Continental Colony ILS Sharon Urban performs an ‘Electric Slide’ into retirement

Sharon Urban isn’t quite sure how the popular line dance to “Electric Slide” initially made its way into her retirement ceremony at Continental Colony Elementary. But it sure was fun to watch. Urban, an Atlanta Public Schools veteran, wound up her career as Continental Colony’s Instructional Liaison Specialist, and decided she’d go out on a dance as long as the rest of the school joined her.

Students from eight schools show early findings on how to be ‘Water Wise’

Student representatives from eight schools in APS (and one from Fulton County) gave Atlanta City Council their preliminary findings in the Be Water Wise Atlanta project sponsored by the National Environmental Education Foundation. Students mixed videos, poems and raps in with PowerPoint presentations as some of the council members observed.

It was certainly an educational experience, as students identified water-related issues at their school and then developed ways to conserve water. Bunche Middle School students kicked off the presentations. Some of the statistics were startling: according to research by the Carver School of Health Sciences & Research, Georgia uses 80 percent of the water from Lakes Lanier and Allatoona, and more to the point for the school, of its 45 water sinks, only 53 percent operated at what they determined to be an efficient level. Students from Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy said they are working with an Eco-Force Team that will work to provide more efficient water use on campus. Students from Therrell Educational Complex found 130 ways to improve water use, but, as one student comforted the audience, they offered only five easy steps for the purpose of its presentation (including the suggestion of collecting rainwater from drainage pipes to use to water plants).

Hill-Hope Elementary inspires students to set college goals

Shouting at Hill-Hope Elementary is typically against the rules. Unless, that is, it happens to be University T-shirt Day and the students are at a school-wide rally, chanting the words “I am college bound!” at the top of their young lungs – all at Principal Cassandra Ashley’s request. University T-shirt day is part of the school’s University Week program, designed to expose students to the little-known (or even imagined) world of higher education.

“I was the first in my family to go to college,” Dr. Ashley recalls. “I want the children to know if they work really hard, the dream of college can be theirs. College can change their life as it changed mine.”

Douglass High shows it’s market-savvy with national championship

UPDATE: Read the AJC article here.

Congratulations to a team from Douglass High that recently won national title in the Capitol Hill Challenge (CHC)! The CHC is a special edition of the SIFMA Foundation’s educational program, The Stock Market Game (SMG), which shares with members of Congress real-time examples of students benefiting from the program in their respective district of the state. (SIFMA is the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.)

According to the team’s coach, Jill Beracki, 156 teachers from across the United States were invited to participate. Douglass won out over teams from 44 states and the District of Columbia. The victory earned Beracki and her five students an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., on June 10-11 to meet Congressman John Lewis.