Student Art in September 2013 Issue of Forsyth Family Magazine

By Carson Walker, Clemmons Middle

By Savannah Ezzell, Northwest Middle

By Carlos Castrol, Mineral Springs Middle

By Hampton Hynes, Clemmons Middle

On Page 78 of the September issue of Forsyth Family magazine, you will find art by four students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

Stacey Stephens is Carson Walker's art teacher.
Emily Bast is Savannah Ezzell's art teacher.
Kristin Jones is Carlos Castro's art teacher.
Katherine Howard is Hampton Hynes' art teacher.

Four Schools in Contest to Win $50,000 Computer Lab

Reynolds students in front of Reynolds Auditorium

Local teachers need your help.

Phil Benenati, who teaches photography at Reynolds High School, and Nancy Smoot, who teaches kindergarten at Brunson Elementary School, have entered their respective schools in a contest that would mean a $50,000 computer lab for the winning school.

“I have entered a ‘Back to School’ photo contest that depicts RJR students in front of our auditorium,” Benenati said. 

Smoot’s photo shows her riding a unicycle. “I am a kindergarten teacher,” she wrote next to the picture. “I ride my unicycle for my students at the end of each school year!"

Nancy Smoot on her unicycle

South Fork and Moore elementary schools are also participating in the contest.

People can go online to vote, and the school that gets the most votes by Sept. 8, the school will receive $50,000 worth of new computers. The contest is sponsored by Rack Room Shoes. People can vote every day between now and then. Benenati is hoping that people will not only vote but also let their friends and families know about it and urge them to vote at well.

Unfortunately for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, they can vote for only one school per day.

Here is the link for Reynolds

Here is the link for  Brunson

Here is the link for South Fork

Here is the link for Moore

School Systems Receives Grant to Make Videos that Capture Examples of Excellent Teaching in Social Studies

Dr. Adam Friedman, Wake Forest University

 

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools has received a $13,000 grant to work with Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to produce a series of videos capturing examples of high-quality teaching of social studies. 

“We believe these videos will be helpful for in-service and pre-service teachers throughout the county, state and nation,” said Andrew Kraft, the school system’s program manager for social studies. 

The grant - a Supporting Alignment for Student Success (SASS) Mini-Grant - was awarded through N.C. Ready for Success, a collaboration among the N.C. Community College System, the University of North Carolina, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, and N.C. Independent and Private Colleges and Universities.

The grants serve to “foster greater collaboration and alignment across all of North Carolina’s educational sectors” and “to award proposals that best promote student success through explicit partnership efforts between institutions of higher education (IHE) and one or more local K-12 school districts.” All of the suggested strategies were designed to develop a shared understanding of North Carolina’s new career and college readiness standards.

Seven projects were selected.

Mother and Daughter Are Both New Teachers

Pam and Katie Jo Mayfield

In the Saturday, Aug. 17 issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, reporter Arika Herron writes about a mother and daughter who are both new teachers this year. Here is an excerpt from the story:

When school starts Aug. 26, there will be more than 200 new faces at the front of classrooms throughout the district.

Two hundred and two teachers, new to the district, completed orientation this week and will welcome students on the first day.

And when they write their names on the chalkboard for students that first day, two of those teachers will write the same thing: Mayfield. What set the two first-year teachers apart are the letter ‘R’ and about 30 years.

Pam and Katie Jo Mayfield — Mrs. Mayfield and Miss Mayfield, respectively — are more than just two new teachers with a last name in common. They’re mother and daughter who have taken different routes following their passion for teaching, but ended up in the same place — the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system.

Katie Jo, 21, a Mount Tabor High School graduate, took the more direct path. Though she entered Elon University as a political science major, she changed to English with a focus on education after her first year. It wasn’t easy, she said, to fit in all the credits needed for her new major in three years, but she did it and graduated this spring.

The plan wasn’t necessarily to return to the school system from which she graduated. Katie Jo said she sent resumes all over the state, but when it came down to it Winston-Salem is home, and it’s made the transition much easier.

“It just worked out that way,” she said. “There’s a degree of wanting to give back. I had such a good experience (in the district).”

For Pam, the route to finally fulfilling her dream of being a teacher — one she’s harbored since grade school — was more circuitous.

“I’m a late bloomer,” she said, joking.

For the full story, go to Winston-Salem Journal

Smith Farm Media Coordinator Invites People to Take a Gander at All the New Books

Smith Farm media coordinator Brierley Ash with principal Donald Hampton

Lisa Nieters, Natalie Strange, Holly DuBois, Brierley Ash

When the school year starts, Smith Farm Elementary School will open its doors to students for the first time. In the days leading up to that, media coordinator Brierley Ash has been ordering books for the new school and placing them on the shelves of the media center as they arrive.

With the help of Jackie Pierson, the school system's program manager for library media services, Ash ordered 10,000 books. As she took them out of their boxes, it has been hard to resist the urge to spend time looking into every book, she said. If she had, she would still be at it.

On Wednesday, she invited media coordinators from other schools and other guests to drop by to help her christen the media center.

"This is like librarian heaven," Ash said. "It's amazing to pick all these books."

She's looking forward to the start of school. "Once we get the kids in, it will be really fun."

    

Student Art in August 2013 Issue of Forsyth Family Magazine

By Abbie Elmore of Jefferson Middle School

By Maria Ybanez of Clemmons Middle School

By Evon Tomlinson of Kennedy High School

By Sarah Coldiron of Meadowlark Middle School

On page 78 of the August 2013 issue of Forsyth Family magazine, you will find art by four students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

Allison Pegram is Abbie Elmore's art teacher.
Stacey Stephens is Maria Ybanez's art teacher.
Jamie Allred is Evon Tomlinson's art teacher.
Heather Dutton is Sarah Coldiron's art teacher.

Academies of Finance at East Forsyth High and West Forsyth High Receive Top Ranking

Elizabeth Byrd of West Forsyth and Jennifer Haymes of East Forsyth

The East Forsyth High School Academy of Finance and the West Forsyth High School Academy of Finance have been awarded Model status by the National Academy Foundation.

Model status is the highest ranking given to an academy, and the academies at East and West were among only 77 academies across the country awarded that status.

The National Academy Foundation is a network of academies designed to – through a business curriculum, work-based learning experiences and contacts with business professionals - help students enter careers in business. More than 500 academies in 39 states serve more than 62,000 students.

Cheryl Cox directs the academies for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. Jennifer Haymes is the site coordinator at East, and Leslie Martin is the site coordinator at West.

“The Academies of Finance at East and West Forsyth High Schools are very proud of receiving the Model award from the National Academy Foundation. This award demonstrates the wonderful job and results of teachers, students, principals, community leads and businesses working together to bring real life world-work experiences to the next generation of professionals,” Cox said. “Thank you Winston -Salem for your continued support!”

In a release, J.D. Hoye, the president of the foundation, said, “These schools are shining examples of what can be accomplished when districts and schools move to a culture of linking education and business to benefit students.”

Volunteers Paint Picnic Tables and Spread Mulch at Kimberley Park Elementary

Volunteers paint picnic tables

Volunteers with Calvary Baptist Church work to support Kimberley Park Elementary School throughout the year. During the summer, they take on special projects, and, earlier this month, volunteers spent several days at Kimberley Park doing such things as painting the picnic tables that sit near the pond, painting a mural on a wall in a hallway and putting mulch around trees and other plants.

Last summer, the Calvary volunteers built the pond at Kimberley Park with the support of Jeff Porter, owner of Porter’s Lawn & Landscaping in Clemmons; Triumph Actuation Systems in Clemmons; a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant; Belk department store, and Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County.

Looking at the pond and the area surrounding it, Suzanne Reed, who oversees the Calvary program at Kimberley Park, said, “This is a place of beauty.”

During a previous summer, Calvary volunteers painted a mural in the cafeteria. During the regular school year, Calvary volunteers do such things as organize a monthly meal for members of the staff and a monthly recognition for students who are excelling in one way or another. “I am here year-round,” Reed said. “This is our fifth year….We’re trying to be here for the long haul and be present throughout the year.”

Reed said that Principal Amber Baker knows that “if she needs help, she can give a call.”

The work at Kimberley Park earlier this month was done in coordination with an annual event called Community: Serve in which volunteers from a number of churches undertake projects throughout the community during the same week.

Student Art in July 2013 Issue of Forsyth Family Magazine

By Tumi Mabaso, Atkins Academic & Technology High School

By Ivana Bogdan, Career Center

By Larry Rogers, Reynolds High School

By Miriam Martincova, Mount Tabor High School

This art by students is featured in the July 2013 issue of Forsyth Family magazine. Mabaso's art teacher is Janet Blakely. Bogdan's art teacher is Shawn Beard. Ashley Hurst is Rogers' art teacher, and Alice Morley is Martincova's art teacher.

You will find the art of page 78.

School System Featured in Report on Student Achievement

The Center for American Progress has released a report that looks at progress in student achievement in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

Called “Common Strategies for Uncommon Achievement: How Districts Enable and Support High-Performing Schools,” the report focuses on three North Carolina school districts and the steps they took from 2008 to 2011 to support student achievement.

The part about Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools focuses on the implementation of Single School Culture. The report details the system’s critical friend relationship with the School District of Palm Beach County, how schools implementing Single Cool Culture fared compared to other schools in North Carolina, and Principal Sharon Richardson's instructional leadership at Northwest Middle School.

The success of Forest Park Elementary, Hall-Woodward Elementary, Kennedy Learning Center, and Carver High between 2008 to 2011 is featured within the report's data analysis.

 “Well done, everyone!” said Bud Harrelson, the school system’s Program Manager for School Improvement and its Race to the Top Coordinator.

You can find author Robert Hanna's blog post at  Hanna blog. 

Here is a direct link to the report.