Parent Teacher Magazine Rowan-Salisbury Schools September 2017 | Page 9

East Rowan High Chorus – On Stage with FOREIGNER!
What an exciting summer for a group of
East Rowan High School students! Through a
competition event, 22 ERHS Singing Mustangs
were selected to take the stage on August 5th at
the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, NC to perform
with the hit group Foreigner.
The event was to sing backup with the classic rock
band Foreigner on their most famous hit "I Want
To Know What Love Is."
ERHS was selected by participating in a contest,
‘What Love Is,’ through a local Charlotte radio
station to sing on stage with the famous group.
Once the ERHS Chorus won the contest, the
student chorus was narrowed to a field of 20-
24 students that included graduating seniors
and other students that participated in an essay
contest: ‘What it would mean to me to sing with
Foreigner.’
“This was truly a once in a lifetime experience for
these students,” says Dean Orbison, the ERHS
Chorus Director.
The ERHS students who performed with Foreigner
are as follows:
1.
Alex Gobble
2.
McKenzie Collins
3.
Haley Medina
4.
Ashton Hopper
5.
Alyssa Potts
6.
Will Brown
7.
Gabe Hinceman
8.
Cole McGraw
9.
Gracie Hudson
10.
Logan Williams
11.
Taylor Sienerth
12.
Imoni Smith
13.
Katelyn Thompson
14.
Ethan Diaz
15.
Hannah Julian
16.
Hannah Mayhew
17.
Grace Faller
18.
Emily Avalos
19.
Emily Daubenmire
20.
Leah Mesimer
21.
Katie Eller
22.
Savannah Winters
STEM Integration into Read to Achieve
Students who found themselves in Rowan-
Salisbury Schools’ Read to Achieve camp this
summer were in for an exciting change to the
program. This year, Read to Achieve added a
special component to help kids not only with
their literacy, but also with understanding all
of the different aspects that go into reading.
Regularly used throughout the school year,
STEM (Science Technology Engineering and
Math) was added into the curriculum for
Read to Achieve camps this summer to help
promote the idea that every subject points
back to literacy and employs the use of
reading skills one way or another.
However, Read to Achieve STEM teacher
Crystal Wagoner notes that the opposite is
true as well: “The science, the technology,
the engineering, the math – those sort
of things engage the kids in what they’re
reading. It makes them care about what
they’re doing.” Wagoner’s statement rings true in both practice and theory as
kids in her STEM class at China Grove Elementary get excited after being told
they were going to construct their own buildings after reading and learning
about which type of 3-D shape can hold the most weight (the answer might
surprise you – it’s a cylinder!).
Students were directed to take a close look at buildings in books they were
given to see what works best in architecture and base their building on
what they had learned about these. The goal was simple: build the tallest
structure out of all the teams, but it also had to be able to support the weight
of a basketball. Given nothing more than five pieces of paper, glue, and
scissors, Wagoner’s students gathered excitedly into their groups and began
constructing their buildings based on what they had just learned. By the end
of the class, each group had constructed their own structure that they hoped
would hold up the basketball. Everyone held their breath as each building
was tested for both height and durability, and although some fell in the end,
Ms. Wagoner taught them an important lesson: there is never any failure,
only room for improvement.
While STEM has been integrated for all of
the Read to Achieve camps this summer, not
all of the kids are doing the same projects.
At Koontz Elementary, STEM teacher for the
summer Amy Betts works on story telling
through Legos with her students. In order to
help incorporate STEM into Read to Achieve,
the school district bought educational Lego
sets that work with both the physical blocks
and pieces to build with and technology
through certain apps on their iPads. Once
Betts explained to her kids that they would
be working with Legos to tell different
stories, smiles beamed at one another
across the room and their excitement
became palpable. The kids were to be split
up into two groups and each group would
get a Lego set with a different theme. Group
1 got the Space Kit, while Group 2 got the
Fairy Tale set.
Spread out across t he floor, each group got
down on hands and knees to see what pieces
they had to build with and what stories they could come up with based on
which characters they had and what they were building. Once each group
had a story to tell, they were given iPads to work on and create their own
story through an app connected to the Lego sets called StoryVisualizer. With
each scene being played out, students would snap a picture on their iPads
to put into StoryVisualizer and could then build their own story through the
pictures and scenes they had created. Betts also got on the floor with the
kids to help guide them and fully immerse them into their stories. “For me,
the beauty of STEM is the hands-on piece,” said Betts, “That you can really
incorporate all aspects of education.” The STEM integration has so far had an
incredible effect on students in Read to Achieve who are now eager to see
the connections between reading and the more mathematical and scientific
subjects. Not only that, but teachers seem to be responding well to it too.
Wagoner and Betts are just two of many STEM teachers for the Read to
Achieve camp this summer, but their passion for the integration is so obvious
that it’s clear students attending the program are going to continue being
excited about understanding the new connections between literacy, science,
technology, engineering, and math.
Parent Teacher Magazine • Sept/Oct 2017 • 7