LEMS Principal's Weblog

Upcoming events

lemsprincipalblog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:04:55 +0000

The 2nd week in September marks a milestone in the school calender at LEMS. Athletic competition begins!!! Beginning Tuesday of this week, competitive cheerleading, volleyball, and football, our fall sports, start their season. Our players and coaches have been working diligently to prepare for their season. I always enjoy watching our student-athletes as they give it their all on the court or the field, or the mat. We have a very successful program at LEMS. This is mainly due to the fact that our coaches do an outstanding job of teaching the sport and instilling in our students the right attitude about athletics. I would like to thank our coaches: Janet Haselden and Tammy Johnson (cheerleading); Christy Holley (volleyball); Randy Stokes, Shawn Phipps, Ted Monroe, Clay Frith, Derrick Belton, and Joey Cobb (football). They are as dedicated a bunch of coaches as you can find and great role models for our students. I appreciate their dedication and commitment.

Open House/The end of the first week

lemsprincipalblog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:54:40 +0000

Thursday night was open house at LEMS. We held it during the first week so as to not compete with the Welcome Back Nights of our sister elementary schools. There was a great crowd here. It is always wonderful when the community comes to the school. I especially enjoy seeing the older siblings of our current students come back and visit during this time. To hear the stories of high school and college and have them reminisce about their time at LEMS warms my heart. It makes me very proud of the part our school has played in their growth into adulthood.

The first week of school ends today. It has been a marvelous week. I appreciate the hardwork and dedication of the best faculty and staff anywhere. I would also like to thank our students for beginning the new year off with such a great week. May they all be as positive.

The First Day of School

lemsprincipalblog — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:14:59 +0000

Wow!!! Was i tired when I got home from school yesterday? I sure was. It was a great day at LEMS. There were the usual bugs in the cafeteria as students bring in money and try to remember their number to put in the Point-of-Sale system. The bugs with traffic in the morning and pickup in the afternoon, but overall it was a super day. Learning was happening at LEMS!!!

6th Grade Day Camp

lemsprincipalblog — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:48:43 +0000

Saturday August 16th was the first day of school for the 6th graders at LEMS. Well at least unofficially. Today we held day camp for our 6th graders. It is a way for our newest students to become familiar with their new environment. The transition from elementary to middle is one of the biggest in the educational career of children. We want to do everything we can to lessen the stress. Keep the students focused on the task at hand. At our day camp, we discuss dress code, discipline, tour the school, get lockers, practice working our lockers , visit with our teachers, and eat lots of pizza. We had over 80% of our incoming 6th grade class participate in the program. I would like to thank April Jacob, Bonita Hunter, Sylvia Blackwell, Levonne Springs, Christine Meiler, Christine Riechers, Sandy Hall, Rhonda Eckenroth, Kayci Brazell, Natalie Jeffcoat, Sissy Davis, Debbie Buffington, Tracy Elmore, and Tonya Carter for giving up the morning of their last Saturday before school starts to help make the beginning of the new school year so positive for our 6th grade.

With Leopard Pride!!!

Rising 6th Grade Orientation

lemsprincipalblog — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:28:23 +0000

On the night of May 15th, we held our rising 6th grade orientation. We had a great turn out of parents and students. We are glad to welcome this outstanding group of young people to the Mighty Leopard family. The purpose of this meeting was to help ease the transition from elementary to middle school. We went over the “A-Z” of being a middle school student at LEMS. It was a pleasure to meet and greet the parents and students who could make it. We will host a day-camp for our incoming class of 6th graders on August 16th from 9-12. This will give our staff a chance to spend some quality time with the students and acclimate them to their new school home. Welcome to the Mighty Leopard Family!!!

A Night of Inquiry

lemsprincipalblog — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:49:29 +0000

On the night of May 8th, the LEMS Science Department held a Night of Inquiry for our students and their parents. This event was an opportunity for our students and parents to participate in science games and activities based on the South Carolina Science Standards. There was an excellent turnout, about 150 people. I appreciate the efforts of our science staff: Mrs. Paula Costello, Mrs. Pollet Hampton, Mrs. Pam Humphries, Mrs. Brittain Melton, Mrs. Kim Setzer, Mrs. Tracy Elmore, and Ms. Sandy Hall. There is a no finer group of science educators anywhere. They instill in their students a love for science and constantly go beyond the call of duty. They look for inventive ways to get the information to the students and still hold them accountable for mastering the standards. This was the third in our series of Core Subject Programs. Earlier this year, we held Family Reading Night, followed by Math Game Night, and a Night of Inquiry. On the May 22nd, we will have Social Studies Game Night which will feature student produced games. I hope you’ll be able to join us.

Our Teacher of the Year

lemsprincipalblog — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:42:05 +0000

Monday May 5th was the Annual Teacher of the Year banquet of Kershaw County Schools. As always, it was sponsored by the Teacher Forum and the district. It was a really well done program and the quality of the teachers and their work is extraordinary. That brings me to my main topic today which is our teacher of the year, Mrs. Anne Lemieux. As many of you know, Mrs. Lemieux is our media specialist. the simple fact that you are reading this is a testament to her on-line acumen. As the webmaster and technology contact for our school. Mrs. Lemieux is directly responsible for our website. She has promoted our blogging, podcasts, voice-threads, and WIKIS. She is constantly doing staff development with our students and staff about technology issues. Yet for all of her prowess with the computer, she embodies the love of reading for all. Mrs. Lemieux has supported our Leopard Readers Reward Program, started a Breakfast Club for our students, and countless other tasks. I was very proud that our school was represented by our Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Anne Lemieux. She is a great teacher and we are fortunate to have her as part of the Mighty Leopard Family!

Visitors in our school! Red Robin Surprise-

lemsprincipalblog — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:53:09 +0000

Today, LEMS was proud to host a team from SCETV. This crew came to visit our school as part of the TV show In Our Schools. We were chosen to be part of this due to our outstanding test scores and the three consecutive Silver Awards. It is quite an honor to be chosen for this program. Several classes, several students, and programs were highlighted. We are always proud to brag a little about our school. Wefeel that we have a lot to brag about. Before they left, the video crew was very complimentary about our students, parents, programs, and staff. They commented to me that they could see why our students love our school .

Speaking of bragging, this past Friday, we found out that LEMS was named a U-ACT School of Excellence by the Red Robin Corporation for our efforts in Character Education. A special thanks to Ms. Bonita Hunter and Ms. Sylvia Blackwell (our two outstanding Guidance Counselors) for heading that application up. The award includes a banner, a spirit night at our local Red Robin restaurant in Sandhills, and a check for $10,000. Wow!!! That really rocks. I’m proud of our staff and students.

Charity begins at Home

lemsprincipalblog — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:55:27 +0000

I would like to talk about the Mighty Leopard Spirit that exists in our school. We always hear that charity begins at home. The students and staff at LEMS are beyond generous when it comes to the charitable spirit. During the past school year, LEMS students and staff raised $5300 for Pennies for Patients, a childhood cancer charity, over $3000 for families at Christmas, over $1300 for the Chris Mitchell Fund for a student with a heart transplant, and over $7000 for Relay for Life . That is over $16000 in charitable contributions back to our community. That is a personal demonstration of our school motto: ” Understanding Hearts and Positive Attitudes make a Great School.” A big thank you to all of our staff who head up these efforts (Beverly Anderson, Debbie Buffington, Tracy Elmore, the Sixth Grade Teams, Lynn Weeks, and everyone I have forgotten). That is giving back!

Visitors and a LEGO Field Trip

lemsprincipalblog — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:34:57 +0000

Today, we were happy to host visitors from Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle School in Aiken County. Principal Russell Gunter brought 5 of his staff members to discuss middle school strategies, techniques, and visit some of our classes. LEMS is always glad to host visitors from others schools. Besides getting to showoff what we believe is the finest middle school in the state, it encourages the sharing of ideas between schools. Often we find ourselves picking up ideas from them as well. We don’t have the corner of the market on great ideas. We are always looking for ways to improve, to tweak our system, to get better. The fact that LBC Middle chose to visit us is another testament to our teachers, staff, and students.

On another topic, for the past two days our 6th grade science classes have been involved in an “in-school” field trip. It involved our students building motorized cars from legos and racing them. I would like to include this quote from Tracy Elmore, 6th grade science teacher.

I just wanted to tell you all about the LEGO on-site Field trip. It was absolutely fantastic! The students loved it and had fun while they learned. It covered several of our standards: technological design and energy with motion and forces as well as energy transformations! Anyway, at the end of the day when I was helping the visitors clean up they were talking to me about the student behavior on Monday and Tuesday. They said our students were the best behaved group of students that they worked with. The students worked well in their groups and they really put some thought into their design of their LEGO car. Mr. and Mrs. Powell talked about how they could tell that the students respected the adults in the school and towards visitors in the school. They could tell that LEMS had structure and it was a safe learning environment. They even commented on the 7^th and 8^th grade student’s behavior and how they could walk down the hallway. They added that if their kids were little they would have no problem sending their kids to this school. I think that sends a great message to us that even though we do get frustrated sometimes and think maybe what we are doing isn’t working but in all actuality it really is working. We do have good students and they can perform, maybe we need to take a step back at times and notice the good. I am very guilty of complaining first and getting very frustrated but yesterday really made me take a step back and realize that we do have it good here! J Thank you all for all the hard work and for teaching our students.

Wow, That tells a great deal about the fine job our teachers do everyday!!!