November/December 2021 Volume 3 Issue 2 | | |
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Haim Rose (Emma) (Korea)
Emma was born in Alabama. She is proud to be a Korean American. She is very well-mannered and works hard in ESOL.
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Leonel Palomino
(Mexico)
Leonel is a sweet boy. He follows directions, participates and is eager to learn. Leonel is making great progress in ESOL. He has twin sisters at the Academy.
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Allyson
(Mexico)
Allyson says her family's favorite drink is hot chocolate and they enjoy eating tamales. She is a good friend and is making great progress in ESOL.
Her favorite color is blue.
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International Students Day at BES | |
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Deval is a second grade student in Mrs. Clark's ESOL class. He is a hard-working and dedicated student who is always wearing a smile and willing to help his classmates. He loves sharing about his life experiences and applying it to his learning at school.
His family has lived in the United States for about 17 years and their country of origin is India and the state of Gujarat. They enjoy participating in cultural
celebrations like Navratri and Diwali. These may include dancing, fireworks, eating Indian sweets made of milk, spending time with family members, and much more!
We are so happy that Deval chose to spend his first year in BCS at Buford Academy!
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Students at BSA participated in a school-wide hallway project for International Students’ Day. While each continent was displayed on the wall, students marked their families’ country of origin or history.
Each continent also displayed a question, asking students to think about different aspects of life as a student, both in the United States, and around the world. Students wrote responses to the questions
and to each other on the displays. Students learned many interesting facts about their classmates.
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Linh (5th Grade)
Home country: Vietnam
Linh and her sister Nghi, (4th grade), spend their Language Arts class together each day in Mrs. Borck's mixed grade level class. Linh supports her classmates and many students look up to her as a role model because of her positive attitude, eagerness to learn, and strong work ethic.
Linh is intelligent, empathetic, and very sensitive to the feelings of others. She is quick to enjoy a funny joke, and can often make connections between what she learns in English, and what is similar or different to what she knows in Vietnamese.
Linh enjoys learning about the Vietnamese culture and language from her mother. Linh's favorite holiday in Vietnam is the New Year celebration. Her extended family from all over the country comes together in one house and celebrates for 3 or 4 days. We are delighted Linh has joined us at Buford Senior Academy this year.
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Karol Sofia (4th grade)
Home country: Colombia
Karol Sofia lives with her mom, dad, and sister. She is grateful for a kind and loving family. Karol Sofia enjoys December 7th with her family each year. This is called Day of the Little Candles, or Dia de las velitas. The family lights many little candles and exchange gifts.
Karol Sofia is an excellent student. She is kind, respectful, sincere, and a very hard worker. Karol Sofia helps her classmates when they need support. She is a multi-dimensional learner. She is an active soccer player and she won her class spelling bee competition this year!
Way to go Karol Sofia!
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Buford City Schools Board of Education member, Mr. Bruce Fricks visits BMS
Mr. Fricks has always cared so much about our ESOL program according to Mrs. Anna Misley.
Mrs. Misley said, "He loves to meet newcomers from all around the world. Earlier this year, he spent time in one of my classes. Each student bravely introduced themselves regardless of the amount of time they've been in America...two days, two months, or two years."
Mrs. Misley said she was very proud of her students. She could tell one brand new student from Colombia was nervous and had never done this before, but he copied the English of his classmates and she beamed with pride because of his accomplishment.
Mr. Fricks introduced himself in Spanish to the class and all the students applauded.
Mrs. Misley said, "I think it is very important for our community to see how involved and caring our board members are!"
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Claudia (8th grade)
Home country: Honduras
Claudia is new to America and is learning English. Yet, she had the courage to perform on November 1st at the BHS Performing Arts Center in front of hundreds of people. She stood in the front and along with her peers sang beautifully in English and several different languages.
At BMS, we are so proud of her strength and courage.
This is truly a wonderful accomplishment for someone who is newly arrived to America and in the beginning stages of learning English!
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Charlotte (8th grade)
Home country: Dominican Republic
Charlotte is an amazing student. In the first year of her arrival in America, she scored nearly a perfect score on the English Language Proficiency test called ACCESS. It is amazing to note that she also was a digital student for half of her first year. She is academically successful because she puts forth so much work into her studies. She has great hopes and dreams which she will accomplish. She was one of very few students invited to a UGA informational program seeking Hispanic students with outstanding grades.
Besides all of her academic accomplishments, she is a kind person. She is the type of person others want to imitate. As a matter of fact, another 8th grade student said, "Charlotte is my role-model. I want to be just like her."
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Buford High School Cafeteria Workers
Sharon and Araceli are two of our cafeteria workers who serve over 1,000 students every day. Each meal is prepared with love and served with a smile.
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Ms. Sharon was born and raised in Buford She has been with BCS for 16 years working in the BHS cafeteria. She enjoys interacting with the students and staff each day. When she is not at work, she spends time with her family and friends. Sharon says she is hoping in 2022 we can live our lives without stressing over getting sick.
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Ms. Araceli has been with the district for nearly 8 years. She is from Mexico. She loves seeing the students, meeting new people and working closely with her colleagues. Her family likes to play sports, board games, and have movie nights. Good health for her family and friends and getting back to "normal" are her hopes for 2022.
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STEM ACTIVITIES @Buford Academy | |
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Mrs. Taylor May is dispelling the myth that math and science activities are just for boys. She is instilling in ALL students the love for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Starting at an early age helps to erase the stigma that these subjects are difficult to understand. STEM-based activities are "hands-on and minds-on" which enable students to use critical thinking skills as they work alongside their peers. These types of activities also help students connect to the real world, peek their curiosity, and allow them to envision their role in making the world a better place for everyone.
But, STEM is more than just science, technology, engineering and math. Mrs. May also incorporates engaging literature into her units of study. Students spend time in productive conversations which promote listening and creative collaboration.
Check out the photos below.
|  | 3rd graders built aqueducts to bring water to a village. This project accompanied the picture book Nya's Long Walk. Students learned about a village in Sudan that did not have clean water. This caused the people to get sick. So, a non profit organization called Water for Sudan came in and built a well to clean water and an aqueduct system to bring the water closer to the village. | 1st graders made working windmills to accompany the picture book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. This is a true story of a boy living in a village in Africa that had no power and was experiencing severe drought. The boy used scrap pieces from a junkyard to build a working windmill to bring power and water to his village. Students discussed how to be resourceful with the materials around them. Junk is never junk when you have a creative mind! | 2nd graders made flying machines after reading the picture book Rosie Revere Engineer. Students discussed the engineering profession and how many girls/women are starting to take jobs in the field. Their flying machine had to hold Rosie safely and make it down a zip line! | |
2nd graders built rollercoasters using plates and cups as they learned about force and motion. | |
3rd graders read the story I Wanna New Room. They had to make a blueprint of their dream room which included calculating area and perimeter of objects in the rooms. The final project required them to build a 3D model with Legos. | |
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Students are even learning to code!
1st graders learned basic coding skills using the Bee-bot robot. They were provided with grids and asked to program the bee to move forward, backwards, turn left, or turn right to make their way across the columns and rows to a certain space on the grid.
Grids had addition and subtraction problems, sight words, etc.
The students were writing the code out as they programmed the bee, so they could check each other and debug if the code did not work.
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