Celebration of Champions

JULY 31, 2014 – This morning, more than 1,300 Explorers campers and their teachers headed to the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex for a closing celebration.

Explorers is a three-week camp for rising second- and third-graders who go to Title I schools, which are schools where a high percentage of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Students from the school system’s 22 Title I elementary schools participated in the camp, which was held at 10 elementary schools.

Groups of students from each of those schools performed at the celebration. School board members Vic Johnson, John Davenport and Jill Tackabery were on hand. 

 

Patsy Squire, the school system’s Title I director, came up with idea for the camp. After receiving the approval of Superintendent Beverly Emory, Squire found Executive Coaching Enterprises to create a curriculum and run it using teachers and others who work in the school system.

For a story about the camp, go to Explorers Summer Camp

Here are some pictures from the celebration:

Students Participate in Aviation Academy

Oliver Sutton with pilot George Schultz

In the Friday, July 18 issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, reporter Arika Herron writes about students participating in an aviation academy. Here is an excerpt:

Oliver Sutton is only 15 years old, but he knows what he wants to do with his life.

On Friday, he got a little practice.

The Forsyth Middle College students was cool and confident stepping out of the cockpit of the Cessana 172 parked on the tarmac at Smith Reynolds Airport.

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He wasn’t nervous in the air, he said. He’s flown an airplane before.

“It’s easy,” said Oliver, who dreams of being a pilot and joining the Air Force. “I like the feeling, looking out over stuff. It’s just freedom.”

Oliver was one of several dozen high school-age students participating in the Tom Davis ACE Academy, a week-long aviation camp designed to introduce middle and high school students to flying. The middle school camp was held last week.

Students spend the first four days learning about the industry. They learn the mechanics behind different kinds of aircraft and the different fields that the industry offers. JoAnne Allen, one of the camp’s two directors, said the goal is to bring together kids from diverse backgrounds and expose them to opportunities in aviation.

For the complete story go to Winston-Salem Journal

Winston-Salem Youth Chorus Schedules Auditions

The Winston-Salem Youth Chorus is inviting young people 8 to 18 years old to audition for the 2014-2015 Season. Auditions will be held on Monday, Aug. 4; Tuesday, Aug 5, Monday, Aug 11; and Tuesday, Aug 12 from 3 to 6 p.m. at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem.

The Winston-Salem Youth Chorus is a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1993 by Barbara C. Beattie. Through music education and performance experiences, its mission is to engage and develop young people from diverse backgrounds and to enrich their lives by inspiring excellence in choral music. The Youth Chorus has about 100 members in four ensembles who come from than 40 schools in Forsyth and surrounding counties.

Members of the Youth Chorus learn vocal technique, theory, singing in other languages, discipline, confidence and teamwork while performing beautiful choral arrangements. The chorus also often collaborates with the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Piedmont Wind Ensemble, Piedmont Chamber singers and other groups in the region.

To schedule an audition time, you can call the chorus office at (336)703-0001 or go to Winston-Salem Youth Chorus

Student Artists in the July 2014 Issue of Forsyth Family Magazine

By Carlos Hernandez

By Isobel Diones

By Meredith Harden

By Sarah Cook

Each month, Forsyth Family magazine publishes art by students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. In the July 2014 issue you will find:

Carlos Hernandez, who goes to Hall-Woodward Elementary School. His art teacher is Joanna Smith.

Isobel Diones, who goes to Paisley IB Magnet School. Her art teacher is Sharon Nosal.

Meredith Harden, who goes to East Forsyth High School. Terri Hester is Meredith’s art teacher

Sarah Cook, who is a student at West Forsyth High School. Elizabeth Betson is her art teacher.

Meet Tricia Spencer

JUNE 20, 2014 – Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the consolidation of the city and county school systems. As part of that, we’re recognizing people who are a product of the school system who now work for the school system.

Tricia Spencer

Tricia Spencer, who graduated from East Forsyth High School in 1987, just finished her sixth year as the principal at South Fork Elementary School.

Spencer’s family is chockablock with East Forsyth graduates. Her husband, Robert, and older brothers, Robbie and Joe, graduated from there. So did her husband’s sisters. More recently, Tricia and Robert Spencer’s two children graduated from East Forsyth – Ryan in 2012 and Megan just this year.

As it happened, Spencer was in East’s 25^th anniversary graduating class and Ryan was in the school’s 50^th anniversary graduating class.

Spencer started school at Kernersville Elementary. When Cash Elementary opened, she went there for third grade. She remembers that the neighborhood where they lived had a bus stop where everyone gathered and played tag and other games until the bus arrived, and, on school days, she woke up looking forward to seeing everyone at the bus stop. “It was fun,” she said.

The mothers all knew each other, and, if a mother saw a kid misbehave, everyone understood that she could correct the child even if the child wasn’t her own.

Carolyn Flynt

In the sixth grade at Cash, Spencer had a teacher who meant a lot to her – Carolyn Greenwood Flynt. (These days, Flynt teaches at Sedge Garden Elementary School.) By then, Spencer’s parents were going through difficulties that eventually led to divorce, and Flynt did what she could to encourage and support Spencer.

“She cared about me and helped me have a connection at school,” Spencer said. “She was the kind of person you just wanted to be around…She was a lifesaver for me.”

    

Spencer started junior high at Walkertown Junior High. A family move put her in the Glenn Junior High district. She went to Atkins High School for a year, and, when the school system went to four-year high schools, she was off to East Forsyth.

In junior high, Spencer played softball and basketball and participated in track. In high school, her sports became swimming and soccer.

Spencer knew her husband-to-be in high school. He was two classes ahead of her - in the same class as one of her brothers. They all ran around in the same group. It turned into something more her senior year. She was throwing a New Year’s Eve party. He was off at college at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), and she hadn’t thought to invite him. That didn’t keep him from showing up. “We had that midnight kiss,” Spencer said. 

They began dating, and today is the 22^nd anniversary of their marriage.

Growing up, Spencer didn’t envision herself as an educator. She pictured herself playing with dolphins as a marine biologist. She headed to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with that in mind. Once she was there, she realized that she was surrounded by people who imagined playing with dolphins for a living and that only a few of them were going to be able to do that.

Another path might be in order, she thought. Along the way, she had taught swimming and been a camp counselor at Laurel Ridge, the Moravian church camp. On breaks in college, she would come back to visit Flynt and end up helping her out in such ways as overseeing the students tie-dying T-shirts on Field Day.

“I had a love of kids,” Spencer said.

She decided to switch her major to elementary education and ended up transferring to UNCC. After she graduated from there in 1991, she found a job teaching fourth grade in Salisbury.

Other teachers along the way – including French teacher Montine Bryant Scales and history teacher Janice Freeman (both now retired) – had also meant a lot to Spencer, and, when Spencer became a teacher, she worked to be like the teachers she admired.

“I wanted to make a difference to kids as they made a difference to me,” Spencer said.

Those good teachers had worked to build strong relationships with their students based on trust, and Spencer wanted to do the same. “To me, relationship is key to everything I do,” she said. 

After teaching in Salisbury for four years, her husband’s work as an electrical engineer took them to Huntsville, Ala., for a time. When they came back this way, she found a job in Guilford County as a lead teacher. She enjoyed the leadership role and decided to pursue a master’s degree in school administration at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned that degree in 1999. In August, she will complete a National Institute for School Leadership program that will serve as groundwork work for a doctorate.  

Being an elementary school principal is work that Spencer enjoys. She likes knowing that every day is going to be different. “You never know what you are going to get when you walk through the door,” she said.

She likes watching the light bulb go on with the younger students as they learn such basics as reading. With the fifth-graders, she likes watching them become ready to make the leap to middle school.

With the teachers, teacher assistants and other members of the staff, she works hard to make them feel appreciated. “We are very lucky to have you here and look at the difference you make in kids’ lives,” she tells them.

“I wouldn’t trade my staff,” Spencer said. “We are a family.”

And, in turn, everyone at South Fork works to make the 525 students who come through the doors and their families feel as if they, too, are part of a larger family.

        

Meet Tasha Hayes

Tasha Hayes

Tasha Hayes, who graduated from Mount Tabor High School in 1990, is the Exceptional Children's Case Manager at Carter High School.

”I graduated from Winston-Salem State University in May 1995 and started my first job at what was then South Park High School in August 1995,” Hayes said. “This fall will be my 20th year at the same school. (Even though there have been three other name changes  since South Park and a location change, I have worked with the same population for going on 20 years.)”

“Special education was not my first college major,” Hayes said. “It sort of came about after reading an article in one of those education publications. I'm glad I switched from elementary education to special education because the population of students I serve is AWESOME!!!!”

Hayes started school at Latham Elementary School. She then went to Rural Hall Elementary and finished at South Fork Elementary. While she was a student at Lowrance Intermediate School, the school system changed from the 4-2-2-2-2 organization plan to the current 6-3-3 organization plan.

“I should have followed my cousins to junior high but, with the format change, I went to middle school next,” Hayes said.

That was Paisley Middle School. Then it was on to Mount Tabor.

“I was shy entering into high school, so I tried sports,” Hayes said.

Tasha Hayes in the ninth grade

She played basketball for four years. She also played volleyball and was on the track team for some of those years.

“I met my life-long friends in high school and, though the miles separate some of us, we're only a phone call or short drive away,” Hayes said. “Also, it was during my high school years that the idea of becoming a teacher or social worker crossed my mind as a way to give back and honor some of the great teachers and guidance counselors I had along the way from elementary to high school who helped me make good decisions.

Hayes enjoys working for the school system. “I like being a part of a group of people, which I work with on a daily or weekly basis, who care about the education of all students regardless of their needs and abilities,” she said.

Meet Sylvia Conrad

JUNE 18, 2014 – Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the consolidation of the city and county school systems. As part of that, we’re recognizing people who are a product of the school system who now work for the school system.

Lafayette Cook

Sylvia Conrad, who was one of 10 finalists for 2014-15 Classified Employee of the Year, is the great niece of Lafayette Anderson Cook, the man for whom L.A. Cook Elementary School is named.

“When the city and county schools merged, the school was known as Carver Crest Elementary,” Conrad said.  “My uncle became the first principal of the school (1951) and remained the principal until his death in 1968.  Prior to becoming a principal, he was a teacher and assistant principal at Kimberley Park Elementary School from 1949-1951.

“He was associated with several professional and social organizations including the NAACP and at the time of his death, he was the President of the Elementary Principals’ Association.  Although he only saw the beginning of the integration of the schools, his niece Selena Nichols (librarian) was transferred from Fairview Elementary (now known as Ashley) to Northwest Middle School as the media coordinator from which she retired. Selena’s husband, Joseph Nichols, Sr. (sixth-grade teacher) was transferred from Diggs Elementary to Kimberley Park Elementary where he remained until his sudden death in 1979. Now 50 years later, his great niece, Sylvia Conrad (Family Engagement Coordinator Mineral Springs Elementary) and grandniece, Meisha Conrad (Family and Consumer Science at Parkland High School) are continuing his legacy of education.

Conrad, who graduated from Bishop McGuinness High School in 1971, started school at 14^th Street Elementary, which has since been demolished. She went there from the first through the sixth grades, and to East Winston Junior High School (now John F. Kennedy High School). 

Sylvia Conrad and Meisha Conrad

“Prior to East Winston Junior High School being built, students remained at 14^th Street Elementary until the eighth grade.  From 14^th Street, you went to Atkins from the ninth through 12^th grade. 

“During segregation, my vivid memory is receiving discarded books from the white schools.  Some were in good condition but most were torn, dirty, and had derogatory comments.  However, our teachers did their best with the materials available to them.  No matter the weather, we walked to school, and friends joined the walking groups along the way.

“Children walking to school was the norm. My mother, a 1947 graduate of Atkins High, often talks about walking to school and remembering her teacher, Miss Essie O. Donoho saying, ‘Take all of your books when you leave so people will see you have been to school.’  My daughter, a 2007 graduate of Carver High School, never walked to school.  She rode the bus to Sedge Garden Elementary and was a car rider in middle and high school.

“I started working for the school system in 2012 after my retirement from Forsyth County Department of Social Services as a Child Protective Services supervisor. My journey into education was inevitable since the majority of my family members have been educators. A lot of people who have participated in workshops that I presented or observed me teaching Vacation Bible School at my church say, ‘You missed your calling. You should have been a teacher.’

“Being a Family Engagement Coordinator reminds me of my great uncle’s connection to his students and families.  He had the ability to deal sensitively and tactfully with families of all socio-economic groups. If a student was having a problem, the principal or teacher would visit your home in a ‘heart beat.’  My husband (Mike Conrad) attended Carver Crest when my great uncle was the principal. He remembers my great uncle running a ‘tip-top school’ and the staff, students and parents respected and trusted him. 

"For me, having a great uncle as a principal and parents as educators was an incentive for me to do and be the best that I could be.”

Second-Graders at Kimmel Farm Elementary Participate in Camp Read a Lot

On Tuesday, June 10, second-graders at Kimmel Farm Elementary School participated in Camp Read a Lot.

"Camp Read a Lot was designed to give students a camping environment to read for enjoyment,” said the members of the second grade team at Kimmel Farm. “It was an amazing morning of read alouds, shared reading, riddle solving and just having fun reading. Thanks to all of the volunteers who made this a successful event.”  

Three Lewisville Elementary Students Win Bicycles for Reading Books

Dylan Newman

Three students at Lewisville Elementary won bicycles for reading books.  

Lewisville Elementary School teamed up with the Lewisville Masonic Lodge to give away the three bicycles through a program called “Bikes for Books.”

“Every student had an opportunity to win one of the bikes by just reading books,” said Gail DuBose, the school’s data manager. “The event began April 13. To participate, students needed to read the following: two fiction books, two nonfiction books, and one poetry book.

Rebecca Connor

“Those who completed the challenge had their names placed in a drawing.  Students had to read grade/age appropriate books. Our media coordinator, Mrs. Rich and teachers assisted students in selecting appropriate books.”

On Wednesday, June 11, the “prize patrol” delivered the bikes by knocking on the classroom doors and calling out the students’ names.

“The look on their faces says it all,” DuBose said.

Lexie Foster

The winners were:

Dylan Newman – Jill Huppert’s fifth grade class

Rebecca Connor – Mary Burchette’s third grade class

Lexie Foster – Brianna Smith’s second grade class

Students at Piney Grove Elementary Imagine Library of the Future

On Thursday, June 12, 13 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Piney Grove Elementary School attended a special summer reading kickoff based on the book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. Students worked together and individually to follow clues, solve riddles and play the giant game.

“Our game board has been in its planning stage for 2 years,” said media coordinator Natalie Strange. “In collaboration with O'Tressa Rinkavage and Randal Anderson, our game board went up this year. Spurred on by the discovery of the book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, which describes a library adventure filled with riddles and a real live action game, we created both our summer reading program – “The Game of Books” - and developed our Lemoncello night.

“Students who wanted to attend had to submit essays describing the library of the future. The top 13 essayists were invited to attend the event with their families. According to the essays, libraries of the future will have holograms, robots, lots of games, petting zoos with unicorns, and imagination rooms that allow you to step into a book of your choice as an interactive character.

“WOW!”