NES School Improvement Team (SIT) Nominations Open

The NES SIT is seeking nominations of parents to fill three (3) parent representatives positions for the 2015-17 term (beginning fall 2015).  The nomination process is by self-nomination. Nomination forms were sent home in student's Wednesday folders on March 25. You may also CLICK HERE to access an electronic copy of the nomination form. Additional copies are also available in the school's main office.

Completed nomination forms should returned to school with your child or sent via email to Tiki Gwynne at gwynne@email.unc.edu.

Nomination forms are due by Friday, April 10, 2015.

Voting ballots to select the parent SIT representatives will be sent home with 3rd quarter report cards.

The SIT is a focused, advisory, support team charged with providing input and guidance to the NES school administration for the purpose of continuous school improvement. Parent representatives on the SIT are elected by secret ballot vote and serve for two consecutive years. The SIT parent nominees consist of parents of NES students and the NES PTA facilitates the election each year. The time commitment will be once a month meetings and other functions/programs as a representative of NES.  Please consider nominating yourself for this important role!

Digital Learning Day 2015 Celebrated at Northside

On Friday, March 13, Northside Elementary School participated in Digital Learning Day by holding and Open House from 8 AM - 10 AM. During the open house parents, school district staff, and community members visited in classrooms across the school to experience how digital tools are used on a daily basis for teaching and learning at Northside.

Digital Learning Day is an annual nationwide celebration of innovative teachers and common-sense, effective applications of digital learning in America’s schools that support teachers, improve learning, and provide options for students to achieve at their highest potential.

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