I sure have enjoyed a wonderful holiday season thus far. Our Christmas was splendid. I especially enjoyed attending our Christmas Eve service where my son played the guitar and sang a solo. The entire service was a musical treat! I had the best time with family and friends. I am so truly blessed! And, I hope that you, too, have enjoyed some special memories with your family and friends.

At this moment, I am in Jacksonville, FL, headed to the Outback Bowl to see my Gamecocks play. We have endured some of the best traffic today!!! Tomorrow, we will complete our journey and meet the team and cheerleaders in Tampa for the pre-bowl events. I will keep you posted as to our travels.

Finally, before we left yesterday, I had the opportunity to share some time with our Robotic Team as they prepare for their Jan. 24 regional competition in Aiken. Some of the team's members met to program and practice run the robot. Volunteer Coach William Lee and Coach Jakki Wiseman coordinated the event, which was made successful with the help of Wendy and Scottie Todd. The members got a great deal accomplished yesterday and were to meet again today. Still, other team members are working on their skits for the competition. I am so looking forward to this event!!!

Have a super evening!

Today, our Student Council and Chorus boarded a bus and headed to Camden to carol at the Kershaw County District Office and Springdale Nursing Home. They also delivered decorated holiday wreaths and student writings to the residents of Springdale. This annual event has become one of my favorites. My grandmother resided in an assisted living facility in Mt. Pleasant before she died in July 2007. Each year, I would take her holiday writings and tray toppers from our students. When she passed away, I wanted to continue this wonderful service project because I knew firsthand the joy that it brought her, so our wonderful Student Council annually sponsors a school-wide Wreath Writing activity where students read a story, poem, etc. and then decorate a wreath and then write about their decorations in a class book. These wreaths today brought smiles to the residents of Springdale. The chorus accompanied the Student Council to help add a holiday flair with music to the annual service project. A special thanks goes to Mrs. Helen Krofchick, Chorus teacher, and Mrs. Leigh Ann Mellichamp and Mrs. Robyn Lynn, SCUBA sponsors. I appreciate their leadership with this project. I am sure that the students will long remember this service project.

As you can tell, I have been busy visiting classrooms on this rainy Thursday morning. Today, I was impressed by the wonderful technology that my teachers were utilizing during their instructional presentations. Mrs. Thrall used her SmartBoard and document projector to introduce a lesson on multiplication. Autumn said, "I see a pattern, Mrs. Thrall," which prompted Mrs. Thrall to explain the connection between addition and multiplication. These students are ready to multiply and shared their excitement as they began this chapter. Mrs. Thrall then "captured" the page from the math textbook on the Smart Document Camera so that she could write on the page and show the students how to write each multiplication sentence. Sure is a long way from the chalkboards that my teachers used when I was in school....yes, I am showing my age! But, I am so glad that I am "still in school" to learn from the latest technology!

In Mrs. Raper's TECH Lab, she was teaching students how to navigate our DME homepage to utilize Education City in class. The students responded to questions and paid close attention so that they would know exactly what to do when they went to their computers. (Again, a long way from the Brother typewriter that Mrs. Mary Pat Richardson used to teach me to type. And, the world wide web...it didn't exist for me.)

I am so excited that this technology is available for our students and teachers each day to utilize as a superior teaching tool. Also, parents are able to access this technology via our HomePage maintained by Mrs. Norton. What an exciting and innnovative time for educators. Thank you so much for supporting the K-8 technology initiative in our Kershaw County Schools. We are so truly blessed to have such a wonderfully supportive community!

On to my next classroom!!!!

Today, I was introduced to a lesson in Mrs. Michelle Clark's class on Jerry Jellyfish. She utilizes a program known as Zoophonics. This morning, I visited her classroom to see her students pretend to drive to the zoo and review/learn all of their sounds, notably today, they were studying J for Jerry Jellyfish! After their initial review, the students performed their zoo rap and zoo-robics for me. Then, they read a book entitled Jellyish Stew (yuck!) and wrote their "j" to review the sound and their handwriting. I appreciate the students inviting me in today to see their phonics lesson, and I am so proud of their hard work during instructional time and how well they followed directions to complete their work! Kudos to Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Myers - what a great way to introduce/teach phonics each day. The consistency of their instruction helps reinforce sounds, build fluency, and promote reading and writing! I am proud of their hard work!

Two of my students recently traveled to Charlotte,NC, to be recognized by Rev. Franklin Graham for their service with the annual Operation Christmas Child. John Russell and Rhett Horsley were recognized in a mammoth celebration on Thursday in Charlotte. For months, they have been selling lemonade at their lemonade stand; their donations were in support of Operation Christmas Child. These special young men actually appeared on stage with Rev. Graham for this most special and lifetime-changing recognition. As I have been highlighting special ways that our children give back to the community, here are yet two more students who have gone above the call of duty of elementary school students to see the needs that others have and to get invoved in service projects that have grand scale repercussions. I am so proud of their leadership and compassion for others. I know that you are, too. In fact, we featured them on the WAVE show on Friday, and if you would like to read more about their project and lemonade stand, please visit:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1534611823/bclid1137749274/bctid3220364001

We returned from the Thanksgiving holiday break, and we didn't miss a beat. Our teachers and students fell quickly back into the routine of the instructional day with a strong focus on instructional accountability and high expectations for student learning. As I visited classrooms today, I noticed students busily working and teachers busily teaching! In fact, Ms. Boykin's students were hard at work completing a math activity and reading a math counting book. In Mr. Wilson's class, students were brainstorming and drafting letters about the upcoming holidays. In Mrs. Gillis's room, students were reading for AR using books in their ZPD. They were returning books which they had read over the holidays and checking out and reading new ones to get a jumpstart on their second nine weeks AR goals after the holiday weekend. It's business as usual. I can't wait to visit more classrooms today - after checking lesson plans this morning, I hope to see Mrs. Clark's Zoophonics lessons and Mrs. Wiseman's streamline on getting ready for the Science Fair and tackling the project! We will host another SIC NO HW Night next week in conjunction with our annual Science Fair Workshop for Parents. Be sure to check out the newsletter or website for times. If you need additional information, please call me!
Have a great day!