Douglas Dragoneer

WOW! 2006 is off and running. I can hardly believe it is February. Last Thursday was the 100^th day of school and there were several celebrations around the school. It was great to see how each student used their imagination to represent 100 days of school. If you have not been inside Douglas lately, you should take some time to walk around and see what all the students have been doing. They have been working hard. Your PTA has also been working hard at planning our spring activities. We still have a lot of fun activities planned. Remember we have a PTA meeting the first Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. in the Media Center. We would love to have you there. In February we have our Meet and Greet with Ms. Spivey, a Teacher Appreciation breakfast, another Cultural Arts event (Almost Recess) and our Quit Dedication on February 16^th. The Variety Show in March is always a fun event! In April we will have a Carvel Ice Cream Family Night and the Spring Book Fair. Then we will round out the year with Teacher Appreciation Week and the much anticipated and very fun Carnival on May 5^th! As you can see there are a lot of happenings going on at Douglas. I would encourage you to read the Dragoneer for additional information about these upcoming events and get involved with your child’s school.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to our Commit 1 team. Thanks to Amoret Phillips, Ellen Penny, Kevin Gorman, Susan Johnston, Katrina Morris, Andrea Mouw, Carrie Johnson, Trish Stutts, and Cindy Mitchell for their time and commitment to working in the front office. What a help they are! If you are interesting in serving with our Commit 1 team or learning more about it, contact Kevin Gorman at lgorman@nc.rr.com .

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all the volunteers that helped with our Open House and Kindergarten registration. They really make Douglas shine! We could not have done it without you.

PTA would like to congratulate Ms. Lorey for receiving the Teacher of the Year award and for Ms. Todd for getting the Teacher Assistant of the Year award. Stop by and thank them for all their hard work with our kids.

Many hands make the work light,

Karen Moore

PTA – President-Elect

Meet and Greet Ms. Spivey!

Please join the PTA in welcoming Ms. Susan Spivey, our new principal, to Douglas Elementary! Parents and guardians are invited to drop by the school Wednesday morning, February 15th, anytime from 8:30am to 10:00am to share a cup of coffee with and get to know Ms. Spivey. (location at school TBA)

Treasure Island Auditions
Douglas Elementary will present a musical version of “Treasure Island” on May 12th. We will be holding auditions after school by appointment on 2/22, 2/23 and 2/24. For more information, contact Ms. Zelasky (szelasky@wcpss.net) or Ms. Gainey (lgainey2@wcpss.net).

Jump Rope For Heart

Collection of donations for the JUMP ROPE FOR HEART will be due by Feb.17th. Over the next three weeks our children will learn about heart attack, stroke, and how smoking hurts our bodies. The JRFH event will take place during PE classes the week of Feb.20th. Thank you for all your support in this Wake County Schools fundraiser.

Outstanding Character

The children from the following classes were inadvertently left off of last week's newsletter. We thank them for demonstrating outstanding character and apologize for the oversight.

Mrs. Montgomery - Melody Yoshizawa

Myriah Luke

Mr. Pelman - Jaraad Samad

Anjali Paintal

Mrs. Rhoden - Renard Wattley

Anthony Cannady

February's Character Trait is Integrity

Integrity is February’s Character Trait selected by the Wake County Public School System. The definition of Integrity as defined by the Public Schools of North Carolina, is "having the inner strength to be truthful, trustworthy and honest in all things; acting justly and honorably." Integrity is ever present in our lives from the many scandals involving major corporations to the political arena as well as in education such as discussions of cheating being on the rise in high schools and colleges. It is only now, early in the lives of our children, that we can foster the roots that integrity stems from, to give them a passionate dedication to the value of ones own integrity that will withstand question.

Integrity Begins at Home

The Teaching Character, Parents Guide by Dotson & Dotson offers these ways to encourage honesty in your child

· Verbally encourage your child when he or she is honest.

· Discuss honesty and dishonesty when you see examples on TV or at the movies. Talk about the consequences of choices made.

· Insist your child apologize to the injured person when he or she is dishonest. Require they compensate the owner if something is broken or stolen.

· Model honest behavior. Don’t ask your child to tell someone you’re not home when you are home. Remember “they learn by watching you”.

· Help your child problem-solve situations that tempt him or her to be dishonest.

· Discuss “little white lies” and whether they think they are different from “regular lies”. Also discuss how it makes us feel when someone is dishonest with us.

Keeping promises and arriving on time are two actions that show we are a person with integrity. In a time of busy schedules for both parents and children, it can be a challenge to carefully choose our commitments so that we can be fair to what we do and not grow angry.

Recommended Readings

Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

The Empty Pot by Demi

The Art Lesson by Tommy De Paola

Quote of the Month

“Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”

-- Jim Stovall