Spring Fever

This is Gizmo! I do believe he has "spring fever"! At Neuse Charter School we all had a little bit of that with the great weather we had throughout the week last week.

Please come to the PTO Auction at our new gym on Booker Dairy Road, Tuesday night at 6:30,
March 1st. The baskets that will be auctioned are full of so many great items.

Dr. Seuss' birthday celebration will be March 2nd, starting with a green eggs and ham breakfast in the Media Center. Be sure to turn in your original illustration with caption to me in the Media Center by this Thursday! Prizes will be awarded!

The seventh grade is doing a great study for Black History month, this month, with the book Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson. For students with reading disabilities this may be difficult to comprehend. Look around the internet on YouTube and SchoolTube for videos. I found one by a young man who did a rap song all about the book. He gave a great summary which I will use in my class. Also http://www.audible.com/ has this book on audio which can be downloaded directly to your PC or phone or IPod.

Some of my students are implementing the tool http://www.spellingcity.com/ where their spelling and vocabulary words are spoken back to them for auditory learners and games are created with their words for those who are primarily visual learners. I am a visual and auditory learner so I need both.

The high school students have been creating games as part of their study on The Odyssey.
The games they have made in teams, are of sections of the story and they are great learning toolare s because they include questions that the students ask each other and have to answer in order to proceed in the games.

The third graders have been working so hard on reading comprehension in Language Arts, and on learning to count change back in math. Progress is being made in both classes.

The fifth graders are doing a study on Black History and they are making quilts that have material dyed using herbs and berries.

I have mentioned just a few classes of amazing work that is going on with our EC students as well as all of our students at Neuse Charter School. Thank you, parents, for all that you do for and with your children.

Have a great week.

Mrs. Peele

Spring Is Coming Soon!

The groundhog showed that spring will be early this year- we all hope! Sometimes you need to stop and create something to get you through the winter and express yourself! Try making this door decoration that my husband and I made last weekend. Take apart 3 coat hangers, wrap them together into one long piece of wire, shape into a heart for your door. Take a string of red lights from your Christmas collection of lights and wrap them over and over the wire. Take a wreath hanger and hang it on the outside of your door. Hang the heart on the door and tape it all to the door so that the wind doesn't blow it off. Attach an extention cord and plug in your heart. You may add a red bow to the middle of your heart to show it off during the day as well.

I am doing some research into the I-Pad for students with disabilities to use in the classroom.

Check out the article iHelp for Autism at http://www.sfweekly.com/content/printVersion/20290215/

A few of my students use I-Pods and I have learned so much from them about the device.

It is going to be a useful tool in my classroom and I hope to one day have at least one I-Pad for my students to use. It can do so many things to inhance their education.

Our lessons are being coordinated in the Resource Room setting with the regular classroom curriculum. This teacher collaboration is necessary in order to have our students meet their goals. Many parents are also in this collaborative triangle which increases each student's chance of meeting their goals and passing their End of Grade tests . As Mrs. Beaumont and I continue working in many of the classrooms, we continually see improvements in our students' classwork.

Much work needs to be done to help each student keep up with their studies and assignments.

They need encouragement everyday by us, as well as , the rest of those on campus and those at home to be successful, as does any student. It is great to see that collaboration on our campus.

Thank you to everyone as we press on to work together to help each student have success.

Success

by Nancy Peele

Smiles

Handshakes

Confirmation

Laughing---

Working

Overcoming

Hope

Endurance

Perseverence

Completion

Acceptance

Love

Success

Have an awesome week!

Mrs. Peele

January 24, 2011

This week , although cold, will start the beginning of the third quarter. I am very excited about the work that is being done and the grades achieved by our students this past quarter.

The 9th grade is reading the Odyssey and doing amazing related activities.

The 7th grade is beginning Chains. I love historic fiction and this is a great book.

The 5th grade will be working in literature centers during language arts and accomplishing many goals in each center.

4th grade continues to work hard on vocabulary and spelling along with readings from their reading book.

6th grade is also working very hard.

The students worked very hard on their practice EOG tests last week and the week before.

My schedule and Mrs. Beaumont's schedules have changed slightly. If you need to reach us the best time would be at 12:00 in the Media Center.

The EC Continuous Improvement Stakeholders committee meeting will be held in the Media Center this Wednesday, January 26, at 3:45. There is a notebook in the school office for public viewing.

I continue to encourage parents and students to use the Spelling City website for improvement in spelling, vocabulary, and language.

Report cards will go out Friday. For students with IEP's, an additional progress report will be included in the envelope.

4

Awards assemblies will be on Friday, with grades 5-9 @ 9:00, and grades K-4 @ 10:30

Thank you and have a great week,

Mrs. Peele

January 10, 2011

I have noticed that many of our students like using our headsets to help block out noise while they are testing. If you would purchase a set of earplugs for your student to keep in his/her backpack with his/her name on the package that would be a great help. They have them at Walmart.


At www.spellingcity.com you can have your student start a homepage and collect spelling and vocabulary lists. I have started doing this with some of my students because from the list the website turns the list into word searches, games, sentences, and crossword puzzles just to name a few of the great activities. It is great because it reads the sentences to the student and gives them definitions which are also read out loud to them. I highly recommend this sight.

The EC Improvement Team will meet soon. Please watch for a date and time. I hope to meet in the next two weeks.

Have an inspiring week :)

Mrs. Peele

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!

I like to think of all the activity of the second semester as a skier skiing down a slope from the top of the mountain, making several major stops along the way to rest and recover after going over many obstacles. It is always a great sense of accomplishment to reach the base of the mountain in one piece. With our students in grades K-9, we look forward to seeing each student reach their IEP goals and make great progress in all areas this semester.

Some dates to remember:

January 14- end of second quarter

Janurary 17- Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Janurary 18- Teacher Work Day

Janurary 21- Report Cards go home/ Awards

Please check all of your student's teachers' blog pages for updates and homework information.

A great website that I discovered is http://www.ixl.com/ for math.

Please make sure your student has plenty of pencils and paper for class in his/her backpack.

That takes so much pressure off of them when they go into class just knowing they have supplies accessible to them.

Have a great first week back. We are off to a great start.

Mrs. Peele

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

With this month being the last month of 2010, I'd like to say that this past semester has been very rewarding for Mrs. Beaumont and myself. We have seen many students take giant steps in their academic skills and I am looking forward to seeing many goals reached this coming year for all of our students.

This January I am starting a Materials Resource Center campaign for our EC students who come to "the Cave" for instruction, as well as, for the students we serve in the classrooms. The Materials Resource Center will be for each class where our students are instructed so that they can go to it to get paper and pencils when they don't have any in class. Instead of making an issue of them not having materials, I believe it is better to help them get right on task as soon as possible. By providing a center where they know they can get a pencil instead of spending 10 minutes looking for one in their backpacks, they will be saving time and get to their task quickly and without pressure. The less pressure on them for something as small as a pencil the better.

I know they need to learn to be responsible but I believe they are learning that in other ways and appreciate the help to make school a more desirable place to be. If you would like to donate to EC Materials Resource Center please bring any pencils, pens, pencil grips, or lined paper to "The Cave" at the Media Center and mark it Materials Resource Center or put them in my mailbox in the office. Thank you so much.

Mrs. Beaumont and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We look forward to an excellent New Year full of students making great strides forward.

Mrs. Peele

Thanksgiving Soon!

Soon it will be Thanksgiving.

My fourth graders have started the week writing their spelling words on turkey feathers and gluing them on to their turkeys. They did a great job. Needless to say, I did not. As I squeezed the glue container, the plastic cracked, and glue went everywhere! They will be working on writing and reading sentences in preparation for writing a story this week in Ms. Sumner's class.

The colors around us are so gorgeous today- Monday. What a way to start the week!

The students have also become more creative after having gone through their routines of the first semester.

One Assistive-Technology tool that is easily accessible is a pencil grip. These slide easily onto the pencil and give the student that may struggle with writing better control over their pencil and writing in general. If your child is having trouble holding his or her pencil, try a pencil grip!

Mrs. Beaumont and I have been enjoying seeing our students use our new Reading Rulers.

They are about 6 inches in length and have different colored clear plastic for the students to hold over the pages and read through. They are so helpful and cut down on glare and help the students focus on the words.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mrs. Peele