Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2013 Vol. IV Hillcrest Elementary Mary Strickland, Science Teacher During the early release day in September, the students and staff members at Hillcrest Elementary participated in the school’s first Engineering Day. Students in all grade levels accepted the challenge of building a strong, stable structure using only marshmallows, masking tape, and straws (K‐3) or spaghetti noodles (4‐5). This activity required the students to “think outside the box” to create a tall structure, all the while being conscious of the money their group spent. Students learned very quickly that problem‐solving and critical thinking can be frustrating but they never gave up. They worked efficiently and effectively towards their group’s goal. In the end, there were some amazing structures that were showcased the next night at the school’s Open House. The students and staff can’t wait for their next Engineering Day in the near future!
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Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2013 Vol. IV
Hillcrest Elementary Mary Strickland, Science Teacher
During the early release day in September, the students and staff members at Hillcrest Elementary participated in the school’s first Engineering Day. Students in all grade levels accepted the challenge of building a strong, stable structure using only marshmallows, masking tape, and straws (K‐3) or spaghetti noodles (4‐5). This activity required the students to “think outside the box” to create a tall structure, all the while being conscious of the money their group spent. Students learned very quickly that problem‐solving and critical thinking can be frustrating but they never gave up. They worked efficiently and effectively towards their group’s goal. In the end, there were some amazing structures that were showcased the next night at the school’s Open House. The students and staff can’t wait for their next Engineering Day in the near future!
Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2013 Vol. IV
South Graham Elementary Elizabeth Price, Principal
South Graham Elementary celebrated Latino Independence Day. It was a wonderful performance celebrating the independence of many different countries. The program involved all of the dual language classes from kindergarten through 3rd grade. Our gym was full of parents and students! The students discussed the independence for Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Guatamala and presented songs and dances from the different countries. Senor Diaz, 3rd grade teacher, sang the opening song along with choreography from 3rd grade English teacher, Megan Peele. We want to send special thanks to all of our teachers involved: Ceci Noriega, Paola Mendoza, Estefania Ramos, Amy Burgess, Rebeca Escobar, Catherine Wertz and Jena Roberts. There was also a note sent
home asking all students to wear native clothing for the program. None of this would have been possible without the leadership of Andrea Mora, 2nd grade teacher, who was instrumental in the success of the program. It was a great day!
Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2013 Vol. IV
Spanish immersion students get the best of two worlds Program is only one of its kind in Alamance County By Isaac Groves/ Times-News Photo courtesy of Sam Roberts/Times-News � GRAHAM — For more than 160 students at South Graham Elementary School, every day is different. One day class is in English and the next in Spanish. The Splash! Spanish Immersion program is what Principal Elizabeth Price calls a 50-50 immersion program. Half the students are native Spanish speakers and the other half native English speakers — the teachers, too, Price said. “I wanted something that would fi t my population because I have about 35 percent Latino kids,” Price said, “and this is the best kind of (English as a second language training).” There are two immersion classes for every grade from kindergarten through third grade. Price said the program started four years ago when students now in third grade started kindergarten. Each year the program has added another grade. Price recruits her Spanish-speaking teachers through Visiting International
Faculty, a Chapel Hill company sponsoring teachers from more than 70 countries to teach in 10 states. VIF also created the Splash! program. This year South Graham has teachers from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Chile and Colombia working in teams with local teachers. Price said she tries to get teachers from different Spanish-speaking countries so the students learn about the different accents, histories and cultures. Students in the immersion program held a Latino Independence Day celebration. Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia and Guatemala, where the Spanish-speaking teachers come from, all celebrate their independence in September or October, Price said. The students performed songs and dances from each country and the entire student body wore traditional clothes from those countries. The students made their presentations in English and Spanish, Price said, with the native-English speakers doing the Spanish parts and the native-Spanish speakers doing the English parts. “I’m real pleased with how the program went today,” Price said Friday. “It did my heart proud to see what they did.” Elon Elementary School and Marvin B. Smith Elementary have full Spanish immersion programs, but this is the only 50-50 immersion program in Alamance County, Price said. There are others in the state. Price said teaching academics in two languages is a very successful approach, according to the research. The third-grade students in the immersion program will take end-of-grade tests for the first time this year, so there are no scores to show how the students are progressing, but Price said results in the benchmark tests they take have been good.
Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2013 Vol. IV
Turrentine Middle North Carolina Symphony honors Turrentine educator SYMPHONIC LEARNING By Isaac Groves Photo courtesy of Sam Roberts/ Times-News Times-News Jody Gaedtke learned June 10 she would receive the Maxine Swalin Award from the North Carolina Symphony as an outstanding music teacher. Her husband, Keith, died June 11. “I found out on Monday and he passed away on Tuesday,” Gaedtke said. “It was quite the whirlwind.” Gaedtke spent two years caring for Keith after his diagnosis with stage four esophageal cancer while running the 150-student orchestra program at Turrentine Middle School with all their regular weekend trips and festivals. “In the midst of meeting his needs as a caregiver I maintained this program,” Gaedtke said, “because it needed to be maintained.” It also helped her get through the day, she said. Talking about Keith is one of two things that make tears come to Gaedtke’s eyes. The other is the stack of letters the parents of current and former students wrote about her to the award selection committee. “One of Jody Gaedtke’s greatest gifts to students and to music is her innate sense of what each student needs to fulfill his or her potential, both musically and as a whole person,” wrote Marcia Livesay, mother of a former student. Those letters, said David Albert, who headed up the awards committee, put Gaedtke ahead of a crowded field of good candidates. The Maxine Swalin Award for Outstanding Music Educator recognizes a teacher who, “makes a lasting difference in the lives of students of all abilities and backgrounds, serves the community in an exemplary manner as a role model in music education, instills a love for music in children, and inspires students to reach appropriately high musical standards,” according to the symphony’s website. Gaedtke received the $1,000 award at the symphony’s opening concert this week, Albert said, and also conductor Grant Llewellyn’s 10th anniversary celebration. Gaedtke studied music education at Duquesne University. When she graduated in 1980, she was the first in her immediate family to go to college, but there were no teaching jobs available in her native Pittsburgh at the time. She took a job as a director of religious education and youth ministries in Michigan and Wisconsin for 12 years. She was studying at Western Theological Seminary for a master’s degree in religious education when a job came open in Wisconsin filling in teaching a middle school orchestra. She loved it, and has been with it ever since. She came to Turrentine in 2000, and according to Livesay’s letter, turned the orchestra program around. Gaedtke said she does not have a defined approach to teaching. Her style is more an extension of her personality. “I don’t know that I ever gave it a lot of thought,” Gaedtke said. “I guess to me it’s all relational; you make it fun, you establish relationships with students, but you also keep your expectations high.” Gaedtke’s music education started in middle school, too, with a school violin and orchestra. It set her on the road to college and a career she loves.
Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2013 Vol. IV
It is a big part of the reason she wants Alamance County to keep its strong orchestra program from the old Burlington City Schools. She hopes the award shows the program is strong, though she doubts it will change her style. “I don’t know that anything changes; change happens all the time because the kids are different and their needs are different,” Gaedtke said. “It’s a motivator to continue doing what you’re doing.”
Alexander Wilson Elementary and Monarch Monday Melissa Harrelson, Technology Teacher Alexander Wilson Elementary held its first monarch butterfly release on Monday, September 23 from the school’s butterfly garden within the Educating Children Outdoors (E.C.O). Campus. Due to logging in Mexico, changes in climate and the disappearance of the milkweed plant which is essential to their survival, monarch numbers are rapidly declining. North Carolina is part of a monarch migration path however; there have been fewer and fewer sightings in our region over the last decade. I discovered 23 different instars (stages) of monarch caterpillars and seven monarch eggs near my home, south of the school. A monarch watch station was set up at AWE and the eggs and caterpillars were brought indoors for safe‐keeping and observation. Students have been able to observe the caterpillars go through five different instar stages and turn into the chrysalis stage. Seven eggs hatched to reveal caterpillars! Then, the process from egg to butterfly took about thirty days. (photo courtesy of Sam Roberts/Times‐News)
Check out the stories about the exciting release on News 14 and in the Times‐News:
