From the desk of Dr. Tyson

New 6th Grade Math Curriculum

As many of you are aware, the state of Georgia is phasing in a new math curriculum. The first year of implementation at the middle school level will begin next year with our rising 6th grade students. Each year thereafter the new curriculum will be added, first in 7th grade and the following year in 8th grade.

A few important items of note:

• The new math curriculum will raise expectations for learning math for all students at all grade levels.
• Repetition of topics found in the current curriculum have been eliminated to provide more time for teaching for understanding and mastery.
• At the conclusion of 8th grade all students will be expected to have developed skills with rational numbers as well as understandings of important concepts in Algebra I and Geometry.
• After the 2006 - 2007 school year, the need for the stand alone course of Algebra I and Geometry will no longer exist.
• Because of the new elevated math content, the need for accelerated math courses in middle school will be greatly reduced.
• Students can progress further with the new on grade level curriculum than they presently do with our current accelerated programs.
• The new on-grade-level math curriculum will provide opportunities for all students to study math at higher levels and to prepare for advanced placement (AP) math course.

For those few students who are highly talented in math and function at levels well beyond the new math curriculum, Mabry will offer an accelerated math program. This program will have strict and stringent placement requirements.

• In 6th grade, accelerated math students will cover all of the 6th grade curriculum and half of the 7th grade math curriculum.
• In 7th grade, accelerated math students will cover the remainder of the 7th grade math curriculum and all of the 8th grade math curriculum.
• The 8th grade Accelerated Math I course will cover topics traditionally found in the latter parts of high school Algebra I and Geometry and the beginning of Algebra II.

As you can see, the accelerated math curriculum will be extremely demanding and rigorous. Placement decisions will be made by the Mabry Middle School staff during the summer and no later than the end of the first 9 weeks of the sixth grade year. We will share the placement criteria with you before the end of this school year.

If you would like to learn more about the new math curriculum, I would invite you to talk with our 6th grade counselor, Mrs. Cindy Jackson, and/or visit the State Department of Education's web site.

Technology @ Mabry

Here are a couple of pictures from Mrs. Abrams' last live internet video conference with the Technology Reporter of USA TODAY, Kevin Maney, and Ken Paulson, the Editor in Chief of USA TODAY. I blogged about this several weeks ago (February 5th) when it happened, but I didn't have pictures to share at that time.

(Click to enlarge)

Left: A picture of the live internet video of the editors at USA TODAY as seen on the large screen in the theater. If you look carefully, you can see a small window inset in the bottom right hand corner of the computer window--a live picture of the student asking the question--what the editors at USA TODAY saw on their iBook.

Right: Our students asked their questions in front of the Apple iSight camera connected to the Apple iBook computer. The iBook was connected to speakers and a display device so all of the students seated in the theater could hear and see the USA TODAY editors as they answered the students' questions.

This was a powerful educational experience for our students.

Congratulations Science Fair Winners!

Congratulations to the following Mabry Students who received awards at the Cobb-Paulding Regional Science & Engineering Fair that was held on Saturday, February 26th, at Wheeler High School.

Stephanie, Sarah, and Hilary all earned 1st place recognition and are eligible to go on to the State Science Competition. Stephanie and Sarah also earned the Kemira Award of Excellence which is a plaque and $100 Savings Bond awarded to only 12 individuals demonstrating exemplary work.

Krista and Grace both earned 2nd place honors and Michael earned a 3rd place award in the Fair.

I am proud of our high achieving students.

Tonight's Information Meeting

Mabry did itself proud tonight as we hosted the first Power to Learn Information Session sponsored by the superintendent.  I want to express my appreciation for the heartfelt comments made by many of our Mabry teachers, parents, and students.  I was especially impressed with our students' comments.  They "get it!"

I found it interesting that one of our students was so outraged by what he found to be offensive and uniformed remarks made by one of the first adults to speak in the open forum, that he immediately found Mrs. DeBardeleben to ask her if he could speak at the microphone.  She was a little worried that he was too angry to speak.  But our student held back his anger and was able to effectively articulate why he believed his having a laptop would enhance his achievement in school.  Way to go, Ben!  I was proud of you.

Several of our students chose, on their own, to speak.  And every single one of them did an excellent job.  As one very impressed parent from another school told me, "Dr. Tyson, your students did you proud tonight."  Yes, indeed, they did!

I could highlight so many of the wonderful remarks that were made, but I will just share with you the passionate comments of our 2006 Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Hartnett.  She was the last person to speak, and she summed it up well.  She basically told everyone that no teacher grades more writing papers than she does, and that she wants to grade even more.  Laptops for students will allow her to do more work!  She actually wants to do more work.  She is committed to bringing her students to the highest skill level possible in their writing, and she sees student laptops as the way to do it!

Let there be no mistake.  We are talking about one thing and one thing only:  maximizing student academic achievement of the state performance standards.  We are not talking about a keyboard and a monitor.  We are talking about gifted, committed, hard-working teachers who believe in their hearts that every child having a laptop will help them attain our one goal:  maximizing student academic achievement of the state performance standards.  Trust these dedicated professionals.  Their vision of academic excellence for each child is altruistic to its very core. 

This is a transformational initiative that will shape the destiny of every child in Cobb County!  As several people said, "Can we move this initiative ahead faster?!"  Our superintendent's leadership with this initiative is nothing short of visionary.

Please Feel Free to Print & Distribute

Clicking on the picture below will download a PDF document we at Mabry have prepared for you. Please print and distribute it to help inform our community about The Power to Learn.

(Click above to download)

Technology at Mabry

Mabry students produce such astounding technology-based projects that people mistakenly assume we have lots of state-of-the-art equipment. Nothing could be further from the truth! The vast majority of our limited technology resources are extremely out-of-date, some are even unquestionably obsolete.

Our teachers and students are working miracles managing extremely limited resources. Teachers and students clamor to gain access to laptops and the computer lab. To give you some sense of perspective: We have around 70 teachers at Mabry, and on any given day, because we have so few carts with laptops, only 4 teachers can use laptops at any given time with their classes. When we are doing online student assessment, the laptops are then unavailable for classroom use.

So many wonderful technology-based educational resources are on line now. We have pro-scopes (electronic microscopes) that connect to the computers. Our teachers need reliable computers to do the basic mechanics of teaching, assessment, and communication. Bottom line: We desperately need laptops for each student and teacher so we can use them pervasively to maximize achievement!

The Power to Learn

Now that Cobb County has selected a vendor for School Board approval for The Power to Learn, I want to provide you with more detailed information about this important opportunity for the children and teachers of Cobb County. I invite you to explore the county web site link to Power to Learn.

The superintendent will have a Power to Learn information meeting at Mabry on Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at 7:00 PM. I am eager for our parents, students, and teachers to attend this important meeting to find out essential details of the plan.

Below are some important facts about the Power to Learn laptop initiative.

• The pricing for the laptops, software and warranty, based on a four-year lease, comes to $271.26 per computer. Including support and training, the cost is approximately $350 per computer, a remarkable value made possible by the large scale of Cobb's purchase. The bid beats Maine and Michigan for comparable services. That’s a savings of over 70% off retail.
• The computers will be pre-loaded with software including the Microsoft Office suite.
• The computers will be pre-loaded with Apple's iLife '05 suite, allowing students and teachers to make the most of digital movies, photos and music in school projects and presentations.
• The computers will be equipped with AirPort Extreme 54Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking.
• The computers will have a Unix-based Mac OS X operating system which provides advanced security features.
• The computers will feature a full four-year warranty.
• As reported in the Dec. 9, 2004 edition of the Wall Street Journal, "Best of all, the current Mac operating system has never been attacked by a successful virus, and almost no spyware can run on it."
• Help will always be available, through a 24/7/365 help desk dedicated to Cobb County.
• The proposal to equip Cobb’s teachers with iBooks is projected to come in more than $1 million under the SPLOST II budget ($10,012,100 actual vs. $11,250,000 budgeted).
• The district will negotiate with local Internet service providers to offer economical and cost-effective access from students’ homes.
• Students will not be required to use a laptop.
• Repairs and service will be made at a local repair depot.
• New batteries will be provided each year for each computer.
• Phase I includes issuing iBooks to all Cobb County teachers this spring. Additionly, four demonstration sites will be picked to test the program. The demonstration sites will be established Fall 2005 and will accommodate teacher training, and research & development. The final element of Phase I is upgrading outdated technology in middle schools with new iBooks.
• Phase II would provide all high school students with laptops beginning early in 2006. Students will receive laptops when their individual schools have met readiness requirements.
• Phase III of the program would issue laptops to all middle school students. Each phase will move forward pending school board approval.
• Students will get a 12" iBook and carrying case.
• Teachers will get a 14" iBook.

I Couldn't Be More Excited!

Rarely does something come along in our lives that is utterly transformational. It has. And fortunately, our school district is truly visionary, setting the pace for educational excellence for the entire nation. As your principal, I can not wait for Mabry students and teachers to get their hands on these powerful tools--to have The Power to Learn!

Having easy access to such powerful tools (63,000 laptops) will transform the education of Cobb County's children by providing equal access to information for all children, making the educational environment substantially more interactive, providing access to increasingly rapid assessment feedback, making dramatic increases in lesson creativity possible, providing unprecedented possibilities for collaboration and differentiated instruction, and expanding educational opportunities for all children.

Mabry's mission is to maximize student academic achievement. I can think of no tool that would be more empowering than laptops for every child and teacher in our school! The power workspace is a digital workspace, and we would be irresponsible not to prepare our students today for their digital futures. With the laptops, children's learning space expands beyond the classroom walls and reaches out to the best resources in the entire world. Children can reach farther faster. They can manipulate information with unprecedented speed and facility. They can become producers of knowledge-based products rather than just consumers of information.

I think a lot of people may just see computers as expensive gameboys. But our teachers at Mabry see the tremendous educational value of every teacher and every student in our school having access to his/her own laptop. I just couldn't be any more excited! The future's so bright, ya gotta wear shades!!

Not Just Research--Real World Research Experiences!

About 125 7th grade students at Mabry studied the US Constitution and the First Amendment to see how they impact their individual lives. The students also researched the nature of writing and editing a national newspaper. They also studied a government site on the internet to learn about amendments to the Constitution. And finally, the students all read technology articles in USA TODAY.

The students then synthesized all of the information gathered from these resources and generated interview questions. These questions were written with one goal: gather as much information from the answer as possible. Twenty-three students were selected from the group to pose their question to 2 very important gentlemen in an interview setting.

The interview was a live, realtime internet videoconference, using iChatAV with an iSight camera on an Apple* PowerBook, that was projected on a large screen in the theater, so other students were able to view the videoconference. Our 2 important national guests were the Technology Reporter of USA TODAY, Kevin Maney, and Ken Paulson, the Editor in Chief of USA TODAY. This videoconference with these leaders in society was truly a meaningful real-world research project for our 7th graders. I can not tell you how excited our students were to get to see and hear these gentlemen hosted live in our theater.

And one other important note: this project covers one of the new Georgia Performance Standards in Language Arts: research. Mabry teachers are already beginning to enrich our students' academic experiences with the new performance standards.

*Apple Computer is one of Mabry's Partners in Education.

science_instruction@mabry.cool

I am posting this morning from Jekyll Island, where most of our seventh grade students are participating in a field trip to the Jekyll Island 4-H Center this week (January 31 - February 4). What a fantastic location for our students to study the natural history and ecology of a barrier island. I have rarely seen this much excitement, energy and enthusiasm for learning.

Primary instruction is literally taking place “in the field,” and topics include beach ecosystems, the maritime forest, and salt marsh ecology as well as other aspects of the natural history of the Georgia coast. I shot this picture just before driving over the bridge to the island. But if you really want to see some truly great photography of students having a blast learning, check out Mr. Swanson's BioBlog!

(Click to enlarge)

A very, very special thank you to our 7th grade science teachers for planning this trip and making it possible for our students! They put in a tremendous amount of extra work. I also want to thank our other 7th grade teachers for their support in chaperoning and "holding down the instructional fort" at home. And finally, thanks to all of the moms and dads who were brave enough to chaperone as well as all of those parents who made this trip possible for their children. This is yet another reason why our students don't just attend Mabry; they attend mabry.cool!

technology@mabry.cool

In anticipation of Mabry’s Fourth Annual Film Festival, which will be held on April 19, 2005 (Mark your calendars now!), we are proud to announce that every eighth grade student is currently involved in producing a two-minute broadcast quality movie directly related to their curriculum. The theme for this year's film festival is Celebrate Achievement!

The students are making these movies in their foreign language classes, as well as Georgia Studies. While this instructional activity is straining our technology resources to the very limit (Have I mentioned before that every child needs a laptop?!), I couldn't be any more pleased! I am proud of these teachers who have undertaken this monumental activity, as well as our extremely talented students.

cultural_diversity@mabry.cool

Mabry’s third International Night was held on Thursday, January 27, 2005.  The Lassiter Dance Team, Otto of the Tahino Trio, and Mabry students provided entertainment.  Students, parents and staff members sampled food from different countries and viewed exhibits of items from around the world.  A number of participants wore native costumes and attire.

At Mabry we do not just value the cultural diversity represented by our community, we celebrate it!  Special thanks go to one of our Spanish teachers, Mrs. Ruthie Rivera, who planned this celebration, as well as all of the teachers, students, and parents who supported her efforts.

Georgia Performance Standards

I'm sure everyone is aware that middle school curriculum in the state of Georgia is changing. State-wide implementation of standards-based curriculum begins next year. Your teachers at Mabry have been busily training on standards-based curriculum design and the new curriculum in Language Arts and Reading Across the Curriculum in all grade levels, 6th and 7th grade Science, and 6th grade Math.

Our goal at Mabry is to continue our rich tradition of academic excellence by continuing to provide our students with educational experiences that go beyond the standards. Our goal continues to be maximized academic achievement for every child. I encourage you to visit the Department of Education's website's link to Performance Standards to learn more about standards-based education and the changes in curriculum.

PTSA Meeting

This morning I met with the PTSA and shared several items. Below is a very brief summary of each of the items.

1. The SPLOST construction will add 50,000 square feet to our school. We will now have 150,000 square feet at Mabry!
2. I have a meeting this week to explore the purchase of furniture and equipment for the new classrooms.
3. Students are now taking the Performance Series, a nationally normed computer adaptive test that is correlated with the CRCT and should allow us to predict success on that state test.
4. The 8th Grade Writing Assessment is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19th.
5. Early Release Day is scheduled for Wednesday, January 26th.
6. Buddy Pictures are scheduled for Friday, January 28th.
7. The 7th Grade Science students will take a fieldtrip to Jekyll Island the week of January 27th.
8. The changes in the federal overtime regulations are impacting schools. (See my post on January 6th.)
9. The Power to Learn (1 on 1 laptop initiative) appears to be scheduled to go before the board during the first part of February.
10. I have joined with those teachers who are now blogging as a communication tool for parents by starting this blog.
11. All who are interested can take a tour of the construction immediately after your meeting today.

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Volunteer Help

We have such wonderful staff at Mabry. They are always very quick to go above and beyond to help children. We have several paraprofessionals who have come in early or stayed late to help children prepare for up-coming tests or projects. Recent changes in federal law will prevent them from doing this. No hourly employees may work beyond their 8 hour work day. No hourly employees may volunteer at their place of employment beyond their regular work day.

It was very difficult for me to tell these wonderful ladies this news. They were all very heartsick. If you have strong feelings one way or the other about this new federal law, I would encourage you to let you Congressmen and Senators know. I do not think anyone saw the adverse impact this law would have on children at school.

Welcome to My Virtual Desk

First Semester Ends
Today we brought the first semester of the 2004 - 2005 school year to a close. Energy and spirit were high as students and staff looked forward to the beginning of the two week holiday season. The week was punctuated with various ensembles from band and orchestra performing in the skylight. Additionally, the chorus performed today for the students. A parent stopped me in the skylight to comment on how bright and festive the school was today.

(Click to enlarge this holiday gift)

My Virtual Desk
This also marks the first post on this new blog, "From the Desk of Dr. Tyson." I hope to join with those teachers who are using blogs to communicate with students and parents. Our hope is to have everyone on the staff comfortable with this rather new technology by the end of the year. Some of our teachers have been brave souls and are actively posting to their blog already. Others are practicing with them behind the scenes.

Our plan is move toward every teacher using a blog or a website to communicate with parents and students next year. This will be a growth process as we experiment with what categories are most useful and how to best structure the information.