DFES Centennial Celebration
Theme: Living Into Our History
DFES Beliefs
- We believe all people deserve to feel safe, valued, and loved.
- We believe all children are naturally curious about the world around us.
- We believe learning is a social process.
- We believe inquiry fosters an environment of noticing and questioning.
- We believe in learning from multiple perspectives.
- We believe in learning from authentic primary and secondary sources.
- We believe in encouraging learners to be risk takers.
- We believe reflection should lead to change and growth.
- We believe learning should lead to social action.
- We believe our actions should be aligned with our beliefs.
A thought from Carter G. Woodson
“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” - Carter. G. Woodson.
Living as historians and inquiring into our school's history are directly aligned with the beliefs that guide our work. We have been inspired and will be even more inspired as a result engagements planned for this week.
Accessing Richlex Graduates as Primary Resources
As a school we believe in learning from authentic primary and secondary sources in complementary ways. Our Richlex panelists will indeed serve as a primary sources from which our school community will gain new insights into our school's history.
In collaboration with Melony Sanford, Social Studies Coordinator, our panelists were provided questions to prepare for the interviews. The interview questions are standards-based across grades K-5. Please see questions below.
Second/Third Grade Panel Interviews
All panel discussions will be facilitated by our assistant principal Mr. Gantt. Our honored guests and panelists for Monday include:
- Melvin Davis
- Evelyn Dowdy
- Hattie Metz
- Bettie Washington
Like all learning celebrations we hold teachers return to their classrooms to reflect on new insights gained. We expect and anticipate the same for events this week. For second through fifth grade classes I am asking that teachers have students name connections between what they learned from Dear Mr. Rosenwald and our panelists. Simply capture your class reflections on a single piece of chart paper (2 max).
We plan to collect these and display as an audit trail of learning on this coming Friday.
Monday, Dec 3, 2018, 09:00 AM
DFES Mini Theater
4th/5th Grade Panel Interviews
- Edith Cook-Burkett
- Miranda Nixon Blocker
- Larry Haltiwanger
Tuesday, Dec 4, 2018, 09:00 AM
DFES Mini Theater
Kindergarten/1st Grade Panel Interviews
Our honored guests and panelists for Wednesday include:
- Willie Harden
- Sarah Washington
Wednesday, Dec 5, 2018, 10:00 AM
DFES Mini Theater
Author Visit
Award-winning, mother-son, author-illustrator duo Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford will visit Dutch Fork Elementary School to celebrate the institution's history and legacy as a former Rosenwald school. The Weatherfords will share their children’s poetry book Dear Mr. Rosenwald with all grades. Using the metaphor of construction, the Weatherfords’ presentations will stress the importance of literacy, the value of education, the power of community, and building blocks for success.
Presentations for K-1, 2-3 and 4-5 will be tailored to the grade levels. Booker T. Washington's brainchild and the Rosenwald Fund's major initiative, Rosenwald schools were a source of hope and pride for the communities that erected them. The presentation will pass down that legacy to Dutch Fork's future leaders.
Presentation schedule:
- 8:15 - 9:00 Kindergarten/First Grade
- 9:15 - 10:15 Second/Third Grade
- 10:30 - 11:30 Fourth/Fifth Grade
- 11:45 - 12:30 Winners from the 5th grade centennial bookmark contest will have lunch with our visiting author illustrator.
Friday, Dec 7, 2018, 08:00 AM
DFES Mini Theater
Learning Celebration
Learning celebrations are held each Friday at DFES as a way to make our learning public and to demonstrate how students are learning as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, social scientists, activists, and historians.
Our fifth graders have inquired into the history of Rosenwald School, Richlex School, and Irmo Junior High School. For the last several weeks the fifth graders have worked alongside Mr. Tim O' Keefe (highly esteemed educator/practitioner). Mr. O'Keefe has composed an original song in response to what 5th graders have learned as historians. The input of our fifth graders are weaved into this song. Mr. O'Keefe will join our fifth graders in performing this song during the learning celebration.
Through the text written by Carole Weatherford we learned the integral role that churches had in establishing Rosenwald Schools. St. Peter Baptist Church (next to DFES) donated the land on which our school is built. Our music teacher, Felicia Myers, has worked with select fourth and fifth graders and will render a musical performance paying homage to St. Peter Baptist Church during the learning celebration as well.
Although our learning celebrations are typically split by primary and upper grade levels we are invited each grade level to attend given the occasion.
Friday, Dec 7, 2018, 01:45 PM
DFES Mini Theater
Centennial Celebration
Our evening centennial celebration will include a program that will feature the fourth and fifth graders who performed during the learning celebration. Following the program there will be a reception (light refreshments) to follow in the cafeteria.
We anticipate a fairly large crowd considering community members, parents of students performing, and our own faculty/staff that will be in attendance. For faculty and staff that plan to attend it will be necessary to utilize rear parking to accommodate our visitors.
Friday, Dec 7, 2018, 06:00 PM
Mini Theater
Centennial Commemorative T-Shirt
Christina Smith Galloway, mother of 5th grader Noah, learned of DFES inquiring into our school history and wanted to help. Mrs. Smith Galloway works at Leaphart Elementary and was named District Five 2017-2018 Support Employee of the Year. In addition to being a remarkable educator she also owns a digital screening business.
Mrs. Smith Galloway offered her digital screening services and designed a t-shirt commemorating our centennial. As an exceedingly kind gesture the commemorative t-shirt will be given to all 5th graders free of charge. The t-shirt design is below.
We develop students who care about the world we live in and express critical thinking through natural curiosity and wonder.
Email: jscott@lexrich5.org
Website: www.lexrich5.org/dutchfork/cfm/
Location: 7900 Broad River Road, Irmo, SC, USA
Phone: 803-476-3901
Twitter: @dfes_principal