Durham PreK is committed to high-quality early education, and one way we support that is through weekly technical assistance and coaching with Durham PreK teachers and directors. Each month, we highlight some of the incredible work our teachers and students are doing. Check out the highlights from May and June below!
Graduation for students was held on May 27th and 28th at Triangle Day Care Center. PreK Classroom #2's graduation theme was "Flying into Kindergarten." Ms. Shamika Torian was the flight attendant and Ms. D'Asia Moore was the pilot. Congratulations graduates!
Teachers at Oxford Manor Head Start made a slide show from the school year that they showed at graduation!
"The webinars have been really helpful - helpful in the classroom with the kids and with different scenarios. They have a lot of [strategies] on how to [handle children with challenging] behaviors. Every year we have [conversations] about hair texture, skin color, and we have been role playing. We have a lot of diversity and they have curious minds, so the webinars are really helpful!"
- Brenda Jones, Teacher
"Working with the TA this school year has been very helpful because I was new with this position and it helped me as far as learning the things I needed to do to make these things smoother. Y'all were very helpful. Y'all were only an email away!"
- Michelle Bass, Director
I was a new teacher to the program and this has been a challenging year for me. Having the [Making the Most of Classroom Interactions (MMCI)] training has pushed me to be the best teacher I could be for my students. A classroom can be filled with several materials but what matters most is the interactions that teachers have with their students. The MMCI training has focused on helping teachers to assist each student in the classroom to make progress and be successful.
–Keisha Ervin, Teacher
Keisha Ervin, Teresa Davis, Morgan Falcone, and Tiandra Johnson participated in 2 sessions providing feedback for the Joint TA team (Durham PreK, Durham Public Schools, Head Start, and Durham's Partnership for Children) in regards to professional development in 2021-2022. Durham PreK teachers provided much needed insight on how they believed professional development activities went this year and what things we could do to improve in the future.
Lavana Johnson completed her coursework for her Bachelors of Science in Birth-Kindergarten with a concentration in Early Intervention from Winston Salem State University last May, and was able to walk across the stage and receive her diploma in-person on May 20, 2021. Lavana was also listed as a Honor Graduate for 2020! Congratulations Lavana!
Randy’s Five Star Academy, Inc participated in a Tike-a-Thon event that teaches trike and riding toy safety while helping children at St. Jude’s Hospital. This event was held May 3rd - May 25th where each class raised money and each student was able to bring in their bike from home to ride for collecting donations. For this event, the center has raised $1,505.00, with more donations being collected, and all donations will be sent to St. Jude from Randy's Five Star Academy, Inc. The students had so much fun participating and the parents participated by collecting donations.
Congratulations Erica Booker, Debbie Timmons, Natasha Johnson, Kimberly Toth, Dorothy Ramsey, Miracle Jackson, Kellie Kemp, Kiana McMillan, Gina Allen, Brenda Jones, Brenda Stephenson, Shenijua Gilmore, and Shamika Torian!
Congratulations Helen Lambeth, Karyn Wilkerson, and Dalphia Murphy!