Grove Park Teacher To Present At National Conference

Around Our Schools Shout Outs October 2013, Volume I

Grove Park Teacher To Present At National Conference

GPE is proud to announce that Ms. Lizzie Oakley, first grade teacher for “the Grove”, has been selected to present at the 2013 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) national conference in Boston, MA on Friday, November 22! Ms. Oakley will share information with other educators across the nation about successful classroom protocols she has developed and implemented that engage students in interactive discussions about the writing of professional authors and their classmates. She will discuss research that demonstrates how activities that are designed to be student-centered also meet new state standards in English/Language Arts. The title of her presentation is “Two Takes on Writing: Mentor Texts and Common Core Connections”.

The National Council of Teachers of English has more than 35,000 member individuals and educational institutions worldwide with a mission of improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

Congratulations Ms. Oakley! Thanks for taking ABSS to the national stage!

Beautification Project: A Sellars Gunn Success

Iris Warren and Kris Hahn at Turning Point on the Sellars Gunn campus spearheaded a large scale beautification project that enlisted the help of SG and Turning Point staff, community businesses and a grant award from the Lowe’s Home Improvement store of Burlington. In phase 1 of the project that started in June, Kris Hahn says: “We had several staff members provide donations to plant flowers and buy some supplies to improve the school grounds. Mebane Shrubbery

Around Our Schools Shout Outs October 2013, Volume I

donated rose bushes to plant and Living Landscape Nursery (Graham) provide some shrubs and flowers to plant in the front of the gym area and Turning Point’s entrance. We had school employees and their families help with the project. Turning Point students helped with getting the garden ready and planting the rose bushes.” Iris Warren shared that the grant award from Lowe’s for also provided Lowe’s Heroes as a community volunteer service project in addition to plants. This week, the Lowe’s employees showed up to share their muscles and help to complete Phase 2. The City of Burlington provided a water truck to help! It was a beautiful day for a beautification

project. Check out

the photos.

Around Our Schools Shout Outs October 2013, Volume I

The project took hands and work

gloves of all sizes—large and small to

make everything more beautiful at

SG. Thanks to all of our community

partners!

Around Our Schools Shout Outs October 2013, Volume I

Graham Middle Robotics Club Ron Villines, Principal

The GMS Robotics Club meets every Wednesday after school from 3:30 to 4:15. David Price and Amanda Shonk serve as the club advisors. Club members are using the LEGOs Mindstorms EV3 robotic technology to build and program their robots to perform various functions and maneuvers. The club will prepare for participation in competitions as the year progresses!

Check out more about this innovative STEM

teaching tool:

http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/categorie

s/products/middle-school/lego-mindstorms-

education-ev3

Around Our Schools Shout Outs October 2013, Volume I

Western Middle Hosts Mini Page and Newspapers in Education Patrick Vernon

The creator of the Mini Page that appears regularly in the Times-News as part of the Newspapers in Education initiative, Ms. Betty Debnam, visited my social studies classes on Friday, 9/27/13. Ms. Debnam worked with students using the online Archive of the Mini Page. In partnership with UNC and Learn NC, Ms. Debnam has made each edition of the Mini Page from 1969 – 2007 available in an online archive.

Along with Ms. Debnam, Dr. Sandra Cook from the North Carolina Press Foundation along with Michele Terry, Newspaper in Education coordinator at the Times-News saw my students putting the Mini Page archive to good use.