Images from First Lady Michelle Obama at Burgess-Peterson Academy

We had a great time covering First Lady Michelle Obama‘s visit to Burgess-Peterson Academy to mark the first anniversary of her Let’s Move campaign against childhood obesity by celebrating the elementary school’s health, wellness and nutrition initiatives. The initiatives are a part of an overall strategy by Atlanta Public Schools’ Nutrition Department, headed by Dr. Marilyn Hughes.

Enjoy these images above by Media Production Manager Scott King, as well as his expanded photo gallery in the Media Gallery section of the District website. Click here for the images.

First Lady Michelle Obama celebrates health and wellness efforts at Burgess-Peterson Academy

First Lady Michelle Obama marked the first anniversary of her Let’s Move initiative with a visit to Burgess-Peterson Academy on Wednesday afternoon. The school is one of the leaders in Atlanta Public Schools when it comes to health, wellness and nutrition efforts thanks to hard work among faculty, staff, students, parents and its network of community partners. (Check out a mini-photo gallery above, or the big one here.)

Principal Robin Robbins led the first lady on a tour of the school, which included a visit to Megan Kiser‘s second-grade class, munching on blueberries — the snack of the day. Students and master gardeners Adam Waterson and Michelle Rice – just some of the school’s community partners — took her on a tour of the outdoor garden the school built with support from Georgia Organics. “Coach” Betty Jackson, the school’s physical education instructor, has been instrumental in helping lead these efforts, and was excited about the visit.

First Lady Michelle Obama coming to Burgess-Peterson Academy! Congrats, Coach Jackson!

UPDATE: Follow @apsupdate on Twitter, and the hashtag #burgessobama for updates on today’s visit!

We’ve been hoping for this for months, but it’s almost too good to be true: First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Burgess-Peterson Academy on Wednesday to talk about nutrition and gardening (a passion at the school), according to White House officials and as reported on the AJC website. Read the story here. The event is private and will not be open to the public.

The event coincides with the first anniversary of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” intitiative to fight childhood obesity.

This is the culmination of a comprehensive health and wellness focus at Burgess-Peterson Academy, under the leadership of Principal Robin Robbins and physical education instructor Betty Jackson. It was Jackson who has spear-headed most of the initiatives, which include a wellness garden and health-eating options. Jackson also splits her time with Parkside Elementary, where she received the news.

“I think it shows that we are on the righy track,” said Jackson, “and for being such a small, urban school, it’s important to know the message she’s sending about helping to fight childhood obesity is reaching our school — that the children understand that this is for their health. They don’t even say good morning to me, it’s just, ‘Coach, what are we having for a snack today?’ And by that we’re talking about what fruit or what vegetable are we having today. They know it alternates.”

Jackson says she’d actually linked school’s organic garden Facebook page to Obama’s and other health-related pages like that of Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which has honored Burgess-Peterson, W.T. Jackson and Morningside elementary and Sutton Middle for their efforts.

We have covered Burgess-Peterson Academy in the past, including this profile here and a visit just as fall classes began here.

Record number of APS media centers receive grants from Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries

A record 15 Atlanta Public Schools media centers received $6,000 grants from the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries on Friday — by far the most of any school district in the nation. The former first lady made the announcement in Miami. The grants are awarded to help media specialists expand, update and diversify their library book collections. APS represented 8 percent of the 188 school libraries that were selected throughout the nation (earning a total of $1,098,634 in grant money).  Last year 10 of the 158 libraries selected were from APS.

According to APS Media Services Coordinator Warren Goetzel, funding for book collections has never been more important. Right now the elementary schools get $15.31 per student per year in state funding, while middle schools and high schools get $13.03 per student per year. “And that’s for all media materials, not just books,” said Goetzel, who made a strong push for his media specialists to apply for the grant this year. ”The average cost of a book is $25. Books become obsolete pretty rapidly these days, and they don’t have the money to update them.” He added that the average usable life of a non-fiction is about five years due to rapid changes in science and technology. “Consider that Pluto’s not a planet anymore,” he said. “Any time there are those changes, you have to discard the book and start over.”

Goetzel was particularly proud of his media specialists for rising to the challenge and taking advantage of this crucial funding opportunity: “External funding is critical to build and maintain balanced book collections. Our media specialists are so dedicated to their staff and students to make sure they have the most updated resources availability.”

Here is the list of the grant-winning APS media centers and their media specialists, after the jump …