Our Week in Review: Week 15 of 36 Dole Pride

This week we hosted our Community Visit. During the year, each school in our county open their doors to the community to see all the great things happening at their school.

Our Community visit was hosted on Wednesday December 7th. Our 5th graders presented on Seal PBL. Each student created a Seal for our school and presented it to our community.

Community Visit Pictures 

Principal Michael Courtwright welcomed visitors and provided an overview while everyone enjoyed a light breakfast provided by the school’s PTA. Then it was all about students talking about their work! The morning’s visit was highlighted by a problem-based learning project by the 5th-grade students. These students have been working on the “Seal Project” - designing a new seal for HDE. Visitors had the wonderful opportunity to: • Visit the classrooms • View the student designs • Listen to students explain their design and project • Complete questions on iPads – rating their design...

Our Week in Review: Week 10 of 36: PLCs with our Literacy Coach

We all know the importance of having a supportive team for your staff. One of the most influential person on our support team is our Literacy Coach, Candida Craven.




Ms. Craven holds PLCs and Data Meetings with our teachers several times through the month. During these meetings, she listens, guides, and provide them with support needed to reach all students.

A little snippet of a day in the life of our Literacy Coach - trust me this is only a small part of what she does...

We are very fortunate to have a literacy coach at our school to help support our teachers. We know that literacy coaches directly impacts student achievements. Ms. Craven engages teachers in their PLC and Data Meetings to enhance their learning. 

She just started her walk-throughs and meet with each teacher to provide them with feedback. She is such a valuable person on our team and very grateful to have her.

Our blended learning journey is not complete without our literacy coach. In order to effectively implement blended learning you need someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and work. Her passion for providing teachers with the resources and support they need  is an important part of our journey.

Our Week in Review: Week 9 of 36: Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Oh My Gosh....we have completed our first quarter! Time flies when you are having fun. Which is definitely appropriate for this week's post.

In our Blended Learning Manual, we have a section that lists what we want our students' school experience to be. On that list, we included students having the opportunity to choose and students having fun at school.

This week we held our first Club Day, an opportunity for students to have choice and fun at school.

So what is Club Day at Hanford Dole Elementary School?

Lacrosse 

Board Game Club

Club Day is organized by our Kindergarten teacher, Amanda Blackwood. Staff gave a list of clubs they would be interested in hosting and students chose which one they wanted to participated in. Each early release day, students will participate in their club of choice for about an hour. Both students and teachers had a blast. Even our principal Mr. Courtwright hosted a basketball game.

Robot Club

Cooking Club

Hot Wheels Club

Here are a few pictures from our Red Ribbon Week Spirit Week....

Ms. Rossi and Ms. Smith on Nerd Day

Mrs. Young and 3rd Graders on Nerd Day

Mrs. Young on SuperHero Day

Our Week in Review: Week 8 of 36: Alternative Seating

Blended Learning allows our students the opportunity to learn with choice. One choice they have is choosing where they are learning. When you walk into many classrooms in our building, you will not see many students sitting in a chair behind a desk.

Alternative Seating also known as Flexible Seating is an opportunity for students to collaborate, communicate, be creative, and think critically. Our teachers see an increase in student performance because students are able to learn in an environment they enjoy. 

In this blog, I share a few of our alternative seating / flexible seating classrooms. If you are interested in a tour into our classroom, please contact our Principal Michael Courtwright @ michael.courtwright@rss.k12.nc.us

Our Week in Review: Week 7 of 36: Giving Students HOPE

Thanks to Kelly Feimster and Salisbury NC Symphony, our students have the opportunity  learn how to play the violin. So may read this and wonder why this post is entitle HOPE...


Our school has over 95% free and reduced lunch students. Many of our students will never have an opportunity like this. 

HOPE  is Having Opportunities to Pursue Excellence...and this is one of those opportunities. 


Our 5th grade students have the opportunity to pursue excellence.

It is important that with Blended Learning, we make school FUN for students. When students enjoy coming to school, they excel. 

This opportunity provided to us by the NC Symphony is more than just students learning how to play an instrument...it is giving our students HOPE. 

When implementing Blended Learning, remember the importance of giving students an opportunity to have FUN at school. Create opportunities for students to pursue excellence in all areas of life, will optimize students blended learning experience.