What’s new around our hive
Greetings Parents and Community Members-
We’re finally into February and what a great start to the month we’ve had! We kicked off the 3rd quarter with our HIVE rally last Friday and the kids had a blast! While the blue HIVE won, it was great to see our two campuses come together with student achievement and celebration at the forefront. School is serious business but it’s important to stay grounded and find time to have fun and celebrate with our teachers. The rally involved a dance off, musical chairs and, of course, the big HIVE color reveal. I think it was one of the best Hive Rally’s we’ve had yet and it’s always one of my favorite days of the year! Aside from that, our 5th graders participated in the APS Annual Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl and our jump rope team made appearances around the city to kick off JumpRope for Heart week.
We hosted a NAPPS meeting at Brandon attended by dozens of cluster families interested in hearing from APS board members. I’ve been working tirelessly on budgeting and staffing for the 20/21 school year and presented the initial Principals Budget Report to our GOTeam. I encourage you to take a moment to read up on our GOTeam minutes so you are aware as well! Our Scholastic Book Fair was a hit again (thanks to all of our parent volunteers for their support)! Today we’ll be kicking off our annual Read-a-Thon with an assembly at both campuses as we get excited about reading and hearing from a visiting author. We also had a great turnout for our Tall and Small Ball last night!
From an instructional standpoint, our students are continuing along with our ELA and Math modules as we enter a districtwide benchmark window next week. Each grade level (1st-5th) will be taking either a math, ELA, science or SS common assessment (or all of the above if you are in grades 3-5). Of course, this is coming during a time where there has been A LOT of talk around limiting the amount of assessments we give our students. From end of year tests like the Georgia Milestones to district mandated benchmarks, our students are tested quite frequently. While testing is an important tracker of student achievement and holds schools and districts accountable, I absolutely understand and agree that too much testing for our students is not always the best way to go about teaching and learning. Our Secretary of Education, RIchard Woods, was quoted as saying “I believe so strongly that our students and teachers are worth more than the results of one test, taken on one day, during one school year.” I’m interested in learning and hearing more about this new viewpoint from our Governor as well.
Stay tuned for Mr. Hutson and my school-wide February Principal Book Chat “Pies from Nowhere”. A telling tale about the Montgomery bus boycott and interesting behind the scenes stories your children may have never heard before. Also, for our 1st and 2nd grade parents, please be on the lookout for our Tablet2Read informational packet going home next Wednesday. It contains everything you need to know about this exciting APS initiative. There is a parent OPT OUT form that must be returned to your child’s teacher (on page 26) if you do not wish for your child to take them home. Again, we are planning to send all IPads home with students in the next two weeks, so please fill out the form if you wish for them to stay at school and in the class.
Please join me on Friday, February 14th at 10am for our third quarter Principal Coffee Talk. The topic of discussion will center around the middle school experience. I am excited to have Gail Johnson, Principal of Sutton, attend and answer any questions you may have. She will give a brief overview of the transition from 5th to 6th grade, what it’s like to be a middle school student, and how to manage it all as a parent! Please help spread the word to our community and you DO NOT need to be a 5th grade parent to participate!
Until next time!
j