Happy to Bee Welcoming Parents This Week!
Greetings Parents and Community Members!
As the weeks continue to move along, so does our teaching and learning! This week is full of informational sessions designed to help you, our parents, learn more about our school, community, and strategic planning!
I had a blast at our first back to school night on Monday as well. Our Kindergarten parents came out in full force as they learned all about their child’s teacher, our instructional programming, the class schedule and support services. First and Second grade Back to School nights were also a hit! These seasoned parents knew just the questions to ask as they learned about Brandon from their new teachers. We have had representatives from the Gifted program speaking about the evaluation process and timetable, Specialists outlining all they do for our students outside of the classroom, and of course, our awesome Program Administrator Dwight Hutson, who’s always available for a quick chat or to help answer a question. When you see your teachers, be sure to thank them! Back to School Nights mean late nights for our staff that get to school at 7am. Many of them are putting in multiple nights in a row as well, so for that we shout a big THANK YOU! I look forward to seeing all of our 3-5 parents tonight and meeting any new faces!
Don’t forget that this week we are also hosting a Student Services Coffee Talk.The event will be held this Thursday from 8:30-9:40am in the PC Media Center. If you are able, please come to learn more about our Learning Lab and intervention strategy, the SST and 504 process, the Special Education evaluation process as well as all the in-house support we can provide to our students, including individual counseling! We have so much to offer our students, so don’t miss out! Click here to view the agenda.
Lastly, please join all of our cluster principals and me on Thursday night at North Atlanta High School from 6:00-8:00pm. This session is designed to be an informational one that helps drive our cluster strategic plan. Come learn about all of our schools, the priorities that drive our work and most importantly, the commonality that our cluster schools have when it comes to planning and instructional implementation.
Aside from all the informational sessions this week, I wanted to share some of the incredible experiences our students have had since we last spoke! For example:
- Our 5th grade students had the privilege to hear from Holocaust survivor Lisl Schick. Lisl took the time to speak about her journey out of Austria on what’s now known as the Kindertransport. It was incredible to watch our students take it all in. A special moment indeed!
- To lead up to our guest speaker, Ms. Richards had her class share about themselves with classmates by finding out what we all have in common. They went from ME to WE. Building a classroom community is so important!
- 3rd grade teacher Mr. Freeman carried on with our SEL initiative with the writing prompt “I wish my teacher knew…” You wouldn’t believe the responses!
- Ms. Ingram, our PC Media Specialist got her makerspace stations up and running. Ask your child if they’ve played on the Lego wall yet!
- And our Kindergarten teachers led by Ms. Halliday, had their students learning phonics through multisensory learning. How you might ask? With shaving cream!
As you can see, I could write all day about the great things happening in our school, but I want to leave you with our first Principal SEL Book Chat of the year which can be found here. This month we read “All Are Welcome Here.” Each Month, Mr. Hutson and I will highlight a book that all of our students will read. They always encompass IB learner attributes but most importantly, Social and Emotional Competencies.
Until next time!
j