Northside Holds First Spelling Bee

On Tuesday, March 10, 2015 Northside Elementary School held its first Spelling Bee. After 14 rounds of competition, 5th grader, Thora J. became the champion by spelling institute, a word that was not included on the speller's study list.

Spelling Bee Champion, Thora J.(R), pictured with NES Principal Cheryl Carnahan (L).

The all 3-5 classrooms held a classroom Spelling Bee to select a winner to represent their class in the school-wide bee. The following students were selected to represent their classroom and participated in the school-wide bee:

• Ms. Valente- Rowan H.
• Ms. Symons- Umu C.
• Ms. Singh- Rakesh R.
• Ms. Sullivan- Sarah Z.
• Ms. Jones- William L.
• Ms. Quick- Tyler S.
• Mr. Heuser- Jonah N.
• Ms. Miller- Drake J.
• Ms. Hudson- Annalise S.
• Mr. Mason- Peter C.
• Mr. Womack- Amauri B.
• Ms. Moore- Thora J.
• Ms. Williams- Justin Z.

All students that participated in the school-wide bee received a certificate and ribbon and were commended for being the top spelling in their classroom.

Reading is Magical Read-A-Thon

For the annual Northside Elementary Read-A-Thon we had a blast and read more than our school-wide goal of 700,000 minutes! But what you all probably don't know is about how hard the people behind the scenes put this great second year Read-A-Thon together. Now lets get some answers to how this year's Read-A-Thon was put together. First the theme was born at The Fernandez house where Mrs. Claudia Fernandez got the inspiration from her children, Ethan and Alexander Fernandez's love of Wizards and magic gave her the great idea. On Ethan and Alexander's birthday party she introduced the idea of reading 1,000 minutes to the party-goers and they would do it for "magic wands."

Next for the idea of the goals. The goals for the minutes read was based on the goals at a former school or some students (Frank Porter Graham) was the same goals that they had used from their Read-A-Thon in the past. As Mrs. Fernandez said " Of course, Frank Porter Graham always did their Read A Thon over 12 days AND over a holiday, so what NES Navigators were able to accomplish with their reading was AMAZING. It was truly magical!"

Finally to the truly AMAZING part of the Read-A-Thon was the data slides, wands, and of course the Library. First off we couldn't have had the Read-A-Thon without the wands, so now I would like to give a big thank you to all of those who helped create the wands during the EIGHT months it took them to make all of the wands. Also a big shout-out to Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Hawkins, Mr. Brown, and Ms. Casey. Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Hawkins, and Ms. Casey all helped decorate the library. Also Mr. Brown did all of the data slides and technology related things. Mrs. Cole was heard to say, "I think Read-A-Thon was a great success and I'm so happy we could create a magical library for all our Northside readers. I think for next year's Read-A-Thon we let our students vote on the theme. Maybe we can even get suggestions this spring and let kids vote and then announce it during National Library Week! I can't wait to see how we will transform our library next year to excite the love of reading!" Now that is all for this month, good bye Northside.

Story By William

Photo By Eliana

The Compass student newspaper staff members

Photos below were taken at the Read-A-Thon Awards Assemblies. Students received awards for meeting specific reading goals. Ms. Carnahan, our principal, was slimed two times as a reward for students meeting the school-wide goal of 700,000 minutes. CLICK HERE to read more about the Read-A-Thon on the NES Library Blog.

Sliming #1

Sliming #2

Complimentary Clothing for NES 4th Graders

Northside school counselor, Mrs. Fox, and art teacher, Ms. Keene, recently combined forces on an art project with Northside fourth graders called "Complimentary Clothing".  Students learned about fashion and what influences style and then used cutting and knotting techniques to alter a t-shirt to fit their own personal style.  Students then learned about what makes a good compliment and how the words that we say impact those around us.  Each student had the opportunity to write honest and thoughtful compliments on their classmate's shirts.  During the final class, students decorated their own shirt to emphasize the wonderful compliments they were given.  On Friday, February 13th, 4th graders celebrated their compliments and personal style by showing off their shirts for the whole school!

-Submitted by Virginia Fox

Northside 2014-2015 Yearbook On Sale NOW

The 2014-2015 Northside Yearbook is on sale now. Check out the awesome cover to the yearbook below!

Cost:

• $15 if ordered before 1/16/15
• $18 of ordered after 1/16/15

Two Ways to Order:

Visit www.schoolannual.com. Click "Buy Your Student's Yearbook" at the top of the page. No school code is required.

OR

Order Forms have been sent home in Wednesday folders. Complete the order form and return it to your child's teacher with cash, check, or money order (payable to the NES PTA).

ORDER DEADLINE: March 20, 2015

CLICK HERE for an information flyer.

If you have any questions, contact Tracy at tracylkasten@yahoo.com.

Second Graders Connect with School in Athens Greece for Discovery Education Project

On Tuesday, December 16, the second graders at Northside Elementary School held a Google Hangout with students from the Winners Education School in Athens, Greece. The hangout was part of the collaboration work for the two schools in the DEN Voices Connect project, sponsored by the Discovery Education Network.

During the hangout, students shared information about the location of each of the schools and discussed ideas around the project's theme of being an agent of change in our world. Northside students learned a couple of Greek words,  discussed the time difference between Chapel Hill and also differences in measuring temperature when discussing the weather. We learned that during the hangout the temperature was 8º C.

At the end of the hangout, Northside students sang the Agents of Change song for the students in Greece. Student have been learning this song in their music classes with Ms. Mia Jones.

Hopefully this will be the first of other connections we make with this school during the course of this project. We also look forward to connecting with 4th graders at Clarion Area Elementary School in Clarion, Pennsylvania.

Stay tuned for information about the Agents of Change music video that will be released at the end of the school year and feature the Northside second graders and students from all schools around the world that are participating in this project.

Video of Northside students singing Agents of Change for students in Greece.

Northside Flag Team Recognized for Doing an Outstanding Job

The Northside flag team is responsible for raising, lowering, and caring for the flags that are displayed outside of our school each day.  The team is made up of students from the 5th grade and are lead by Mr. McIlwaine. They are recognized for doing a great job with their duties and being on time everyday. Keep up the great work!

Northside Flag Team Members:

Morgan H., Abigail J., Emerson K. , Tyler H., Olivia W., Stricklon M., Jaden F. , Seth D.                                                   

Northside Participates in the National SpeakUp Survey

Northside Elementary is participating in the National SpeakUp Survey as part of a district initiative to  collect information from teachers, parents, students, and community members about the role of technology in learning. Our district is aiming for 100% participation from all stakeholders.

Parents can access the survey by going to the school's website (nes.chccs.k12.nc.us) and clicking on the speak up banner at the top of the homepage.

Students will complete the survey at school. Computers will be available in the library for parents who wish to take the survey during the school day. Paper copies of the survey are also available in the main office.

If you have any questions, please contact Alan Brown (abrown@chccs.k12.nc.us), Instructional Technology Facilitator at Northside Elementary.

Your Participation in Speak Up is Important!

Together, let's work towards leveraging technology to promote
enhanced learning in our K‐12 schools.
   

About the Speak Up National Research Project

The Speak Up National Research project annually polls K‐12 students, parents and educators about the role of technology for learning in and out of school and represents the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered stakeholder voice on digital learning. Since 2003, over 3.4 million K‐12 students, parents, teachers, librarians, principals, technology leaders and district administrators have shared their views and ideas through Speak Up. Education, business and policy leaders report that they use the data regularly to inform federal, state and local education programs.

About Speak Up 2014

• Online surveys available October 6, 2014 –December 19, 2014.
• Surveys are available this year for: K‐12 students, teachers, librarians, principals, district administrators, technology leaders, parents, business partners and community members.  The parent survey is also available in Spanish!  
• Every K‐12 school and district is eligible to participate in Speak Up. Survey access is available to participating schools and districts free of charge.  All information is 100% confidential and there is no limit to the number of surveys you can submit.    
• Every participating school and district receives free online access to your own participant data in February 2015 including the national and state data for comparison.  Why do your own survey?  Speak Up provides you with national data for benchmarking!  
• Project Tomorrow annually shares the nationally aggregated data with Congress, the US Department of Education, research organizations and many state governments.  
• Survey question topics include:  learning and teaching with technology, 21st century skills, games, STEM career exploration, online and blended learning, flipped classrooms, mobile devices, digital and online textbooks, writing with technology, professional development, school‐to‐home communications, digital citizenship, and common core assessments.   
• Use Speak Up data to:  conduct a needs assessment in your school or district, create a vision for 21st century learning, develop your technology plan and budget or measure the success of your technology investments. Be part of the national Speak Up momentum!

Speak Up is an initiative of Project Tomorrow, the nation's leading education nonprofit organization focused on empowering students to have a greater voice in their education. To learn more about Speak Up, please visit www.tomorrow.org/speakup.