REWIND: NC Cultural Enrichment Day (March 5, 2014)

At our school, we have an enrichment team that serves students in rotation once a week.  On the scheduled day, students in grades 1-5 rotate through media, art, music and P.E.  We often ate lunch together and got talking one day about putting together something cool and different during our rotation.  Because 4th grade studies everything North Carolina, we thought it would be interesting to integrate this into our enrichment rotation.  Knowing that teachers and administration would be more likely to accept the idea if it didn't mess up everybody's schedule, we decided to come up with an all day event for 4th and 5th graders during our normal enrichment schedule.  We called this event the NC Cultural Enrichment Day.  see the flier HERE

With a little bit of planning (we started in September) we researched some potential guests, came up with a projected cost and asked PTO for help (they were delighted to help).

In Media, I was lucky enough to get  Nora Dial-Stanley, a member of the North Carolina Lumbee tribe and storyteller.  She was WONDERFUL!  She had such a melodious voice and charmed the children with her amazing stories.  Nora has a true gift.  She had no script; she just spoke from her heart.  And in each class she was able to convey in an age appropriate manner the injustices that her people have suffered.  She was highly engaging and the students LOVED her.

 

In P.E., Linda Zarick was grateful to have world class clogger Elliot Skeen and his daughter Megan.  Elliot has not only been clogging almost all of his life, he has been instructor and coach to multiple teams over the years.  He even met his beautiful wife, Cheryl, at a clogging event many years ago and they have danced together for more than 20 years since then.  Elliot talked with the kids about some traditional Appalachian dancing and even had the kids do some basic square dancing steps.

In music, Seth McKnight was delighted to be able to share the talents of Rebecca Branson Jones with his students.  Ms. Jones is an accomplished musician, photographer, and documentary filmmaker among other things.  Rebecca has most recently been teaching at ASU in Boone, completed an internship with world renowned producer Ken Burns, and travels with her music group The Buck Stops Here when time allows.   Rebecca demonstrated some traditional Appalachian musical instruments as well as leading the students in song.  

Finally, in art, Brandy Mulkey kicked off a month long unit on NC traditional crafts by teaching 4th grade the fine art of basket weaving and 5th grade the centuries old tradition of pottery by creating small face jugs.  Students loved begin able to get their hands dirty.  At the end of the unit, students were able to bring home their designs just in time for mother's day.

Because we had brought in special guests, we put on a luncheon in the media center for all those that participated.  We invited administrators, PTO and the local newspaper to join us.  We feasted on chicken pie, green beans, applesauce, banana pudding and sweet tea.  The event was such a success that we hope to make it an annual one.  We also spoke with Mrs. Dial-Stanley about doing a similar event in November for Native American History Month.

Read the article by Daneesha Edwards here:  www.the-dispatch.com 

A rolling stone gathers no moss...

School library is a K-12 certification, in the 8 years I've been teaching I've only ever worked with elementary school.  Well, beginning next school year that is going to change.  I've moving schools and will be the new media coordinator (teacher librarian...whatever you call it) at South Davidson Middle AND High School.

This is totally new territory for me but I am excited about the change and eager to flex my library muscles and see what I'm made of.  This new opportunity is 2 schools sharing one library, but there are only about 750 students total in both schools.  It's rural and high poverty, but there are not one but TWO full times staffs for the media center (1 tech and 1 media assistant for each school)....the largest media/tech staff in the county.

So...change is good.  But often bittersweet.  You see, I will be leaving my friends...

LOVE me some Penny and Karen!  

I had no intention of leaving after only 2 years, but the opportunity presented itself and I couldn't pass it up.  The outgoing MC is retiring after 29 years and decided I couldn't wait another 29.  PLUS it's only one mile from my house.  This is a community in which I've lived for 9 years, and after the tens of thousands of miles I've commuted to work since moving to NC, this will be a nice change.  

So, sad to leave elementary and the little ones but eager to spread my wings.  On that note, I leave you with this...

Skyping with author of "Stanley and Katrina", Felicia M., age 10

What a nice treat for our 2nd graders this week!  For Children's Book Week in May, we read Stanley and Katrina:  the Perpetual Pack of Papers, written by child author, Felicia, a.k.a. "Neighbor Girl".  Felicia's writing skills and wittiness are far beyond her peers.  Only 10 years old, Felicia fielded questions from more than 80 2nd graders that were beyond excited to Skype with her.

This is some of what we learned about Felicia:  

• She doesn't own a dog or a cat.
• She has no pets right now, but she used to have two hamsters.
• Her favorite color is blue.
• She likes crafts and karate.
• Her favorite author is Rick Riordan.
• Her book took about a month to write.
• She is finishing 6th grade.
• She was inspired to write a novel because of National Novel Writing Month.

If you would like to check out Felicia's book, you can download it on kindle or order a print copy from her website http://www.stanleyandkatrina.com. 

Also, be sure to check out Felicia as a guest on #nctlchat, Sunday, July 27 @ 7:30EST.  Sign in to twitter and search the hashtag #nctlchat.