South Callaway schools parents packed the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night to see their children present to the board about academic programs in their schools.
The school board heard updates from the Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC) and Middle School last night.
First up were the ECLC students who make up the Big Dawg Leadership Team. The teacher who introduced the students said more than 60 students applied for the leadership team during their recess. Those applicants then went through an interview process and a small group of students were selected to serve as the school's leadership team. The Big Dawg Leadership Team has two representatives from first grade and four from second grade.
Their responsibilities include monitoring the hallways and gym each morning before school, conducting school-wide morning meetings, reporting student behavior on buses and leading the Pledge of Allegiance.
The students often perform skits to reinforce for their fellow students the seven habits of leadership, part of the Leader in Me Program. The group presented some of those skits to the school board Wednesday night at its regular meeting. The skits presented all focused around habit No. 5: to understand and to be understood.
Elementary School Principal Corey Pontius discussed the Leader in Me Program after the ECLC presentation. The ECLC, elementary and middle school all take part in the program, which Pontius said has shown positive results.
"It's a framework for success," Pontius told the board Wednesday night. "It's a way to make what we do better."
He added that other schools have contacted them to learn more about the Leader in Me Program and to see how South Callaway is integrating it into their schools.
A group of sixth grade students followed the ECLC students. Their teacher, Michael Nichols, spoke briefly about the group's project based learning and introduced the sixth graders who talked about the school news cast they put together called South Callaway News Network (SCNN). Students read off of a teleprompter and videotape a variety of segments for their school. They shared some of their favorite segments to the board Wednesday night. Segments included what was on the lunch menu that week; a "live" update from Italy, in which a student talked about famous monuments and their importance; the school's book drive, which ends today; an interview with a teacher in the school and three middle school boys talking about the history of Spam and its use during war times before sampling some themselves for the camera.
Parents, board members and school administrators laughed as they watched a segment titled "South Callaway Investigators" (SCI), which was modeled after CSI. For the segment, students helped one teacher solve the mystery of who stole his "World's okayist teacher" coffee mug.
Nichols said SCNN has built confidence in students participating, especially the more camera-shy students.
In other news, Mary Van Orden, director of curriculum and instruction for the district, updated the board on curriculum reviews that have taken place this school year. She also discussed the instructional coaches, which assist teachers with technology integration and curriculum. The instructional coaches finished their last training of the school year, she told the board, and have some training set for the summer. The district added the instructional coaches this school year.
"We are turning to the end of a very productive school year as far as curriculum goes," Van Orden said. "Things are really starting to click."
Regarding curriculum reviews, she told the board she has appreciated the teachers' hard work.