We had a chance to videotape some of the speeches delivered by the valedictorians, salutatorians and “STAR” students who were honored this week at the annual breakfast featuring Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall and hosted by Georgia Power. Here we get to watch in on Paul Harris, Jr. (valedictorian and “STAR” student of Carver Early College) and Edward Furman Mosely, III (salutatorian of Douglass High) speak during the segment “Fulfilling the Dream.” Enjoy!
Photo by Tim Wilkerson/Atlanta Opera
We couldn’t be prouder of Miles and Adamsville elementary chorus teacher Letricia Henson and Douglass High choral director Ben Polite, who currently are performing in the chorus for the Atlanta Opera‘s sold-out run of “Porgy and Bess” this week at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. It should be noted that the opera chorus already has received rave reviews, and we’d like to think Henson and Polite are two big-voice reasons why.
And this isn’t Henson’s first rodeo with George and Ira Gerswhin‘s iconic opera, which tells the story of African Americans in Depression Era Charleston, S.C. She sang in the opera chorus for the Atlanta Opera’s first mounting of “Porgy and Bess” back in 2005, and the following year performed the opera in Paris with the same group. (It marked the first time an American opera chorus of this kind was ever invited to perform in a European music hall, Henson notes.)
Representatives from the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, Office of Water Efficiency taught Ralph J. Bunche Middle School sixth-graders how to conserve water and explore careers in environmental science through the ‘Be Water Wise Atlanta’ Water Conservation Workshop on Tuesday morning. Be Water Wise is a national program that engages partners from the public, private and nonprofit sectors to raise awareness of local water issues and improve water conservation in school buildings and grounds. The workshop is the first of many that will be conducted by the Office of Water Efficiency under the Be Water Wise Atlanta program.
During the workshop, Bunche students in groups of 20 rotated among the following stations: How to Build a Rain Barrel, facilitated by Kimberly Davis, environmental education specialist, City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, Office of Water Efficiency; Life of a Water Drop by Yolanda Boazman and Carol Jones; and Envioralscape by Jennifer Carlile. “We want their generation to be aware of how to conserve water, think about careers that lead to environmental science and to become good stewards of the natural resources we have,” said Davis.
We had a chance to check in on the Georgia Music Educators Association District 5 Elementary and Middle School large group performance evaluation, which was held in the Douglass High auditorium. APS served as host for the event. Coordinators for this year’s event were Garnetta Penn as district chairperson and Lydia Williams as host.
Participating APS schools included Parkside Elementary Chorus, APS Honor Chorus, Inman Middle Chorus, Bunche Middle Chorus and the Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy (CSKYWLA) Chorus. Judges included college music professors. Dr. John B. Haberlen, chair of Georgia State University School of Music, judged on tone, pitch, rhythm and diction.
The two-day event at Douglass High is being supported by the efforts of APS Music district personnel who are donating their time to make sure this event went smoothly.
Congratulations to Morris Brandon, Centennial Place, Garden Hills, Parkside, D.H. Stanton, Toomer, Beecher Hills, and Drew Charter elementary schools for their outstanding performance in the fourth-annual APS Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl this last weekend. As the highest-scoring teams, Parkside and Morris Brandon will proceed to the Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl on Saturday, Feb. 5.
Parkside and Morris Brandon will be accompanied by a team from Sutton and Parks middle schools and a team from The New Schools at Carver and Douglass high schools.
Thanks to all the coaches, parents, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication to the students, and best of luck at the Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. For more information on the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, please visit here. Hat tip to APS Media Coordinator Warren Goetzel.
What: National Signing Day
Who: All APS senior student-athletes accepting athletic scholarships
Where: Frederick Douglass High School, 225 H.E. Holmes Drive., NW, Atlanta 30318
When: 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 2
Additional: APS high school seniors sign letters of intent for athletic scholarships at colleges and universities around the country. Both female and male student-athletics will be participating in this annual event. A select group of APS student-athletes will participate in a signing event for metro Atlanta student-athletes at Andretti’s in Roswell from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Douglass High exposes students to local and national leaders on a regular basis. Recently, students in Miriam Archibong’s American government class learned about Capitol Hill and the civil rights movement, courtesy of a visit from U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
Congressman Lewis, who represents the district where Douglass is located, has served in Congress for more than 20 years. He joined the civil rights movement as a teenager and told students that his involvement in movement and American politics was “a down payment – a major down payment on the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.”
A few weeks earlier, Brian Leary, president of the Atlanta BeltLine, also visited Archibong’s class to explain how the project would affect transportation, green space and affordable housing, particularly in the community surrounding Douglass. Leary also discussed opportunities for students to play a direct role in improving and maintaining the BeltLine.
Through these living lessons, APS students get to carve their journey to shaping the success story for Atlanta and the country.
The Douglass High Polaris yearbook staff knew early on that the 2009-10 school year wasn’t going to be like any other. A principal retired after winning the lottery. Flooding affected community members. A teacher passed away. National news kept coming at them. So they decided on the theme “Intensity” for the yearbook. They played up the number and word “Ten” in the chapters to play off the fact the school year would end in 2010.
The annual APS Awards honored those schools that made their district targets in a ceremony held Nov. 2 at Douglass High School. APS Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall gave out the awards. She noted the tremendous advances made at APS thanks to its reform efforts, including increased scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test, a doubling of scholarship money offered students, increased graduation rates, improved performance on state exams, improved financial stewardship, and more effective wellness programs. Hall expressed pride at all of these achievements:
I want you to know that, together, we remain on a solid journey to excellence. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, if we are going to continue to lift students up – that is, to raise achievement – then we, ourselves, can only do so by standing on higher ground. Please stay focused on the collective high standards you’ve demonstrated throughout the past several years. As we carry on our important work, let’s remember that we absolutely have something to celebrate. At the same time, we still have much more to do.
Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy sixth-grader Taylor Garlington provided the welcome for guests, while the Douglass high NJROTC (under direction of Commander Leroy Washington) presented the colors. Morris Brandon Elementary fifth-grader Mason Wright led the Pledge of Allegiance, while Cleveland Avenue Elementary music teacher Alonzo Taylor sang the national anthem.
The “Domecoming 2010” event features five APS high school football teams scheduled to compete throughout the day, Saturday, Oct. 23, at the stadium where the Atlanta Falcons play their home games – the Georgia Dome. The public is invited to attend the games. Admission is $10 for tickets purchased in advance or $15 for tickets purchased at the stadium on the day of the event. Tickets can be purchased at all APS high schools and at Ticketmaster. Admission is restricted to ticketholders only.
Below is a schedule of the “Domecoming 2010” games for Saturday, Oct. 23:
11 a.m. — South Atlanta vs. Lovett
2 p.m. — Carver vs. Dunwoody
5 p.m. — Washington vs. Druid Hills
8 p.m. — Douglass vs. Mays
These are homecoming games for South Atlanta, Carver, Washington and Douglass high schools. APS invites everyone to come out and cheer for their favorite high school football teams, as the students always appreciate a large crowd cheering them on in the same stadium where the National Football League pros compete.