Rialto Center for the Arts and Perkerson Elementary arts partnership

The Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State has served this past year as Perkerson Elementary‘s official arts partner.  The Rialto Center has brought professional jazz musicians to Perkerson to teach the children about America’s indigenous art form, a hip-hop dance company from New York, and regularly sends Georgia State University students for engagement with the students. One of the highlights of this past year was the presentation of Perkerson’s holiday musical on the Rialto lobby stage as part of the First Thursday Downtown ArtWalk in December.

Price Middle School Afterschool All-Stars Spread Cheer to Local Seniors

Five students from Price Middle School under the direction of Ms. Deidre Gordon, 8th grade math teacher, visited the Columbia Blackshear Senior Home on Friday, December 7, 2012. The students stuffed bags of goodies for the residents. The bags included a book, fruit, candy and another gift from the L. J. Price Middle School All-Star School Program as part of their first semester service project.

Marsharkia Perry, Shanterria Gates, and Fabian Williams assembled the bag of goodies while Sherman Jackson, Vantricia Haynes, Marsharkia Perry, Kami Freeman, and Fabian Williams delivered the bags with Ms. Gordon.

Columbia Blackshear Senior Home is located within walking distance of Price Middle School and as part of an ongoing service projects students will be visiting the facility again.

This project is part of the Afterschool All – Stars sponsored by Georgia State and this is Price Middle School’s second year in working with Georgia State on this program.

Written by Ms. Deidre Gordon, 8^th Grade math teacher in the AfterSchool All Star Program and Mrs. Tammy Rosado, Media Specialist, Price Middle School 

Atlanta Urban Teacher Residency Program

The Atlanta Urban Teacher Residency focuses on innovative mathematics and science teaching and learning in middle and high schools. The Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) model is similar to the medical residency program model. AUTR is a member of a network of UTR programs across the country. Our program is designed to recruit teachers of high need positions and give them a strong year of “on the job” training and support followed by intense post-residency support.

Residency: The resident works alongside an experienced mentor teacher for one full year, and as a result, residents later enter their own classrooms as a full – time teacher with the experience and competencies that come from an intense, sustained classroom apprenticeship experience. In addition to the year-long apprenticeship, the Atlanta Urban Teacher Residency Program will offer a Master’s level curriculum leading to a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) from Georgia State University. As a cohort, residents will simultaneously complete coursework and the apprenticeship to earn a clear renewable Georgia teaching certificate in secondary mathematics. Upon completion of the residency year, residents will be fully prepared to successfully teach in Atlanta’s urban classrooms.

Induction: During the first three years as a full-time teacher, graduate residents will receive intense support through the APS Induction Program. The induction program supports novice teachers through intense mentoring, coaching and professional learning opportunities. Graduate residents will receive individualized support and continue to participate in learning activities as a cohort. During the induction period, graduate residents will also be expected to complete the requirements for a Reading Endorsement and Special Education certification.

Commitment: Our program involves a five-year commitment that consists of an initial residency year of teacher preparation, followed by a four – year post – graduation commitment to teach in Atlanta Public Schools.    

Georgia State’s ‘Pounce’ Visits the Stingers!

Georgia State University and Kimberly Elementary School have had a long and meaningful relationship for several years.  Kimberly Elementary serves as a Professional Development School (PDS) for students enrolled in the College of Education.  The partnership has resulted in many former GA State education students joining the faculty of Kimberly.

“This relationship has benefitted not only the students at Kimberly, but the teachers as well. Each year, pre-service teachers spend their training hours working with the students and learning from the teachers at Kimberly,” said Jennifer Saunders, a teacher at Kimberly Elementary.

This year, with a focus on college and career readiness, GA State allowed their mascot, Pounce, as well as several GA State Cheerleaders to come and encourage the students to visit GA State during their kid-friendly homecoming weekend which takes place on October 20.  The students were able to see and experience some of the excitement college has to offer as it relates to extra-curricular activities.

South Atlanta High’s School of Law & Social Justice plays the Stock Market Game — and plays it well

You might recall Jill Beracki for the wonderful work she did at Washington High, where she led a strong performance by the team in the Stock Market Game. Well, guess what? She’s up to her old tricks, but this time at another school. She tells us the South Atlanta School of Law & Social Justice is the Regional Winner (City of Atlanta) for the Stock Market Game (first semester 2010-2011). This is the version played statewide and is sponsored by the Georgia Council on Economic Education (Georgia State University).

The game is played once per semester each school term, and more than 3,500 teams compete across Georgia, Beracki tells us. The state winner was Parkview High School in Gwinnett County.

“I believe this is the first time that South Atlanta High has ever had a winner,” Beracki says, giving credit to South Atlanta School of Law & Social Justice Peter McKnight.

The students will attend an awards ceremony in May at the Georgia Depot. The team features Donta Smith (captain) and teammates Amario Zachary and Brandon Jones.

Meet the Atlanta Families’ Awards winners: Kenya Greer

We continue our series on the Atlanta Families’ Awards winners with a look at Kenya Greer, a first grade teacher at Cascade Elementary School. This is her 13th year of teaching on the elementary level. She earned her B.S. degree in elementary education from Alabama State University in 1997. Greer has taught in the Fulton County, Birmingham City and Atlanta Public school systems. She feels each school has allowed her to experience many successes and challenges, but has learned to add her own creativity and style while adapting to different environments. Greeris flexible when it comes to change, and has a positive outlook because it helps her to grow into the person that she is.

Greer considers herself as a lifelong learner, and always is open-minded to the latest teaching methods and trends in Education. Last December, she completed an Educational Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership and Supervision from Lincoln Memorial University. After finishing, Kenya felt empowered to volunteer more in the community and facilitate at several local conferences. In Fulton, she has also mentored many Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program (GTAPP) student-teachers from Georgia State University. She has served on numerous committees and facilitated a few workshops at Cascade.

Georgia State seminar helps prepare Washington High’s Early College Students for the next step

Early College students at Booker T. Washington High School embarked upon their first interactions with college learning on Jan. 20 with their participation in the Georgia State University (GSU) 1010 Seminar.

The GSU 1010 Seminar is a semester-long class that will introduce Early College students to aspects of college life and college learning. A representative from Georgia State, Tene Harris, is the coordinator of the seminar, and will also teach and facilitate some of the sessions. The first session focused on an Introduction to College Myths and Facts. During this session, students worked cooperatively in groups to create a KWL chart pertaining to the topic and to discuss information identified in their chart. Destiny Dunn, a student at Early College states, “I enjoyed the session today, the information was interesting. I believe that the students will appreciate GSU 1010.”

Harper-Archer Middle and Communities In Schools of Atlanta unite for mentoring program

Harper-Archer Middle School’s (HAMS) counseling department and Communities in Schools (CIS) of Atlanta have joined forces to provide over 30 Harper-Archer students with tutorial and social support during the school day. This additional support comes in the form of the newly formed HAMS Mentoring Program, created by Lamar J. Young, guidance counselor, and Joi Fuller, a CIS of Atlanta graduation coach.

Kimberly Elementary to benefit from grant awarded to Georgia State University

Kimberly Elementary School has been a partner with Georgia State University for more than eight years. Five years ago, GSU received a $6 million dollar grant and became a Professional Development School. Kimberly, Bunche Middle and the Therrell Educational Complex enjoyed the privilege of becoming Professional Development Schools.

Over the past five years, Kimberly has received numerous interns, student teachers helping to decrease the student-teacher ratio. GSU faculty provided staff development and math endorsements. “The school has received incredible support for its instructional program,” said Karen Ross, the instructional liaison specialist at Kimberly, adding that teachers from all three schools participated and received funds to receive master’s degrees in education. The school’s teachers have served as visiting instructors at GSU. As a result of our interaction with GSU, Kimberly has presented nationally five times at the National Professional Development Schools Conference.

Meet the APS Teacher of the Year: Hilaire Anelone

UPDATE: Hilaire Anelone photo gallery here.

Atlanta Public Schools is proud to announce its Teacher of the Year, Hilaire Anelone of Maynard H. Jackson High. (Mr. Anelone also represents Jackson as the High School Teacher of the Year). Born and raised in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Anelone came to the United States to complete an engineering training. He received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering technology from Southern Polytechnic University. He also earned concurrently two bachelors of science degrees in mathematics education and applied mathematics from Kennesaw State University. Anelone also received a master’s degree in urban teacher leadership at Georgia State University, where he was taught by several eminent professors such as Dr. Asa Hilliard, Dr. Betty Strickland, Dr. Lisa Delpit and Dr. Susan Crim McClendon. Later, Anelone also earned an educational specialist degree in curriculum and instruction; he is currently pursuing a doctorate of education degree in instructional leadership.