Playing soccer and reading

cfes-5th-grade-soccer-player

When I’m not at school I like to read. It passes the time very easily. And if I’m not playing soccer, I get very bored. If I can’t play soccer, I just read. I like to read Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.

I learned to play soccer in Africa. I was born in Africa. I was adopted and came here probably when I was six. I’ve been at Christopher Farms four years. I have two brothers who came with me. In Africa, soccer balls are just mushed up socks tied together. Soccer is fun and you run a lot, and a lot of kids work as a team.

What makes a team successful?

That they like each other and trust each other.

#WeAreVBSchools

Be the best person I can be

woodstock-es-mia-sca-president

I am the SCA President this year. I always try to be a role model even if I didn’t get something. I always try to be the best person I can be. I try to help others a lot and be someone they can trust. My brothers were SCA president here, too, so I kind of followed in their footsteps. In our family, we try to help each other. Like if I don’t understand something in school, Tyler, my brother, he always tries to help me so I can figure it out.

#WeAreVBSchools

I just love Kingston

 

img_0248

I like going on adventures. I’m that person who just likes being outdoors. I like nature. Sometimes when I’m in the car, I either read a book or I stare out the window and look at the trees. My sister says, “Come on, let’s play.” And I say, “I’m looking at trees right now.” And she says, “That’s boring.” I say, “No it’s not.”

I like going to school. I don’t think its torture. I think it is fun. You learn new stuff and your mind just like explodes to things that you don’t know about. When I’m not at school I like playing badminton. I like grocery shopping. I think shopping for clothes, well, I’m not a big fan of it. It gets boring to me. I like playing video games also, mostly on my iPad. I like exploring new things. I like researching about stuff and exploring new games and also chatting with my friends.

Also, I love reading books. I just think they are so interesting. But sometimes, when I just read the summary, I think it’s great, but when I start reading it, it doesn’t turn out that good. I like books with mystery because it just gives you a hitch.

I just love Kingston. It’s like the best school I’ve been too so far! I’ve been to two other schools. Then I moved to India because that’s where my grandparents were. Then after a year, I moved back to Virginia Beach and to Kingston. My other schools weren’t Digital Anchor Schools, so it’s really cool that you get your own laptop and everything. My sister is in kindergarten here, and every day she’s just like, “I’m so excited to go to Kingston!” She makes new friends every day, and I guess she just loves it here!

#WeAreVBSchools

I want to become a biological engineer

landstown-hs-senior-biological-engineer-aug-2016

I took AP Biology last year and I loved it. I like working with animals and dissecting them. I just like dissecting stuff. I know it’s weird. I also like working with plants to see how they grow and prosper throughout the environment. I want to become a biological engineer and work at NASA. I want to work on a shuttle that can go into space. My uncle, one of his shuttles was the first one to work and he made a lot of money. He works for NASA.

#WeAreVBSchools

Reading gives you adventures

luxford-girl-book-club

We have a book club at school. Sometimes we share the books or write summaries. And also, sometimes, we may try to write our very own stories.

What would you write about?

Hmmm, maybe I would write a fiction one, like about a kid who goes an adventure or something. But you could write about anything.

I love reading! I get to use my imagination. Once I got so deep into a book, it was like I was in the book! It feels like nothing else. It feels like you’re inside the book. Reading gives you a lot of adventures and can help you learn, like with non-fiction.

#WeAreVBSchools

My kids motivate me

red-mill-custodian-marvin-jones

What motivates me is to make a difference in somebody’s life. I started going back to church and I am a deacon now. I was a junior deacon at age 12 and it’s been some 40 some years. It used to be my kids that motivated me, but all of them are grown. They still motivate me to go to work so I can show them that you still have to work, and all of the values of having a good household, a good home and taking care of yourself are worth it.

#WeAreVBSchools

Driven by my family

pams-hunter-dunlo-1

Basically, I am entirely driven by my family. I have two young sons – a two year old and a nine month old between my wife and me. She is also a teacher, and our children drive us to do what we do. I think I’ve become a better teacher since having kids because I try to put every student first because they are somebody else’s world. I think, “How would I want my kids to be treated by the leaders and teachers who are supposed to model things for them?” So my goal is to get my students to be the students that I want my kids to be. At the same time, it drives me to be a better parent because I hope that my kids are like my students. It’s a whole circle-of-life, Lion King kind of thing.

#WeAreVBSchools

My goal is to make an impact

bayside-hs-pediatrician-then-teacher

I didn’t want to be a teacher at first, even though I do love being around kids. I wanted to be a pediatrician. Then I saw how much schooling it was. I thought, “That’s a lot of school.” Then I switched over to athletic training because that still deals with medicine and I could still work with kids. But then, in my first Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow class, we were just talking, and that’s when I knew that teaching kids is the job I really want to do. I want to work with kindergarteners.

My main goal is to make an impact. That’s always been my goal with any job, to make an impact in people’s lives. And kids are the next generation of adults, so I think what better way to make an impact than on kids when they are young.

I never, ever, ever thought I’d want to be a teacher. I would always think about the money. I would think why would you? But it’s not about the money. It’s a really important job. I think it’s really  ̶  I guess “amazing” would be the word  ̶  that you’re teaching someone how to be a person. That’s the main reason why I want to be in kindergarten; you’re molding them.

#WeAreVBSchools

Dyslexia Awareness Month

pams-student-ainsley-proctor

Dyslexia is very difficult to cope with. Some people think it’s just mixing up your b’s and d’s and m’s and w’s, but it’s not that. I don’t suffer from that. It’s a language processing disorder. It’s very common. Twenty percent of our school population has it, so someone you know has it. And currently kids with dyslexia don’t get the help they need, and that’s what I really want to get across, so that those kids don’t drop out of school and don’t fall behind. I have gone through the Wilson Reading System program outside of school. I graduated from it last year so I’ve overcome my dyslexia, but I still have little challenges, like left and right. I would love to be a tutor for the Wilson Reading System, but I also really want to be an orthodontist. That’s really my passion. I love science. I’m taking earth science right now and it’s so fun. I enjoy it a lot. I love braces. I mean, I don’t love them. But I would love to pursue that as a career and then maybe [tutor] on the side.

#WeAreVBSchools

Helping students find their strengths

luxford-pe-teacher-adiline-hale

My whole career has been at Luxford. I even did my student teaching here and I got my job in 1975. I accepted it before I graduated from Norfolk State. It’s a wonderful job when you have the opportunity to help students grow and make the most of their life. You also help them to find their strengths and try to help them improve on areas of challenge.

Every year it brings something new. I think that’s what I enjoy the most. Just because I’ve been here so long, I don’t do the same thing over and over again. I look for ways to put a little more fire into the program.

I see [former students] in different places throughout the city. They now have their own families and they’re doing well. I was in Bed, Bath and Beyond a few weeks before school started. I was trying to figure out how I could get the most from my coupon. I saw this young lady and said, “Excuse me, Miss. Could you help me?” And she turned around and she looked at me. Then I was explaining about my coupon and what I wanted, and she just stood there and looked at me. Then she said, “Are you Ms. Hale?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “You were my PE teacher in elementary school!” She told me her name and I said, “Yes, and you have an older sister.” She said, “Oh, you remember! Remember how much fun we had with the parachute and those scooters?” And she kept going on and on and on. She said that with her nieces and nephews she has bought some of the same equipment and plays fun camps with her family and their kids at their family reunions. She said, “That was the best time of my life.”

That makes me feel good when you hear things like that and how it carries on, and they see how important health and physical education is. I tell the kids all the time. “This is the only body you’re going to have and you have to learn how to take care of it.” That’s why we start, even in kindergarten, talking about proper nutrition, getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise.

#WeAreVBSchools

Fun Science Experiments

woodstock-es-girl-science-class

My favorite subjects in school are probably math and science. I like doing experiments because they’re really fun. We’ve done three of them already. We’ve done one with a dropper and we had to figure out how many drops we could get on a penny before it all spills off. I got 57, I think. Then we had an egg drop challenge where we had to get an egg in a glass without breaking the egg or the glass. And then we had to try to get a penny in a cup without dropping it in there. We had to use all the materials, too, to get the penny into the cup. We kind of made it like a piggy bank. We had a plastic knife, a penny, a cup and a piece of paper. So we cut a little slit in the paper and put it over the cup. Then the penny was beside it and we had a knife up there. So once all the materials were in place, we couldn’t move any of them. We could only move the knife and we got the penny in the cup.

I like working with our teachers. They inspire me.

#WeAreVBSchools

Naval architect

brickell-academy-architect-7th-grade

I had a past interest in being a nuclear engineer, but then I started getting into architecture. For my sixth grade project we had to research people, and someone I just happened to come across was Frank Lloyd Wright who was a pretty innovative architect. So that got me into wanting to be an architect. I like designing buildings. But I also want to work for the Navy, so I was also thinking about a naval architect – designing ships and buildings, kind of like the Pentagon.

#WeAreVBSchools

Rooster Duck continued

cfes-3rd-grade-baker-and-mom-2

(2 of 2) You said you’re going to write “Rooster Duck” as a child author. What do you want to do when you get older?

When I grow up, I actually want to do three jobs. Being a baker, I know I would have to get up early and work late sometimes, but it would bring me joy because making cupcakes and making cakes and baking really brings me joy because other people might like them. One time I made a spring velvet cake, but it was actually a little bit dry. This was my flaw – I accidentally didn’t put enough milk in it. Although, it was very yummy. I want to be an author, too. And I want to be a MOM!

While being a mom and being a baker, I can make fresh loaves of bread and I can send my oldest to the store. I’m planning on working near my dad because he works at a cell phone store and he might still be there when I grow up. So I’m thinking maybe I can be around him because I mean, I did grow up around him.

#WeAreVBSchools

Author of Rooster Duck

cfes-3rd-grade-superhero-book

(1 of 2) While I’m a kid, this is one of my goals for school, I want to be an author – like a child author – and write about this superhero me and my dad made up when I was little called “Rooster Duck.” Rooster Duck has this sidekick named Sally, and Sally got attacked by this robot cat. It’s a pink robot cat. Sally got this special jewel from the pink robot cat, and I don’t know how he sneaks it on her. Like it’s a little tiara, maybe. She thought it was from one of her friends from when she was little, because there was a pink robot cat when she was little. But it was actually an evil villain, and he tried to mess with Rooster Duck. She turns into something like Pickling Panda or Racing Rabbit. The villain who did this is Hamstar! We got the idea when me and my dad were at Walmart and we were thinking about hamsters and guitars for music. Then we decided Hamstar would be our evil villain! And he sings really bad songs like, “Rooster Duck is bad. I’m the best villain in the world.” I know this is a really weird sidekick, but the evil sidekick to Hamstar is Evil Tuna. It’s a can of tuna with googly eyes, an evil cape and a smiley face. It’s not really alive. But Hamstar, whenever he gets trapped, I mean whenever Rooster Duck and Sally get trapped – sorry, it’s a lot of characters to remember – Evil Tuna has this little rope by him and he goes like this…

#WeAreVBSchools

 

My brother inspires me

paes-girl-artist

I like to craft a lot and draw. In the classroom, I made a tiny hover board and a tiny backpack. I used cardboard, string and pen. I like drawing people and I like drawing houses. Sometimes I mess up and I just erase it and draw over.

I like art because my brother taught me, and I like drawing my family. I have my own notebook in my classroom, and I drew my mom in that notebook. My brother inspires me with drawing. He teaches me how to draw and he draws really great art. My brother’s best friend loves art, too, and I love drawing with them.

#WeAreVBSchools

Product of VBCPS

img_9080

I am a product of Virginia Beach City Public Schools. I was a student here in elementary, middle and high school. I graduated from Salem in 1996. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the Cooperative Office Education program at Salem, so I was a COE student and I worked in the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children for two years. After I graduated high school I applied for a job as a secretary at Rosemont Elementary School. I got to work with my kindergarten teacher. It was a full circle moment for me. It was pretty awesome. I worked with summer school at Tallwood High School and transferred to Tallwood the next year. I left Tallwood in 2000 because Bruce Phelps, who was the student activities coordinator at Tallwood, came to central administration to work in Student Activities. He had an opening, and I loved working with Mr. Phelps. It was a great opportunity for me to move, be closer to home and to advance. I worked in Student Activities for four years, and I went on to be the director’s secretary in Student Leadership in 2004 and worked there for 15 years. I came to School Leadership last summer to be the executive office associate to the chief schools officer. It’s definitely been a great opportunity to work with Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

What’s next? You’ve advanced through the years. Is there anything else you would like to do?

Honestly, I would really like to go back to school. There were some educational goals I didn’t meet just because my family life didn’t take me in that direction. My son is a junior this year. He’ll graduate from high school next year, so maybe we’ll both go to college at the same time in the fall of 2018.

#WeAreVBSchools

Swimming in the flood

cfes-2nd-grade-flood-swimmer

When I’m not at school I like to play outside. I swam in the flood. It was like up to my knees. A couple of people on my road, we just jumped in the water.

And what do you like about school?

I like when my teacher gives us candy. We got a doughnut the other day for “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” At Krispy Kreme doughnuts, if you dressed like a pirate you got a dozen doughnuts. One of my classmates’ moms dressed up and brought in doughnuts.

Teaching Together

kempsvilleesartteachers-1024x681

This is my 33rd year teaching art at the beach, and this year is very special because I have the opportunity to teach with my daughter, Caitlin! While I have years of experience, Cait brings fresh ideas and new energy to our program. We enjoy collaborating and working as a team to provide a great art experience for students.

And I feel like I grew up here, between visiting my Mom and volunteering in her classroom. I am so excited to job share with her doing something we love!

#WeAreVBSchools