Emily Flora | SWoCo

Fifth-graders hold up flags at the Veterans Day celebration.

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, Cave Spring Elementary School fifth-graders held the annual Veterans Day celebration in the gymnasium called "A Celebration To Honor Our Veterans." All of the students attended the event, as well as some parents.

The fifth-graders led the student body in The Pledge of Allegiance and then continued to sing songs which included, Star Spangled Banner, This is America, Lights of Freedom, Heart of America, American Tears, This Land is Your Land, Fifty Nifty United States, God Bless U.S.A., Oh I love America, and Thankful for the U.S.A. A poem entitled, 'I am an American' was also read. The fifth-graders were under the direction of Ann Kelley.

The fifth-graders include: Riley Assaid, Madison Aurnou, Brynn Austin, Mallory Austin, Abigail Baker, Kyle Bridgers, Kole Bridgers, Peyton Brock, Matthew Brown, Grace Burton, Rebecca Butterworth, Rohan Chakraborty, Shivani Chati, Annie Clark, Kiel Cook, Elaina Corfield, Emma Cummings, Morgan Cundiff, Alec Dalton, Brian Daniel, Chris Daniel, Rachel Delaney, Ermin Delic, Bennett Desimone, Cody Dice, Ross Dixon, Thomas Engl, Jocelyn Essington, Zach Farmer, Travis Finch, Olivia Forbes, Taylor Gray, Sidney Green, Robby Greigg, Randa Habazi, Celia Harding, Sara Harmon, Lauren Harrison, Jared Harvey, Keara Henry, Mari Hooper, Trip Hudson, Faris Iqbal, Jacob Jones, Elizabeth Kemp, Christian Lamanca, Grave Landolt, Noah Laplante, Dylan Lewis, Stephanie Lodico, Drew Lucas, Julia Lucktong, Rachael Lumpkin, Hannah McCormick, Nathan McVey, Julia Melki, Stephanie Meriwether, Casey Murano, Emily Peery, Jesse Morrison, Josh Pompeo, Priyanka Pugazhenthi, John Purcell, Naima Rasul, Drew Ratliff-Fuqua, Garrison Richmond, Clay Roach, Ryan Scribner, Daniele Staykov, Ginsey Stephenson, Caroline Sublett, Matthew Terwilliger, Savannah Thompson, Izabelle Thompson, Jack Thompson, Jessi Tochimani, Mack Werner, Sam Wilkerson, Trey Willard, Brad Williams, Elizabeth Williams, Lauren Winston, Mitchell Yates, Chase Zegarski, and Jack Zeleznik.

-- Emily Flora

Faith Christian School honors veterans on Veterans Day

The Faith Christian School community invited all veterans to come and be honored at their "Honoring All Who Served" Veterans Day event at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Nov. 11.

Head of School, Sam Cox, welcomed all of the vets to Faith Christian, followed by an invocation given by the Rev. Ed Dunnington.

The upper school drama students gave several performances during the event. Those students in the drama club include: Rhett Adams, AC Branch, Alex Byrd, Danny Byrd, Trevor Byrd, Meredith Green, Abby Head, Tori Head, Kristen Iler, Jackie Jessop, Jack Jordan, Katie McCurdy, Monica Pollard, Megan Sweeney, Alton Wampler, and Anna Willis.

The drama students performed "Because of Them" and "In Their Own Words: War Letters." The letters used in the performance were selected from those documented in three books, War Letters, Behind the Lines, and Grace Under Fire by Andrew Carroll.

Roanoke County Sheriff's Department Honor Guard presented the colors and a salute to Armed Forces was played in which all Veterans stood to as it was played. Taps were conducted by John Vitello of Cave Spring High School, who played the trumpet.

After the service Susan Childs said a message from a local resident was played over the loudspeaker to everyone in the school. It was from a woman who said she drives by Faith Christian School every day and that it was so moving to her to see the kids in the rain that morning at 7:30 waving flags along Buck Mountain Road. She said it was easy to stand in the sun and wave a flag, but for these kids to stand out in the pouring rain as a show of support to our military, was a very moving thing for her.

Boy Scouts, Pack 632 also greeted the carpoolers that morning with a corridor of flag waving upon arrival.

--Emily Flora

County teacher wins technology leadership award

Meg Swecker, instructional technology resource teacher for Roanoke County Public Schools, has received the 2009 Virginia Technology Leadership Award from the Virginia Department of Education. Swecker also was recognized as the Region Six Educational Technology Leadership Award winner. The awards were presented Oct. 30 during the annual Educational Technology Leadership Conference in Richmond.

The Educational Technology Leadership Awards, presented annually, acknowledge outstanding school division leadership in education technology planning and implementation. Division superintendents in each of VDOE's eight study regions select individuals for the award. Recipients are chosen for their success in helping school divisions improve teaching and learning through the use of instructional media and technology.

"Meg is completely committed to teaching technology to our students," said Roanoke County Public Schools Director of Technology, Dr. Jane James. "She strives to help teachers integrate technology into everyday lessons to enhance and expand learning," James said.

Submitted by Roanoke County Schools

ExxonMobil donates $750 to North Cross School

North Cross School has received a $750 grant from ExxonMobil Educational Alliance program. Stop In Food Stores, Inc. worked with the School to secure the grant, which is one of 2,400 available to schools across the country served by Exxon or Mobil stations. The grants were made possible by funding the Exxon Mobil Corporation.

"North Cross School works hard to make learning interesting and fun," said Tom Turner, of Stop In Food Stores. "As an Exxon dealer, we are proud to help young people of the Roanoke Valley."

The ExxonMobil Educational Alliance program is designed to provide Exxon and Mobil retailers with an opportunity to invest in the future of their communities through educational grants to neighborhood school. ExxonMobil believes that, as members of the community, local retailers are best qualified to work with local educators to help identify schools and programs most in need of support.

Stop In Food Stores met stringent eligibility criteria before applying for and being awarded this grant, including having a commitment to provide a superior buying experience for customers.

Submitted by Laura Neff-Henderson

A big reminder of Red Ribbon Week at Cave Spring High

This is what students, faculty, and visitors were greeted with when they entered the new Cave Spring High School entrance -- a giant red ribbon.

Roanoke County celebrated Red Ribbon Week from Oct. 26 though Oct. 30.

Red Ribbon Week is the nation's oldest and largest drug prevention program held at the end of October every year. The purpose of the event is for young people to pledge to live drug-free and remember DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena who was killed on February 7, 1985 by Mexican drug traffickers.

Cave Spring High School won first place in the 2009 Red Ribbon Week High School Competition sponsored by the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (RAYSAC). To read more, visit The Notebook on swo-co.com.

North Cross distributes netbook computers to students

North Cross School recently distributed 150 netbook computers to upper school students. According to Zack DeMoss, Director of IT at North Cross, this is the first year that computers have been distributed to the students and is part of an idea to move North Cross towards 21st century learning.

"We started the planning stages last year," DeMoss said. "It really took off in the summer -- making sure we had everything in place. We got them in August and had them turned back out to the students in a month and a half."

A netbook is a small, wireless computer that stands about an inch thick and is about the size of a piece of paper. They use a different processor than most laptop computers and as DeMoss says, they are much more portable and weigh only about a pound and a half.

"The idea behind the program is that the students get the netbooks at the beginning of the year and they return them at the end of the year. The goal is to have seniors take them when they leave and go to college," DeMoss said.

Those students who wish to take them after graduation must buy them.

"I think we are fortunate. We are innovators here and we jumped on the bandwagon. It's good to sort of get ahead of the crowd on this one," he said about getting the netbooks.

Students were just as excited as the faculty to receive the computers. DeMoss said the students knew they were coming, but weren't sure when they'd actually get them in hand.

"They were really anxious to get them. It was sort of a Christmas morning of sorts, you could see the joy in their eyes. It was the quietest the school has ever been."

DeMoss said that the netbooks have a lot of benefits for the school and the students. It will require less moving around campus to get to a lab with computers and the internet. Teachers will not have to worry about reserving labs. The netbooks will also enable students and teachers to continue class discussion and share information from home, as well as in the classroom.

"We can fully encompass the business function and become a part of that society," DeMoss said. "It's just a collaboration and the ability to have information at your fingertips."

Netbooks went out to all of the upper school students and DeMoss said that North Cross hopes to roll the program into the middle school in the future.

"It's been fun and exciting and we've really enjoyed rolling it out and the kids seem to enjoy having them. We can really see the benefits in the fruits of our labors," DeMoss said.

For more information on the netbooks at North Cross School, visit The Notebook on swo-co.com.

Faith Christian School celebrates Grandparent's Day

Faith Christian School celebrated its 6th Annual Grandparent's Day on Friday, Nov. 13. Students invited their grandparents, who came as far away as California and Iowa, to the school for the celebration. Susan Childs said they had about 300 grandparents throughout the day.

A Grand Cafe was set up with coffee, ham biscuits, sweet breads and fruit for grandparents and the students to enjoy before and after the performances. Performances were spread out by grade beginning at 8 a.m. and lasting until about noon. Gifts were also given out to each grandparent and then grandparents were invited to visit the classrooms.