Camelot Update 9/25/11

Greetings!

Congratulations to our Camelot Knights on their victory vs. Hopewell Academy on Friday!  

Looking for a great outing today?  Our own ninth grader Tyler Thigpen will be performing at the Carrboro Music Festival, Fitch Lumber Stage from 1:25 to 1:45 PM. 

Parents!  We need more job shadow opportunities for our high school students next week.  If you are willing to sponsor one of our students for part or all of a day the week of October 3 please contact Ms Lynne atlynne@camelotacademy.org.  She will coordinate your availability with student interest.  Parent Service is offered and it provides our students a great opportunity to explore career options. 

This week is Club Preview Week – please consult the handout you received at Back to School Night for options and days.  Students may attend any club of interest this week on a trial basis via the regular after school mechanism.  Sign up for the semester is due by this Friday, September 30.  Soccer players may sign up for clubs and join post-season with a pro-rated fee but we need the sign up information by this Friday.

This Tuesday at 1 PM Meredith College will have a rep on our campus.  There are lots of touring colleges running info sessions over the next couple of weeks.  Check out the guidance calendar on our website to see them all:
http://www.camelotacademy.org/guidance-google-calendar.php

This Friday school closes at 3:30 PM with Optional Care available (by advance sign up).  This is to provide the teachers with the opportunity to set up for conferences.

Next Saturday, October 1, is our annual 5 K Race.  Please sign up to walk or run to support our athletics program! Registration is due by this Wednesday, September 28.  Krista still needs parent volunteers to help with this event – earn your Parent Service credit now and be done with it for the semester!  Please contact Krista atKrista@camelotacademy.org.

Thank you to all of the parents who attended Back to School Night last week.  We are now well poised for individual student conferences next week.  Please be sure to sign up, note your time and plan to arrive a little early as our schedule is very tight. We look forward to having your family sit down with your student’s teachers to discuss pre-test results and plans for the year.  We welcome your feedback, suggestions and questions on any aspect of our programs.
REMINDER – students in Middle Grades and Upper School are required to attend their conference.  

NOTE – Conference Week (Week of Oct 3)
Upper School – no classes
Middle Grades – classes Monday ONLY*
K and MAPP – classes Monday/Tuesday ONLY*
*Optional Care available by advance sign-up

My IPAD group (Fridays at 8 AM – all welcome) explored handwriting apps in addition to great apps for attaining mastery of key geography concepts:  check out “Stack Countries” and “Geographia.”  

Have a great week!

Best,

Thelma

Camelot Update 9/18/11

Greetings!

 

Welcome to our newest student, seventh grader Richard Carruthers.

 

Thank you to all of our families for your support of our Faculty Retreat.  We had a very productive two days and look forward to implementing changes and improvements starting tomorrow.  Please note that many students will have schedule changes, all of which are on a trial basis.  We request feedback from the students and their families prior to our faculty meeting this Thursday morning.

 

You’ll hear all about our exciting plans for the year at Back to School Night this week. Lower and Middle Grades families attend at 5:30 PM this Tuesday.  Upper School parents at 5:30 PM on Thursday. Please remember that this is a REQUIRED parent event – a great deal of important class information will be provided so that when we have family conferences in two weeks the focus can be on the pre-test results and plans for your student rather than on whole-class information.

 

Great job, Camelot Knights!  Although we have yet to have a soccer win our team is playing great! Check out one of our two home games this week – Wednesday or Friday at 4:30 PM at Old Chapel Hill Rd Park.

 

College Reps this week:

Monday at 1 PM – Eckerd College

Wednesday at 9:30 AM – Oberlin College

 

Also, please note that Johns Hopkins University will be running an info session for all prospective Triangle students tomorrow (Monday) at 7PM at Cary Academy.  Sign up on the admissions page on the Johns Hopkins website:

http://apply.jhu.edu/visit/explorehopkins.html#sec3

 

Wendy will be out on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Please copy me on any emails that require attention before Wednesday.

 

Finally, please remember to sign up for the 5K Race on October 1.  Sign up is due by Wednesday, September 28.  Thanks for your support of Camelot athletics.

 

I look forward to seeing everyone this week at Back to School Night!

Best,

 

Thelma  

Camelot Update 9/11/11

Greetings!

I hope that this weekend has provided you with some time for meaningful reflection on this solemn anniversary in our nation’s history.  We started a dialogue with our Middle and Upper School students last week to help to set the stage for family conversations at home.

Congratulations to our Camelot Knights on another well played game and special thanks to parent Nidhal Berro who stepped in during the absence of Coach Jared.

This is an especially important week at Camelot with Faculty Retreat on Thursday and Friday.  We look forward to reviewing all of the information on our students and fine-tuning the plans for the year.

Due tomorrow (Monday):
- Retreat Feedback from ALL Camelot families – it is fine to write “none” and sign it if you have no feedback

- SAT Class sign up from Upper School families – again, please return with an indication of “no thanks” if you choose not to have your student participate so that we know the information reached you

Tuesday:
9:30 AM – Queens College rep visits our campus
12:30 PM – Vassar College rep visits

Wednesday:
11 AM – New York University rep visits our campus

1 PM- SURPRISE Baby shower for teacher Jenny Feaster (it is a boy!) Shhhhhhh…..!!!!

Thursday/Friday:
School Closed for Faculty Retreat
Optional Care (grades K-6) by advance reservation only
Thursday- SAT diagnostic test

Also:
5K Race info (October 1) went home attached to the Retreat Feedback Forms. Krista needs parent service volunteers to help work this event – please contact her directly at Krista@camelotacademy.org.

Upcoming:

*Tuesday, September 20 – MAPP and Middle Grades Back to School Night – 5:30 PM

*Thursday, September 22- Upper School Back to School Night – 5:30 PM

 *These events are important required parent events.



IPAD Apps of the week:  Flashcards+ and Instapaper!


Have a great week.

Best,

Thelma

Camelot Update 9/4/11

Greetings!  

I hope that you are enjoying the Labor Day weekend with some extra time for family and fun.  As a reminder, we are closed tomorrow (Monday) in observance of the holiday.

Congratulations to senior Ryn Wilkes who has been named an AP Scholar for earning 3 Advanced Placement (AP) test scores of 3 or higher!  Way to go!

Good job, Camelot Knights, in the season opener soccer game on Friday.  Although we were defeated I’ve heard from many people that our team played very well.

We had a great week last week – the Upper School performance groups launched, as did the Lego Robotics Group, and an experimental IPAD-in-School users group (check out the app of the week - SHOW ME – great for capturing a teacher explanation of a math problem and communicating with a math teacher over email when stuck).  Lower School Spanish also began, along with all of our other academic classes.  This week we look forward to adding art instruction!

All Upper School music performance students went home with an important syllabus/schedule requiring parent signature and return by this Wednesday.  Middle Grades performance music will start this week – on Tuesdays and Thursdays- and we have the opportunity for a few more Middle Grades singers or musicians to audition.  Please let me know if your Middle Grades student is interested and I’ll make the arrangements.

This Friday at 1 PM Upper School high school students have the opportunity to meet with an admissions representative from American University at our school.  We have many more college reps coming to campus over the next two months.

SAT course info will be coming out this week.  The course will start later this month and will be open to up to 10 high school students, filled based on seniority.  All class sessions will take place during the school day and students will be prepped for the December SAT administration.

Each Thursday we have a faculty meeting from 7:30-8:30 AM.  If you have items that you need communicated to all of us please see that I have them by Wednesday noon.  Also, please be advised that this is  one time when we are not available for drop-in meetings.

Please remember that we are closed for faculty retreat on Thursday/Friday September 15 and 16.  Optional Care is available and almost full, so if you plan to send your student on one or both of these days please be in touch with the office right away.  We will be sending home a request for parent retreat feedback next weekend.

We’re off and running into a great year.  Rest up and I’ll see you Tuesday!

Best,

Thelma