There was no runway, but the Richmond County Board of Education saw a show of models on Tuesday evening from Mineral Springs Elementary School.
The presentation was named Ellerbe’s Next Top Model and was presented by Mineral Springs Administrator Wendy Jordan.
Jordan said the program was designed for job embedded professional development, and the school asked teachers to think about what they do that represents good educational practices.
Each teacher that presented their idea was dressed up in some way. Amy Terry, first grade teacher, said she is a model for accuracy and phonics. She carried a purple bag with examples of how she helps the students learn sight words through charts, magnetic letters and white boards.
Second grade teacher Kaitlynn Mohn said she is a model for organization. Dressed in a purple cloak, carrying a scepter and wearing a crown, Mohn said she believes in a highly structured and organized classroom so that students know where everything is placed.
Thomas Shelton, third grade teacher, said he is a model for student relationships. Wearing hearts all over his shirt, Shelton said he has a “great rapport with students.”
Cari Lewis, fourth grade teacher, said that she is a model for encouragement. She was dressed in Mineral Springs’ school colors, yellow and purple, and carried pom-poms. “I try to encourage my students to believe in themselves,” she said.
Marshall Davis, second grade teacher, said that he is a model for science. “Science teaches how the real world works,” he said. He carried with him an American Kestrel, which is a small falcon, as an example of what he uses to get the kids involved in his class.
Fifth grade teacher, Lora Kelley, said that she is a model of creating enthusiasm. She said she helps the students understand culture by dressing up to the style of the lesson and getting her children to do the same. She wore an Asian inspired outfit to demonstrate how she sparks educational enthusiasm.
The school board also heard about Constructed Responses that are part of a new program that North Carolina is implementing called the Common Exams. These exams are not part of the NC State Testing Program and will be given in classes that do not participate in the NC Testing Program, according to Richmond County Schools K-12 Director for Math and Science, Kelly DeLong. The test will either be an exam that is part of the NC Testing Program or will be a Common Exam, students will not be expected to take both, DeLong said.
DeLong said that the Common Exams are new for the 2012-2013 school year. The difference between these exams and end of the year exams are, traditionally, end of the year exams in North Carolina consist solely of multiple choice questions.
The Common Exams will consist of multiple choice questions as well as opened ended response questions, also called Constructed Responses. Each student must create a response to an open ended question about the subject that is being tested. Teachers do not know what the Constructed Response question will be.
DeLong, who was helped by the Richmond County Schools K-12 Director for English, Language Arts and Social Studies, Donna Gephart, said that when the teachers were told of this new program, they did a great job coming up with examples of Constructed Responses. “The idea is to move towards open ended testing,” DeLong said.
The Common Exams will also be timed. The Constructed Responses will be graded by the teachers, who will follow a grading rubric, while the multiple choice questions will be graded by NC.
In other matters, the school board:
• Announced a vacancy on the Richmond Community College Board of Trustees and the procedures for soliciting candidates.
• Approved the disposal of surplus items such as dishwasher and refrigerators that were purchased in 1972, as well as monitors and computers. These items will be advertised through the State Surplus System.
• Approved the sale of the Leak Street High School real property to the Leak Street Alumni for $10. The property was sold under two conditions. One condition is that no educational school can operate on the property, and the other condition is that Leak Street Alumni must preserve the historical nature of the property.
— Staff Writer Laura Edington can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 18, or by email at ledington@civitasmedia.com.
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