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Math teachers at Holcomb Bridge Middle School teamed up with Elkins Pointe to review the CCGPS. They looked at the alignment from 6th through 8th grade and the Standards of Mathematical Practices, and they had time to collaboratively plan for Unit 1.

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CONGRATULATIONS!

The NELC is proud to announce the promotions of three former Assistant Principals from our community into the role of Principal.
Jennifer Cassidy (Centennial High School)-Principal Esther Jackson Elementary

Tara McGee (Medlock Bridge Elementary)-Principal Lake Windward Elementary

Wendy Bottoms (Chattahoochee High School)- Principal Birmingham Falls Elementary

The NELC is proud to announce the promotion of a member from the NELC Aspiring Assistant Principal program into the role of Assistant Principal.

Bridgette Marques (CST Ocee Elementary)- Barnwell Elementary Assistant Principal

The NELC is proud to announce the promotions of two Learning Community Team Members:

Lila Brown (Exceptional Children Program Specialist)- Instructional Coordinator Central LC

Priscilla Cole-Matthews (NELC Behavior Specialist)- Centennial High School Assistant Principal

As we continue to work on the Leadership Essentials in our community, we can certainly feel proud of the fact that these individuals have been able to pursue and obtain opportunities that will increase their personal skills and abilities.

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I am the new Student Behavior Program Specialist for the Northeast Learning Community and I am delighted to be a part of such a wonderful team of educators, staff members, parents, and other valuable stakeholders. One of my favorite quotes is by basketball player Tim Duncan and it states, “Good, better, best…never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best.” With that quote in mind, I look forward to working with everyone to continue the tradition of excellence that has been established in the NELC.

Currently my goals for the NELC as it relates to student behavior are:

-Identify, adapt, and sustain effective school-wide disciplinary practices by assisting all NELC schools in implementing or continuing Tier 1 supports of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework.

-Aid schools in developing specific strategies, interventions, and programs targeting Tier 2 and 3 students based on the PBIS framework and the school’s discipline data.

-Support schools in maintaining a positive school culture and climate in order to produce a productive learning environment that fosters student achievement.

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Starting In August, Title I coaches will focus on equippingteachers with technology tools and skills.  Coaches will participate in training from a team of trainers at Kennesaw State University’s iTeach Center.  Each month, coaches will be immersed in the latest technology tools, so they can take what they’ve learned back to their respective schools and help teachers incorporate the tool in their instructional/work practices.

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The northeast learning community is proud to announce that we are on Twitter! We are so excited to share all the amazing things that
happen in our learning community through social media! Check it out at @fcnortheastlc. Never used Twitter? Check out the directions below.

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The Exceptional Children's Department has been working diligently to train all special education staff responsible for preparing IEP's on the new program Easy IEP. We are very excited about the new program and it's ability to streamline<br>what we do to document how we serve or students with disabilities. During pre-planning we will continue to offer training to our special education teachers new to Fulton County Schools at various locations.

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During the week of August 19th, Northview High School’s student government has a Welcome Week.  During the week various
celebrations occur during the Lunch periods to welcome back the returning students and show our new students the school pride at Northview.

On July 31st, Camp iTitan occured for incoming Freshmen.  Freshmen are introduced to the ins and outs of the campus by returning National Honor Society students. While the camp is not mandatory, we usually have around half of our incoming Freshman attend.

In early March 2013, Northview's Broadcast and Video Production program sent a team of five students to compete at the state level
of the Technology Student Association's Video Competition in Athens, GA.  The students competed against 100+ teams from GA and were one of three teams selected to advance to the national competition.  On June 28th-30th, the Northview team competed in the National TSA Video Competition against 124 schools from 49 states in Orlando, FL.  The event even included teams from Germany and Turkey. The competition required teams to arrive at site and create a video using spontaneously provided props and line of dialogue.  The students were given 48 hours to create a one minute video that must incorporate two props (a ball point pen and an exit sign) and one line of dialogue ("failure is not an option") as an integral part of plot of the video.  Northview won the competition and have been recognized by the National TSA committee!

Here is a link to the video they created in 48 hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aymJt8kKmqM

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Annually, our first week of school at Johns Creek High School s known as WOW!  This stands for “Week of Welcome.”  On each day of the week, we have a school-wide “treat” or special event for all students; those treats are selected by the student government. Our morning student news broadcast shares the treat for each day and things happen through classrooms and also at lunch.  On the Friday of WOW!, the culminating event is our school-wide student organization and club fair.  At this fair, every student organization is represented at a table in our courtyard throughout both lunch periods.  Student members of those organizations create table displays, answer questions from student visitors, and sign up new members.  This is a fun way to showcase extracurricular opportunities to our newest Gladiators as well as remind all of our students that they get a “complete high school experience” at JCHS.  This is a fun way to get students excited about being back.

Johns Creek's PTA won first place for Georgia PTA Outstanding Local Units in High School! Congratulations Johns Creek!

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The 2013-2014 Senior Leadership for the 8th grade will be supporting Taylor Road by giving up some of their summer vacation to help kick off the new year right. Senior Leadership is a select group of students who are selected to develop their leadership skills over the school year.  Students will be assisting at school by helping beautify the front entrance of the school.  In addition they will help the staff by assisting on Registration Verification Day greeting parents and students, helping with textbook distribution, and whatever tasks may need to be completed.

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In order to provide students with the opportunity to connect real scientific processes and core concepts with the real world, Haynes Bridge Middle School has purchased Ward’s DataHubs. The Datahub covers a broad range of major science disciplines. With this complete system, students can measure and analyze data models for a variety of
standards-based topics. The built in sensors can measure air pressure, ambient temperature, current, distance, external temperature, GPS, light, pH, relative humidity, sound level, and voltage. These Databubs will be matched with iPads
so that students can monitor the graphing of the data in real-time.

This year marks 30 years of Excellence at Haynes Bridge Middle School. In collaboration with the PTA, Haynes Bridge Middle School will be having a celebration in the fall. Leading
up to the celebration, will be a “30 years in 30 days” timeline developed for students and the community to reflect and acknowledge the accomplishments and history of Haynes Bridge Middle School.

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Findley Oaks Elementary is excited to begin its 20th school year.  All year we will be celebrating a 20-year tradition of excellence and looking ahead to ensure our students are equipped with skills to lead for the next 20 years.  This month we will welcome our tiny acorn pre-kindergartners and kindergartners and follow them through to become fifth grade mighty oaks.  We will concentrate on getting to know our students and meet parents during our upcoming curriculum nights on August 21 and August 22, 2013.  We look forward to partnering with our parents to meet the needs of all of our students.

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This school year EJES staff will be focusing on the
collaborative processes used to ensure that the work we do in our Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) is positively impacting student learning.

Esther Jackson will host the annual “Flagpole Assembly” for students on Friday, August 16. Students gather at the flagpole to be reminded of our mission statement, “Esther Jackson, where learning leads the way!”. This is the opportunity to promote high expectations for learning and set the tone
for the school year.

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Dolvin adds 12 more Inspired Classrooms to our school.  Leaving us with only 10 more to go to be an Inspired School.  What is and Inspired Classrooms?  An Inspired Classroom is to putting authentic and engaging learning activities in the hands of the kids so that they can use the technology available to them within their team environments on a more consistent basis. The Inspired Classroom model brings the classroom computers from the perimeter of the room to the student's desks.
In an Inspired classroom:  Students are helping each other,  learning is differentiated, students use online learning and digital literacy, students are connecting with their learning,  students are more engaged,  students are using a blogging, and  students are networking and collaborating.

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We have purchased an Instructional Technology Support Teacher that we will share with Shakerag ES.  This
teacher will be charged with moving our teachers and schools along the Technology Transformation Rubric.  We want to be fully utilizing our technology along with HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills).

We will also be opening our Advanced Strategies Learning Lab including strategic games, LEGOS and Robotics.

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Summer at Ocee ES still means lots of happenings and ongoing learning for staff! First of all, congratulations are in order to Bridgette Marques and Pam Weiser. Ms. Marques, former Ocee Curriculum Support Teacher (CST), was recently promoted to
Assistant Principal at Barnwell ES. Ms. Weiser, former Ocee first grade teacher and team chair, Diversity Committee Chair, and leadership team member, was selected as the new school CST. Ms. Weiser has taught kindergarten and first, second, and fifth grades and held a leadership position at her previous school. While we are celebrating both of their achievements, we are also thrilled that our PTA was just recognized at the state level for its outstanding work as a Model PTA!

Over the past two months, our leveled library has doubled in size as we added many new titles to spark students’ interest and provide lots of fiction and non-fiction materials to increase their reading skills. The CST met with several grade level teams to
further “unpack” the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards, and teachers have created curriculum maps for the 2013-14 year. Fourteen teachers and administrators attended the Fulton County Schools Summer Summit, and some training
opportunities for Ocee staff are scheduled for pre-planning days as a result. The Ocee ES Discipline Committee was busy writing lessons to go along with specific book purchases to help teachers to develop strong character traits in their students. Our Emergency Response Team met twice over the summer to review our evacuation route and safety procedures and create new maps and emergency response documents.

We are excited about the year to come! Ocee will be welcoming some amazing new staff members. Our leadership team is attending a training seminar at the end of July to help grade level chairs hone their leadership skills and strengthen our Professional Learning Community (PLC). Teachers are already preparing to embrace a new reading series, Good Habits, Great Readers (Pearson), and classrooms are being readied for students. Summer was fun – but we’re ready for school!

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Barnwell New Staff Meet and Greet Mixer:

On July 24 Barnwell Elementary School and Barnwell PTA
jointly hosted our first annual “New Staff Meet and Greet” Mixer, in our “new-look” cafeteria! At this event, we formally introduced our new assistant principal, and 9 new teachers to the Barnwell school community.  We invited students, parents, and existing staff, to jointly welcome our newest Barnwell Family members. We also enjoyed some informal conversation and light refreshments, compliments of Barnwell PTA. We welcomed back approx. 25 existing staff and 50 parents and students to mingle with our new teachers and assistant principal during our Meet and Greet Mixer. This was also the first event we held in our new look cafeteria, which our PTA sponsored an aesthetic make over
during summer 2013, including accent painting, and new Barnwell Mission, Vision, and Logo posters. This was an exciting kick-off to what promises to be a highly successful 2013-2014 school year!

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Hillside is excited about starting the school year off with our very own Advanced Strategies Lab.  It is like recess for the brain! The lab will provide Higher-Order thinking opportunities based upon STEM attributes  for all students K-5. Utilizing various LEGO curriculums and  higher order thinking games, students will be provided learning that engages and promotes independent
thinking that we are strive for in the NELC.

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At Centennial HS, we are pleased to welcome three new instructional leaders to our learning community: Ms.
Priscilla Matthews is a new AP who will be joining us from the NELC office where she served as the Behavior Specialist. She supervised the behavioral climate of more than 20 schools in the learning community - she has
many years of experience in school leadership and is excited to be on board! Mr. Damian Bounds is Centennial's other new AP we are lucky to have joining the
team - he has a passion for basketball, football, economics, and is looking forward to quickly building relationships with all of our students! Last, but certainly not least, we welcome Ms. Lonna Upton as our new Assistant
Administrator:  Ms. Upton is joining us from Northview High School and brings a very strong background in instructional coaching to round out our team. One of her biggest responsibilities is serving as the mentor coordinator for
the mentors that our 30 new staff members will be receiving. We are so grateful for her work so far!

One of the ways you can meet and get to know our Administrative Team is through attending any of the
many of the events we host throughout the year - be sure to mark your calendar for Sunday, September 1, 2013, to come out and join in the fall fun as the Roswell 12th
Annual End of Summer Celebration takes place on the Centennial campus, featuring: Music, Carnival Games (Proceeds support many Centennial Clubs) and
Spectacular Fireworks at Dark! Food Provided by Shane’s Ribshack. Cotton Candy, Ice Cream and more. This awesome community event is sponsored by Aurora
Cineplex and The Fringe, Hands on Family Chiropractic, Wal-Mart, Sams Club, and of course, Fulton County Schools!!

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Medlock Bridge Delves into Inquiry Based Learning!

Teachers at Medlock Bridge Elementary will begin professional development in August on Inquiry Based Learning, a student-centered approach that begins with the curiosity of the learner.  Abby May, the NELC Stem Specialist, will introduce a broad overview of this approach during preplanning and provide follow up sessions with K-5 teachers in the fall.  The goal is to engage students in investigating real world questions within a thematic framework.

The 4th annual Medlock Bridge Runapalooza will be held on Friday, September 13th.   This event is a fun and healthy way to raise money for our school.    Runapalooza not only generates funds for the school but also creates a fun experience that promotes physical activity.  This event is organized,  sponsored and run by the Medlock Bridge PTA. The proceeds from this event provides academic support, field trip support, classroom support for students and teachers as well as funding for other school related programs.

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Needs based professional development activities have been
planned for “Team Northwood” by “Team Northwood.” All teams will focus on refining their Professional Learning Teams, developing Common Formative Assessments, implementing school wide procedures, and developing effective questioning skills.  During the pre-planning week teams will work on team
building activities, games and stress reliving techniques.  Teams will utilize time effectively to get prepared for first day of school.

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Georgia PTA congratulates “Outstanding Principals of the Year” George Freiberger of Crabapple Crossing, Joy Schroerlucke of Holcomb Bridge and Buck Greene of Johns Creek. Also pictured, North Fulton Council of PTAs President Inge Robb and Dove Walker, NFC PTA secretary.

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This year the 5th grade students at River Eves will participate in the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Pilot.  Students will use tablets, smartphones (Windows, Droid, Apple), computers, cellphones, and ereaders for various learning experiences.  “I look forward to seeing students use the technology to connect, collaborate, and create with each other, teachers, and other learners,” shared Neil Pinnock, Principal. River Eves is one of ten Fulton County Schools participating in the pilot this school year.

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The Chattahoochee Cougars Football Team was recently featured in a GPB Sports Blog with regard to concussion baseline testing.  Grace Olson reported that by nature, high contact sports like football carry much greater risks of head injury.  In recognition of what has been termed the "concussion crisis," Georgia recently passed the Return to Play Act of 2013. The law, which takes affect in January, will require concussion training for coaches, the development of return to play policies for athletes who suffer concussions, and providing parents with information on the risks of head injuries.  When Ms. Olson learned that Chattahoochee High School was conducting concussion baseline testing earlier this July, she headed to the Hooch to find out what CHS was doing to keep their young athletes safe and how the baseline testing process actually works.  Ms. Olson's story on how the concussion baseline testing process works, can be watched by clicking the link below: http://www.youtube.com/watchfeature=player_embedded&v=aUYpJPr0bXE

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Abbotts Hill is geared up and ready for another year of doing great things! In May of last school year, Dr. Brown facilitated a “Bus Discipline Plan Meeting” comprised of bus drivers and school administrators. During this meeting, bus drivers were given an opportunity to collaborate with
the school to create a proactive approach to student expectations while on the bus. As a result of this collaboration, Dr. Brown created a seamless plan modeled after the “Time To Teach!” program, which involves teaching expected
behaviors to students, rewarding those who follow those behaviors, and holding those accountable who misbehave. The goal is to implement “Teach-to’s” which students are already accustomed to as a part of the school-wide discipline plan. Including bus drivers in our discipline plan seemed logical since they are an integral part of the safety and success of our students

Dr. Brown recently shared the plan with Abbotts Hill’s transportation manager, Duane DeBruler, and together they are planning a day for the expectations to be modeled with students and shared with parents. Below is a picture from the initial training with bus drivers.

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The River Trail PTA is “going green”!  It has been an RTMS tradition to include a student directory of addresses and phone numbers as part of PTA membership packages.  To better align with modern communication methods and meet the needs of our families, this year’s directory committee is planning to publish in electronic form.  Instead of a spiral bound booklet, parents will be given an access code to an online directory.

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Our One Book selections have been chosen to teach the concept of responsibility of a global citizen. Responsibility requires action of what we should do, what we said we would do, doing what is best for everyone; especially doing the things we should be doing right now.

Seedfolks: 2011-2012

This novel depicts a typical United States neighborhood that represents the global concept of a “melting pot” of cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Reading this novel allowed students to connect to a character that represented them or their family while seeing all of our differences is what makes our community a thriving, wonderful place to be a part of.

A Long Walk to Water: 2012-2013

Connecting our students with a boy and his journey a world away allowed our students to realize we have a responsibility as a global citizen to help those near and far from us. Through this novel, students learned the importance of education, access to clean water and perseverance to make a change in the world.

The Breadwinner:  2013-2014

Through the eyes of a young Afghanistan girl, students will continue to learn about other parts of the world. They will be able to see through her hardships that the value in education, equal rights and a structured society is something as Americans we are privileged to have access to everyday.

Come check out our Literary Festival Presentations! This is a school-wide celebration on August 23rd that all are welcome to attend. Here is more infomation :

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In an effort to ignite our students’ passion to learn, all Shakerag 1st through 5th graders will be working on enhancing their critical thinking skills this year in our new Advanced Strategies Lab. Each week, through guided hands-on cooperative gaming sessions and targeted Lego-building activities, our students will be learning and practicing their strategic and critical thinking, following the Engineering Process (Ask, Explore, Design, Build, Test, Share, Redesign).

On August 5th our entire staff will be meeting with Lonnie Moore from Franklin Covey for our Shakerag Empowerment Day as we continue on our leadership journey (www.theleaderinme.org). During this day we will develop a higher-order application of the 7 Habits our students are learning, further explore how to best utilize our students’ Leadership Notebooks and explore more ways to empower students in classrooms and throughout the building.

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Wilson Creek is excited to host the leadership teams from Dolvin Elementary and Ocee Elementary.  They will join our leadership team for a half day of leadership development.  Consultant Heidi Small will work with our leaders to understand leadership behaviors, review personal leadership preferences, discuss strategies to connect with team members and develop an awareness of conflict styles.  Through discussing the characteristics of an effective leader and analyzing our own leadership styles, we can improve the relationships and productivity of our Professional Learning Communities.

On August 26, Program Specialists from the Fulton County
Assessment Department will meet with our leadership team to begin to assist us in creating a school-wide assessment and data utilization plan. After this initial meeting, the plan is to meet with our grade level Professional Learning Communities to ensure Wilson Creek teachers effectively use data to drive instruction in order to maximize student learning.

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Successful Summer Summit

We had such a blast at Summer Summit this year! Two of our teachers Michelle Morris from Johns Creek High School and Jen Sweigart from Hillside Elementary School did a fantastic job imparting the best practices they use in their classroom across our whole district. Michelle led a course called Common Core: We want More. The high school and middle school teachers in this session discussed the idea of flipping their ELA classroom to engage and differentiate to meet the needs of all of their students. Michelle also introduced them to resources such as TED Ed as well as The New Your Times in School where teachers can find engaging ways
to flip your classroom as well as authentic nonfiction texts to use with students. Jen’s session was called Unpacking the Balanced Literacy Classroom. She taught teachers how to juggle integrating content, writing, authentic texts, and effective technology into a small group model while meeting the needs of the diverse learners. It’s a balancing act! She also provided practical strategies, modeling, and digital resources for integrating the Balanced Literacy model with Continuous Achievement differentiation. Both were amazing sessions! Thanks Michelle and Jen!

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There will be 3 NEW Advanced Strategies Labs are opening at State Bridge Crossing, Hillside, and Shakerag Elementary.  These will
include Critical Thinking games and LEGO Engineering and Robotics sets.  Students will visit this lab during specials rotations and begin making STEM a part of their every day!! Additionally, there is a new science lab is opening
at River Eves Elementary.  Students will experience a real lab setting and

GET EXCITED the NELC STEM Teacher
Academy is under construction!  The goal of the academy is to build a collaborative cohort of teachers that focus on STEM content, interdisciplinary practices, design processes, real world applications, and rigorous and relevant
experiences within the STEM Framework. Two teachers will be selected from each school (preferably one math and one science) through an application process.  These teachers will participate in monthly meetings and learn
from and with each other in the area of STEM.  Topics for the sessions will include:  Science and Math Content, Interdisciplinary Practices, Engineering Design Processes, Real World Applications, Rigorous and Relevant Experiences, and Technology.  Tentative dates for the Academy are:  August 28th, September 25th, October 30th, December 4th, January 29th, February 26th, and March 26th.  More information regarding the times, locations and
how to apply will be released soon.

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In a further effort to acclimate our sixth graders to AMMS,
students participate in a rotation schedule during the first few days of connections classes.  During this time they get to
discover the aspects of being involved in the music program at Autrey Mill so they can make an informed decision about their connections choices.  They also meet with the Principal, Resource Officer, Assistant Principal and Counselor who discuss their roles and the challenges and opportunities students may encounter in middle school.  The week culminates with a pep rally and the beginning of the student’s connections schedule.

Over 250 new sixth graders gathered on July 30 for our annual Mini-Camp.  This is an excellent opportunity for students to get to know the each other, some teachers, and begin to navigate the challenges of the building and the lockers!  Autrey Mill teachers work with the students in small interactive sessions to help the students’ transition to middle school.

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Welcome to 2013-14!  We are anticipating another fantastic year in the Northeast Learning Community.

We spent last year getting our office staffed and up-and-running.  I believe we were successful.  We also spent the year developing and casting a vision for the 22 schools in the Northeast.  After lots of work and conversation and deliberation, we settled on the following as a vision for our learning community:  a world-class community of schools that ignites students’ passions to learn, lead, and serve.  I cannot wait to witness the work of schools and communities to realize that vision.

As you know, the district has three audacious goals: 90% of students graduate on time, 85% are ready to succeed in college, and 100% are ready to succeed in their career choice.  Along with developing our
vision, the Northeast Learning Community crafted three strategic goals to help realize the vision and to contribute to the district’s goals.

1.Expand the capacity of administrators, school leaders, and teachers to provide instruction that challenges and engages all students.

2.Ensure all schools provide continuous opportunities for all students to serve and to lead within their own community and beyond.

3.Deliver superior service and support across our learning community (our commitment to the schools in our learning community).

It’s a great time to be in the Northeast.  We look forward to what 2013-14 will bring for the schools, teachers, and students!