Betsy's Bits
April 2, 2017
In Cased You Missed It:
Monday night we had our Meet the Coaches event for baseball and girls soccer. Drea Wright-Thompson, SLMS PTSO President, gave an update from our PTSO popcorn fundraiser where we profited about $1500 and Box Top collections gave us $350. They are having one more push for hours at the PTO Thrift Store. We need at least 40 more hours before June to make our minimum 150 hours. PTSO is challenging our hallways (6th, 7th, 8th, Electives). The group that collects the most hours will receive a coffee and doughnuts one morning. Students will also receive a sweet treat and drink if their parent works an hour. Parent and student hours can count for the hallway. They just have to sign in as working for the hall. I will be emailing a flyer that you are welcome to send home and/or post in your room. It will also be put on social media.
New Stallions filled our hallways with their families on Thursday evening for our Spring Open House. I was so proud of our AVID, band, and orchestra students for their leadership throughout the event. They toured families around, answered questions, and explained all that makes our school so special. Thank you to Jamie Cox and Jessica Cole for planning the event, our 6th grade teachers for being available and welcoming on their hallway, Vincent Pienaar and Cole Merricks for coordinating their kids and ensuring our newest families were aware of all the choices we have for our Staiions, Vincent Pienaar, Cindy Quiggle, Nejla deLambert, Valerie Long, and Bianca DeMarcello, for conducting 44 AVID interviews, and Ashley Parker for assisting with setup and monitoring informational tables. Stallion parents, Tina Harrington, Joy Thompson, and Becky Podlogar, also volunteered their time to answer questions and promote our school. It takes a village!
I received word last week that we were selected by AVID as a exemplary school for AVID school-wide and asked to have a guest from Wake County Communities in Schools to come visit. Our AVID Regional Director, Allen Johnson, LCS District Director, Paula Layton, and VP of Embedded Operations of CiS of NC, LaTessa Allen, will be on campus Tuesday from 10-11:30. They wanted to see some particular classes, so I have notified these teachers that we will definitely be coming into visit. EVERYONE should be prepared that we may stop by briefly. PLEASE take a look at your hallways and make sure your student work displays and bulletin boards are neat and current. We will have one final visit this school year from our AVID coach, Donna K, and Allen Johnson May 4 to make sure we are ready for our National Demo visits in September next year.
Chatham Middle School began their push towards school-wide AVID this year. They began this journey last year after visiting us at our AVID Showcase. They has visited several times since then. They have asked to come back to visit with their ELA teachers. Jamie has schedule this visit and notified ELA teachers that will have visitors. This group will be on campus and using our PLC room most of the day.
Gail Smith, LCS AIG Director, met with middle school principals and with some teachers the past few weeks to discuss the rubric to take advanced classes. She has created spreadsheet for all 6th and 7th grade teams where ELA and Math teachers will input data on all kids. It will calculate the points for the rubric and help us to make sure we are putting students in the correct classes based off of their data. I will be sharing the rubrics, spreadsheets, information, and due dates in PLC's this week.
Coming UP:
Mark your calendars
Tuesday: Lang Arts and Math Team meetings @3pm
Wednesday: 7th grade AR reward trip (Jellybeans), Sweet 16 trip to Meredith College
Thursday: Chatham Middle ELA visit (PLC room), Popcorn fundraiser pickup, Soccer and baseball @ home vs Southern Middle
Friday: Spring pictures (prepay/must have envelopes)