First Week in the Books!

Greetings Parents and Community Members,

As week two rolls on, I continue to be impressed with the teaching and learning that is taking place in every classroom. By now, I have had time to visit EVERY single classroom in both buildings. I see Essential Agreements on the wall, Essential Questions on the board, Wit and Wisdom and Eureka math workbooks being used and SEL in action! Students are moving quietly down the hall, have completed their first 6 day rotation, and seen their French or Learning Lab teacher on more than one occasion! It’s a beautiful sight to see, and I love it when the building is functioning so well this early in the year. It is a credit not just to our amazing students but incredible faculty and staff as well. Everyone has an important role at Brandon, each member plays a crucial part in our special school and its important to recognize all of them!

• I love seeing Ms. Harriman’s class take their first STAR assessment of the year. Her students are tracking their growth and progress in their very own STAR folders. What a great idea!
• Our amazing Gifted team collaborated with Sarah Smith ES to brainstorm best practices for acceleration, creativity and gifted collaboration. It was cluster planning at its finest! I love that our schedule now allows for gifted teachers to serve EVERY student in each class.
• Madame Darlis, French teacher extraordinaire, learned about her 2nd grade student’s by completing works of art! JE M’APPELLE RYAN- J’AI 7 ANS- MON ANNIVERSAIRE EST LE 23, MARCH- JE SUIS UN GARCON. These students are now getting nearly twice as much French as they did all last year! Le français est le meilleur!
• And new DLI 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Saleeby impresses already as she has her class  speak full Spanish when they answer their Eureka math questions. This is a testament to the years of build-up for this first cohort. Shoutout to all of our amazing DLI teachers!

I want to remind you about a couple happenings taking place in our community. First, I hope to see everyone at our “Backyard Bash” this Friday (August 23) from 5:30-7:30pm. Come hangout, relax, get some food, and let your kids enjoy some unstructured time as they play with old friends and see new faces! Also, don’t forget about our “Back to School Night(s)” next week (8/26-8/29). This is an adult only event as we want you to take a deeper dive into our curriculum, programming, and extracurricular activities. Your child’s teacher will share all the information they didn’t get to cover during Celebration of Learning. And lastly, please join me and our cluster principals next Thursday (8/29) for the “North Atlanta Cluster Night” held at North Atlanta HS from 6:00-8:00pm. Come hear about the great work in our cluster and help develop our next district strategic plan. There will be something for all and your input is important!

Aside from that, thank you for all you do for our students outside of school. We promise to do all we can to help them grow while they are in it.

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