PCS NEWS March 22, 2024

🌟 PCS CTE Pathways to Careers teamed up with Cape Fear Community College to offer hands-on experiences for high school seniors, helping them solidify their career passions! 🔍🎓 It was a day filled with discovery, excitement, and inspiration as students explored potential career paths. 🚀💼 Days like this help mark the beginning of their journey towards fulfilling their dreams! 🌈🎉

The event was truly remarkable for our Pathways to Careers seniors! 🌟 Check out these snapshots capturing the students engaged in mock interviews with CFCC and PCS CTE staff, along with local industry partners eager to hire graduating seniors this May. 💼👩‍💼 It's incredible to witness our students taking such proactive steps towards their future careers! 🎓🚀

PHS JROTC CADETS SHINE IN LEADERSHIP ACADEMIC BOWL, HEAD TO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Patriot Battalion Cadets from Pender High School showcased their academic prowess at the JROTC Leadership Academic Bowl held at Catholic University of America, Washington DC. Among them, Katlynn Iddings, Mallory Psioda, Zoe Smith, Andyn Points, and Carter Brown will represent their school at the JROTC Academic Bowl Championship in DC. Standing out among 1,942 Army JROTC teams worldwide, Pender High School's team earned top scores and secured a spot in the final competition, making them one of only thirty-two teams to advance nationally. #ExperiencetheExcellence #PatriotProud 🎓🏆

BANDing TOGETHER

This past weekend students from Surf City Middle (2), Heide Trask High (3), and Topsail High School (3) showcased their talent at the 45th annual UNCP Honor Band event. 🎶 With a record-high representation, our students impressed with their ability to sight-read and perform after just one day of rehearsal. 🌟 They received guidance from directors from across the state and other colleges, demonstrating their dedication and musical prowess on stage! 🎺🥁

PCS STUDENTS ILLUMINATE THE AZALEA FESTIVAL YOUTH ART CONTEST

Congratulations to the talented winners from Pender County in the North Carolina Azalea Festival Youth Art Contest! 🎨🌺 Evelyn Suh and Teah Crowley, both from Surf City Middle School, received Honorable Mentions in the Middle School Division, while James Russell, a 10th grader from Topsail High School, also earned an Honorable Mention in the High School Division. 🏅👏 Their artwork showcased their creativity and love for springtime, capturing the essence of the festival's theme, "Love Where You Live . . . in the Springtime!" 🌸✨

Here’s what Ms. Ridenour has to say about Wit and Wisdom: “I have seen many positive impacts while teaching Wit and Wisdom! I love that Wit and Wisdom leads students into a deeper level of thinking. It challenges students with productive struggle and arranges lessons to address standards in context within lessons rather than isolation. It has ultimately led my students to develop higher level reading, thinking, writing, speaking, and listening skills while also exposing them to new higher level language and vocabulary. I am seeing that my students are learning more, obtaining more, and doing well more than I ever imagined. Students are actively engaged, collaborating, and making connections.”

Ms. Ridenour has this successful tip to offer: “In order to get the most out of Wit and Wisdom, you will need to make time for prep work! Lean on your colleagues for support and collaboration! The best way to do this is to create time and structure for collaboration. As a team, diving deep into each lesson, developing a clear understanding of each of the lessons goals and content. Then, scaffold each lesson by differentiating appropriately for each of the levels of students within your classroom.”

Here’s what Ms. Brier has to say about Eureka Math²: “I love hearing my students talk about math. Their vocabulary has grown so much this year. I enjoy watching them work collaboratively with each other. Eureka Math has been incredibly effective at growing their conceptual understanding of math and building their fluency and computational skills..” Ms. Brier has this successful tip to offer: “Take time to prepare for each lesson. It's important to understand the sequence and scope for each topic. Choose fluency activities that will benefit your students the most and pay attention to the recommended scaffolding for each lesson.”

CURRICULUM SPOTLIGHT - NIKKI FULL

This is Nikki’s 16th year of teaching. She spent 15 years in kindergarten and looped to first grade this year with her amazing students. She has been employed with Pender County Schools for 7 of those years. Nikki is married and has 3 kids (all teenagers). In her free time she enjoys reading, walking, boating and going to the beach! Some interesting/fun facts about her are: She is from West Virginia, Glitter gives her anxiety!!, She has 3 French Bulldogs. If you smell popcorn popping in the microwave while at SCE, you know Nikki is closeby since that is one of her favorite things. She also loves orange Tic Tacs, Dr. Pepper Zero, books, and HGTV.

From Surf City Elementary - Busy week in Mrs. Gray's 3rd grade class! They are learning about and making models of landforms while also learning about comparing fractions greater than a whole on a number line. Keep up the great work!

From Penderlea - I want to take a moment to send a quick e-mail to recognize Ms. Kim, the Penderlea cafe manager, and her team. Ms. Kim has been incredibly motivated to meet a personal goal of feeding 200 children a breakfast in her building. On average, Ms. Kim serves between 150-170 breakfast meals per day. In collaboration with her administration, she was able to promote special events in her building and get kids excited to eat breakfast in the cafe. The administration made announcements and supported her in these initiatives, and I feel that is something that deserves to be spotlighted. I want to extend appreciation to both our cafe staff and the administration in this building for this incredible level of teamwork. Because of this teamwork, Ms. Kim finally met her goal and served 202 students breakfast last Thursday! It is inspiring to see the dedication and teamwork of Ms. Kim, the cafe staff, and administration at PLE. Their efforts to provide breakfast for over 200 is commendable and shows a true commitment to serving the students! Kudos to the entire team for achieving their goal last Thursday! Best, Amanda Burnett

From Surf City Middle - Congratulations to Will Aiken and Lawson Gardner for participating in the UNCP Honor Band this weekend on 3/16! Students rehearsed and performed four pieces in a concert all in one day. Keep up the great work!

From Topsail High - Jones 2 performed well this weekend!!! We came in 1st place! Robotics competition is a team sport. After all the qualifying rounds are played, the teams have an old school playground selection process. There were 28 teams at the event at UNC Asehville, so some teams don't get selected to compete in the championship tournament. Our robot "Jones 2" competed well, but is being modified to perform even better for the next tournament which is this coming weekend in Raleigh. Here are some pics from the event. Please join us in congratulating our Robotics team!! Shout out to Mr. Henry's for his support and dedication to the team. We are so proud of our Pirates!

From Rocky Point - 2nd grade is learning how to play one of their new songs, "Charlie Over the Ocean," on the piano! Way to go, Rams!

From Cape Fear Elementary - Some highlights of a great week at CFE!

From Pender Early College - PECHS having some fun in honor of pie day yesterday and Mr Sidor took one for the cause.

From Topsail Middle - Mrs. Burgess' and Mrs. Dinkins' classes enjoyed their time at Russell's Reach where they were able to participate in therapeutic horseback riding. @coastalriding.org

From Malpass Corner - Last week the 5th graders took a field trip to Moore's Creek National Battlefield to learn about its importance to our history.

AND...Also part of the 5th grade field trip was a trip to Poplar Grove Plantation. (Looks like the 5th graders had a head start on practicing for their Eagle Egg races this Friday...)

From Cape Fear Middle - Our 6th graders had a great time at Medieval Times yesterday. They had many compliments on how they conducted themselves throughout the day. Great job 6th grade.