Crim High School Applauded by U.S. Department of Education

Crim’s job-embedded professional development will be profiled by the U.S. Department of Education

APS is excited to announce the nomination of Alonzo Crim High School as the subject of a profile on its implementation of job-embedded professional development for teachers.

School leaders will be interviewed by the Department of Education about their innovative practices, with hopes that by sharing their experiences and successes, others will learn from their experiences.

APS salutes the hard work of our staff and students at Crim Open Campus

2010 APS Arts Education Conference hits a High note

UPDATE: Watch this video/photo gallery which includes perspectives from participants here. Watch Camille Russell Love’s keynote address here.

Atlanta Public Schools‘ performing and visual arts educators gathered for the 2010 Arts Education Conference at the High Museum on Sept. 24-25. Here APS Performing and Fine Arts Director Cynthia Terry and Education Coordinator/Visual Arts Raymond Veon discuss the goals of the conference, and its theme: “Values, Voice and Vision.” Camille Russell Love, director of the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs, delivered the keynote address at the reception, while Arthur McClinton, band director at M. Agnes Jones Elementary, performed.

The conference was financed in part through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and is aided by APS’ partnership with the Woodruff Arts Center.

Teachers attended sessions that covered classroom management, lesson planning and student assessment as well as offering roundtable discussions. This made a huge different for Ali Isabelle, a second-year art teacher at King Middle School. She came to Atlanta from the public school system in Jacksonville, where she taught elementary school. “Being a new teacher at the middle school level, one of the most important things is meeting other teachers and realizing you’re not alone,” Isabelle said. ”You make that connection. It really keeps you in check. The more professional development you receive, the less stagnant you are, and it motivates you to try to do something new and different.”

Dr. Hall calls for teacher incentives during Secretary Duncan’s visit to Tech High

APS Superintendent Dr. Beverly L. Hall expressed a hope to explore ways to reward quality teachers who want to stay in the classroom without having to promote them into administration positions as part of a “listen and learn” event with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.) on Monday morning at Tech High School.

“Human capital management strategies have to be implemented,” Dr. Hall said as Duncan nodded his head. “We’re going to have to look at how to incentivize the best and brightest to teach. We know what the best practices are [for teachers]. But now the question is how do we provide professional development, and give [teachers] the opportunity to lead and still teach. Our survey shows that 82 percent of our teachers said there were open to pay-for-performance. So it’s about effective leadership, and effective teachers, and wrapping that around our services to our students.” Hall made rewarding quality teachers a part of her State of the Schools speech back in August. (View the speech here.)

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.