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.
While we were incredibly moved by the experienced shared by our community and business partners who spend Principal Shadow Day learning more about the exciting things happening in our schools, we were equally moved by the speeches provided by male students from Benjamin E. Mays High‘s Eagle Leadership Academy at the concluding luncheon. The academy is part of Mays’ single-gender approach to education, with the Dorothy Height Academy of Leadership serving the girls. (We’ll be featuring both in the next issue of The Atlanta Educator. Watch videos here.) It’s all a part of APS’ High School Transformation Initiative, which is providing a smaller, more personalized instructional approach to our high school students. The theme of the day was, “The workforce of the future is in a classroom today!” We think our Mays students spoke eloquent to that theme. Here are the speeches from the students, after the jump …
UPDATE: Check out photo gallery here. Read speeches by Mays High Eagle Leadership Academy students at the luncheon here.
Atlanta Public Schools principals happily switched places with several of our community and business partners Thursday as part of the annual Principal Shadow Day — one of the best-ever examples of walking in someone else’s shoes. Partners — some of whom welcomed principals to follow them last week — spent the morning observing up close and personal examples of how our schools are making a difference in students’ lives.
The event culminated in a luncheon held at Ballroom at Twelve Atlantic Station. Below we’re going to keep adding updates from our communications staff as they bring in their stories of the partners’ and principals’ experiences. Keep coming back for updates! We start with Benteen Elementary, after the jump …
The 2010 Principal Shadow Day luncheon is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, at the Ballroom at Twelve Atlantic Station. Participating in the luncheon will be Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed; Sam A. Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber; Dr. Beverly L. Hall, Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools; and Gordon Schmidt, group vice president of Target.
This is the 11th year that the Atlanta Partners for Education has sponsored the Principal Shadow Day event, which culminates a day in which more than 100 local business and community leaders will go to Atlanta Public Schools elementary, middle and high schools to “shadow” a principal. The event also includes principals participating in the Executive for a Day program, in which principals go to the offices of the business and organization partners associated with their schools to “shadow” an executive.