Dr. Peine's Pen

        

 

The Scholars' Academy celebrates EARTH DAY-2008

 

Our Earth Day festivities begin on Monday, April 21. Special activities include guest speakers, a film screening, and other activities in individual classrooms.Our celebration continues through Wednesday. Jeff Barrie will be visiting with us at 2:00pm on Monday. Mr. Barrie is the producer of "Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-energize America." The documentary is a call for reducing energy consumption and promoting renewable resources in an effort to improve the quality of life for people in the Southeast. Parents are invited to join us for this special screening and to meet Jeff Barrie. Mary Anne Hitt, executive director of Applachian Voices will be visiting with upper level students about energy production, the earth's resources and environmental leadership.  Dr. John Peine will spend time with lower level classes and talk with them about having a personal relationship with and group responsibility for the earth. Earth Day will feature readings of favorite books about the earth, writing letters to Mother Earth, and Socratic discussions with an earth day theme. Discoverers I are visiting the Recycling Center. On Wednesday, upper level students will see "Nim's Island." We will also release the results of our challenge to the school to reduce the number of plastic bottles used and discarded at school.

HAPPY EARTH DAY everyone.

 

Our first annual Grandparents was a rousing success. Thank you to our staff and all of the parent volunteers who made this a very special day in the 2007-2008 school year.

 

News about the Terra Nova2 tests to be administered April 28 - May 1

The Terra Nova2 is a nationally normed achievment test that we administer to students at all grade levels to monitor the levels of our student achievement compared with students throughout the United States. This test is s "local" administration, meaning that it happens only at our school. The Terra Nova2 is used because it has sections in four major content areas that are the focus of our curriculum: language arts, mathematics, science and social studies (as compared to NC testing which has only reading, math and very limited science). Doing the "local" administration allows us to test closer to the level at which the students are learning, so all students complete a test that is one level higher than a typical setting: second graders take a thrid grade test, fourth graders take a fifthgrade test, etc. NC regulations require us to test at the level for which the students are registered, so our students are really covering material they studied in a previous year. NC testing does not start until the third grade. We are interested in student performance as early as the first year that students are with us. The results of the test provide information to parents about student achievement. The results are presented in percentiles. The Scholars' Academy does NOT use test results to make any type of academic decisions about students. We may use the results as a component of our annual curricular review - which areas are strong, and which seem to be less strong. It is important to have children rested and well fed for the days of testing. However, test results are a number which represent only one aspect of who a child is, so it is equally important to find a balance between emphasizing the importance of good performance and the realization that it is a test. If you have any questions about the test, I will be happy to talk with you at any time.

 

 

For the earth,

Tyler Waugh, class of  2005 and Richard Scott, class of 2007 were on the Quiz Bowl team at Gray Stone Day School that won the county and district level competitions. Congratulations to Alex Mauney and Kevin Rocker, class of 2006 who have been accepted at the North Carolina School for Science and Math for their junior and senior years of high school. Kimmy Vuong, class of 2003, was recently named a Morehead Scholar. This is one of the most prestigious scholarship awards given to students who will attend NC colleges. Kimmy was also a student at the North Carolina School for Science and Math.

A NOTE OF THANKS FROM THE PTO

The Scholars' Academy PTO sincerely thanks you all for your monetary help and valuable support that have made a big difference throughout the school. PTO council members and parent volunteers work extremely hard to utilize the funds very judiciously. So far this year, the approximate number of volunteer hours logged for the school is 1,730. This is equivalent to a full time employee working 9 hours a day over the 188 school days. Please keep in mind; this does NOT include the countless volunteer hours logged on behalf of the school at home, in the classroom, etc.

  We are very happy to project the result of your contributions and our hard work.