HanesBrands Volunteers Bring a Day of Caring to Carver High School

On Friday, 40 HanesBrands volunteers came to Carver and spend an afternoon working with students on projects.

You can read the story at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

Here are more pictures:

Kernersville Middle Softball Team Wins Championship

This morning, we heard from Lisa May, the social worker at Kernersville Middle School. Her daughter, Sarah, who is in the sixth grade there, played softball this year, and May wanted us to know that the team won the championship game.

Here is what May had to say:  

“The Kernersville Middle School Softball team – in the inaugural year of softball as a middle school sport – went undefeated for the entire season, including regular season and the playoffs, beating Meadowlark Middle 10-2 last night. Woohoo! Go Hawks!!”

Amy Bunch is the sixth-grade math teacher who serves as Athletic Director at Kernersville Middle. Here is what Bunch had to say:

“The Kernersville Lady Hawks had a great inaugural season in Softball. The team went undefeated in regular conference play. In the first round of playoffs, the Lady Hawks defeated Jefferson to make it to the championship round.”

“The championship game was a great game. Both the Lady Hawks and the Lady Mustangs, from Meadowlark Middle, played an outstanding game. The Mustangs came out strong and Kernersville had to come from behind to win the game proving to the Lady Hawks that it pays to have perseverance.”

“The Lady Hawks have enjoyed playing together this year and it shows on and off the field. They have worked hard to improve with each practice and each game. They had great leadership and training from Coach Amanda Boyer and Assistant Coach Toni Mabe. They instilled in the girls that hard work pays off and taught the girls – ‘No Matter the Outcome, Love the Game.’"

2017 Clinard Grants for Innovative Teaching

Earlier this month, the Forsyth Education Partnership announced the winners of the 2017 Clinard Grants for Innovative Teaching. We invited the winners to tell us a little more about their projects. Here’s what the ones who have responded so far had to say:

Yesmin Volcan at Speas Global Elementary:

“In 2015, my classroom had the privilege of receiving a grant for a Reading Center that positively transformed reading in my classroom. Two years later, this center has demonstrated a surge in the development and learning of reading and practicing social skills in a Spanish Dual-Immersion Program.”

“Now my goal is to continue improving kindergarten students’ literacy skills by creating a Multi-Sensory Writing Center. The requested materials will aid in classroom writing/drawing development skills."

“This project will increase my students’ writing ability and literacy. The requested materials will allow my students to engage with letters and sounds in a more meaningful way that will support their language acquisition and comprehension. Items including writing tools, stamps, punches, and stamp pads will allow students to manipulate and engage with letters to create sounds and words.”

“The combination of these items with basic classroom materials (like crayons, dry erase boards, construction paper, pencils, markers, and folders) will make for more engaging and meaningful literacy intervention. I hope that this project will help me reach my ultimate goal as a teacher, which is to cultivate, support, create, form life-long learners and writers. The wide array of options will allow me to give differentiated instruction.”

Angela Kelly at Mineral Springs Elementary:

“I am using the grant money to help add to my flexible seating.  We are buying wobble stools and wobble cushions.  This helps students who are very wiggly.  This is my first year doing flexible seating.  We already have kneeling pads, crate seats, regular stools, yoga balls, and the students are allowed to stand.  Thus far, it seems to be going really well. I look forward to seeing how the additional seats affect flexible seating in our classroom.”

Elia Spencer at Clemmons Elementary:

“I am so pleased to have received this grant! We will use the grant to fund a series of field trips in which we will visit Kaliedium North, Kaliedium Downtown, and a local farm. We are collaborating with our SLP to use these opportunities to build language and communication skills.”

“As a small EC Preschool class we would not have been able to afford the cost of a bus and driver in addition to any fees associated with the venues, but, with this grant, we will have the opportunity to go on field trips we wouldn't have otherwise had the funds to make happen.”

“We also value the work that parents put in and are going to send a literacy kit home for each field trip so that they can contribute to the experience also.”

Richardean Miller at Griffith Elementary:

“I applied for the grant because, in my preschool 3 class, I do not have a computer that the children can use to touch and learn. The computer that I have chosen will allow the students to point and touch to let me see that they know and understand some basic skills that we are working on.”

“My children are in the EC Preschool setting and they have goals that they must meet. This grant money has given me the tool that I need to help reach this goal for the students.” 

Syrita Robinson at Petree Elementary:

“The purpose of my grant is to purchase novels for my fifth-grade students. They will use these novels to do literature circles, digital playlists and pathways for learning.” 

Vernon Childress at Carter High:

“My grant will be used to set up a couple of virtual stores so our students will be able use real-life examples of how to shop and pay for items to help them gain independence in this area.”

Amanda Gordon at Diggs-Latham Elementary:

“I wrote the grant for materials for an origami unit.  I attended professional development with NC A+ Schools in Raleigh in August and was inspired by some activities we completed with origami.”

“We started out learning some basic folds and then created several pieces including a paper cup that will actually hold water, swans, birds, frogs, etc.  During the folding process, we made connections to math and art and of course this type of activity would help students with fine motor skills as well.  Once we had our pieces completed, we arranged them into a type of sculpture or relief art piece in order to create an arrangement and then write a story, poem, song, or other piece to explain our creation.” 

“My goal is to write a unit that will give students a chance to learn origami techniques, using authentic paper and detailed instructions and then show them connections across all subject areas, which will of course embrace the 8 Essentials of A+ Schools and the 5 Pillars of Magnet Schools, since we are an A+ Magnet School.”

You will find the full list of grant winners at Clinard Grants for Innovative Teaching. 

Visiting India, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Iran and More at Jefferson Elementary

On Friday night, Jefferson Elementary held its second annual Multi Cultural Festival.

You can read the story at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

Here are more pictures:

"Brass under the Big Top" at Speas

On Friday, Dikki Ellis and the members of the Giannini Brass performed at Speas Global Elementary School.

You can read the story at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

Here are more pictures:\

Celebrating Kindness/Standing Against Bullying

Kathy FitzJefferies enjoys taking pictures. The photos here are among those she took at the walk.

By Kathy FitzJefferies

Program Manager Safe and Drug-Free Schools

This was my first experience participating in the Stand Up-Step Up Kindness Walk/Rally.  It was such a wonderful event.  The enthusiasm of the students, staff, parents, school board members and community supporters was phenomenal!  I really appreciated all those who planned, organized, volunteered, and otherwise supported this event.

From the student groups who provided song, music poetry reading and the martial-arts demonstration, to those who facilitated the Bully prevention workshops, to the incredible messages/signs posted on our “Wall of Kindness” by our students, it was a day to celebrate and motivate us to be centered in kindness and caring for each other. 

As I have been in this position only three weeks, I look forward to learning about the various ways schools are creating kind, safe and caring environment for their students and staff.  I am looking forward learning how we can better support bully prevention efforts.