Principal's Message, 4-30-21
Greetings Stough Families,
I can't believe it's May...
1. Next week is now a five-day week of live learning. (May 5 was previously an asynchronous day, but now it is a regular school day.)
2. We're in the last few days of the window to indicate whether your child will be requesting the Virtual Academy for the 2021-22 school year. Here's the link with details. As of today, we have 12 total students requesting VA for next year. Any scheduling decisions are still weeks away, but we will do our best to communicate those plans in these weekly messages when we have more information from the County.
3. In last week's message, I gave you the testing dates for EOG's. This week, I give you the details on our end-of-year virtual talent show! See details below from Mrs. Shumake:
The Specialists are excited to announce that the Stough Virtual Talent Show will be presented on June 8th, 2021! A link to the Virtual Talent Show will be included for families in Mr. Cox's June 11th Friday message. Students may submit one individual talent video and/or one family talent video. Talent videos must be 2 minutes or less. Since we will be sharing the video with the Stough community, all students featured in the videos must have photo/video permission. Please contact your child's classroom teacher if you aren't sure that your child has submitted this permission form.
The directions for uploading your video have been added to the stream in your child's Google Classroom. All videos must be submitted by Friday, May 21st, 2021. Videos will be reviewed by a panel to ensure that music, topics, words, and movement are appropriate for school. Have a question? Email Mrs. Shumake at ashumake@wcpss.net.
4. Based on State guidance, WCPSS recently announced an extensive summer learning plan to support students who may have experienced significant learning loss during the 2020-21 school year. Today, we are sending home invitation letters for the students who automatically qualified (based on academic data) for the Summer Learning Program. This is a six-week program, and any current K-4 students would actually be able to attend at Stough. (Fifth graders will be invited to summer learning at their future middle school.) There is a quick turnaround time to claim your child's spot in Summer Learning (deadline is May 5). Once we have our numbers, we may be able to offer more summer learning seats to other Stough students. If you have questions about Summer Learning, our contact at Stough is Lori Shaw (lshaw2@wcpss.net).
5. This week, we received the following updates from WCPSS regarding technology/devices:
- Students returning to any WCPSS school will keep their currently checked out Chromebooks. We will only collect from students who are withdrawing from WCPSS.
- All hotspots must be returned to school by the end of the school year. Information regarding hotspot availability for next year will be shared at a later date.
- Students who are issued a WCPSS Chromebook must bring it with them to school daily. Schools are not required to provide “loaner” devices for students in school who do not have or do not bring one.
- All students who do not have a district device will be assigned one at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year. This is a district initiative - devices and procedures will be provided.
6. This week in P2, we studied purpose. Next week, we'll begin learning about leadership. For a 1-page character card overview, click here. And, for P2 for Families (password: P2), click here.
Leadership means that you value each member of your group and inspire people to do their best. This can be both formal and informal. It is concerned with getting others to do what needs to be done while maintaining group morale to ensure readiness to act in the future. This character strength’s focus is on the personal qualities of leaders, rather than the practice of leadership. These qualities include the ability to understand others and inspire them toward a common goal, the capacity to mitigate conflict and mold consensus, and the desire to lead other people.
Positive psychology focuses on transformational leaders. This type of leadership is a process where “leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation.” These leaders are able to create a vision, communicate the vision, develop a coherent strategy to achieve that vision, and lead the charge towards its attainment. Through their words and actions, these leaders develop an inspirational relationship with their followers. That is, they fill others with the spirit to attain the vision.
7. On that note, it is my professional honor to lead (and be led by) such a strong staff of teachers. Our PTA has already celebrated Stough's Teacher Appreciation Week, but next week will be the nationally recognized week to honor teachers. Please consider recognizing one of our Stough teachers in Wake County's initiative to #ThankATeacher. They could be recognized on WCPSS media channels and even win prizes! Here's the Google Form. Note, today is the last day to nominate!
8. Here are your PTA Updates:
PTA Meeting
The final 20-21 PTA Meeting will take place May 20 at 7:00. Link provided soon. This meeting will include elections for the 21-22 PTA board members.
Message to 5th Grade Parents
You should have received an email with the details of our 5th grade graduation festivities. Here are a few key reminders:
* We are making a slideshow and we need your pictures! Please send a kindergarten and a 5th grade picture (doesn't have to be their school picture!) of your child to Donna Breniman with your child's name and teacher in the subject line.
Email: dbreniman@gmail.com
* While the PTA covers a portion of the event, we are raising money to cover our class gift, t-shirts for all 5th graders and end of year gifts for the 5th grade teachers. If you are able, please make a donation here: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Stoughpta
Spring Auction
The Spring Online Auction begins May 14. A preview book will be available on May 7! This year’s auction includes vacation packages, golf passes, restaurant gift cards and more!
Spirit Nights
Rudino’s- May 11, 5:00-8:00 (if you order outside of these hours, please tell them you are with Stough)
Papa Murphy’s- May 26
Have a great weekend,
Chris Cox, Principal