Sunday, October 13, 2013

Diggs-Latham is so BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

Diggs-Latham Walks to Raise Awareness of Bullying!



I would like to personally thank all staff members, parents, students and friends who showed up to represent and support our school on Saturday morning at BB&T Ballpark. We had a great time.  I would especially like to thank Ms. Studevent for all her hard work in helping organize the event and getting all the Acts of Kindness Chains to the stadium. Thank you to Mrs. O'Brien, Mrs. Gordon, Mrs. Adkins, Dr. Madison, Ms. Studevent.  We would also like to thank Ross' mom. She cheered for our team and was an official Tiger!  There were several parents and lots of kids!  It was great.  Thank you to Amanda for painting our banner. It was the best one there!  Bullying is a serious subject and can happen between children, adults, adults and children.  We need to stop it and this event helped kids and adults alike to find the right words to say when faced with a bully.




Thank You Spencer!!

 I can't even begin to tell you all how very proud I am of  Spencer Ballus .  There are beautiful Arts Cutouts mounted on the wall of our school.  They are bright and colorful and advertise that we are an A+ school of the arts! Spencer and his fellow boy-scouts, parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends came out to measure, saw, dig, plant, shovel and on and on for a whole day. The memorial portion of our front yard (dedicated to past Principal Larry Fields) has been beautified with flowers and a gorgeous Butterfly Bench.  You could take your classes outside and read to them.  Spencer's group also planted a dozen or so Knock-Out Roses throughout our front yard as well as ornamental grasses. There were also other surprises.  We are truly blessed to have this gift come our way.  It is all about RELATIONSHIPS:)  When Spencer proposed a project to several schools, I was the only response he received. We are so very fortunate to have Spencer, his family, friends and a group of boy scouts who want to help their community. We could have never afforded this on our own. The Greek Dinner Fundraiser he planned and executed paid for all of the work. I am so proud,  and I know you are proud, as are our families of this beautification.  It would be wonderful to do thank you notes from the children. Spencer and his friends kept asking me, Do you think they will like it?Mrs. Linda Wright's class has already done some and they are so cute. Spencer will be returning to Diggs-Latham to present us with money that was actually left over from the project.  I have called Kim Underwood and he will be doing a story on Spencer. Go Spencer!


Thank You Hanes Brands for Caring About US!!!

Hanes Brands sent about 30 people to us a few weeks ago to plant, weed, organize, and beautify our gardens. We are so fortunate. The mums and violas are beautiful.  They also worked in the vegetable garden and cleaned all the old blinds out of the old green square metal container by the garden. We now have a locked container in which to store garden supplies. They even found the time to work in the Media Center for a bit.  Great things are happening at DL inside and out!

ITBS -

Thank you to Mrs. Pubantz, all of our Kindergarten teachers, assistants, PRTs, teachers and coordinators who participated in giving the ITBS Test and all that it entails. Thank you for your patience if you lost a PRT for intervention. It is a huge job and it takes a lot of people to pull it off. It is very hard to keep kindergartners still and focused.  We appreciate you all.  Now...on to the CoGat.

It Takes A Village Kicks Off-

Wow, I was so excited to see our parents learning alongside their children last Wednesday afternoon. The tutoring program taught by UNCG Interns is very successful.  The students were really engaged and motivated to work hard.  Thank you to everyone who helped identify the students who will participate for the next 6 weeks. Thank you Barbie, you were an instrumental liaison as always:)

Bulletin Boards-

Our school is a buzz with learning. Whats happening inside truly reflects common core standards being taught. Now, we need to move the learning to the outside walls as well. Visitors to our building need to feel the spark we all feel. We don't want to miss an opportunity to share knowledge. It is time for your Bulletin Boards to change (remember they should be changed every month).  We want students, visitors, volunteers, parents, etc.. to see a reflection of what is being taught in the classrooms.  Have a talk with your kids about respecting what is on the boards. Make your boards/work samples, etc.. match what you are doing in the classroom. Put the standard it matches on the board as well. Put thought into what you display. Your boards should have student work presented. Kids will get excited when their work is out there. I have seen some incredible boards and work posted, but we need to step it up a bit. Last week I was able to put some comments on a board in which the children did some writing. I want to do that throughout the school.  I will be sending you some samples and  information about expectations.  Thank you for getting on board and bringing the learning outside into the halls and foyers.  We will send out another Bulletin Board Assignment sheet in case you need it.

Candle Tea- Home Moravian

It is almost that time again and Home Moravian needs volunteers for Candle Tea. If you would like to participate and learn to make candles, be a hostess, sell candles, work in the kitchen, etc.. let me know asap. They are making the schedule now.  Home Moravian is always there for us.  It is important we give back too:)

Week at a Glance...

  • Administrative Observations and Star 3 Observations will begin this week.
  • OSTE Mtg. 3:15
  • CoGat window opens for us 10-15/16/17
  • It Take A Village Tutoring on Wednesday at 2:40
  • Jaymie Almaguer has a birthday on the 13th and Lisa O'Brien has a birthday on the 15th
  • Please give to United Way.  We want 100% participation, no amount is too small. (Let's get Dr. Emory out here to cook dinner for us:) We can do it.
  • Picture Day the 22nd of October
  • Fall Festival right around the corner, it is a week from Friday!
  • Please remember to plan for Nov. 4th. Our LTM and all grade level meetings will be a training with Robin Varga on RTi.
  • READ BELOW........You all are the BEST........


THANK YOU FOR READING THE ENTIRE BLOG....LEAVE ME A COMMENT ABOUT SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING OR JUST RESPOND:)  THANK YOU. HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!

21 comments:

  1. Diggs-Latham Elementary School has a very hard-working, dedicated faculty and staff that are truly dedicated to helping students succeed. They never give up and work endless hours to make sure our students have what they need.They support each other and are cheerleaders for our school. I am proud to be the Principal!

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  2. All the hard work to the grounds of Diggs-Latham is so beautiful! We have a wonderful community!

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    1. I agree. We have many people who care about us! It warms my heart:)

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  3. Great banner and photo of this year's Bully Walk. Thanks for sharing

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  4. I can't believe we are already halfway through October. Time flies when you're having fun..or when you're staying so busy I suppose. (haha) I'm looking forward to the Fall Festival!!

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  6. I agree our grounds look beautiful! It looks like there was a good turn out for the Bully Walk! The Walk 4 Hearing went well also. Maria and myself and 2 of our families were at the walk. A big Thank you to everyone who gave a donation for the walk!

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  7. Thanks to McNeil for his dedication for the Walk, Crawl, Run--athon and to both McNeil and Stevenson for our Fall Weight Challenge.

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  8. I took a great picture of all the kindness chains that were collected by our schools. There were over 98,000 chain links which means our students all over the district did over 98,000 acts of kindness. Wow!

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  9. Thanks to Spencer for all his hard work! Our school looks great! (Allie Sechrist)

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  10. Our gardens look great thanks to Spencer and Hanes Brands! I love the sheet metal art on bldg. B. I took my students out there to see it. I only have a few that are car riders/walkers so most of my students don't see the front of the building. They were really excited and thought everything looked wonderful!

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  11. Spencer did an amazing job! Diggs - Latham looks great! I hope everyone has a fabulous week! =)

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  12. I want to learn how to make candles with Home Moravian!! Another great perk to this job. We are so lucky to have dedicated volunteers. I know I'd never get anything done in the library without them.

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  13. I love the new art on the side of Building B in addition to the new garden!

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  14. Happy Monday Diggs-Latham! I'm excited for another wonderful week on our beautiful campus. Maybe I will actually make it to running club this week...

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  15. I really hate that I couldn't make it to the walk on Saturday but it looks like Diggs-Latham was represented very well! I also love walking around Building A and seeing the student work on the walls and getting more ideas for my own classroom! ;)

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  16. Wish I could have been there Saturday--the weather was beautiful, despite the clouds. Hatching ideas for our updated bulletin boards already!

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  17. The grounds really do look great through Spencer's beautification projects for our school! (Thanks Mrs. Cannon for responding!)
    I am also delighted to know that the Walk Against Bullying had a great turn out, that's awesome! Suzanne and I did the Walk4Hearing on Saturday and had a BLAST! I learned new information about the various types of implants some of our children have and got to hold and touch the internal pieces! (That was the most exciting part to me, as Suzanne was giving me mini inservices.) I also won the Omega Sports Shoe give away! (YAY!)
    I can not wait till this walk comes back around next year as I hope some of you will be able join us! Thanks again to everyone for their donations, I will have the tax code to you sometime this week!

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  18. Glad the anit-bullying walk went well! Sorry I was unable to make it!

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  19. There are so many wonderful things going on here at Diggs-Latham. I am so proud to be a part of this school! Teamwork makes dreams work!

    Way to go D-L staff, students, parents, and community partners!

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  20. Cant wait to be a part of the Candle Tea this year. I have never had the opportunity to participate but will be able to this year. YAY Diggs Latham and Home Moravian.

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