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eviewRRJanuary 24, 2017

Coming Up

Julie Cho, PTA Presidentjulieheintzcho@gmail.comAmy Mahaffey, PTA President-Electmahaffey5clt@gmail.comGenie Ombach, Rocket Review Editorgombach@gmail.comJen Taylor, Rocket Review Editorttaylor8@carolina.rr.comHow to Submit Rocket Review Content

Contacts

ocketProvidence Spring Elementary

eviewRRIn This IssueAn Important Message from OurPrincipal 2PSE Teacher of the Year 3Box Tops for Education 3Reflections Contest County Winners 4Cafeteria Concerts 4Student Assignment Phase IICommunity Engagement Sessions 5Windows Into a Paideia School 6The 12 Paideia Principles 7

Providence Spring Elementary10045 Providence Church Lane | Charlotte, NC 28277

P: (980) 343-6935| F: (980) 343-6939School: http://schools.cms.k12.nc.us/ProvidenceSpringES

PTA: http://ProvidenceSpringPTA.weebly.comPrincipal: Diane Adams | Assistant Principal: Linda O’Connor

Thu, Jan 26 CMS StudentAssignment Phase IICommunity EngagementSession for ProvidenceHigh School FeederPattern7:00 PM at Ardrey KellHigh School

Thu, Jan 26 Spirit Night at Chick-fil-A (Arboretum), 4-8 PM

Fri, Jan 27 Cafeteria Concerts

Tue, Jan 31 Class Picture Day

Wed, Feb 1 Rocket Raffle Deadline

Wed, Feb 8 Evening PTA MeetingEveryone welcome!

Feb 9-16 Jump Rope for Heart

Next Rocket Review on Tue, Feb 7

PSE’s belovedfundraiser, theRocket Raffle, ishere!

A World ofOpportunities is coming your way,because this year’s Rocket Raffle hasit all… sports, games, arts and crafts,treats, outdoor adventures, behind-the-scenes tours, front-row seats,VIP parking to PSE events, andmore! There are even choices forMom and Dad.

This year, the proceeds from theraffle will go to purchase a much-needed sound and video system forPSE’s multipurpose room andcafeteria, which will be sure toenhance many of our Rockets’experiences, such as grade-levelperformances, cafeteria concerts,cultural arts presentations, specialevents and more!

Rocket Raffletickets can bepurchased onlineat www.Pay4SchoolStuff.com.Visit the PSE PTA website forthe lists of amazing prizes andopportunities!

Rocket Raffle tickets on salethrough Wednesday,

February 1

Winners will be announced onMonday, February 13

Buy Rocket RaffleTickets Now! This year’s Jump Rope for Heart

event is just a few weeks away! Welove Jump Rope for Heart because itshows ourstudents thatexercisingcan be fun,and itcelebrates theirfundraising effortsfor the American Heart Association.

The event will be held duringstudents’ regular PE classes, wherethey will participate in jump ropeactivities at six different stations(think mini indoor field day). We’reasking for six parent volunteers perclass to help with these stations.Click here to sign up. (Please notethat younger siblings are notpermitted to attend.)

Students can join the PSE JumpRope for Heart team here and beginraising money. Fundraising iscompletely voluntary, but for thosestudents who do want to raisemoney, doing it online is a fun andeasy way to reach out to family andfriends for their support.

Regardless of whether your familychooses to participate in thefundraising part of Jump Rope forHeart, all students participate in thisfun day of fitness, and all parentsare encouraged to volunteer.

Thanks in advance for all ofyour support as we show ourchildren how fun it can be to

help others!

Jump Rope for Heart

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Dear Parents,

A seemingly All-American Davidson College graduateadmits to writing false news stories which were read andbelieved by millions of readers and, when asked why hewould create such a dishonest piece that added to thedivisiveness of an already contentious election season,his answer was a short one, “for the money.” A 5thgrader gets into a fellow student’s account and deleteshours of his hard work. When asked why he would dosuch a thing to a classmate, he responded… “because Iwanted to.”

Why would seemingly good “kids” from loving homesforget all the character lessons taught by parents andteachers and do the most dishonest and hurtful actionsquite deliberately and with no remorse or sense ofresponsibility for those actions?

● Psychologists say that it’s the anonymity of theinternet. It’s easy to “hit and run.”

● Social scientists say it’s because the information agehas outpaced human institutions to deal with thisoverwhelming phenomenon, that our laws, ourcode of ethics and our systems of reasonableregulations have not caught up to the tsunamicreated by faster and cheaper technology which ismore available at an early age.

● Educators often say that it’s too much unsuperviseduse of technology which is even more dangerousbecause the children are often more knowledgeableabout software availability than the adults.

● Parents will sometimes say that more should bedone by the schools in teaching social mediaawareness and safety issues, ethical behavior on theinternet and literacy lessons on distinguishing realsources from hype or propaganda for selfishinterests.

And, you know, all four viewpoints are right. So, whatare we to do?

Perhaps the best course of action for us to pursue rightnow is a multi-pronged approach. Here are some ideas.

An Important Message from Our Principal

● For those of you who have anyinfluence over preschoolers,make reading, conversationand free play the top prioritiesin their lives. Interactive play,such as board games helps todevelop much needed socialskills. Having the time todaydream and participate in unstructured playfosters creative thought, ingenuity, curiosity andeven empathy for others.

● The use of technology at home should besupervised and monitored… and there are parentresources out there to help. Susan Wind, a dynamictechnology parent educator, was just here onJanuary 19th with countless ideas on how to keepour children safe. There were vacant seats in thispresentation and that’s a shame but there will beother opportunities to build up your toolkit to dealwith technology issues that are having seriousconsequences on our children right here in our owncommunity.

● Providence Spring is putting more resources, facultyand student time, and academic emphasis onchecking out the validity and the value of onlineresources. Schools have always done a good job ofteaching how to authenticate source material butthis was much easier in the card catalogue age thanit is in the computer age. “Digital citizenship” is atopic you will be hearing more about as yourchildren come home from school. And oursupervision and insistence on following ourtechnology usage agreements will be placed on thefront burner in our classrooms and in our lab.

The model we will follow here is much like the… well, letme just say it... much like the procedures we followwhen a case of head lice is discovered here at school.The first step is communication between school andhome and home and school. If discovered at home, theparent calls in and alerts the nurse. (In the case oftechnology misuse, the parent alerts the teacher.) Ifdiscovered at school, the nurse calls the parent. (In thecase of technology misuse, the teacher or anadministrator calls the parent.) (Continued on page 3)

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Please join us in congratulating LauraAquilone as our Teacher of the Year,voted upon by the faculty at its January11th meeting. This is Mrs. Aquilone’ssecond year at PSE so her selection is atrue reflection of how she has embracedand celebrates our school culture, ourpassion for teaching and learning, andour challenging and rigorous PaideiaProgram.

A native New Yorker, Mrs. Aquilone hasalso lived and taught in Florida, receivingher Bachelors and Masters degrees fromFlorida Atlantic University. This is her22nd year of teaching early childhoodeducation (kindergarten, first grade andK-1 multiage) and she holds a NationalBoard Certification in the area of EarlyChildhood Generalist.

Mrs. Aquilone makes Waxhaw her homealong with husband, John, and twoteenage daughters.

After receiving the results ofWednesday’s faculty vote she stated thatshe was shocked, overwhelmed andhonored at the faculty selection, since allfaculty members here are so gifted and

PSE Teacher of the YearWe’re in thistogether is our stance. Neither of us willhave as much impact individually as wewill have working and communicating asa team.

Finally, we sometimes hear the ideaexpressed that high standardsestablished for computer usage is aviolation of one’s right to free speech. Iwould like to make this argument as itrelates to what our children are exposedto and what they are allowed to do usingthis tool. “Since when have children hadfreedom of speech and action in homesmanaged by wise parents?” Not in thehouse where I was raised… nor, I bet, inyour own childhood setting.

I’ll close with a quote from our speakerlast night which will become one of myfavorite quotes ever. When sharing withher audience the heartbreakingconsequences our students suffer as aresult of misuse of technology yearsearlier (college admissions being onearea), Susan Wind closed with this quoteand I will end with it, too.

“Freedom of speech doesnot mean freedom from

consequences.”

-Diane Adams, Principal

(Continued from page 2)

so passionate about whatthey do.

Clearly the facultyappreciates her for thesame reasons and for herwillingness to share newideas from the variedexperience she brings tothe table.

Again, we salute LauraAquilone and wish hermany productive andsuccessful years ofservice… here at PSE, ofcourse.

-Diane Adams

Kindergarten Teacher, Laura Aquilone, chosen by Faculty asthe 2016-2017 PSE Teacher of the Year

Clip those Box Tops found on General Mills products!We receive 10¢ for each Box Top we submit. Send inBox Tops with your child and they can place them inthe Box Tops mailbox by the front office.

For a complete list of products that carry the Box Tops symbol, visitwww.boxtops4education.com.

Box Tops for Education

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Congratulations to the followingPSE students who placed at theCMS County level of theReflections contest. The PTAReflections Contest encouragesstudents to create works of artin any of six categories based ona given theme. This year,students were given theprompt, “What is your story?”These students first won at theschool competition and thenadvanced to compete with allthe other winners from theother schools that participatedin CMS. They will have theirentries displayed and will behonored at the Reflectionsawards ceremony on Saturday,March 25th at 2:00 PM atElizabeth Traditional ElementarySchool.

Rylee Anderson’s literature andmusic entries, and MeganO’Donnell’s photography entrywere selected to advance to thestate level of the competition.Results will be announced inMarch.

Reflections Contest County Winners

Primary (K-2nd Grade)

Literature

1st Place: Rylee Anderson (Trevisan)– “Eating Hot Sauce and ChasingSquirrels”

2nd Place: Mukesh Ramanathan(Baker/Ebert) – “Don’t Give Up”

Music Composition

1st Place: Rylee Anderson (Trevisan)– “Fantasy”

2nd Place: Otto Restelli (Aquilone)– “Ghosty House 3”

Intermediate (3rd-5th Grade)

Dance Choreography

3rd Place: Olivia Vega (Grabon) –“Dancing Through Life”

Literature

3rd Place: Alyssa Barnash (B-L) –“My Life According to Me”

4th Place: Amelie Shepherd (Horgan)– “Hello, It’s Me”

Photography

3rd Place: Megan O’Donnell(Langeland) – “The Little Acorn”

Visual Art

Honorable Mention: Oliver Ford(Adamson) – “Marshmallow Pool”

Honorable Mention: Prachetas Yeri(Columbus) – Diya – The MagicLantern

Where our Rockets showcase their Talent - Performance Friday, January 27Do you play an instrument? Do you like to sing or dance? Tell a joke or riddle? Cafeteria Concerts are for you.During your lunch period you can perform in front of your entire grade. You will come to lunch at your regular timeand check in at the performance table. Eat your lunch and perform. Please keep your performance to 2-3minutes so we can fit the most students.

What is appropriate at your home may not be appropriate for all students. Please choose materialappropriate for the whole community.

A piano will be available all other instruments must be provided by the student. If singing pleaseprovide CD of music.

Sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4faea82da5fb6-cafeteria

Cafeteria Concerts

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Student Assignment PhaseII Community EngagementSessions

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eviewRRWindows Into a Paideia School

Teachers at a Paideia school are always learning. Lifelong learningis one of the major emphases of the philosophers behind thePaideia way of thinking. It is important for two reasons:1. We are never finished learning - we should always keep

pursuing our own fascination with learning2. We all know that we are role models for children as learners

You’ve seen the 12 Paideia Principles – they are posted all over theschool (and on the next page). These principles represent importantbeliefs that we all share. Look at two of them:● Schooling at its best is preparation for becoming generally educated in

the course of a whole lifetime (Principle #4)● The Principal and faculty of a school should themselves be actively

engaged in learning (Principle # 11)

One of the components of lifelong learning among the teachers here atschool is that we engage in adult seminar. After the children have gonehome, we work on getting ready to read a shared text, we read itinspectionally, we work with the text to help us unlock its meaning.Then we have a full seminar just as the students all do, whether they arein kindergarten or in fifth grade. We sit in a circle, we set goals forourselves as a group and as individuals, and we share the discussion.During seminar we share the talk time, we actively listen, and wegradually build understanding of others’ perspectives in addition to ourown, and of the text itself in a fuller and more rounded way than eachone of us could have done alone.

Do the teachers always agree with each other? No, we do not, but welisten closely and respectfully, we carefully explain the way we seethings, and we always, always come away with new learning from thediscussion.

After the seminar, the teachers write. This part of the seminar cycle is areally important part, one in which we organize our thinking about theideas and values that we discussed during the seminar itself. Writinghelps to make it stick, writing helps to make it memorable.

What is it that makes us aPaideia school?

Our beliefs about educationare an integral part of whatmakes us a Paideia school.

The Paideia Principles emphasize highquality education for all students, and“the best education for the best is thebest education for all.” (Principle #3)

Paideia educators are interested in theability of each individual to think, bothalone and with others, and in nurturingthat ability over time. We believe that itis possible to teach the vast majority ofstudents to think clearly and coherentlyabout sophisticated issues. We believethat good citizens in a democracy arecommitted to thinking things through,and that we are responsible forpreparing students for citizenship byteaching the skills of thinking andunderstanding. We are responsible forequipping children with broad capacitiesand interests, and with the skills to workwith information.

So being a Paideia school means beingpart of a rigorous academic program forall children, in which they are secure andcared for as they learn to construct theirown complex responses to the world.

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The 12 Paideia Principles

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eviewRR PSE P.A.L.S.(Proud Advocates of Learning in Schools)

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