Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out from Woodlawn Middle Suzanne Simpson, Assistant Principal Congratulations to the Woodlawn Middle School MathCounts Team for placing 4th overall in the regional competition! They also won the most improved school award and Lillian Fitzgerald achieved the highest overall 6th grade score! Way to go! Pictured at left: 8th grade team Pictured below: 6th grade team

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out from Eastlawn Elementary Denise Grissom, K Teacher, and Abby Liberstein, School Counselor

On February 9th through the 13th, Eastlawn Elementary celebrated Career Week. For one part of Career Week, 4th grade leadership students paired up with kindergartners to make their own community helper vokis, or avatars. The kindergartners told the fourth graders what they learned about firefighters, police officers, veterinarians, dentists, and teachers and the leaders typed in the message to make the voki that they created talk. Check out a voki example: http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=e4d11d7f132556e34372d68dd0935855&mId=2474828

Eastlawn wrapped up the week with visits from 23 community members who shared about their careers. The careers included

doctor, police officer, assistant district attorney, Army National Guard, city planner, restaurant owner, and many more!

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out from A O Elementary Donna King, Principal Ni hao from China to A-O Elementary

Neil Smith (A-O/Western High graduate) from China brought several teachers with him to visit A-O. They toured the school, met with teachers, visited classrooms and even participated in Physical Education class!

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out from School Social Workers Danielle Woodall, Lead School Social Worker Student Support Services had a successful staff development recently. Below is a link to the Times News article regarding Youth Mental Health First Aid training. ABSS Student Support Services is thankful for the collaboration between Cardinal Innovations who brought 7 instructors from across the state and AHEC and ARMC who provided lunch to over 115 SSS staff. http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/abss-to-host-youth-mental-health-training-1.438153?tc=cr

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out from ABSS Department for Exceptional Children Julie Bost, Program Specialist CASE Hybrid Conference, 2015 In spite of the ice and snow, thirty-seven people from across our district including Special Education Teachers, General Education Teachers, Principals, Assistant Principals, and Program Specialists joined Elon University Faculty and students to participate in the 2015 CASE Winter Hybrid Conference. CASE (Council for Administrators of Special Education) is an international professional educational organization affiliated with the Council for Exceptional Children whose mission is to provide leadership and support to members by shaping policies and practices which impact the quality of education for all students. This year's conference theme was Results Driven

Accountability: Actualizing the Promise through Practice. Day 1 (February 19) was entitled Special Education Legal Issues: Actualizing the Promise. Day 2 (February 20) was entitled Leading by Convening: Actualizing the Promise. This Conference takes place face-to-face in Phoenix, Arizona but was provided virtually across the country in 46 virtual sites with 27 states participating. Our site was the only one in North Carolina! This virtual conference approach allows participants to access a National Conference without leaving the state and was made possible through a partnership with Elon University's

School of Education. A BIG thanks to Dr. Deborah Long, Interim Dean of School of Education and Dr. Stephen Byrd, Professor in the Special Education Department at Elon University. We are SO appreciative of their partnership and allowing us to use Johnston Hall for this event. Want more information about CASE? Visit their website: http://www.casecec.org/ Or contact julie_bost@abss.k12.nc.us

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out from Grove Park Elementary Shadonna Gunn, Principal This is why community partnerships are essential...Grove Park Baptist is one of our faith-based partners. They provide backpacks, as many school partnerships do, for families that may be experiencing limited resources. It warms my heart to share that Ms. Candy Reavis from the church, and our social worker Amber Doby spent the morning one day last week contacting those families to invite them to the church to pick up food to get them through the expected winter storm. For the families that she could not reach by phone, Amber spent the afternoon delivering food to their homes. The relationship that we have with Grove Park Baptist has been established for quite some time now, but I'm always amazed and forever grateful to see how selfless and supportive they are of our families and staff!

Shout Out to National School Social Work Week Danielle Woodall, Lead School Social Worker Annually March is recognized as Social Work Month with March 1st-7th designated as School Social Work Week. Please take some time to thank your School Social Worker for their dedication and services to our ABSS students, parents, staff and community!

Just for the first semester of the 2014-2015 school year, School Social Workers made a total of 4,084 agency referrals/contacts to assist ABSS students and families. There were 3,659 students that benefited from either a backpack or food pantry program; 536 students were referred to outside resources for food assistance; 651 students needed assistance with rent, utilities or other services; 1,799 students received school supplies from our closet (which is fully supported by the community, particularly with the Classroom Collection campaign sponsored by the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce); 858 students were either provided clothing from our closet located at Sellars Gunn (which is a partnership with Burlington Christian Academy) or from an outside clothing resource.

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out to Southern High Published Author Sara Snelling Lynn Bare, AP English We read an essay in AP Language and Composition titled "The Inheritance of Tools". It is about a man reflecting on tools passed down to him by his father and grandfather and what the tools represent about his family. The students then wrote their own essay about an item that is important to them and why. When Dr. Harrison came to visit, I had them in groups sharing essays and each group was to pick one to share with the class. I was asked to select a student to share with Dr. Harrison and I chose Sara. She then shared her essay about the items her father had brought from his various deployments and what they meant to her. Dr. Harrison then asked for the copy of the essay. Next thing we knew, Dr. Harrison had shared it with the Military Child Education Coalition and it was published in the organization’s magazine entitled On The Move. As it turns out, Dr. Harrison served on the coalition for a number of years while in Cumberland County. Here is a link to Sara’s published essay: http://www.militarychild.org/public/upload/files/OTM_12-2014-The_Little_Things_in_Life-Article-LR.pdf

Shout Out for Middle School Chorus Joy Rust, Graham Middle & Aria Westbrook, Hawfields Middle

ABSS music teachers Joy Rust (Graham Middle School) and Aria Westbrook (Hawfields Middle School) recently collaborated on two performance projects for their students!

On February 13, fifty of our combined 7th and 8th grade chorus students traveled to Elon University to work with Dr. Stephen Futrell and the select Elon chamber ensemble, Camarata. Students enjoyed the collaborative singing workshop in preparation for the upcoming ABSS Middle School All County Concert (Friday, March 20 at 7:30pm at Cummings HS Auditorium).

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Dr. Futrell gave the students tips regarding singers' vocal health, advanced choral techniques, and the importance of staying involved in singing in a college setting. Students completed the day with a question and answer session, singing with members of Camarata, and listening to a vocal jazz demonstration!

Pictured at left L to R: Joy Rust GMS; Dr. Futrell, Elon U; Aria Westbrook, HMS

Here’s a fun fact to know and tell:

Ms. Westbrook was Mrs. Rust’s student teacher 10 years ago!

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

The Biltmore House in Asheville was the site of our second collaborative event, when 46 students performed in the atrium of this castle on March 4!

Incredibly beautiful and warm, sunny weather greeted the students in Asheville, making the outdoor lunch delightful!

Following the 60 minute concert our students had a private 90 minute tour of the house.

Each school prepared four songs to sing individually, and then sang four songs together impressing the visitors touring the famous home.

Singing in the atrium was an acoustic delight! Compliments were received from visitors and Biltmore staff on the singing as well as behavior of the students, topping off a spectacular field trip for both schools.

Students had no trouble devouring the buffet at Golden Corral on our way home late that afternoon. A great day!

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

This gives the phrase “going to the big house” new meaning!

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out to Lizzie Oakley, Grove Park Elementary Second Grade Teacher Shadonna Gunn, Principal Lizzie Oakley, 2nd grade teacher at Grove Park Elementary School, received Honorable Mention for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2014 Teacher as Researcher Award. Her paper, titled “Researching Reading: Inquiring into the Impact of Guided Reading: Using Data to Guide Instruction” focused on how she used her mClass data to form groups and provide instruction to her students. The data was collected for the 2013-2014 school year. The AERA Teacher as Researcher is dedicated to supporting research done in schools by PreK-12 practitioners on their own practice. While this work can be conducted in collaboration with other researchers, it should reflect equity of initiation, data collection, analysis and presentation, with teachers sharing primary credit and responsibility. We are the only special interest group whose core purpose is the articulation and representation of classroom teachers' perspectives by the classroom teachers themselves (aera homepage). Her findings and research will be presented at the AERA annual meeting in Chicago this April. Lizzy was one of three educators awarded! We are so proud of her!!!!

Shout Out to Teachers from South Graham Elementary Angie Riffe, Technology Teacher Our RTI, ESL ansd EC teachers did a presentation for our staff recently about ways to do little things in your classroom to help struggling learners. As an introduction, they presented the following video about all the things we have to do as teachers and how we need to let it go and shake it off. Because ultimately it’s all about the kids! Our staff thought other ABSS staff might enjoying watching this 5 minute video too. Enjoy! https://abss.eduvision.tv/Default.aspx?q=CT1wecDsedDGV9%252ftqWdv4Q%253d%253d

Around Our Schools Shout Outs March 2015, Volume 1 Alamance-Burlington Schools Public Information Office

Shout Out to Spring David L’Heureux, Webmaster Relax! Spring is just around the corner!