By: Taylor R. Jones
More than 550 Parkside Elementary School students were celebrated by their active participation in the district’s “Take 5” campaign and Parkside’s F.I.T. (Fundamental Instructional Training) Challenges with a pizza party from the district.
In the beginning of 2016, Atlanta Public Schools issued a challenge to all APS schools to have parents update their contact information in Infinite Campus. After careful research by the district’s Research and Evaluation Office, it was determined that Parkside had more parents to update their information than any other school.
In lieu of their recent success, Parkside kept the momentum going with their annual F.I.T. Challenges. These comprehensive educational games engage students to use what they have learned over the years through fun, yet stimulating games. Each grade experiences 4 challenges in 20-minute rotations.
Some of these games include “Math Football” and playing “Hungry, Hungry Hippo” to answer comprehensive educational questions.
As F.I.T. Challenges started off catering to the math subject, this year marked Parkside’s first F.I.T. Challenges that included all areas of learning such as ELA (English Language Arts) problem solving activities and competitive content games.
Math Instructional Coach, Gregory Coleman, is ecstatic to see the amount of fun students have applying the concepts they have learned. Especially, taking them out of traditional elements to teach standard concepts.
“Well, when we started, we knew that we needed to do something to engage the students,” said Coleman. “It’s a split between academics and Field Day to make it fun. They (the students) know that they’re being engaged and learning through the process.”
To learn more about the district’s “Take 5” Campaign, please go here.
