Author: Matt Underwood
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Zen and the art of blogging
Prior to coming to Atlanta and ANCS, I had the good fortune of coming to know three smart, dedicated school leaders–Deborah Meier and Ted and Nancy Sizer–while working in the Boston area. They wrote letters to the families of the schools they led in their schools’ weekly newsletters, hitting on important and current issues in…
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Appreciating teachers
Yesterday marked the start of teacher appreciation week at ANCS, when our PTCA provides all sorts of wonderful recognitions and gifts for our dedicated teachers and staff. It’s a stark contrast to two items from the news last week that are indicative of a national trend in recent years to belittle and minimize the work…
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Spring “Principles in Practice” newsletter
In lieu of a regular blog post this week, check out the spring edition of the ANCS “Principles in Practice” newsletter, which is all about how we help students take an active role as informed citizens in a global society.
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Why does ANCS use a “weighted lottery”?
This week I’ll be a part of a panel at the Georgia Charter Schools Conference with other charter school leaders discussing weighted enrollment lotteries as one strategy to attaining a socioeconomically diverse student body. With ANCS’s new student enrollment lottery coming up later this month and this being the second year in which we are…
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A letter to the ANCS school family
Dear ANCS school family, The 1998-99 school year was my first year working in a school. I taught several history classes to freshmen and sophomores at a high school in Chicago. That year, when I spent hours creating my first lesson and unit plans, helped to coach the track team, and worked with an incredibly…
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Making an informed choice about ANCS
All throughout the month of February at ANCS, we are in the process of helping families interested in enrolling their students at ANCS better get to know our school. As a school of choice, it is important for families considering ANCS for their students to understand the unique elements of our educational program and our…
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Snow days are fun…until they’re not
In case you missed the announcement over the weekend, ANCS will be holding a regular day of school on Monday, March 19 (a day previously scheduled as a teacher/staff professional learning and work day) to recoup some of the instructional time missed due to inclement weather this school year. Given that few issues stir up…
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Connecting with the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition
While Atlanta was covered in snow and ice for the last part of the week last week, I was in Denver (which, oddly, was sunny and in the 60s) along with our middle campus assistant principal Mark Sanders for a convening of the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition (DCSC). As I have written about in this…
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What goals do we aspire to as a school?
As a charter school, ANCS is committed to pursuing a number of academic and organizational goals as required by the terms of our charter agreement with the Atlanta Public Schools and the Georgia Department of Education. Yet these goals really stand as the minimum we hope to achieve. At a more aspirational level, the ANCS…
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What will 2018 hold for public education policy in Georgia?
Happy new year! Although much of Atlanta was shut down yesterday due to weather and traffic concerns, the Georgia legislature did convene for the first day of the 2018 legislative session. There are some big issues potentially looming this year at the state and national political level that could impact public education. Here’s a quick…