Advancing Educator Excellence
in Atlanta Public Schools

School: KIPP Strive Academy
Project: Civil Rights Sojourn
Taking advantage of the school's location in the West End of Atlanta, KIPP STRIVE has developed a social studies curriculum that that focuses on the struggle for Civil Rights (whether learning about the U.S., Latin America, or Africa). The academy believes deeply in not only teaching students about the Civil Rights Movement, but also immersing them in the history by bringing them to the places where history was made. 5th graders travel to Birmingham, 6th graders visit Selma and 7th graders explore Montgomery. This award will sponsor the 5th grade trip to Birmingham, where students will see the 16th St. Baptist Church and talk to the families of the four little girls who were killed by hate bombing. They will also visit the Civil Rights Institute.

School: Mary Lin Elementary
Project: Promethean Board
Research indicates that integrating Promethean technology into instruction increases student achievement, and Mary Lin's goal is to use Promethean technology to increase student achievement for all of its students, including the Special Education classrooms. Because Mary Lin is unable to equip each classroom with a board without the assistance of additional funding, the school relies on the Mary Lin Foundation and grant opportunities to purchase these resources. Integrating technology provides a teacher with opportunities to create challenging, interactive and meaningful learning tasks for students. These tasks, that are responsive to each learner, are the undergirding of Mary Lin's high student achievement.

School: Burgess-Peterson Academy
Project: Learning Through the Outdoor Classroom
The Outdoor Classroom will provide students with a non-traditional space for learning, which will also enhance students' perspectives on the outdoors. Teachers will be able to utilize the Outdoor Classroom as a space to motivate learners with varying learning styles, while also engaging students on the importance of green space and our environment. A space where all content areas can be taught, the Outdoor Classroom will be a connection and extension of the school's garden. Research shows that outdoor classrooms have a positive impact on student learning because these environments provide students with a lot to observe, consider and reflect upon. They also provide an opportunity to regain focus and de-stress.

School: Centennial Place Elementary, Spanish
Project: Theater and Folklore in Spain
The main goal of this project is to implement an approach to language teaching called Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). One of the components of CLT is Theater Arts, which will be the focus for this award. Having already implemented this approach, Mrs. Corrales has assessed its impact in student achievement and self-esteem through the performance of different plays. The students' motivation for learning the language increases when they can express themselves through another character, and they learn literature, geography, and different ways of acting. They also become less intimidated to speak in public, are able to immerse in dialogues, increase their proficiency levels (speaking, reading, writing and listening), and enjoy learning.

School: Bunche Middle, Sixth and Seventh Grades English Language Arts
Project: Anti-Bullying Awareness Campaign
Bullying has reached epidemic proportions in American schools and communities. Two of the reoccurring themes that continue to surface in discussions and media presentations are lack of awareness and lack of sensitivity to toward the issue. For this project, students will collect real data about bullying in their own neighborhoods, engage in promoting awareness and seeking social justice, and collaborate with other community members in performing community service that will have a positive impact on students at the school. Through project-based and service learning, students will particularly increase their skills in writing and boost their self-esteem by becoming leaders and change agents in their community.

School: Sarah Smith Elementary, Kindergarten
Project: Technological Literacy: Crossing the Digital Divide
The use of technology in the classroom has been identified as a priority by the U.S. Department of Education. By purchasing six iPads and using them in a thoughtful, deliberate manner, student engagement, motivation, and persistence will increase. The following are just some examples of how the iPads will be used: students and parents can post/reply on the class blog; Skype sessions with a Kindergarten class in Fulton County and with a class in another state; creation of weekly class newsletters; class project for the Georgia Media Festival; class podcasts of sight word songs and class songs to post to the class web page; artifacts for student portfolio.

School: Drew Charter Elementary, First Grade
Project: First Grade Bookstore
Unfortunately, many of the first graders at Drew do not have books to read at home. The goal of this project is to create a First Grade Bookstore, which will provide students the opportunity to "purchase" books that they can keep at home. Students will purchase books with Bookstore Bucks that they earn in their classroom by following classroom rules and displaying positive character traits. The hope is that each first grade student will have a personal library at home with at least 10 books on their reading level, and reading at home will increase achievement, self-esteem, and collaboration with parents.

School: Springdale Park Elementary, First Grade
Project: Applied Math
Springdale Park’s vision is to cultivate a high-performing community of learners where teaching and learning is connected to the global world and students are challenged to reach their highest potential. The goal of this project is to prepare students to apply concepts from math content standards in real-world situations. Students will be introduced to math concepts using math literature from a newly-generated math library, interactive Promethean Board flipcharts, newly-purchased manipulatives and taking field trips to local businesses.

School: KIPP Strive Academy, Fifth Grade Math
Project: Entrepreneurship in Action
Although students can master basic math skills in the classroom, they lack a working knowledge of how these skills will allow them to function in the "real world." This project turns a classroom into a fictional community, where students run one of 15 small businesses (using a business simulation curriculum entitled Mean Jeans). As a result, students will gain practice of mathematical concepts, teamwork skills, time management skills and communication skills.

School: Morris Brandon Elementary, Third Grade
Project: Technology for Data Driven Instruction and Assessment
To expand and increase the effectiveness of the existing Promethean Boards, this project's main goal is to assess student knowledge and drive instruction. By purchasing the Learner Response Systems (LRS) complete package from Promethean, the team of ten third grade teachers will get new LRS remotes and have access to over 350 Activ Lessons with integrated LRS questions and activities in all subjects. Students will be motivated and actively engaged in the lessons, and they can receive immediate feedback on their participation. Teachers can use the immediate feedback to determine which students need remediation or which concepts need further explanations.