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.

Burgess-Peterson Academy PEC students enjoy a multi-sensory field trip for Inclusive Schools Week

UPDATE: Principal Robin Robbins explains Inclusive Schools Week activities here.

For Burgess-Peterson Academy‘s Program for Exceptional Children teacher Monetia Hollie, the timing could not have been more perfect. She was thrilled to learn that Inclusive Schools Week (Dec. 6-10) would occur during the same week she had planned a field trip to celebrate the definition of inclusion.

This week, Hollie took seven PEC students and four general-education students on a trip  to Sensations TheraFun, a playground facility in northeast Atlanta that is specially designed for sensory recreation. It serves as the perfect learning environment for students with autism or sensory-processing disorders. Burgess-Peterson students participated in activities such as the “zip line,” in which a student climbs a ladder holding a big round ball, then slides down a ramp while wrapping arms and legs around the ball. They also entered a room that featured iridescent lights, water fountains and mirrors that created differing sensory experiences.