A Publication by Columbus County Schools Vol. 1 Ed. 1

Panther broadcast team at Hallsboro-ArtesiaLights! Camera! Action!

Hallsboro-Artesia Elemen-tary School’s Panther Coun-try Broadcasting Station is back for a third school year sharing school news, current events, Panther Trivia, the daily lunch menu and weather updates with exceptional reporting.

Twenty-four students (K-5) make up two broadcast teams that alternate their time on a weekly basis. They have the opportunity to explore com-mon core objectives through communication, collabora-tive research and leadership development.

Rakyah Jacobs is a fourth grader who has been a mem-ber of the broadcast team for two years. She has served as a weather reporter and helped lead the Pledge of Allegiance and school motto. This year she will be behind the scenes running the camera.

“I love working with the

broadcast team,” says Rakyah with a big smile. “I am learn-ing so much and it is fun.” Broadcast team members are becoming college and career-ready through hands-on and minds-on exploration in reading, writing, speaking, listening and language. The students prepare their own scripts, control the camera, and operate sound equip-ment to produce quality video

clips to share with the entire school.

The broadcast is transmit-ted from HAES’s broadcast studio equipment through the Columbus County website to all the Promethean boards in classrooms where it is viewed by students.

Hallsboro-Artesia’s roving student reporters visit Pan-ther Country classrooms to interview and film teachers

and students engaging in positive learning ex-periences throughout the school.

Teachers can volun-teer to have their class-es perform Readers’ Theatre, poetry, science experiments and songs on the broadcast. The “Beat the Wizard” math segment, conducted entirely by students, is a wonderful way to practice math skills. Spanish is introduced and taught by students focusing on commonly used vocabu-lary. The entire broadcast is loaded with the Common Core State Standard Initiatives.

Mrs. Darlene Graham, the grandmother of Rakyah, feels that having the school broad-

cast team is a great way to explore technology and prepare students for the future. “It is a great project for the school.” she said.

Hallsboro-Artesia’s Pan-ther Country Broadcast can be viewed throughout the Columbus County School sys-tem. Archives of each broad-cast are linked to the school’s Facebook page shortly after broadcast.

This advanced use of tech-nology will expand commu-nication with families and friends in the school com-munity.

www.facebook.com/Colcoschools www.columbus.k12.nc.us@ colcoschools

Old Dock Elementary students gathering bubble gum data.

Old Dock Students Learning Science Through Bubble GumStudents at Old Dock El-

ementary School participated in a bubble gum lab.

The students were asked to blow three different bubbles. Before blowing the bubbles, they predicted what try the bubble would be the biggest. Students then blew the bub-bles and a partner measured the bubble.

Bubble sizes were recorded on a data chart for a later class-room comparison.

Individual students were then asked to write their name under which try resulted in the biggest bubble blown. After reviewing individual

data the students com-pared bubble data to see which try the class as a whole blew the biggest bubble.

Students were in charge of recording their data and analyzing the data together as a team.

In expanding upon the les-son, students were asked to explain why they thought the biggest bubble was blown on a particular try!

This was such an engaging lesson for all students. One student suggested the class use other types of bubble gum to see if the brand would make

a difference. Other stu-dents commented on how fun it was to use chewing gum for the project.

We work to make learning fun through

the use of hands-on experi-ences.

It is through the use of these experiences that we create and prepare students to be productive citizens in a changing world.

“I love working with the broadcast team! I am learning so much and it is fun!”

-Rakyah, fourth grader at HAES

Hallsboro-Artesia Elementary broadcasting students prepare to go on the air.

Students at Nakina Middle use computer pro-gramming in math class.

WTCM students discuss graphics for an up-coming news program.

Students at Evergreen Elementary work in the technology class.

Nakina Middle Students learning computer programming

Tabor City Middle broadcasting begins fifth year

It’s a digital life at Evergreen Elementary

N a k i n a M i d d l e School is offering a new elective class titled N.C. Quest-Integrate Com-puting with Mathemat-ics.

An open-source soft-ware is used in the elec-tive allowing students to learn how to ap-ply mathemati-cal concepts in real-world prob-lems.

Squeak Etoys will help inte-

grate computational thinking with mathe-matics content and mod-el building activities.

Mrs. Jodi Gore of Na-kina Middle School is leading this elective for the 2013-14 school year.

Mrs. Gore said, “We hope that our s t u d e n t ’s u n -derstanding of math will begin to transform by using this new software in prob-

lem based learning math classes.”

Students will be cre-ating and developing their own project mod-els and simulations in a computer lab setting.

Devan Clewis, a sev-enth grader said, “It challenges us and is

very interactive.”Amreen Nagra said,

“I like the elective N.C. Quest because you are the programmer. Noth-ing happens unless you say so.”

WTCM is Tabor City Middle School’s very own student-run news program that provides TCMS students and fac-ulty with campus-related news and information. Studio is offered as an elective for seventh and eighth grade students.

At the beginning of the school year, the sev-enth grade students are mentored by the eighth graders until they are knowledgeable of the production process.

The scripts are writ-ten and recorded by the students each morning. The students have total

creative control over the scripts that are written and recorded daily.

The WTCM b r o a d c a s t i s aired daily at 2:45 p.m.

The students always welcome new ideas and suggestions from the students and staff.

The eighth grade stu-

dents had posi-tive comments about the studio. “Studio helps yo u t o l e a r n t e c h n o l o g y, ” said Carson and Mary Grayson.

“We enjoy broadcast-ing,” exclaimed Mer-edith. “It helps you to be creative in writing scripts and creating graphics,” according to

Anna. “My daughter is excited and it’s a good experience working with technology,” said Mrs. Powell, a parent.

I n t h e f o l l ow i n g weeks, Studio will fea-ture interviews with the new staff members at Ta-bor City Middle School.

They will also inter-view the football and soccer team players.

In the month of No-vember, productions will feature some of the Vet-erans in the Tabor City area.

Last year the elec-tive classes at Evergreen Elementary were over-crowded and the increas-ing need for student col-laboration and commu-nication was evident.

Principal Stephanie Packer met with her technology team and presented an idea to implement a new tech-nology class based on ad-vanced computer skills. The class was designed around the current tech-nology essential stan-dards, past performance results and the increased need for students to con-tinue to advance their computer skills.

Students learn to nav-igate web pages, design and establish blogs in addition to the expanded use of emails to commu-nicate to teachers and their peers. They learn about School Tools, an interactive site, which allowed students to es-tablish “Fake book” and “Tweeter” accounts, that allow students to safely experience pow-erful social networking sites available to society today.

Students read books and novels and provide recorded book reviews through Screen Casta-matic. This allows their

peers and other student body members to pre-view a short synopsis of the book to help them de-cide if it was a topic that interested them prior to

checking the book out from the media center.

Oscar Vil lalobos, a seventh grader was one of the students for the initial class. Oscar

recently gave a presentation to Evergreen’s Advisory Coun-c i l s h a r i n g with them the skills he and his peers had accomplished through the hands-on process. “I didn’t really think I would like it, but I did and so glad I got the chance to take it” re-

marked Oscar to the commu-nity members. He shared his opinion that it was a great way for him to pre-pare for high

school and the expecta-tions that it might hold for him and his peers.

“(Squeak Etoys) challenges us and is very interactive.”

Amreen Nagra, NMS Student

“My daughter is excited and it’s a good experience working with tech-nology.”

TCMS Parent

“I didn’t really think I would like it, but I did and so glad I got the chance to take it.”

Oscar Villalobos, Seventh Grader

Page 2 – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Class Acts

Class Acts – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Page 3

Anne Evans, from the Department of Public In-struction, speaks to parents.

East Columbus High School students demon-strate an engineering experiment.

Williams Township’s Read to Achieve

STEM and financial literacy at East Columbus

Williams Township Elementary School re-cently held an informa-tion session for faculty members and parents of second and third grade students concer ning the new North Carolina “Read to Achieve” pro-gram.

Anne Evans, a con-sultant from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, presented attendees with

valuable informa-tion concerning t h e p r o g r a m , which is par t of the Excellent Public Schools Act and became law in July 2012.

Parents and teachers learned about the his-tory and structure of the program, including sup-ports that will be offered and details about specific promotion standards.

T h e l a w , which is effec-tive as of the 2013-14 school year, focuses pri-marily on read-ing progress and a ch i eve m e n t .

The goal of the program is to ensure that every student is reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade.

Personalized edu-cation plans, student

portfolios, continuous parental contact and evidence-based instruc-tional supports are all key components of the program and its commit-ment to success.

For more information concerning the program, visit the North Carolina Public Schools website at www.ncpublicschools.org.

UNC-W and Chadbourn Middle School’s partnershipU N C - W s t a f f

Brian Brinkley and Somer Lewis coor-dinated efforts for 30 Chadbourn Middle School seventh and eighth-grade students to continue participation in an enrichment project this past summer on the UNC-W campus. CMS students traveled to UNC-W each Tuesday and Thursday in July for a day of in-struction, collaboration, research, and campus life.

Mornings began with a variety of high-interest enrichment activities.

First, they met with UNC-W student leaders to discuss topics like robot-ics, healthcare careers and students’ future college and career planning. Some days provided exciting op-portunities to enjoy artis-tic expression through the

use of spoken and written words of sacrificial poets, while on other d ay s s t u d e n t s participated in

drumming and storytell-ing.

Plant studies using ad-vanced microscopes and nature walks took them to the “outside” classroom. They collected and tested soil samples to determine the various types of soil throughout the campus and to determine the ef-fects of weathering. Final-ly, the students challenged their mathematical skills as they competed in a GPS scavenger hunt to locate specific items on campus.

Following the morning sessions, students dined with their individual tu-tors on campus before be-ginning one-on-one study

sessions. During these sessions, students received literacy and math instruc-tion. They also worked on a student-selected re-search project which was presented during a special showcase held at CMS.

Finally, campus life was a highlight for our stu-dents. At the recreation center, they explored their physical ability on the

climbing wall and their agility on the basketball and volleyball courts. Their final campus expe-rience was a challenge course that was completed without verbally commu-nicating with other team members.

This program has given life-changing opportuni-ties to our students.

Seventh-grader Joel

Sturdivant said, “UNC-W is an amazing campus with great resources, great staff and nice students. Eighth-grader Tatyanna Hawkins said, “I really enjoyed my summer at UNC-W be-cause the tutors worked and understood me as they helped me find ways to pursue my dreams to become a journalist.” Ar-della Addison, mother of Tony Addison said, “The project at UNC-W has re-ally inspired Tony. He got up each morning anxious to attend. After missing the bus one morning, he begged me to drive him to

Wilmington so he would not miss out on the fun.” CMS parent facilitator Dorothy Bellamy shared, “The smiles on their faces said it all! They loved the campus, loved their tutors, and are anxious to go back next summer.”

We are so very thankful for the dedication of Brian Brinkley and his staff to CMS students. Doors are being opened, and seeds are being planted. Students’ lives are being changed … one summer at a time.

The ECHS Freshman Success Academy held open house August 22, 2013. Ninety students were given tours of the school and were given their schedules so they could find the classrooms and meet their teach-ers. Parents attended an informational meeting with Principal Bobby Vaughan and Assistant Principals Tonya Han-nah and Carla Fowler.

As an introduction to the STEM principles

used at ECHS stu-dents did an En-gineering Design Challenge in the school’s media center. Students were divided into small groups and given six sheets of construc-tion paper, scissors and an arm length of tape and challenged to build a structure that would support ten textbooks. Many were successful. Students in Dawn Strickland’s U.S. His-

tory class are lear ning valu-able life lessons about making good decisions and making the best of what life

offers you while learn-ing about emigrants who traveled westward on the Oregon Trail. Through a class simulation game called The Oregon Trail, students worked as fam-ily groups to plan for a 12 week journey from Independence, Missouri

to Willamette Valley, Or-egon. Students had to purchase enough sup-plies for their journey before leaving and were dealt weekly fates that caused bumps in the road along the way. With each week that passed, students had to manage their money, food rations and wagon supplies to ensure their safe arrival to Oregon.

“The project at UNC-W has really inspired Tony. He got up each morn-ing anxious to attend.”

Ardella Addison, CMS Parent

CCCA students collaborating on a science project.

CCCA kicks off year with 20 percent more studentsThe Columbus Ca-

reer and College Acade-my student body, known as the “Pride,” grew significantly over the summer. With the addi-tion of 80 freshmen, the Pride has an enrollment of nearly 240 students.

When asked why he chose to come to CCCA, freshman Dylan Ker-man said he “wanted to be able to get an associ-ate’s degree along with his high school diploma when he graduated.”

The past six weeks of school have been both exciting and busy for the freshmen as they have learned how to work together in groups to solve problems that don’t have clear-cut answers.

Students are ex -pected to use resources such as laptops, cell phones and tablets to gather information and

come up with ideas on how they think things should work.

This requires stu-dents to think “outside the box” and beyond what is “normal.” In order to help the fresh-men transition into high school and learn

how to work together, communicate with each other, and think critical-ly about problems, they attended a boot-camp before school started.

The students were put in unusual situa-tions where they had to develop solutions with

no assistance from the teachers.

They were given the task of working in groups of four to design and launch a bottle-rocket to develop creativity and persever-ance.

The difficulty of this

assignment was the rockets had to car ry and p r o t e c t r a w e ggs through the launch and the landing.

Students en-joyed and learned a lot from this task; there were rockets that easily went several hundred feet in the air and pro-tected their eggs, too

It is easy to see that the students have em-braced the idea of work-ing together and cre-ative thinking.

In classrooms, stu-dents collaborate, de-bate ideas and test their beliefs.

F r e s h m a n p a r e n t Rya n Jackson said that the thing she likes most a b o u t C C C A is “it gives the students hands

-n experience and the teachers take time to help each child who needs help.”

Students know that each class will require them to perfor m as if they were at a job which means speaking in front of others, lead-ing teams, and doing research.

Viking Voyage staff sets sail on school newspaper

The News Reporter’s Dean Lewis visiting the WCHS newspaper staff.

“(I) wanted to be able to get an As-sociate’s Degree along with my high school diploma when (I) graduated.”

Dylan Kerman, CCCA Student

“Because the students have so much ownership in the entire pro-cess, they get a taste of what it is like to be in the real world.”

WCHS Parent

It was just three years ago that Mrs. Shellie Britt’s Busi-ness Advanced Studies (BAS) students decid-ed to revive West Co-lumbus High School’s newspaper.

What started as a twice per semester pub-lication will expand to a monthly publication this year thanks to the eager and ambitious students enrolled in BAS.

Dean Lewis, from The News Reporter, helped guide students early in the semester with a presentation on the publishing process and how to appeal to an audience base.

The students took this information and have gone far beyond their teacher’s expecta-tions.

They are working to ensure that all school events are covered. They have surveyed the student body to deter-

mine what they would like to see featured in the newspaper.

Co-Editors-in-Chief Tristyn Enzor and Sara Housand, veteran mem-bers of the newspaper staff, are responsible for overseeing the pub-lication process from start to finish.

A c c o r d i n g t o Tristyn, the part she en-

joys most about work-ing with the newspaper is brainstorming and investigating potential stories.

“It’s fun to get the inside scoop on what is happening at school and share it with oth-ers,” she said.

Sara’s favorite part of working on the news-paper is seeing the final

product, which gives her “a sense of pride when I see the end re-sult of everyone’s hard work.”

Sara’s mom, Suanne Housand, said she was glad that Sara chose this course as one of her electives.

“Sara has an inter-est in journalism, and this gives her the op-

portunity to ex-plore whether or not this is what she wants to study when she goes to col-lege,” she said. “Because the students have so much ownership in the en-tire process, they get a taste of what it is like to be in the real world. This is definitely the kind of experience I want Sara to leave high school with, regardless of whether or not she pursues journalism.”

While the students have the majority of the control over the newspaper, Mrs. Britt is constantly there to

facilitate and offer feedback, s u g g e s t i o n s and encourage-ment.

“ I h a v e complete con-fidence in this

year’s staff to meet their goal and publish an outstanding paper that captures the inter-est of all readers,” Mrs. Britt said.

Be sure to check out the school and district websites in October for this year’s first edition of the Viking Voyage. It’s sure to be a good read!

Page 4 – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Class Acts

Mr. Knotts awards Bobcat Bucks to JayZeon Brown and Kinley Reece.

ADES students recognized for positive behaviors

Acme Delco Elemen-tary’s school year is off to a great start. The first few weeks of school are always an exciting time and an essential part of back-to-school is learn-ing the expectations and procedures of the class-room and what it means to be a Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) school.

PBIS is a framework that helps students make decisions about how they will behave and learn.

Our school’s PBIS team created common rules that are displayed on ROAR rubrics around the school and remind students how to be Re-spectful, Organized, Always Positive and Responsible. Students learn these behaviors during the first weeks of school and have many opportunities to practice these skills.

Teachers and other staff members celebrate when students make good choices by giving students recognition, compliments and stick-ers on their charts. Par-ents are notified each night of their child’s behavior that day on their child’s newsletter.

This year, many class-

es are using a fun new pro-gram to “catch students being g o o d ” c a l l e d Class Dojo.

This is a free program that can be pulled up on any computer or mobile de-vice and displays all students in a class on one screen.

Whenever teachers notice a positive behav-ior, just a click on that student’s icon gives that student a point and ev-eryone in the class sees how that child’s actions were recognized.

I t ’s quick and i t doesn’t interrupt the class’s learning. Parents can log on at any time to see how their child is do-ing and an email report is sent to them weekly from Class Dojo.

Here’s what students and parents are saying about PBIS.

“I love being reward-

ed for my behav-ior because peo-ple say that I am good so to prove them right , I made myself a goal.” – Destiny Ballard, fourth

grader“The Bobcat ROAR

posters tell us how to be respectful.” – Erick Garica, second grader

“I like Class Dojo be-cause it lets me know the specific behaviors my child did right or wrong. My son also loves the Bobcat Bucks and it re-ally makes the kids take responsibility for their behavior.” – Amanda Little, parent.

“PBIS is great be-cause it brings attention to good behavior instead of all the attention going to just negative behav-iors.” – Robin Smith, parent.

SMART Boards create hands-on opportunities at Hallsboro Middle.

Technology takes center stage at Hallsboro Middle

Students at Hallsboro Middle School are active participants in their edu-cation.

Long gone are the days of teachers standing in front of their classes and delivering information. Educators today have to be much more creative and technology makes this creativity possible.

Even though the teach-ers are the students’ pri-mary source of informa-tion, the use of technology captures the interest of the students at HMS and allows them to actively engage in their learning.

HMS is a “21st cen-tury school” with SMART Boards in every class-room.

SMART Boards are interactive whiteboards that help improve learn-ing outcomes.

Combining the simplic-ity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer, the SMART Boards allow teachers to deliver dynam-ic lessons, write notes in digital ink and save their work – all with the simple touch of a finger.

T he students a lso have access to a SMART Response interactive re-sponse system (“click-ers”).

The response clickers enable teachers to instant-ly assess learning through formal and informal tests – increasing student par-ticipation and improving learning outcomes.

Students have access to three computer labs and a mobile lap-top cart, where they can log in to the wireless Inter net from the comfort of their classroom settings.

HMS students are for-tunate to have teachers who have been trained and are aware of current technological trends in education.

The students at HMS are excited to be here and are anxious to come to school every day so that they can “play” with the SMART boards, comput-ers and clickers.

Jay’Quan, a s ixth grader at HMS told his teacher, “I like that we can participate while we learn and we can write on the SMART board.”

Another sixth grade student, Grace, said, “I think clickers are cool. It’s like mental telepathy because whatever you think, you can click and it’s on the board.”

Jonathan, in Mrs. Bick-sler’s sixth grade reading class reported, “I think technology helps kids improve their scores.”

The students are not the only ones excited about the use of technology. Teachers and p a r e n t s a r e thril led that their students have the op-

portunity to learn in a unique, non-threatening setting.

When students take tests with the SMART re-sponse clickers, scores are immediate, the responses are non-verbal, and paper is conserved.

When students are al-lowed to create a project on the computer, personal style and creativity has the opportunity to flour-ish.

Mrs. Brown, parent of a high functioning autis-tic sixth grade student said, “Technology in the schools is long overdue. We want our kids to know how to work technology so they will be prepared for a job in the future.” Her son, Trey, told her, “Using the SMART board and clickers helps me learn more and I feel like a col-lege kid.”

“I like Class Dojo because it lets me know the specific behaviors my child did right or wrong. My son also loves the Bobcat Bucks and it really makes the kids take responsibility for their behavior.”

Amanda Little, ADES Parent

“I like that we can participate while we learn and we can write on the Smart Board.”

Jay’Quan, Sixth Grader at HMS

Class Acts – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Page 5

There’s a flurry of fresh faces at Cerro Gordo

T he Cer ro Gordo Stinger family greeted the new year by welcom-ing many new faces.

Classroom additions included students from other area schools and lo-cations across the state.

New students also ar-rived from South Caro-lina, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey.

New seventh grader Aana said, “I like CGES because of the many opportunities. My old school had no sports and we ate lunch in our class-rooms. I love my teach-ers, and they have made me feel very comfortable in a new environment. It is completely different, and I am so happy here.”

Anna’s mother ap-preciates that her girls “can build community relationships and par-ticipate in after school activities,” noting their unavailability, “at a school in which students live many miles away.”

At CGES, “they in-teract daily with local friends and even fam-ily members.” Another aspect this family is en-joying is arrival and de-parture.

“Morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up is a breeze. We were ac-customed to a process sometimes exceeding 45 minutes. School traffic is well-organized and flows quickly but safely.”

Finally, this mother

feels, “CGES is a great place to learn; every-one involved does a fantas-t i c j o b. T h e girls are really enjoying being there.”

When discussing his desire to become a Sting-er, eighth grader Ethan said, “I switched schools because I wanted to play sports, take band, and get a feel for public school before high school. I am thoroughly enjoying my classes, teachers and football team. For me this has been a great change.”

Landen, a fifth grader, is thrilled to be where he “feels safe.”

Other favorite things include hands on learn-ing, access to technol-ogy and being with his friends from the com-munity.

His mother said the reputation of teachers,

opportunity to participate in music, athlet -ics, and real-life learning experi-ences is what led to their decision.

Speaking with parents before making the change revealed overwhelmingly posi-tive responses regard-ing teachers, and a visit to the school solidified their decision. “We were greeted by helpful, in-formative, and smiling faces. We are so pleased and look forward to our future years at CGES!”

The transition ap-pears to be smooth for all involved, and to the Stinger staff, this is no surprise. Denise Davis, middle grades teacher, sums it up, “We’ve never known a child move to our school that didn’t love it!”

Students at CES create a sculpture.

Artist residency comingto Chadbourn Elementary

Chadbourn Elemen-tary is a second-year A+ School for the Arts. The A+ Schools Program is an arts-based whole-school reform effort that uses the arts as a means for creating connections and making school engaging, purposeful and an enjoy-able place to teach and learn.

As an A+ school, Chad-bourn Elementary was top priority for the N.C. Arts Council grant for a Level I Artist Residency.

The grant funds a week long student workshop with a choice of several different types of artists from around the state that specialize in the areas of visual art, drama, music, and dance.

The school submit-ted their application in March 2013, and was granted approval this August.

The N.C. Arts grant is valued at $8,455 and was written by CES teacher Annie Lovoy.

The funding allowed Chadbourn Elementary School to select Silver Trout Arts as their Level I artist residency. Silver Trout Arts consist of a husband and wife team, Timmy and Susanna Abell, who specialize in puppetry and song writ-ing. The artists will teach Social Studies essential standards and English/Language Arts Common Core curriculum through arts integration in drama and music for students in grades K-5.

The workshop will take place the week of Jan. 6, 2014.

The residency in-volves every student, teacher and family, cre-ating an exciting week of arts infusion through multiple concerts along with the workshops.

The artists will pro-vide a community wide program at the end of the week at Chadbourn El-ementary to present the arts integration lessons.

Advisory Council Parent Representative, Lucretia Kelly stated, “This is a great opportunity to help these kids grow in areas that they never thought of. I am very ex-cited for my child to have the opportunity to work with the state’s artist residency. This can also open up a bigger window in life to the kids in our community. Thanks for your support and keep encouraging the youth to think outside the box.”

The opportunity to draw the community in and have their sup-port and participation is also important to the Chadbourn Elementary School faculty and its principal, Deanna Shu-man.

Shuman said, “This is wonderful for our school and community! As edu-cators we must constant-ly strive to find creative ways to engage students in learning. Additionally, we want to engage our

community, parents and other stakeholders in order to create partner-ships that allow us to work together to provide a quality education for our students. This artist residency directly aligns to those goals.”

At Chadbourn Ele-mentary, writing across the cur riculum is a school-wide goal. Song-writing is a way to allow our students to express their thoughts and feel-ings in written for m through music. Puppetry also offers the opportu-nity for self expression through theater. Chad-bourn Elementary fifth grader, Yania Prince, is thoroughly excited about the opportunity to work with Timmy Abell on songwriting. “I feel happy that artists are coming to our school to teach me songwriting,” Yania said.

“This is a great opportunity to help these kids grow in areas that they never thought of. I am very excited for my child.”

Lucretia Kelly, CES Parent

“I am a new student in seventh grade. I like CGES because of the many opportunities. My old school had no sports and we ate lunch in our classrooms. I love my teachers, and they have made me feel very comfortable in a new environment. It is completely different, and I am so happy here!”

Anna, 7th Grader at CGES

Page 6 – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Class Acts

Cerro Gordo Elementary has many new faces this year

Guideway Elementary School students are chosen to represent the school through the “Flag Team.” Selection criteria include good grades, citizenship and leadership skills. Exceptional Character Education is of great importance for all students to display at school and throughout their lives, and this student team displays many character traits such as responsibility, respect and integrity. Their leadership skills are heightened through the Flag Team. They represent good character traits daily in all areas. Their responsibility includes raising the flag each morning and lowering the flag each af-ternoon because the American

Flag. These students have learned the correct folding techniques for storing the flag.

Spencer said “It is fun. I enjoy the respon-sibility and going out-side with my friends in the morning.” Keiana said “I love and am proud to represent my state and country through the responsibility of the Flag Team.”

Brayden said. “I love living

in America and rep-resenting my country through the Flag Team. The American Flag is representation of ‘lib-erty and justice for all.’”

Yanett said, “I’ve been a good student

and do my work. It is an honor to be selected to the Flag Team.”

Acme Delco Middle students take an online class.

ADMS business education students take advantage of online learning

South Columbus High School continues to move closer to achieving its newly defined focus of preparing students for the 21st century and producing college-ready graduates.

The mission began two years ago when the three tra-ditional high schools in Columbus County entered a partnership with N.C. New Schools to become innovative traditional STEM (Sci-ence Technology, En-gineering and Math) high schools.

Among the many new steps taken, the biggest leap toward improving student learning

is the daily schedule allow-ing teachers to be immersed in reflective collaboration and professional development training a full hour before stu-dents arrive.

The successful transforma-tion of instruction and student learning at SCHS depends

on the willingness of teachers to use this time to look critically at daily instructional practices and target those areas where improvements can be made.

The morning collaborative sessions begin on Monday with the fine tuning of lesson plans. Teachers receive feed-

back from peers focused on improving those lessons. Data analysis and technology is the focus on Tuesday. Teachers use classroom student data to determine trends through

analysis and to modify daily classroom instruction. Profes-sional learning community meetings take place on Wednes-day. Teachers work together to find solutions to the problems

and issues hindering student learning.

Thursday’s focus is sharing best practices and participat-ing in professional develop-ment training mandated by the state, district and school as well as the individual teacher’s needs. Friday is a time for col-laborative lesson planning as well as contacting parents.

The specific focus of each day allows opportunity for fo-cused coaching and modeling of all new ideas for teachers to make it easier to implement and model these practices for students in the classroom.

Collaborative planning at South Columbus

Flag team at Guideway Elementary“I love living in America and representing

my country through the Flag Team.”Keiana, GES Student

This year, the stu-dents at Acme Delco Middle School are tak-ing an online course to assist with their business education studies.

At the end of the online course, the students will be awarded a certificate of completion once they have mastered all modules in their Ignition and Vault courses.

Ignition Digital Literacy and Responsibility combines the power of cutting-edge in-structional design, rich media and simulations to educate teens and empower them with the skill set to leverage

technology safely and effectively.

T h e f o u r - h o u r curriculum is de-signed for students and informs students on both “nuts and bolts” on how technol-

ogy works, while also placing them in virtual environments to tackle issues including pri-vacy, security, cyberbullying, digital relationships and the viral nature of the Web.

The goal is to help students understand the risks and rewards that technology can bring to their lives.

Ignition directly correlates to the common core stan-

dards and the Digital Literacy standards within the Com-puter Skills and Applications course. Vault – Understand-ing Money is an interactive platform that incorporates multiple evidence-based learning theories to increase students’ knowledge and build the foundation for making good financial decisions at a young age.

Winter Lewis, a student at ADMS, said “I like Everfi – Vault because it’s a good way to help you learn and keep you entertained.”

Class Acts – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Page 7

SCHS teachers collaborate on lesson plans.

Guideway Elementary sutuents lower and fold the flag at the end of the school day.

Tabor City Elementary science students study ‘Oobleck’Fifth grade students in

Mrs. Garrell’s science class at Tabor City Elementary School recently became young scientists as they attempted to define the properties and unique characteristics of a non-Newtonian substance known as “Oobleck.”

Students’ objectives were to determine if the Oobleck was a liquid, solid or both. During the experiment, corn starch, water and food color-ing were combined to create the Oobleck.

Students prepared for the experiment all week by learn-ing how various forms of matter behave in normal situ-ations. Collaborative groups investigated, observed and analyzed the properties and unique characteristics of the Oobleck. Students construct-ed the idea that Oobleck is a special substance that doesn’t

behave the way most mixtures do. Many developed ideas that the Oobleck had character-istics of both a liquid and a solid but knew a substance had to be one or the other, typically not both.

Students thorough-ly enjoyed manipu-lating the substance, its texture and its ex-ceptional capabilities. They communicated their re-sults and findings within their group and with the entire class. It was concluded that when pressure was applied to the Oobleck it behaved like a solid, but without pressure it behaved like a liquid.

This experiment provided the young scientists with engaging inquiry-based learn-ing as they developed an un-derstanding of the Law of Conservation of Matter, states

of matter, characteristic of matter and the concept that the weight of an object is equal to all of the parts that make up the object.

Twenty-first cen-tury skills were im-plemented as the sci-ence class engaged in critical thinking and collaboration with their peers in develop-ing ideas regarding

whether the Oobleck was a solid, liquid, or both. Students provided scientific reasoning based on their evidence to reach a logical conclusion.

As an extension of the Oo-bleck activity, students were prompted to use artistic cre-ativity to design an Oobleck comic strip exhibiting the Oobleck’s unique capabilities and characteristics. One stu-dent created “Oobleck Man,” a superhero with the excep-

tional capability to transform from a solid to a liquid instan-taneously.

Several students were so amazed with the Oobleck they conducted the Oobleck

experiment at home with their family.

All of our schools, as well as our schooldistrict, have Facebook pages. Join the conversation!Using your smart phone, simply take a picture of the image below that corresponds with your school.

Students create “Oobleck” at Tabor City Elementary.

Columbus County Schools

Cerro Gordo Elementary

Chadbourn Elementary

Chadbourn Middle

Columbus Careerand College Academy

Acme-Delco Middle

EvergreenElementary

Guideway Elementary

Hallsboro Artesia Elementary

Hallsboro Middle

South Columbus High

Tabor City Elementary

Tabor City Middle

West Columbus High

Williams Township

Page 8 – Monday, October 14, 2013 – Class Acts

Acme-Delco Elementary

East ColumbusHigh

Old DockElementary

NakinaMiddle