Week beginning November 25, 2007
Hello, dear friends of education! I hope that all of you had an enjoyable and tasty Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends! It is truly amazing that our academic and calendar year is zipping by so quickly! As I was preparing our staff newsletter, I noted that we only have 19 more instructional days, and it will be time for our annual winter/holiday break! Before you know it, it will be time for semester exams, and the beginning of a new semester. With that, we’ll count down the days until spring break, prom, our annual May Day celebration, and then BAM-graduation 2008! As we always advise each other and our students: Slow down and enjoy the very best days of your life! The same goes for you, too!
Last week at Southern Lee was a good one, even though it was abbreviated. As I reported to you in the last edition, we had a very exciting and real Civics lesson in our school affecting our 9th graders. We experienced a tie for the office of freshman vice-president, and we felt like what better way to teach our students about the electoral process than to have an “issues forum” involving the candidates in front of the electorate, and then conduct the required and necessary run-off election. The students LOVED it, and were very receptive to the idea. In the end, Mr. Garrison Lutz was elected freshman class vice-president, and our 342 9th graders took away a very valuable lesson that will carry over well into their adult lives!
We also celebrated History Day at Southern Lee last week. History Day is an annual program sponsored by our Social Studies Department, and all students who are enrolled in World History (9th graders) and United States History (11th graders) were able to choose a figure in history, research about them, and “dress the part.” It was VERY REFRESHING to see the high level of participation AND to hear the students be able to go into considerable depth about their character of choice.
Southern Lee High School also hosted the North Carolina Department of Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler on Monday evening, November 19. Mr. Troxler visited with us in Mrs. Womack’s Agricultural Education classroom, and then took a tour of our Greenhouse. Members of the Southern Lee and Lee County High School FFA were on hand, and the students were outstanding hosts and asked some very good questions.
We are very pleased to announce that we have added two new Cavaliers to our faculty! Mr. Vincent Hunt will join our teaching family as a math teacher! Mr. Hunt joins us from Durham, North Carolina, and he will teach Geometry, Algebra, and Technical Math. We will also welcome Mrs. Laura Newman to our faculty, as she will join the Arts Education department. Mrs. Newman is currently teaching in the Moore County Schools, and will join our faculty in mid-December. We are still on the recruiting trail for one more math teacher and two special education teachers, so if YOU know someone, PLEASE have them to contact me and I can point them in the right direction!
Let’s go back a couple of weeks. As you may recall, November 13-16 was American Education Week, and we had all sorts of celebrations and observations at Southern Lee. Among the things that we did was our monthly (and required) school-wide writing activity called Drop Everything and Write activity, or “DEW” date. The purpose of these “DEW” dates is to help our students to become outstanding writers, as all students in grades 9-12 are accountable for quality writing during their high school career:
Freshmen will be required to write term papers in their English classes and will have to write a research paper in partial fulfillment of their Graduation Project they must complete in order to graduate from the Public Schools of North Carolina.
Sophomores, in addition to the aforementioned requirement applicable to freshmen, must take and score a level 3 or higher on the North Carolina Writing Test for Grade 10 that is administered the first Tuesday in March.
Juniors must write a term paper for their English 11 class, as well as complete any additional writing assignments for their other classes. On top of that, the “new” SAT has a writing component on it that colleges/universities use to assess the prospective student’s communication and higher-order thinking skills.
Seniors must write college admission essays, fill out applications to the college/university/school of their choice, and must be able to communicate effectively in writing on job applications.
We at Southern Lee believe that it is OUR job and responsibility to help our students to enhance and sharpen their writing skills, and their participation in the monthly “DEW” activity is a step in that direction.
The November “DEW” activity was to write a letter of thanks to an educator who has had a significant and positive impact on the student’s life thus far in their academic career. This exercise was well-received by our students, and we promised them that if they wished, the letter they wrote would make its way to its intended recipient. To date, we have sent over 200 letters to teachers in and out of North Carolina!
Well, enough about the past at Southern Lee. Let’s swing to the upcoming week!
Academic progress reports were distributed to students on November 19-20, and some may come home this week to give you and your student an idea of where they stand academically and what can be done to solidify their performance and standing in class. We have been running our after-school tutorial sessions, and I am meeting with department chairs this week to discuss rescheduling our after-school tutorials to feature certain classes/subjects meeting on set days of the week. Further, we will kick up the intensity a notch as we approach final exams (January 14-18), and we will offer after-school tutorials/exam review sessions beginning January 3, 2008.
On the athletic front, our winter sports season is underway, with our wrestling team hosting and doing quite well in our inaugural and annual Cavalier Wrestling Classic. Our basketball teams will be in action this week, with the JV Cavaliers hosting the Garner High School Trojans on Tuesday at 4:00 at Southern Lee. The varsity Cavaliers will be at Garner High School on Tuesday, and will make their home debut on Friday, November 30, as they host the Lee County High School Yellow Jackets.
We are also VERY proud to announce that our gymnastics, swimming, and indoor track teams (yes, indoor track!) will begin competition very soon. As always, check www.southernleecavs.com for schedules, announcements, and results!
Well, a certain Southern Lee student is looking over my shoulder telling me that I’ve written too much for one person to read at one sitting, so I’ll stop here! As always, however, YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME AT SOUTHERN LEE TO VISIT WITH US! Simply come into the main office and ask for me or one of the administrators. We will sign you in as a visitor, supply you with a guest pass, and we can walk the halls, sit in the lunches, observe some classes, and check out the building and grounds together!
You know, Friday, November 30 would be a GREAT DAY for you to come! That’s the day we’re having our second annual “Slam-O-Rama” student vs. faculty volleyball game and pep rally at 2 p.m.
Hope to see YOU!
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