Volunteers from IBM visited Brown Elementary School in Smyrna Nov. 6 to help beautify the school grounds. The group arrived early on both days, pruning bushes, planting shrubs and performing general cleanup work. The volunteers paid special attention to Brown’s courtyard. Brown faculty and staff, as well as parent volunteers, provided snacks for the IBM representatives. Ann Kirk of Keep Smyrna Beautiful helped connect IBM with Brown Elementary.

When students returned to school Nov. 8, they saw a variety of new landscaping and a cleaner school campus!

Students learned about environmental science through small, classroom-based experiments.

Bullard Elementary School held its annual Science Day Nov. 12, providing students a variety of hands-on science experiments to be involved with! Students in each grade level had a unique set of experiments for their respective grade levels, aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards. From learning about electricity from Cobb EMC to seeing a simulation of water pollution to observing the physics of a falling egg, Bullard’s Science Day immersed students in practical, hands-on learning. More than 100 parent volunteers were on hand to guide the experiments and reinforce the science lessons.

Kemp Elementary School donated ‘Family Tubs’ to Powder Springs Elementary School and its community. Each classroom at Kemp created a ’Family Tub’ full of household and cleaning supplies, toiletries, first aid, cases of water bottles and more. Kemp received clothing and canned goods from neighboring churches that were also donated to the Powder Springs community. Both of the schools and their communities were
overwhelmed with the amount of outreach and support.

Wheeler High School senior Darpan Patel was recently highlighted on ajc.com’s ‘Get Schooled’ blog. Patel is a student at Wheeler’s magnet program, the Center for Advanced Studies in Science, Mathematics, and Technology and is active in many extracurricular activities at the school.

Patel is one of only three regional finalists from Georgia in the 2009 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. The competition recognizes remarkable talent early on, fostering individual growth for high school students who are willing to challenge themselves through science research. Through this competition, students have an opportunity to achieve national recognition for science research projects that they complete in high school.

The Lassiter High School Marching Trojan Band was named Champions of the 2009 Bands of America Northeastern Regional Championship on Saturday, October 24! Twenty-eight award-winning bands from seven states competed in the championships at West Chester University, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Bands entered into the competition were from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia. In addition to winning the regional overall championship, the Lassiter Band won Class AAA, winning awards in Best Music and Best General Effect.

The Lassiter competition show was entitled, “Candide,” with music excerpts from the Broadway Musical composed by Leonard Bernstein. Musical selections included: the Overture to Candide, Make Our Garden Grow, and Candide Suite (Westphalia). This year’s Trojan Band numbers 250 members making it the largest high school marching band in the Metro Atlanta area and the largest band in this particular competition. This win represents the ninth victory in the last eleven multi-state regional championships between the years of 1995 and 2009. These multi-state regional championships were in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania. On the following day, Sunday, October 25, the band spent the day touring the National Mall in Washington, DC, visiting all of the sights of the National Capitol. It was a wonderful weekend.

The Lassiter Marching Band is a two-time NATIONAL CHAMPION, winning national championships in 1998 and again in 2002. The band has marched in the 1999 and 2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and in the 1988, 2001 and 2005 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. In November of 2010, the Trojan Band has once again been invited to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Director of Bands at Lassiter is Alfred L. Watkins, assisted by Laura Borchert and James Thompson.

Students at Clay Elementary were featured in the Oct. 10 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Metro section. The text reads:

After turning a liquid Into a solid, Beatrix Ohienmhen, a biology student at Georgia State, with the help of Osvaldo Gonzalez,11, holds the new solid over the head of Tajawa Walker, 10, at Clay Elementary School on Friday.

Ohienmhen was teaching the students about the three states of matter – gas, liquid and solid. She was one of the students from Georgia State’s Bio-Bus program. The program consists of approximately 15 undergraduate and graduate students operating out of a 30-foot mobile instructional laboratory that travels to K-12 schools and presents activities designed to get kids excited about science. Over the past 10 years, Georgia State students have presented to over 130,000 students In Georgia.

Rapper Ludacris helped Clarkdale students find the right size for their coats.

Clarkdale Elementary students were paid a surprise visit from hip-hop superstar and actor Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges on Nov. 5 ! Through his own Ludacris Foundation, the rapper donated coats for Clarkdale students impacted by the September floods and wanted to personally stop by to meet the students.

Ludacris spent time greeting Clarkdale students at Austell Intermediate and  Compton Elementary schools and spoke about the importance of giving back to the community.

Sheri Brante and Dana Dawes of the Cobb Schools Foundation presented Ludacris with a plaque in thanks for the coat donations. The Cobb Schools Foundation coordinated all of the school flood relief efforts, including the donations from The Ludacris Foundation.

Work Ready proctor, Marina Morris, assists Osborne High School Student Atiya Turner.

Chattahoochee Technical College and the Cobb County School District are teaming up together to help Cobb become a Certified Work Ready Community by December 31, 2009. As part of the Georgia Work Ready initiative, Cobb, along with the majority of counties in the state have made a commitment to earn the “Certified Work Ready Community” status, a designation showing they have the skilled workforce that business demands and the means to drive economic growth and prosperity.

Cobb County Schools are offering the Work Ready assessments to Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) students this year and plans to have EVERY senior student assessed in the 2010-2011 school year. Chattahoochee Technical College has assisted with proctoring these exams to various schools throughout the Cobb County School system and will continue to support Cobb County Schools during this venture.

Georgia Work Ready was created to ensure Georgia’s workforce has the best skills, easy access to training and world-class job opportunities. The backbone of the initiative is the Georgia Work Ready Certificate, which assess the real world skills in the areas of Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and Locating Information. If you are interested in learning more about the Georgia Work Ready program, visit www.gaworkready.org or you may contact Kary Gilkeson, Chattahoochee Technical College’s Director of Economic Development.

Two students in Ms. Jordan Thompson’s classes at East Cobb Middle School have had their writing published nationally! Kurt Klinkmueller and Alina Walling each had book reviews selected for “Voices From the Middle,” a national publication from the National Council of Teachers of English that offers articles on research and best practices in middle level reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the visual and language arts.

Kurt Klinkmueller, currently an eighth grader at ECMS, wrote a book review for “Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception,” available online at the NCTE Web site. Kurt is the first student from the state of Georgia to be selected and published. Alina Walling wrote a book review for “The Hunger Games,” in Ms. Thompson’s class. Her review will be published in the March 2010 issue of “Voices from the Middle.”

Congratulations to both students!

Austell Primary School, under the direction of Ms. Mamie Pruitt, was awarded the 2009 The Georgia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Inc. (GAHPERD) Award of Excellence in Physical Education. She was honored during the 2009 Convention Banquet in Atlanta on November 1.

Ms. Mamie Pruitt leads a great program that involves many facets of the school family. In her application she made the comment that the community is the right arm of the success of the program at Austell Primary. While this is true, no right arm knows what to do without a visionary brain. Ms. Pruitt does a wonderful job of keeping the parents involved in the program by providing information on expectations, programs that are being offered and how parents can get involved with the programs. Her communication does not end there. She also sends home fitness results at least twice a year and has had her school family complete a survey to assess the value of the program and has certified most of the staff members in CPR/First Aid.

“Coach” Pruitt also offers a fitness walking program, tumbling team, and a jump rope team all as extra curricular activities. The school participates in Jump Rope for Heart as well as provides an annual Family Fun and Fitness Night for the community. All of this is done at a primary school of Kindergarten and first grade with an enrollment of 320.

Entry submitted by Debbie Vassell-Mitchell.