Area 3 ALT's

Area 3 in the News!

Walton High School was ranked in the top 5% of the nation's high schools by Newsweek Magazine.  Marcus E. Howard referenced the Newsweek article in the MDJ on 5/28/2007.  Newsweek's article and the top public high schools can be found here.  An excerpt from the article can be found below  You can read the full text of the Marietta Daily Journal article here.

Walton's rank is the highest among public high schools in Georgia. It also is the highest ranking the east Cobb school ever has received, moving up 67 places from last year's ranking of 184.

Walton has made the list several times since Newsweek began the rankings in 1998.

"We're proud anytime we make the list because we think being recognized means we're headed in the right direction," Walton principal Dr. Tom Higgins said.

The 1,258 schools on the list represent the top 5 percent of all high schools in the country.

 

Diane R. Stepp wrote an article appeared in the AJC on 5/25/2007 entitled "School's out for summer."  An excerpt from the article, mentioning Eastvalley is below.  To access the text of the full article, you can click here.

Even lunch was to be a treat--hamburgers, watermelon and other picnic fare. Some would eat in the cafeteria, others outdoors and at other places throughout the school. The afternoon would bring a fifth grade talent show, then the final farewell for the year--a fifth grade walk down the halls as classmates, teachers and parents line to halls to say goodbye before the final bell of the school year.

At Eastvalley Elementary in Marietta this was no ordinary day, second grader Katie, 8, can tell you. "We never get to have waffles at breakfast." But on this morning her class did, thanks to parents who cooked a special breakfast for them.

Second graders fueled up on waffles while third graders dove into a special parent-supplied buffet breakfast, energy food for a morning of field day activities. Out on the playground kids were burning up energy twirling hoola hoops, jumping in sack races, ferrying water from a barrell in relays, and jumping rope while parents joined in the fun.

Fifth graders got in a word of advice and a chance to reminisce during morning broadcast when they advised their younger classmates to get plenty of rest and do their homework, then recalled highlights of their days at Eastvalley, some as far back as kindergarten, said principal Althea Singletary.

   

Good Luck, Pat!!!!

All of the Area 3 ALT's wish Pat Waite the best of luck as she retires and moves to Florida!  Pat, we'll miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Movie About Teachers

CHALK, a new movie produced by Morgan Spurlock, is the story of three teachers, one assistant principal, and a school year.  It is coming to Atlanta in June.

The website for the movie has a link to TeachersCount.  TeachersCount's "mission is to raise the status of the teaching profession and provide resources to the education community.  You will find links to "Behind every famous person is a fabulous teacher" campaign, to grants and awards, and to resources for teachers.

New Teacher WebQuest

We typically think of WebQuests as a performance-based tool for students to use, but Rachel Basden from South River Middle School put together a WebQuest for new teachers.  In the "PROCESS" section, there is a great selection of helpful websites....everything from lesson planning to ready-made-forms to planning and organizing help.  This is a helpful site for new teachers, but established teachers might like to browse it, too!

http://www.webquest.org/questgarden/lessons/25920-060611093217/index.htm

Happy Surfing!

Honoring Our Heroes

Below are links to the MDJ Articles about Area3 student and the Honoring Our Heroes Essay Contest!

Powers Ferry First Grader, Isaac
Sope Creek Fourth Grader, Rebecca

Congratulations to the students and their heroes!

Collaboration

A few of my schools wanted help with Collaboration among the team levels.  This was created to help guide discussions and help create a productive collaboration environment. You'll see a Collaboration Framework and an Agenda.  Just note that each item on the Framework doesn't need to be addressed each meeting. Cheers

Download collaborative_framework_2.doc

Download collaborative_agenda.doc

UNRAAVEL a Math Problem

Larry Bell taught us a wonderful strategy for kids to use when attacking a word problem.  The strategy is called UNRAAVEL, walks students through a set of eight simple steps, hopefully directing them to solve the problem correctly. 

A PowerPoint to help students learn to learn the strategy (geared toward fourth and fifth graders):  Download unraavel_a_math_problem_fourth_fifth.ppt  (Large file.  You may want to right click -> Save Link As -> Put it on your desktop.

A Worksheet students can use to practice independently:  Download fourth_fifth_unraavel_practice.doc

Just the Steps to UNRAAVEL:  Download unraavel_steps_math.doc

Twelve Words

Here is a PowerPoint of the Twelve Words presented by Larry Bell at the workshop on October 4.

Download twelve_power_words.ppt

A Word Document that you can use as a one-pager to help students understand the words.  Download twelve_words_from_larry_bell.doc

School Improvement

At the Curriculum and Instruction Meeting on Tuesday, September 26th, two presenters from the State DOE came to talk about tools that schools can use to further school improvement.

Schools are assessed on the GSS (Georgia School Standards).  This is kind of like the GPS for Schools, not students.  For a condensed version of the GSS, click here.

The expanded version with rubrics for the GSS can be found here.  These rubrics could be a good jumping off point for school or professional staff development.  (Start small, though!)

Many great resources can be found in the Wheel of School Improvement!

Unpacking the Standards

Area 3 ALT's were fortunate to  have spent additional time with Marilyn Braudy and Nancy Larimer writing units using the Backward Design Model.  Below are some pictures of the "Unpacking" process.  click on the picture to enlarge.