a table set

up on Monday and Tuesday at the D.A.R.E. Middle School Basketball Tournament. Research and

experience show that parents have a lot of influence on their teens. We are working to

empower parents with knowledge that can help them steer their teen away from drugs,

alcohol, and tobacco, as well as other destructive choices. We provided parents and students

with information about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Parents that visited our table, had their

names entered into a drawing for a Chick Fil A prize basket. Latrise Lea was the lucky winner!”


There’s No

Debating

This: Shout

Out to

Southern

High!

The Southern

Alamance High

School Debate

Team

represented

Alamance

County

recently in the

2nd Triangle

High School

Ethics Bowl

hosted by the

Parr Center for

Ethics at UNC-

Chapel Hill.

The day-long

event featured

fourteen

teams

representing

eleven schools

throughout

the Triangle

region.

Southern

Alamance was

the only

school

representing our county!

The Southern Alamance Debate Club is coached by Andrea Chase, and UNC-Chapel Hill

graduate student Luke Elson assisted the team in its preparation for the Ethics Bowl.

Pictured from left to right: Raine Craft, Luke Elson, Evyan Gainey, Jacob Faircloth, Jessica

Kruemmel, Amber Jones, Quanisha Hester and Andrea Chase. Team members not pictured:

Stephen de Simone and Zachary Reers.


Shout Out to Broadview Middle’s Teacher of the Year!

Assistant Principal Pam Henline was proud to announce Nathan Page, 8th grade Math/Algebra

1 teacher, as the Bobcats’ 2012 TOY! Congratulations, Nathan! Thanks for all you do!


Shout Out to

Aneicia Frei,

Cummings Cavalier

Artist, New York

Style!

Lauren Bourne, art

instructor at

Cummings, sent in this

great news about a

Cavalier artist’s debut

in New York City.

“Congratulations to

Aneicia Frei! Her piece

Nature vs. Technology

has been selected for

the Big Screen Plaza

event in NEW YORK

CITY through Artsonia!

Her work will be

displayed on Friday,

March 2nd/Saturday

March 3rd: 5:29 PM

EST during the National

Art Education

Association National

Conference. This work

is from her AP 2D

Design Concentration

portfolio. Located in

the heart of Manhattan

in New York City, the Big Screen Plaza (www.bigscreenplaza.com) is a giant 30 x 16 ft. outdoor

LED screen, which showcases artistic talent for visitors to view and appreciate.” What a

beautiful piece of artwork! Can’t you hear Frank Sinatra singing in the background? ”Start

spreading the news. I’m leaving today. I want to be a part of it, New York, New York…..”


Shout Out to Hillcrest! Sara Vanderpool is a first grade

teacher and eCoach for the Hornets.

She sent in news about the Hillcrest

First Grade 100’s Museum. “ Every

year, the first grade students at

Hillcrest Elementary celebrate the

100th day of school by completing

100th day projects. The students are

asked to collect 100 items, display

them in a creative way and then

write about their project. This year

our projects were extra creative!

We are very proud of how hard our

students worked on them.”


Shout Out to Eastern Eagles!

Breaking news from last night! Terry Drummond, CTE teacher for the Eagles sent this in:

“I am nothing less than estatic at the results of the 2012 NC SkillsUSA region 5 contest result!

Eastern Eagles have risen to the occasion.

Joshua Johnson - 3rd Place Auto Tech I Tool ID

Joshua Johnson - 2nd Place Auto Tech I Contest

Andrew Hatley - 5th Place Auto Service II

Tabitha White - 3rd Place Auto Service II

Tyler Scott - 2nd Place Auto Service II

My hat is off to all of these students for their outstanding performance. They will all be

competing in the state level contests in April!” We will round up some pictures and more

details about this late-breaking story and include more news in an upcoming Shout Out.

Shout Out to Dr. Everett!

Barbara Everett is retiring at the end of

the month, and central office staff

surprised her with a cake on Wednesday

to celebrate her 31 years with ABSS!

Thanks, Barbara for all you’ve done

throughout your career!

Go ahead and send Dr. Everett your

personal Shout Out before it’s too late.

She is counting down just a few short days until she puts her feet in the sand!


Shout Out to A. O.!

Christy Bentley is the media specialist at A. O. She is

proud to announce that ALL A. O. 4th and 5th grade

students at A.O. Elementary are now published

authors!!! Christy says: During library time, we have

been working on research, stories and illustrations

for quite a few months. After researching,

brainstorming, imagining, writing, rewriting, drawing

and redrawing, we sent all 8 classroom

manuscripts to Student Treasures Publishers and

they have returned our 8 beautiful classroom books.

There will be a copy for checkout in our

library and there is one copy of each

classroom book on display in the office at

A.O.

If you get a chance, stop by and take a look. The students

are very proud of their books and I am extremely proud of

the finished product and all of their hard, diligent work!!”

Here are just a few pictures of the books with different

titles.


Shout Out to Hillcrest!

Caitlyn Alexander, Tech teacher,

eCoach and webmistress for the

Hornets, shared this fun event:

“Hillcrest recently implemented

PBIS, and to get ready for the big

Implementation Day, we had Mr.

Patrick Henry, a local speaker,

entertainer, and song writer, join us

for a kick-off assembly, Kindness

Revolution! Mr. Henry talked with

students about the importance of

being kind to others and also

standing up to bullies by telling

them that their actions aren’t cool!

The students really enjoyed

listening to his songs and stories,

and many of our students have been using Mr. Henry’s phrase, “That’s Not Cool!” Well, This Is

Cool!

Shout Out to Dr. Cox!

Last Thursday, Dr. Cox was named the 2012

Distinguished Educator by the North Carolina

Association of Supervision and Curriculum

Development at their annual conference! Board

member Mary Erwin was able to be present to

see Dr. Cox receive the statewide honor

awarded for significant contributions to

education and visionary leadership in curriculum

and instruction.

Congratulations, Boss!

Shout Out from Times-News!

Times-News Honor Roll insert will be published next Wednesday, Feb. 22. Michele Terry from T-

N is happy to report that they had more advertising support this time, which allowed them to

include both the A and the A-B honor roll! Michele says “Thank you for helping us honor the

academic achievements of students in Alamance County!” Don’t forget to look for the insert

next Wednesday.


Shout Out to the All County Chorus for

Elementary Students!

Joy Rust, music teacher for North Graham

shared the following: “The 2012 ABSS

Elementary All County Chorus was held at

Graham High School on Saturday, January 28

with 140 singers from 17 schools participating!

The students arrived at 9:00 a.m. and

rehearsed diligently, preparing for the 2:00

p.m. concert. The guest conductor was Stuart

Chapman Hill, who oversees a choral program

of more than 180 students at Northern

Guilford Middle School. Stuart is a proud alumnus of Smith Elementary, Turrentine Middle, and

Williams High. In addition to his teaching, Stuart is an active composer, creating works for

church, school, and concert settings around the United States and in Europe. The accompanist

was Marilyn Fox, who taught music in the Alamance-Burlington Schools for over 34 years,

retiring in 2009. Currently, she teaches piano lessons, plays keyboard in the Alamance Jazz

Band, plays piano at Shallow Ford Christian Church, and bass in the Elon University Chamber

Orchestra. The elementary music teachers are grateful for their work with our students!”

Shout Out to Southern Middle All-County Band Students!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS FOR MAKING THE ALL-COUNTY BAND:

Kaleb Thurman – flute; Sarah Henderson – flute; Zoe King – clarinet; Michael Wells - trumpet

Zoe King – trumpet; Jonathan Hester – trombone

These students participated in the All County Band workshop that was held February 16th and

17th at Williams High School Auditorium. Over 120 students from across the district participate

in this yearly event.

Shout

Out to

the All

County

Band

Event!


On Friday, February 17, the Williams High Auditorium was filled with musical sounds from both

the Middle School and High School All County Band groups. Guest clinicians included Ryan

Ellefsen from East Chapel Hill High School for the high school band members and Jane Cutchin

from Guy B. Phillips Middle School in Chapel Hill for the middle school students. Great job,

students and band directors!

Shout Out to Broadview Middle!

Seventh grade Bobcats in Mrs. Peres-

da-Silva’s math class combined

cultural studies with math recently.

Assistant Principal Pam Henline

reported: “Students made piñatas as

part of Blog 7 in Mrs. da-Silva’s class

which was “Learning to appreciate

Hispanic culture by making piñatas and

learning how to calculate volume of a

three dimensional solid”. Ms. da-Silva

added: “ Fifty percent of our school

population is Hispanic, and I enjoy

blogging with my students about

appreciating cultural differences. We are

also getting ready to learn about

volume, and I thought students could learn to calculate volume using their piñatas. Most of my students

had never made a piñata before, so they had to learn how to make paper mache and wrap it around a

balloon till it hardened. They had fun doing it. Their parents had prior knowledge about making piñatas

so this was a family affair.”


Shout Out to Garrett Elementary!

Garrett Gators proudly announce two lovely

and talented professionals as

2012 Teacher of the Year, Laurie Frazier!

(pictured left)

and

Garrett Classified Employee of the Year,

JoAnn McCulley!

(pictured below)

We appreciate you!

shout out february vol 3 - alamance-burlington school ... · out to aoife o’neill! she is an...

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