Journal features Athens Middle School

Survival guide deemed model for other teachers

Teachers at Athens Middle School developed a "Survivor"-themed online guide for incoming seventh-graders called the Golden Eagle Survival Guide. Because of this innovation, the school is featured in the latest issue of the Working Toward Excellence journal.

Working Toward Excellence, the journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center, is published in print and online formats to help professional educators adopt the best ways to teach. The latest edition, "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace," focuses on Alabama teachers who are changing the way they teach to better prepare their students to succeed in life and the digital economy.

Find the online version of "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace" at www.abpc21.org.

Athens Middle is one of 40 schools that participated in the Alabama Best Practices Center’s 21st Century Learning Project, underwritten by Microsoft Corp. This project does two things for teachers: helps them understand what students need to know to be successful in our ever-changing world, and provides them with the skills and tools to effectively engage their students.

Athens Middle, an Athens City school, won notice for The Golden Eagle Survival Guide (http://www.amssurvivalguide.org/index.htm), which is studded with multi-media files. New students can sample the daily schoolwide newscast, and the Ancestry section features student-created podcast and video interviews documenting school history. There's even a virtual tour of the historic Donnell House, located on the AMS campus.

The survival guide and related sites were a collaboration of principal Joe Jackson, assistant principal Joanna May and teachers Nan Garner, Tammi Malone and Linda McClary.

"Athens Middle School is a pacesetter in this work. Team members have worked hard to expand their use of effective teaching strategies that not only help students learn more, but get excited about what they are learning! Students often take much more care and pride in their work when they know it is being published or broadcast to a wider audience," said Gassenheimer. "In this Digital Age, in addition to the basics, children will need a broad range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving and how to effectively collaborate with others."

The A+ Education Foundation in Montgomery is home of the Alabama Best Practices Center, which receives major support from Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. Since 1991, A+ has advanced policies, programs and initiatives that result in high achievement by every child in Alabama's K-12 education system. A+ believes Alabama's economic future depends on strong public schools.

KEY LINKS

Golden Eagle Survival Guide, http://www.amssurvivalguide.org/index.htm

ASMS Through The Years, http://cordboard.wikispaces.com/

Digital version, Working Toward Excellence journal: www.abpc21.org

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This article mentions Athens Middle School http://www.abpc21.org/classroom20.html

PDF (449 Kb) of the Working Toward Excellence journal's 16-page print edition, www.bestpracticescenter.org

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