DouglasPTA

Supporting Student Success

teacher and two elementary school students

As part of the PTA’s plan to increase family engagement this year, we are participating in the National PTA School of Excellence program. After receiving parent survey responses this fall, we have been provided with a “roadmap to excellence” to help us improve in areas where we are potentially falling short. With that in mind, we will be sharing a short item with you throughout the next few months that we hope you will find useful.

This month’s topic is Supporting Student Success.

Empowering families to support their own and other children’s success in school is powerful. It is important for parents to be prepared to monitor their children’s progress and guide them as they advance through elementary, middle and high school graduation; postsecondary education; and into a career.

The National PTA has published grade-specific guides that parents can review to see what their students will be learning at each grade level. These provide “clear, consistent expectations for what students should be learning at each grade in order to be prepared for college and career.”

They are all available in English and Spanish at this link: https://www.pta.org/home/family-resources/Parents-Guides-to-Student-Success

We hope you’ll be able to check them out and learn a little more about what your children are learning at Douglas!

Tips for Effective Parent-Teacher Communication

Image source: https://www.laprensa.hn/familiayhogar/933502-410/relaci%C3%B3n-de-padres-y-maestros-favorece-el-aprendizaje

With that in mind, we will be sharing a short item with you throughout the next few months that we hope you will find useful. This month’s topic is “Communicating Effectively.”

Here are just a few tips for effective communication between parents and teachers:

Be collaborative with the teacher. Begin your communication with a positive attitude and a willingness to be a partner with your child’s teacher. You both want the best for your child, and working together is the easiest way to achieve that.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Don’t wait until there is a problem to email the teacher. Send emails, notes or even visit in person.
Get comfortable within the school and with the teacher. The more comfortable you are, the easier it will be to have those serious conversations when they come up. Stop in for lunch with your child or to lend a hand photocopying or helping with something in the classroom. Join the PTA and get to know other parents through different school events or through a PTA committee. Come to an after-school event and get to know other parents and teachers in a casual “after hours” atmosphere.
Feel free to make first contact with the teacher! Good communication runs both ways. If you don’t know how to get in contact with the teacher, call the school, look at the directory on the school website or send a note with your child. They want to hear from you!
Follow through with what you say you will do. If you cannot do what you said you would do, communicate that too!

For more ideas, visit these links:

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/partnering-with-your-childs-teacher/

http://parenting-ed.org/wp-content/themes/parenting-ed/files/handouts/Communicating-with-Teacher-Handout.pdf

Get to Know Our Teacher of the Year, Jackie Lester

jackie-lester Jackie Lester, ESL teacher at Douglas, was recently named the school’s Teacher of the Year. Read on to get to know a little bit more about Jackie, and be sure to congratulate her if you see her on your next visit to campus!

How long have you been at Douglas? Have you taught ESL the whole time?

This is my fifth year at Douglas. I started my career teaching “English as a Foreign Language” in Chile, my native country. Then I taught Spanish in Wilson County for about three years. After finishing my master’s degree in ESL and Educational Supervision, I moved to Raleigh. At the same time, I found an ESL position in a school in Wake County. I have been in Wake County for about nine years.

What made you decide to become a teacher?

Since I was a little girl, I always taught my friends what I have learned at school. Also, I always liked languages. So, one of my teachers in high school suggested I could explore my options in education. I took this path and I have never looked back.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love working with students. I learn as much from them as they learn from me. I enjoy seeing their faces light up when they understand something or when they can express themselves in English. It is really amazing!

What is the most challenging thing about being a teacher?

I have never thought about what I do as a “job.” I truly enjoy coming to school every day, talking to my colleagues, students and parents. Of course, we face challenges every day, not only at school but also personally. However, if I think about what I do for just a minute, I realize I have the best job in the world. I get to teach and guide children in the most important stage of their lives and that makes me happy!

How does it feel to win this well-deserved recognition?

I feel so proud to be part of the Douglas staff. I am very lucky to work with a wonderful administration, teachers and instructional assistants. To me, this is the “cherry on the cake” and I am truly honored to have been chosen Teacher of the Year!

Easy Ways to Support Your School

school Fundraising is a crucial component of our PTA’s mission to enhance the lives of our children and teachers. Our funding helps to fill the gaps in our school budget. One of the ways you can help raise money for our school — many at no cost to you! — is to participate in the programs below. Please share this info with family members, neighbors and friends who can also link their grocery and retail accounts. As you can imagine, these dollars add up quickly!!

Link your Harris Teeter and Lowe’s Foods Cards to Douglas Elementary

**They require that you link our school every year or it expires!

Log onto https://www.harristeeter.com/together-in-education

Or link your card in any store right at the register to Douglas Elementary #2294

Log onto http://www.lowesfoods.com/back-2-schools/

Or register at guest services in any store to Douglas Elementary #60112

Earn money for Douglas while you shop on Amazon!

Visit https://smile.amazon.com/ref=smi_se_saas_lsmi_smi and link Douglas Creative Arts-Science Magnet School PTA. Once it’s set up it’s easy to use!

**The only catch is you must go to smile.amazon.com each time you shop in order for Douglas to earn .5% on each eligible purchase you make.

Support Douglas when you shop at the Teach Me Store

For details log onto https://www.teachmestore.com/pta-support

No registration required! Simply mention Douglas Elementary at checkout and 10% of your purchase goes to Douglas!

Box Tops Go a Long Way

Start cutting out box tops now (found on tons of products you buy at the grocery store) and keep them in a Ziploc bag. We’ll put the request out several times a year to send them in with your child and our PTA volunteers will do the rest to ensure we receive $.10 for each box top collected!

Spirit Nights

Come out for good food and fellowship with your Douglas family, and raise money for our school at the same time. These events are held at neighborhood locations, so you’ll be supporting local businesses, and a portion of the profits go to Douglas. Be sure to mention you are a Douglas Elementary family at each event so we get credit!

Book Fair

Twice a year, the Douglas PTA partners with Scholastic to host our book fairs. Our spring and fall book fairs allow students time to browse with their classes and make wish lists for parents. After class preview days, we invite families to shop together during our sales days.

Fall Fair: November 8-16, 2018
Spring Fair: April 4-11, 2019

Douglas 5th Grade Legacy Project

garden project

Help our 5th graders complete their Legacy Project with Artist in Residence Shannon Newby!

We are in need of supplies for our 5th-grade student team to create an amazing bug hotel and wire art to enhance our vegetable garden. This is a project that will stay at Douglas for enjoyment for years to come and is a unique opportunity to integrate our arts curriculum into this year’s legacy project.

Donations are due Oct. 12 and may be left on the cart outside magnet coordinator Heidi Bledsoe’s office. Thank you!

SIGN UP HERE

Dragonfire is Here!

Dragonfire is Douglas’s annual passive fundraiser. Held in the fall, this is a fun and easy way for the PTA to kick off the school year and start investing in campus and classroom projects.

The Dragonfire fundraiser allows the PTA to retain 100% of the money raised to support all of the PTA programs for your children. Please consider asking your employer if there is a matching donation program where you work.

Our 2018 goal is $12,000 and our campaign is planned for the week of September 24.

To get the excitement going and have all of our little Dragons included in the fun, we will have a coin war between classrooms. Change will be collected and counted daily with results being announced during the daily WDES broadcasts. The class that brings in the most change will be awarded with “Mr. Burns as teacher for the day!” Mr. Burns will join students as a co-teacher for half of an instructional day. He will participate in class recess, maybe an art project, perhaps a trip to the media center, lunch, etc. — It is up to the class as to how they will spend time with our amazing and hands-on principal.

If we reach our goal, we’ll have a school-wide pajama day!

Flyers are going home in your students’ folders this week. There are a number of ways to donate, including check, cash and these online options:

Memberhub

Paypal

Thanks in advance for your support! Please contact our VP of Fundraising, Lea Ann Cook, if you have questions or need more information: leaanncook3@gmail.com.