In the spirit of the holidays, I would like us to acknowledge all that is good within the Public Schools of Robeson County. After a twenty-five year plus career as an educator there really are many reasons to be thankful during the holiday season.

1. Teachers. Most teachers are there because they genuinely care. They believe in children. They are excited about learning and want to instill that same excitement in their students. They didn’t choose this profession for the paychecks (or summer vacation). Most teachers become teachers because they felt a calling and a desire to make a difference in a child’s life.

2. School staff. It takes a team effort to make a school run efficiently and effectively. Everyone plays a part in your child’s academic experience. Every adult on campus has the number one job duty of keeping each child safe. Don’t overlook supervision assistants, office technicians, library aides, the school nurse, custodial staff, and support personnel.

3. Exposure to diversity. Our children are learning that not everyone speaks the same language, wears the same types of clothes, or eats the same types of foods at lunches. And that’s all okay.

4. Life lessons. Schools don’t just teach our children academic curriculum. Schools are also helping our children develop into respectful world citizens. It is at school that our children are presented with life lessons they may not have learned at home.

5. Community. Public schools do their best to foster a sense of community. Within a school setting, a child quickly learns the importance of teamwork and cooperation. A school requires a joint effort to be safe and clean. That’s when our children learn first-hand that everyone can make a difference and everyone’s efforts are important.

6. Belief in a well-rounded education. Despite decreased budgets, public schools continue to acknowledge the need for an education that extends beyond the traditional 3 “R’s.”

K-2 Teachers have been busy this November completing Letterland professional development! The PSRC held virtual sessions for each grade level for beginning teachers and teachers new to a grade level and refresher sessions for veteran teachers. Next Steps training is on the professional development calendar for all K-2 teachers in January.

The Public Schools of Robeson County is excited to announce that we are expanding our Letterland implementation to Grade three this year! The district purchased grade three kits for each teacher, and all teachers will receive new teacher training in December and a follow-up session in January. Grade three Letterland facilitates students’ growth in word knowledge by building on previous learning in phonics, spelling, and word structure and applying that knowledge to learning more sophisticated words that occur in academic subjects across the curriculum, fostering a greater interest in words and language. We are excited to expand our Letterland implementation.

Math in Practice professional development for Math Teachers in grades 3-5 will be provided by the writer of the books, Ms. Susan O'Connell! These meetings will be held on the following dates: February 5 and 19, 2021, and March 5 and 19, 2021. These dates are all on Fridays. The first meeting on February 5 will have Grade 3 math teachers meeting in the morning and Grades 4-5 math teachers will meet in the afternoon. The next meetings will flip the meeting time so that each group will meet in the morning twice and in the afternoon twice. Make sure that you have your Math in Practice book with you during the training.

Middle school math teachers will have a book study on Mathematical Mindsets that will start on February 1, 2021. This professional development will be a self-paced study in Canvas.

Thank you for all of the hard work that you do for our students. Please rest during the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

The English/Language Arts department has shifted its focus to mini-lessons. During a district department we discussed what a mini-lesson is and how we can effectively implement it into our class.

“A mini lesson is a short lesson with a narrow focus that provides instruction in a skill or concept that students will then relate to a larger lesson that will follow. Mini lessons can be used to teach particular skills, extend previous learning, create interest in a topic and generate questions, or introduce strategies.”

Staff, T. (2007, February 22). Focused Mini Lessons. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.teachervision.com/professional-development/focused-mini-lessons

Teachers who are interested in a STEM lesson, please complete the following form: https://forms.gle/cWUQyFiHTusJZqHC8

Students from Long branch Elementary completed a STEM lesson after they had studied the Titanic. Students were challenged to build a boat out of a sheet of aluminum foil that could carry the most people (coins) safely off the Titanic. Students learned about buoyancy and density as they designed, tested, redesigned, and retested their boat. The greatest number was 192.

Project-Based Learning Teacher Workshop

Are you interested in implementing project-based learning in your STEM class but don't know where to start?

In this session, K-12 teachers will examine how to move from "doing projects" to designing impactful project-based learning experiences that promote voice and choice in STEM classrooms.

Note that both sessions will have the same content, so educators should choose one session to attend.

• Session 1: Saturday, November 28, 2020 8:30 am - 12:30 pm EST
• Session 2: Saturday, December 5 , 2020 8:30 am - 12:30 pm EST

K-12 teachers who participate in a session are eligible to receive a $50 stipend and access to JSTI STEM Vault to borrow equipment for attending the full workshop. All participants will receive a certificate showing 4 hours of professional development credit for each session.

Use the following link to register: https://orausurvey.orau.org/TakeSurveyPage.aspx?s=a2666ae241fe4e34968a14fff0b7a3a1&tsid=a9ec3ec55cc04d6f8215b9082c64cb74&c=en-US

STEM Connect Conference November 17, 2020 (About the Conference: All things STEM: Learn from educators and businesses to incorporate STEM into the virtual classroom. This conference was open to all NC educators. Sessions were focused on CTE and STEM and aligned to standards at the middle and high school level.

STEM in the Classroom Professional Development will be offered to all science teachers across the district on December 4, 2020 from 1:00-2:30. Google Meet Meeting ID

meet.google.com/vph-jqpz-mrp

The month of November is Native American Heritage Celebration month. Many of our teachers and staff joined us for the 25th annual Native American heritage Celebration sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of History and the South Eastern American Indian Museum. We had many speakers from Robeson County perform. Thank you to all who participated.

Center Stage Theatre Co. has dipped their toes into virtual theatre! We have a cast of 8 students and 1 employee from Fairmont High, St. Pauls High, Lumberton High and Early College.
All rehearsals are online. Look for the virtual opening date soon!!!

Lumberton Jr. HS, Lumberton HS and strings teacher Emma Rainoff have been selected as a participating school in the North Carolina Symphony’s new Adopt-a-School program. Strings students will have the opportunity to learn from the professional orchestra members in this awesome virtual mentoring program.

Announcing our Virtual holiday programs:

Season of Light tells the story about why this time of year has so many holiday celebrations around it. The program is suitable for all ages, and is free of charge.

It will be shown at 8 P.M. on Saturday, December 5th, 12th, and 19th. We will also discuss the Geminid meteor shower, and the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

Please email kenneth.brandt@robeson.k12.nc.us for more information.

Meeting information: zoom meeting ID: 4601844271, password 166884

November is Indian Heritage Month. Mr Kenny Clark, the YDS, and students are having virtual Indian Heritage meetings. Virtual AISA meetings with Dr. Connie Locklear throughout the month of November

Creativity has exploded in the AIG classes. Emerging are robots, Thanksgiving Mascots, and

soon to come Elves on the shelves. Our students are actively engaged in various STEM activities

where their engineering, critical and problem solving skills and creativity are blasting in full

throttle. Since there is no special character who personifies Thanksgiving, like Santa Claus is for

Christmas, the students have been presented with the task to create a character to represent

Thanksgiving and to include the character’s name, personality, colors, clothing, accessories, and

even the backstory. In the upcoming month of December, the students will be creating an Elf on

the Shelf Trap. The students have the task of designing and creating a trap along with deciding

on how to lure the elf into the trap. We can’t wait to see the explosion these tasks create. Below

are a few of the students’ completed masterpieces.

As we approach the upcoming holiday season, and even though 2020 has been a year like no

other, The Exceptional Children’s Department reflects on how blessed we are. We always have

something to be thankful for. Despite the pandemic, we are thankful for our HEALTH. We are

thankful to call Robeson County our HOME. We are thankful for our PSRC EC FAMILY in

which we can depend in times of need. We are thankful for our FRIENDS who makes us whole.

Finally, we are thankful to our leaders, instilling in us knowledge (FOOD) in order to provide

our students the best opportunities to be successful and become productive citizens in our world.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Search your school&#s 39 resources in one easy place; no tricky school-specific URL required.

Simply find your remote school library media center under the Explore tab to begin: once inside

click Destiny Discover, you can search for books, eBooks, and other digital resources. You can

also log in to hold and check out materials, using your provided login credentials.

The results displayed in Destiny Discover depend on your school's specific settings.

Can't find Destiny Discover? Ask your school library media coordinator about activating Destiny

Discover!

CTE is gearing up for the post assessments for the fall semester. Due to the major changes, some programs will not be offering a multiple choice post assessment, but rather will be collecting projects in which students have been working on all semester. As a state initiative moves forward to convert project based performances to replace the multiple choice evaluations. Some examples of performance based measures are student portfolios and research presentations. Not all assessments will be done during scheduled exam time. Some students will have met the required skill attainment throughout the semester.