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!

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. 

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. 

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!

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. 

On August 5^th 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.

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 :

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.

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. 

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!!

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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. 

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.