By now, most everyone in the APS community is familiar with the announcement this week of the 2010 Gates Millennium Scholarships, with APS leading the nation in the number of scholarships received at 29. And as some may have noticed in this moving account inside Thursday’s article in the AJC, one student in particular stands out as not only a remarkable personal success story but also an example of how the High School Transformation Initiative is making a difference in the lives of APS students. With a combination of determination, challenging academics and a life-changing school partnership, South Atlanta High senior Alyssia Clore (pictured) has overcome the odds to become a Gates Scholarship recipient. As Gracie Bonds Staples reported, Clore has a father who’s been laid off for three years, and she found herself homeless at one point in her life and almost died after lapsing into a diabetic coma when she was 11. But the student in the South Atlanta School of Health & Medical Sciences remained focused on her academics and her future. She’s alsot a member of South Atlanta’s first graduating class under its new small-schools model.
Visiting International Faculty (VIF) Program has an International Educator of the Year recognition program for its teachers, and was thrilled to announce that Ingrid Arriagada (pictured, above right), a Spanish teacher at Bolton Academy, has been selected as one of its five International Educators of the Year. Not every one of the states in which VIF places teachers had a winner, so this is a particularly special honor for Arriagada. According to a representative from VIF, the selection committee highly regarded her presentation submission and strong letter of support. Arriagada was selected because her presentation showed a high level of curriculum integration, student involvement, and high cultural contributions to her class, school and community.
Arriagada will be honored at Bolton Academy during next month’s Teacher Appreciation Week. If her name sounds familiar, Arriagada also was featured in the Spring issue of The Atlanta Educator. (Read the feature here.) And if VIF sounds familiar, that’s because now-former Slater Elementary teacher Maria Beatriz Chopite Gonzales was Georgia’s International Educator of the Year. (Read press release here.)
We’re excited to learn about a wonderful partnership between Project GRAD Atlanta and The New Schools at Carver and GivingPoint, a nonprofit based in nearby Roswell. The fine folks at GivingPoint shared this illuminating video clip (above) showing Carver students making a difference in their community.
According to representative Ansley Colby, GivingPoint is a youth-development initiative designed to inspire teens to find their passion, become actively engaged in their local communities, and develop into life-long contributors to society. “One of our top transformational priorities is to become a vehicle for nonprofits and schools to understand, engage, motivate and inspire young people to serve their community so that they can reach their full potential and succeed in life,” Colby said.
Hopefully by now you’ve been able to pick up a copy of the latest (spring) edition of The Atlanta Educator. The occasional print publication was delivered to CLL staff and the schools over the course of this week, and features more amazing stories about APS’ transformation into a top-performing urban school district. You’ll be able to thumb through the pages and read articles on the Effective Teacher in Every Classroom Initiative, powered by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; a comprehensive look at the chess programs engaging our elementary school students (pictured, above); profiles of members of our CLL staff, the Atlanta Board of Education, and APS veteran teachers, students and alumni; APS’ increasingly international flare; and visits from a certain (and impressed) U.S. education secretary.
What’s that, you say? You don’t have a print copy in front of you? Well, you’ve obviously got a computer, and so we’ve posted all of our Atlanta Educator features online with this trusty link. (Or download a PDF file here.) In fact you can check out ALL previous issues of the paper (in PDF form) through this link. Either way, we hope you’ll enjoy these stories, and help us spread the news about how APS is making a difference in students’ lives. Next up: our summer issue, which will celebrate our high school graduates.
If you’ve been following Talk Up APS this week, you’ll notice we’ve been offering sneak previews of the Spring issue of The Atlanta Educator. So far we’ve given little bits of profiles of some of our middle-school chess champions and a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will boost our Effective Teacher in Every Classroom (ETEC) Initiative.
We also recommend that you check out this video from our media-production team of Armon Moore and Scott King, as they highlight two other features in the issue: an exchange program between teachers at Bolton Academy that led to a visit from by teachers from Turkey, and a profile of veteran Gideons Elementary Gifted and Talented instructor Darlene Johnson Dobbs (pictured, above). These are just a few examples of the wonderful articles you can read in the Spring edition of The Atlanta Educator.
For most 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds, the answer to the question “Where do you want to be at age 40?” might be a little foggy. But for aspiring meteorologist Amber Hughes, a freshman at Douglass High School, the forecast is looking bright.
“I want to graduate as valedictorian of my high school, with a 4.0 GPA, and go to Harvard,” she said. “I’ll get my master’s in atmospheric sciences, move to New York City and eventually become a meteorologist for ‘Good Morning America.’”
Hughes detailed her plans during the “Jumpstart to Success” Summer Academy held at Douglass. Daryl Hardnett, a social studies teacher in the school’s Center for Engineering and Applied Technology (CFEAT), asks all of his students to choose a profession and map out a path to that goal. Students are required to research colleges and careers, as well as the steps they need to take to meet the qualifications of each.
Rose Calloway knows too well the challenge of raising a special-needs child.
“As a parent, you’re frustrated and feeling helpless,” said Calloway, whose eldest daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease as well as a learning disability while in middle school. “You want to be able to understand what’s creating the problem and solve it.”
This unique perspective informs Calloway’s recent work as a parent mentor. As one of approximately 90 parent mentors in the Georgia Parent Mentor Partnership, Calloway wants to ensure that other parents don’t go down the same path alone.
“When I was going through it and balancing meetings and doctor’s appointments, I felt like I was all by myself,” Calloway recalled. “Now, parents have me and 90 others looking out for them.”
Created and partially funded by the Georgia Department of Education’s Division for Special Education Services and Supports, the partnership began in 2002 as a small group of parents and administrators. The group now works with 79 school districts to build effective family, school and community partnerships that lead to greater achievement for students – especially those with disabilities. By providing a support system for parents, the group can build a bridge of communication between home and school.
Before the holiday break we published the fall issue of The Atlanta Educator, 24-page, tabloid-shaped print publication that we started for the 2008-2009 and has been a tremendous hit with our readers. Because of our diverse readership, we knew that there was still a need for a print publication in the APS community.
But that hasn’t stopped the APS communications office from providing the publication in multiple platforms. Concurrent with the distribution of the print product, we provideded a link on our district Web site of a downloadable, PDF version. We’re now excited to share another version of The Atlanta Educator in which you can download stories and photos individually, or send as separate links to your friends and family as we share the good news going on at APS. You can either access the main Atlanta Educator page on the APS homepage here. Or …
Download the PDF version of the fall issue here.
Download a link to the fall issue’s index of online links to individual stories here. The stories are listed by page number and headline, so click on each page for the story, and feel free to share the link with everyone!
We’ll provide some examples throughout the week, on Talk Up APS.
She wields her “Big Bertha” clubs about as well as any other Georgia teen. She’s been to Scotland, the cradle of golf. She’s shot an 81 to take first place in the GHSA regional tournament. And she’s been within an approach shot of Tiger Woods. She’s Tyler Lawrence, a Grady High senior and one of Georgia’s top golfers whose performance on the greens is matched only by her performance in the classroom. Read more about Lawrence and her trip to Scotland in the Fall issue of The Atlanta Educator, which arrives at school and district-office newsstands this week — just in time for the Thanksgiving break!
In the upcoming issue of The Atlanta Educator, we profile fathers who made a difference in students’ lives — starting with Quinton Gist, who has become the PTA president at M. Agnes Jones Elementary. His daughter, Dream, is a second-grader at the school. Gist started out answering the call for someone to help serve as a bus monitor, and it grew from there. We’ll also celebrate the accomplishments of the All Pro Dad’s Day program, which helps men become better fathers. Sutton Middle School and other APS schools participate in the program.
Want to learn more? Get a copy of The Atlanta Educator when it hits the schools next week!