In the darkness and the evil
In a time with no heart
was a history of sadness
when love was torn apart
yet somewhere in this torture
was a small spark of light
and this spark represented
the people who knew right.

So begins a poem about the Holocaust by Children’s Community School sixth grader Zoe Warner .  Poetry was just one of many ways in which students at the Davidson charter school approached a greater understanding of the impact of the Holocaust.  The students’ work culminated in a school gallery, at which Sam Pillsbury (at right) modeled the kind of crowding endured by Jews packed into trains headed toward concentration camps.  Students also listened to talks by local Holocaust survivors.

In the final "school notes" of the 2007-08 school year, we bring you a report on this Holocaust learning project, along with news of Davidson IB Middle’s recent success at the national Science Olympiad competition, and news of a recent math bee at Davidson Elementary, CMS teacher recognition, the last Walk to School Wednesday, an arts evening at Bailey and summer reading lists for middle schoolers.

Holocaust insights for CCS

(by Brenda Barger and Laurie Dennis)

Sixth graders at the Children’s Community School did not let the end of the school year turn into time for slacking off.  Instead, students ended their year (the last day for the Davidson charter school was Friday) by transforming the school’s entire main hallway into an extensive exhibit about the Holocaust.

The project was the brainchild of social studies teacher Melissa Porter, but incorporated history, math, art, English and science skills.

"The students who like math worked on number problems while the arts and crafts kids made artwork for the galleries," explained Ms. Porter.  (She is pictured at right, in a photo by Brenda Barger, together with student tour guides, l-r, Aurora Taylor, Breanna Coughlin, David Katibah and Sam Pillsbury in front of the Kristallnacht display.)

Among those math number problems: If you measured one foot for each of the 11 million who were killed in the Holocaust and started at the Children’s Community School, where would you end up?  Answer: in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Some more math – students at CCS spent two months studying the Holocaust and it took two weeks to set up their museum.  The finished galleries included an Anne Frank annex, a display of WWII memorabilia, photos, quotes, and more.

On the evening of Tuesday, May 27, students gathered to hear two Jewish Holocaust survivors, both members of Congregation Emanuel in Statesville: Howard Adler, who escaped to America from Germany in 1936, was drafted into the Army in 1941 and served as an interrogator of German prisoners of war, and Manfred Katz, who was deported to Latvia at age 13 along with his parents, younger sister and other relatives but is the sole survivor from his family.

"We were so surprised when our teacher said she’d brought Holocaust survivors to our school," said Sam Pillsbury.  "I can see why a lot of survivors don’t want to talk about it.  Before all this, I just knew that there was a Holocaust and this person Adolf Hitler, but now I know details and I know about actual people and what happened to them."

Science Olympiad team places 13th at nationals

The Davidson IB Science Olympiad team has once again seen national success.  The team placed 13th overall among 60 teams in the Middle School division at the 2008 National Tournament.

The Olympiad program encourages curiosity about science.  Tournaments are like academic track meets, requiring team members to tackle problems in a variety of different disciplines, such as astronomy, earth science and anatomy.

At the national tournament, held May 30-31 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the 19-member team from Davidson worked on 23 official science questions along with five trial events.

The Davidson team placed first in two events – Charlotte Ke and Jerry Cui won the "food science" contest, while Thomas Thornton and Sean Corcoran were top medalists in "mystery architecture."

The team took seconds in "disease detectives" and "road scholar."

"We are extremely proud of their accomplishment and all of their hard work," school spokesperson Karen Wood told DavidsonNews.net .

Besides the first-place winners already mentioned, the team (pictured above with their second-place medals from the state competition) also consists of Jesse Bradfield, Adam Carriker, Jordan Clark-Brown, Bradley Davis, Jessika Dorcas, Cami Esancy, Chris Folmar, Steven Handel, Ben Hilse, Merritt McCully, Alex McLeod, Avery McGuirt, Mikayla Murphy, Molly Sanborn, and Eli Stutzman.

Davidson IB was one of two Charlotte-area middle schools at the national competition.  Jay M. Robinson Middle School, which is also part of the CMS district, placed 16th overall.

Math bee contest at DES

Davidson Elementary held its first-ever math bee last month, holding competitions among teams from fourth and fifth grade classrooms.  Shannel Hoyer’s "Miraculous Math Stingers" were the fourth grade champs, while Patricia Strike’s "Math Beast" emerged as the winning classroom team among eight in the fifth grade.

For a final competition Thursday, May 29, the fourth grade champs (the table at right in the photo) took on the fifth grade top team to see who would be the first to answer five questions correctly.  With the score tied at 4-4, and a breathless audience of student and parent onlookers, moderator Kristin Retort asked the question that would determine the win:

"Sally is building a dog house and has 1 3/4 feet of plywood.  If she used 1/2 foot of it, how much does she have left?

Members from both teams slapped the buzzer, but the fourth grade team had the correct answer: Sally has 1 1/4 feet of plywood left.

The bee was sponsored by the Optimist Club of Lake Norman.

Winning fourth-grade team members include: Alex Berkhout, Jacob Costa, Meg Houck, Brendan Lynch, Maddie Mahl and Peyton Tarry.

The top fifth-grade team consisted of: Celeste Campbell, Christina Dennis, Audrey Landau, Kilian Nelson,  Ethan Post and Christopher Venzon.

Teacher recognition

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently honored all teachers who have been recognized this year for special awards.  Here are the honorees for Davidson-area schools:

Davidson Elementary

• Tara Butch , kindergarten, Teacher of the Year
• Amy Teckenbrock , k/1 class, Outstanding First-Year Teacher
• Stella Stroud , assistant, Teacher Assistant of the Year

Bailey Middle

• Lysa Craig , 6th grade language arts/social studies, Teacher of the Year
• Rosemary Klein , 6th grade math/science, CMS Employee Excellence Award

Davidson IB Middle

• Cameron Swallow , seventh-grade math, Teacher of the Year
• Cindi Sweeney , computer technology, N.C. Business Education Association nominee for Middle School Teacher of the Year

One last celebration of walking to school

The final "Walk to School Wednesday" for Davidson Elementary will be the morning of June 4.  This will conclude a year of encouraging children to walk or bike at least once per month, a program initiated by the town’s DavidsonWalks committee.  The event includes "walking school buses" from the McConnell neighborhood and bike trains from the River Run neighborhood, and also allows students on buses to start the morning with a short jaunt down the pathway near the school.

Performing arts at Bailey

Students in the dance, drama and art programs at Bailey Middle will be performing/exhibiting Thursday at "Dance, Draw, Drama."  The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the school’s "cafetorium."

Summer reading

Summer reading schedules for the local public middle schools are now available.  Click on the website for either Bailey Middle (scroll down to "Bailey notices") or Davidson IB Middle to see what cool books kids will be reading this summer!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

• Wednesday, June 4 – Walking Wednesday for June at Davidson Elementary. This will be the last Walk to School Wednesday for the 2007-08 school year.
• Thursday, June 5 – "Dance, Draw, Drama" student performances at Bailey Middle, starting at 7 p.m.
• Friday, June 6 – Last day of school for Woodlawn
• Tuesday, June 10 – Last day of school for Bailey Middle, Davidson Day, Davidson Elementary and Davidson IB

Send calendar items and press releases about local school news to us at lauriedennis@bellsouth.net . Don’t forget to include a contact phone number, in case we have questions.