Whitesides Elementary School provides all students with rich, rigorous opportunities to develop the world class skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate, which are creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.
All teachers create lessons based on the South Carolina standards and include many opportunities for students to collaborate and create meaningful connections through instruction. Our teachers help students understand and use the world class skills necessary to succeed and be college and career ready. Students in Child Development (preK) through 5th grade participate weekly through instruction in our STEAM lab. In addition, with the continuation of the STEAM initiative at Whitesides, students are engaged in learning activities that provide opportunities for collaboration with other students in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Through these collaborative projects, students are able to demonstrate effective communication skills as they work together to solve problems and make revisions for successful outcomes. STEAM activities promote critical thinking and creativity for all students, allowing for trial and error learning. They also enhance skill development in self-regulation and help students take responsibility for their own learning.
A major focus at Whitesides continues to be Literacy and developing each student to read on grade level. Teachers in the early grades provide daily phonics instruction and practice while incorporating early writing skills to help students make the connection between reading and writing. Through the use of the CKLA reading program, along with novel studies, book buddies, and IBEAM reading, students see and experience reading throughout the school day in a variety of ways. Additionally, a literacy assistant was added by using Weighted Student Formula (WSF) funds to assist in the reading intervention program. Through WSF, materials were purchased to support our Early Birds Club in order to provide extra support to students in reading and math.
Book clubs, participation in Battle of the Books, Career Week, Touch a Truck, college spirit days, creating the live daily news show, community outreach programs, field trips, author visits, and the spelling bee help students develop skills in working together as a team, increase presentation and communication skills. Additionally, these activities expose students to the careers that are available to them and the skills needed for those jobs. They also help to increase the love of reading and the importance of reading for information as well as for pleasure. With teachers providing small group instruction in classrooms and our interventionists providing intensive reading intervention to students, we were able to increase reading levels and skills. In order to continue to increase student literacy achievement, teachers in grades kindergarten through third grade have been trained in the Science of Reading, through the LETRS cohort.
We provide monthly school-wide guidance programs focused on the College and Career Readiness skills as well as working to meet the needs of students’ social and emotional needs. These programs helped to create continuity and consistency across all grade levels as students work together to keep our school bully-free and to appropriately resolve peer conflicts. In recognizing the additional social and emotional needs of our students, we increased our small group guidance lessons to focus on self-care and managing emotions. Our focus continues to be the implementation of programs and strategies that help develop academic, social, and emotional growth in all of our students.
Michelle Conner, Principal
Jamie Seebold, SIC Chair
