Office of School Engagement Newsletter

The Professional Development

School partnership between

UGA and Clarke County

School District (CCSD) was

well represented at the 2011

Professional Development

Schools National Conference

held in New Orleans this past

March.

Noris Price and Xernona Tho-

mas (CCSD) and Janna Dres-

den and Lew Allen (UGA)

shared the story of how Clarke

County School J.J. Harris

Charter Elementary School

opened its doors in 2009 as a

PDS and what has been ac-

complished to date.

Katherine Brown, Lindsay Ann

Hammarlund, Vicki Krugman,

and Karen Higginbotham

(CCSD) focused on what has

been gained and learned about

the school’s efforts to involve

students in authentic problem

solving experiences with a

School-wide Enrichment

Model (SEM).

Melissa Graham (CCSD) and

Lew Allen (UGA & CCSD) led

a session focused on common

issues that face professional

development schools.

Janna Dresden, Julie Kittleson,

Julianne Wenner (UGA) and

Melissa Graham (CCSD) de-

tailed how J.J. Harris students

and teachers participate in sci-

ence centers with UGA stu-

dents when methods courses

are taught at the school. All

sessions were well attended

and received.

PDS Partners Shine in New Orleans

In March six representatives from UGA and 13 Clarke County School District per-sonnel attended the National

Association of Professional Development Schools Annual Conference in New Orleans.

In order to take advantage of our time together and to build our set of shared experiences, a dinner meeting was held at a local French Quarter restau-rant. We had a private room which made it possible for us to share our thoughts and ideas in addition to traditional New Orleans cuisine. Participants were asked to introduce them-selves (some people were new to the group) and then to share something they had learned at

the conference and something that being at the conference had made them reflect on about our own experiences doing PDS work in Clarke County.

After a delightful meal filled with conversation and laughter, participants were given a homework assignment: to send Janna Dresden an e-mail describing something new or different they planned to do based on their experiences at the conference AND some-thing they hoped others would do to support our PDS col-laboration. These notes will be compiled and used at upcom-ing planning meetings later this spring and summer.

Dinner Meeting Supports Collaboration

University of Georgia

Spring 2011

Volume 2, Issue 2

The Power and Promise of Public Education

2

The Next Steps in the COE-Archway Collaboration

2

Symposium Speakers Inspire Positive Collaboration

3

JJHarris Implements Lan-guage Learning for All

3

The Future of the PDS 4

Inside this issue:

In this issue:

COE & CCSD pre-

sented at the PDS

Conference in New

Orleans

The Power and Prom-

ise of Public Educa-

tion Symposium

brought professionals

together from across

Georgia.

COE & CCSD will ex-

pand the PDS col-

laboration next year

On March 3rd and 4th, the

Office of School Engage-

ment in conjunction with

Archway Partnership hosted

the inaugural symposium,

The Power and Promise of Public

Education.

Attendees included educa-

tors, school administrators,

and community leaders

from many of the Archway

communities from Colquitt,

Washington, Glynn, Clay-

ton, Hart, Sumter, Pulaski

and Whitfield counties.

The purpose of the

symposium was to bring to

the table current challenges

that communities face and

generate an exchange of

ideas to promote a positive

identity for the Georgia

public school system. The

discussions that arose pro-

vided valuable insight and

fostered in-depth discus-

sions on various challenges

faced by schools.

The Power and the Promise of Public Education

The Next Steps in the COE-Archway Collaboration

Based on feed-back from the attendees, The Power and Promise of Public Education sym-posium was a huge suc-cess. This venue proved to be a much needed op-portunity for stakeholders from the Archway com-munities to come to-gether and learn from each other.

The next step in the long-term collabora-tion between Archway and the College of Educa-tion will soon be-gin. Edward Joaquin, OSE graduate assistant, will help each of the Archway offices through-out the year under the direction of the Archway Partnership and College

The discussions that

arose provided valuable

insight and garnered in-

depth discussions on

various challenges that

individual schools face

Page 2 Of f ice of School Engagement Volume 2, I ssue 2

of Education faculty to fa-cilitate the continuation of dialogue and collaboration between the community, Archway, and UGA.

One goal is to ad-dress specific issues of each of the communities and determine how a collabora-tion of resources from Archway and UGA can offer possible solutions to issues each community faces. As one objective, OSE hopes to actively en-gage in communities via Archway to bridge the knowledge, resources, and expertise of UGA faculty and staff.

In doing so, Edward is looking for-ward to traveling to all of the Archway communities

to further cultivate professional relation-ships to form useful and productive rela-tionships between all stakeholders in our public educational system. Organizers hope to repeat the symposium annually to continue the con-versation opportuni-ties and interaction among all involved stakeholders.

Symposium Speakers Inspire Positive Collaboration

JJHarris Implements Language Learning for All

A dinner sponsored

by the College of Education on

the first night of the Sympo-

sium was well attended as key-

note speaker, Wanda Barres,

Chair of the State Board of

Education, reflected on

changes the school system has

undergone over the past dec-

ade. More importantly, she

discussed how educators and

administrators should prepare

for future changes in the

school system and cooperate to

improve the quality of life for

students. Her inspiring talk set

the tone for what proved to be

an empowering and positive

collaboration among all of the

symposium attendees.

UGA faculty mem-

bers facilitated the discussions

throughout the next day. Dr.

Lew Allen and Dr. Kathy

Thompson dynamically began

the symposium with an interac-

tive session on defining what

the power and promise of pub-

lic education meant to the at-

tendees. Dr. Cathy Sielke pro-

vided insight and strategies on

funding for public education,

addressing the condition of

Georgia’s economy, and con-

cerns related to the financing

of tomorrow’s schools today.

Finally, Dr. Jo Beth

Allen kept the conversation

lively in her session about how

to engage family and commu-

nity support for public educa-

tion.

their knowledge and use of their

heritage language, and all students

will learn to better appreciate

Spanish speaking cultures.

Two Spanish teachers have been

hired to collaborate with home-

room teachers in kindergarten and

first-grade classrooms to teach

social studies and science using a

combination of Spanish and Eng-

lish.

Further, all students attend a

weekly Spanish special and morn-

ing broadcasts are incorporating

Spanish. As a result, it is becom-

ing more and more common to

hear students and teachers greeting

each other in classrooms and hall-

ways in Spanish.

There is a flurry of excitement and

activity at J.J. Harris Elementary

Charter School as UGA & Clarke

County Educators, community

members and parents begin to

implement the Language Learning

For All initiative.

The big idea behind this initiative

is that English-speaking students

will learn Spanish, and Spanish-

speaking students will improve

It is becoming more and more

common to hear students and

teachers greeting each other in

classrooms and hallways in

Spanish.

Page 3 Of f ice of School Engagement Volume 2, I ssue 2

The Symposium provided a much needed opportunity for stakeholders

in the Archway communities to learn from each other.

UGA College of Education

Office of School Engagement

The Office of School Engagement (OSE) at the

University of Georgia serves as a bridge between the

worlds of theory and practice in P-16 public educa-

tion to improve the educational experiences of stu-

dents and the professional lives of educators.

Office of School Engagement

Janna Dresden, Director

427C Aderhold Hall

www.coe.uga.edu/outreach/ose

COE and CCSD plan to ex-

pand their collaboration to

include four additional Profes-

sional Development Schools.

Beginning in August

of 2011, the PDS schools and

the faculty who will be working

at them as Professors-in-

Residence are as follows:

J.J. Harris Elementary Char-

ter School: Dr. Lew Allen,

Elementary and Social Studies

Education

Fowler Drive Elementary

School : Dr. Beth Tolley,

Elementary and Social Studies

Education

Building upon the success of

the Professional Development

School initiative at J.J. Harris

Elementary Charter School,

the Clarke County School Dis-

trict and UGA College of Edu-

cation have decided to expand

their PDS collaboration.

The plan is to move towards

the creation of a Professional

Development School District

so that all the schools in Clarke

County might benefit from a

relationship with the COE. In

addition, the leadership of

CCSD has agreed to make a

financial commitment to sup-

port these programs. In the

coming academic year the

Clarke Middle School: Dr.

Dorothy Y. White, Math and

Science Education

Hilsman Middle School: Dr.

Gayle Andrews, and Dr. Kathy

Thompson, Elementary and

Social Studies Education

Career Academy: Dr. Roger

Hill, Workforce Education,

Leadership, and Social Founda-

tions

The Future of the PDS

Phone: 706-542-8491

E-mail: jdresden@uga.edu

University of Georgia