Excellence is available to all who are willing to make the commitment.
Byrd Baggett
News/Timelines/Due Dates
I was invited to a breakfast yesterday
to receive the educator of the year award from the Down Syndrome Association of
Atlanta. Most of you remember
Marina. She and her mom nominated me and
the AMMS team. While I was the pretty
face receiving the award (keep comments to yourself) it was really for the
incredible way AMMS made Marina and her family feel welcome. Here are some of the comments about the team:
·
The Case Managers: Mrs. Villaume who lead the team in 7th grade, which
started fresh and turn a 7th grade into a better experience. For all
the team meetings held to address Marina’s concerns, for being Marina’s buddy
in Rock Eagle. Mrs. Merdinger who
lead the 8th team. For all the meetings, emails, phone calls,
visits, planning and dedication to Marina’s transition into high school
·
The math teachers: Mrs. Edmonds for teaching hands on concepts and believing that
Marina could do multiplication, division & fractions. Mr. McNamara, who created personalized worksheets according to
Marina’s interests including notes saying, “Remember, Justin Bieber loves math
too”. Mr. McNamara also worked during the summer with Marina to assure she
didn’t forget the concepts she had learned during the school year.
·
The amazing science teacher, Mrs. DiMaggio who sent weekly emails
with updates and adapted every single lesson at Marina’s level; she provided
visuals and manipulatives, explanations and demonstrated with experiments
scientific concepts, always had hands on lessons. She also kept in her website
every lesson and study guides available at any time. Marina even got the
highest grade in a test!
·
The Language Arts teachers: Mrs. Baer and Mrs. Barksdale
for working so hard on improving Marina’s writing skills
·
The PE coach, Ms. Sundal who taught Marina to be responsible and to be on time.
Also for her great contributions at Marina’s Transition Meeting
·
The health coaches: Coach Buzieta and Coach
Kearney who impacted Marina’s lifestyle (she is walking regularly, doesn’t
drink Sprite anymore and watches intake calories)
·
The nurse, Mrs.
Purdy who gave the best hugs and crackers to cure anything! Also she
changed the hearing aids batteries when needed
·
The incredible teacher’s assistants Mrs. Coney, Mrs. Giancola and Mrs. Weise
for all of their hard work and patience.
·
All the staff, administrators, and others who
made possible for Marina to excel in
middle school
·
The Cooks
Club, who provided a new experience for Marina and now she is considering
cooking as a career.
These kinds of things remind
us why we are here! You make such an
incredible difference each and every day.
That is what is important!!
Korean Exchange - We are fortunate to be part of the Korean Education Exchange. Beginning Tuesday, we will have two teachers from Korea as part of the staff until the end of November. One will be with Gemma and the other with Marisa. They teach English in Korean schools and the goal is for them to observe American schools and take ideas back. Please make them feel welcome and allow them to visit your classrooms.
PD 360 - You will begin to hear more and more about PD 360 which will replace the learning solution on the portal. It is an interactive professional learning tool that offers hundreds of resources that can be personlized to each user. If you want to see a preview go to the employee page and click on professional learning and then All things PD 360.
PRIDE – This Friday, September 27th,
PRIDE will be an advisement class. Students will continue with
icebreakers and connecting with their peers. 6th Grade will be
“Speed Friending” by conducting 60 second interviews, 7th Grade will
play the “Whopper” game, and 8th Grade will make a “Question Quilt”
to find commonalities. (Lessons were placed in your boxes last week.)
Many of the PRIDE activities this week and in other weeks will require students
to walk around. Think about the set-up of your room and see if there is a
way to create an environment easier for students to get up and move. Have
fun!
We will have silent reading on October 4th so remind students to bring a book, Nook, or Kindle and read!
Workday – To
help you plan ahead, please note we have a workday on October 15 and we will
have be meeting from 9 to 12 in a session to unpack the TKES instrument. I know that may be conference day for some of
you who have children in elementary, so plan your conference times outside that
window.
A Mighty Roar
Robin Magnussen did a great job pulling together our resources
and making sure that the first round of our new RTI screener was successful.
Where is
Livingston?
Sarah Jarvis saysRigor, Relevance,
and Relationships, right? Well, if you ask me, the most important piece of this
puzzle is "relationships." I believe that without this piece, it is difficult
to achieve the other two. I have always felt that you cannot truly succeed as
an educator without strong relationships. However, developing these
relationships and building a strong rapport with your students takes work and
during times of stress, it is sometimes the first thing to be
compromised. At AMMS, we happen to have lots of teachers that are great
at developing relationships, but there is one particular teacher that stands
out far beyond the rest.
This teacher goes out of her way
to show her support for students by talking with them, engaging them in card
games during homeroom time, facilitating conversations on the bulletin board
outside her room, cracking tons of jokes, spending all afternoon at Bruster's
chatting with parents and students and just being silly! The kids adore her and
every single one of them would tell you that they believe they are her favorite
student- they ALL feel special. She never fails to put a smile on my
face either, whether she's sporting a wild mustache, or I'm hearing her music
next door and her shouting, "Do the sprinkler!" She is a ray of
sunshine for her children as well as for her coworkers. I am a better teacher
for knowing Lisi Furman and I cannot think of a more deserving teacher. While
you probably won't catch me in the hallway sporting a mustache and doing the
sprinkler any time soon, I hope to someday become half the inspiration that
Lisi Furman is to her students! Cheers to you Lisi! You make a difference every day!
Happy Birthday
Karen Bachus September 24
Joe Wilson September 25
Rachel Luthringer September 25
Robyn Magnussen September 28
No comments:
Post a Comment