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Around Our Schools Shout Outs September 2012 Volume II

CTEC Katrina Massey, counselor at CTEC, was selected to attend a week-‐long, residential seminar sponsored by the North Carolina Humanities Council’s Teachers Institute over the summer in Chapel Hill, NC. Joining with 40 other public school educators from across the state, the attendees explored “Laying Down Tracks: A Study of Railroads as Myth, Reality, and Symbol.” The Teachers Institute is a free professional education development program designed to bring teachers together to study the cultures of North Carolina’s diverse communities. Through rigorous, challenging, and interdisciplinary academic sessions, Institute seminars provide access to continued intellectual growth for the state’s educators. Participation is by application only, and teachers selected to attend Institute seminars receive continuing education credits and have the option to receive graduate credit. The North Carolina Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Congratulations, Katrina!

ABSS Career and Technical Education Robin Bowers Need help with Microsoft Word? How about with your PowerPoint presentation? Who’re you gonna call? Call our ABSS Classroom Computer Whizzes at Work! Two ABSS students and one ABSS teacher were recognized over the summer for earning Master Certification in the Microsoft IT Academy Program! A big Shout Out to……drum roll please……….

Dalton Lucas Hugh White Brodie Taylor

Student at Western High Student at Williams High CTE Teacher at CTEC

Beth Billings, Teacher Daphne Parker, Teacher Brodie Taylor, Teacher


The Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Master certification helps demonstrate an individual's overall comprehension of and expertise in using Microsoft Office programs. Microsoft Office Specialist Masters have more than a working familiarity with Microsoft Office programs—they are technically skilled to take advantage of the breadth of features efficiently and effectively. To earn the 2010 Microsoft Office Master certification, you must pass the following MOS exams: MOS: Word 2010 Expert, MOS: Excel 2010 Expert, MOS: PowerPoint 2010, MOS: Outlook 2010 or Access 2010, or OneNote 2010, or SharePoint 2010

Newlin Elementary Beverly Goins, Secretary

Caitlin Nugent, one of our teachers at Newlin Elementary, helped make her students aware of the heroes of 9/11. Students were shown a movie about 9/11 and then they talked about all of the steps those heroes had to take to rescue people from the towers. The students then had their own climb where they walked the steps of Newlin in honor of those heroes. To conclude the lesson, the students each made their own American flag and wrote one thing that made them proud. The students came away with a greater understanding of what those heroes had to do in saving lives that day. What a way to make learning more real world for her students! Great Job Caitlin and Classes!


North Graham Elementary Charlotte Lee-‐Russell, Technology

Sixty-‐one North Graham students (without a working computer at home) were nominated to receive free computers for superior work in school. The computers were awarded to the students through Kramden Institute in July during summer break. The computers are PC desktops with Internet connectivity. Computers at home and school will promote 21st century learning. This was our second annual computer give away! Thank you Kramden Institute!

Charlotte Lee-‐Russell North Graham Elementary School Technology Teacher/Instructional Technology Specialist and Webmaster


Andrews Elementary Christian Hairston, Principal Shout Out to our ABSS Transportation Department! Since the beginning of school when we got 2 additional buses to transport students who live close to our school, our number of students arriving after the tardy bell has dropped tremendously! Just check out how our front office looks after the tardy bell has rung—not a tardy student in sight! Shout Out to Dr. Cox and our wonderful ABSS Transportation Department. Mrs. Sharon Goldman, our AP at Andrews, is doing a fantastic job of getting students and staff acclimated to the new addition of the 2 new buses! Alamance-‐Burlington Middle College Bonnie Roane, Principal The Oracles newsletter for Alamance Community College is featuring our own A-‐B Middle College in a recent edition. Check it out: Questions About the ABSS Middle College Have you noticed those students taking classes in the hallway behind the campus mailboxes? Maybe they look a bit younger than other ACC students? That’s because they are members of the Alamance-‐ Burlington Middle College (ABMC) whose home is on the ACC campus. ABMC is a high


school that is a result of the continuing partnership between the Alamance-‐Burlington School System and Alamance Community College. ABMC is designed for students who desire an alternative to the traditional high school setting. Bonnie Roane, principal since August 2011, responded to questions about the Middle College. Q. What are some typical reasons why students choose to attend the Middle College? A. Many students are attracted to Middle College because they want to get ahead in pursuing the next step in their education after high school. Whether they want to attend a four year university or obtain certification in a particular field, they want their elective credits in high school counting toward their goal. We are a small campus, and our size appeals to many students who may feel overwhelmed at a big school. Q. What are entering students told about studying on a college campus? A. Students must apply to attend Middle College. Part of the application process is an interview. During the interview process, students and parents are informed about expectations for both Middle College and ACC classes. Q. Is a certain behavior emphasized? A. Our students and their parents are informed that students must be mature enough to handle themselves in college classes, which also means that they have to become comfortable asserting themselves. The biggest challenge many of our students face is setting up conferences with their instructors. Some of our students are barely sixteen, and we have to work with them on seeking out assistance. Q. What are some advantages for students attending Middle College versus a typical high school? A. Our students are able to show they are capable of being responsible for themselves. Our students are able to complete high school requirements while they are earning credit at ACC. We’ve had students graduate and go on to four year universities with a year of college credits already under their belt. We’ve also had students graduate and stay here at ACC to complete certification programs or continue with their university transfer classes.


Eastern High CTE Rae Johnson, Career Development Coordinator

There’s an electrifying new class at Eastern High School! A Shout Out to Steve Scarlett's Electrical Trades I class. Mr. Scarlett has developed a close partnership with Watson Electrical. Students in the Electrical Trades class are currently working on prefabrication materials for Watson Electric. They are learning skills related to electrical work that parallel with the content being taught in the class. Watson is going to hire student interns from the class for summer work. In addition, Mark Hall Electric and Womack Electric are also

supporting the efforts of the Eastern Eagles’ Electrical Trades course!


School Social Workers Danielle Woodall, Lead Social Worker For the 2011-‐2012 school year, the ABSS School Social Workers distributed school supplies to nearly 1,600 students. Additionally, this number does not capture the amount of supplies that were given in bulk to student groups and classrooms per teacher requests. The school supply donations collected from the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce Classroom Collection campaign, the Wal-‐Mart Build A Back Pack campaign, and Elon University’s supply and toiletries drive for our McKinney-‐Vento students have equipped our School Social Workers with the necessary supplies our ABSS students need to become successful learners. Many, many local businesses and community citizens have pitched in to help us help children in our schools, and we appreciate the overwhelming support. Thank you Alamance County for your generosity!! Up until this school year, the donated school supplies were stored in a locked cage area of the central office warehouse. Over the summer, space was made available at the Sellars-‐Gunn complex where supplies are stored and social workers can “shop”

for the items that students need. You can tell by the amount of donated items that our community has been very generous again this year.


Exceptional Children’s Division Julie Bost, EC Program Specialist Shout Out to Brent Phillipson, 6th grade Social Studies teacher, SS Chair, and PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports) coach at Hawfields Middle School! Brent was recently included in a book published by a professor at East Carolina University. His contribution included a statement about how PBIS has made a positive impact on middle school students and teachers. Brent holds a BA in history from the University at Buffalo, MS in Adolescence Education from D’Youville College (in Buffalo), is National Board Certified and Hawfields Teacher of the Year for 2008-‐2009. Way to go Brent and Hawfields!

North Graham Elementary Nancy Cothren, Principal North Graham Pre-‐K Students Enjoy Reading! Colton, a student in Mrs. Lori Godwin’s Pre-‐K classroom, loves modeling whole group reading for his classmates. As Colton turns the pages, students chorally read the story. Students refer to Colton as “Mr. Teacher” when he conducts his read-‐aloud lesson. Maybe a future faculty member at NGE?


Western Middle Heather Rogers, 8th Grade Science Congratulations to Megan Miller, our North Carolina Science and Technology Fair winner and now a national semi-‐finalist! Megan earned the honor of being chosen as one of only 300 Semi-‐Finalists in the nation out of 6,000 student entries in the Broadcom MASTERS competition! She is one of only four from North Carolina! We are very proud of her! Way to go Megan! The Broadcom MASTERS is the very prestigious national science, technology, engineering, and math competition for U.S. 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. MASTERS stands for Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars and is a program of the Society for Science & the Public. Its goal is to inspire and encourage the nation's young scientists, engineers and innovators. Megan’s award-‐winning project was entitled: Don’t Be A Drag: Improving the Aerodynamics of Tractor-‐Trailer Trucks. Because of Megan’s success, my classroom also received a set of Sally Ride Career Books and $250 of Elmer’s merchandise donated by the Broadcom program. Eastlawn Elementary Dan McInnis, AP Our school year is off to a great start at Eastlawn Elementary. Prior to the arrival of our students, we set off on our Second Annual

"Magic School Bus" tour of our students' neighborhoods. We delivered school supplies and important beginning of the year reminders to students and families. We kicked off the teacher workdays with a fun "numbers" ice breaker led by our new AP of Data & Instruction, Ms. Shadonna Gunn.


From there it was into classrooms to make sure we were ready for open house. We enjoyed meeting over 300 parents & guardians at our Title I Open House. In order to make Open House more interactive for our students, each guest was given a Tic Tac Toe card upon entry.

Students were challenged to get three in a row by completing tasks on the card in order to receive a prize on the way out the door. We look forward to continuing our partnership with parents and community members for a fantastic year!


Turrentine Middle Sam Cryan, Trojan 7th Grader

(Okay, I had to get a little help from this 7th grader’s mom to have background information on the mastermind behind this project……) Shout Out to Sam Cryan, an amazing seventh grader at Turrentine Middle School! He is an avid film-‐maker and actor. Sam has acted in Alamanace Children’s Theater (Excalibur) and Teen to Teen (Alice in Wonderland) productions. A member of the Scrabble Club and Art Club at Turrentine, he wrote a fifty-‐thousand word novel as part of National Novel Writing Month in 2011, and his picture has been featured as part of the Times-‐News Newspapers in Education advertising campaign. A

recreational soccer player, Sam also participated in Battle of the Books and Safety Patrol when he was a student at Hillcrest Elementary. His mother, Dale-‐Anna, is a fourth-‐grade teacher at Eastlawn Elementary and his father, Mark, teaches at Elon University. He has a younger brother Ty, who is a fifth grader at Hillcrest.) See below for Sam’s current project he is heading-‐up for the entire county: FIRST ANNUAL ALAMANCE COUNTY YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2012 DATE, DEC 8, AND CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS CONTACT: Sam Cryan -‐ [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 30, 2012

NEW FILM FESTIVAL TO SHOWCASE LOCAL YOUTH FILMAKERS AND BENEFIT LOCAL FAMILIES THROUGH CHRISTMAS CHEER ***

ELON ALUM’S FILM “ROCKETEER” TO HEADLINE FESTIVAL

Burlington, NC – The Alamance County Youth Film Festival (ACYFF) announced today that the 1st annual Alamance County Youth Film Festival will be held December 8 from 1-‐3 PM at the historic Graham Cinema in downtown Graham, N.C. ACYFF Director Sam Cryan also announced a call for submissions for short film (0-‐30 minutes) entries with age categories to include Elementary, Middle School, High School and College. All types of short films, including stop motion, live action, cartoons, animation, and documentaries will be considered.


Cryan also announced that “Rocketeer,” a film by recent Elon University graduate Jay Light, will be shown as the headliner at the festival. “Rocketeer,” a “guys-‐wants-‐girl story” with “a rocket thrown in”, is a finalist for the 2012 Sprite Films Award. Through the end August, votes can be cast at http://www.sprite.com/films. While the festival will be held in Alamance County, youth filmmakers ages 0-‐23 from anywhere in the country are eligible to submit films for consideration. There will also be special awards for the best North Carolina films in each category. Admission will be free but donations of cash and toys will be collected to benefit Christmas Cheer, a Burlington-‐based charity that provides toys, clothes and other support to over 1,200 needy families at Christmas each year. Deadlines to submit films for the 2012 Alamance County Youth Film Festival are as follows: September 1, 2012 – SUBMISSIONS OPEN November 15, 2012 –DEADLINE, ALL FILMS

Starting September 1, 2012, submission forms and complete information regarding eligibility for the 2012 Alamance County Youth Film Festival will be available at an Alamance County Youth Film Festival page on Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alamance-‐County-‐Youth-‐Film-‐Festival/396753240379480 So, please help Sam spread the word. He is calling for all young film makers in Alamance-‐Burlington Schools to get busy and turn in their creative movie project! Superintendent’s Shout Out Dr. Lillie Cox While visiting schools, Dr. Cox spotted Mr. Stefan Anders, 6th grade Language Arts teacher at Hawfields Middle, out in the hallway before class began, shaking hands and greeting each student outside his classroom.

Mr. Anders had just returned from Capturing Kids Hearts training, and Dr. Cox “caught” him modeling professional development best practices, along with his entire 6th grade team! Personally greeting every student is part of the focus of the training, so she snapped a couple of pictures of what she witnessed. At left: student Erin Lawyer; at right, student Destiny Cooper both enjoy a smile and handshake with Mr. Anders before class begins

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