Category: Weekly Updates

At ANCS, our teachers strive to make learning interesting and relevant for our students, like the elementary class that researched, designed, and proposed different uses for the vacant Turner Field property or the 8th grade project where students don’t simply learn the principles of physics but apply them by creating their own rocket racers to…

This fall I get the pleasure of once again teaching an “academic growth period” class at the middle school campus.  Mrs. Santina and I are co-teaching a class that focuses on students and the law, and if the first week is any indication, the 17 students in our class all seem to be lawyers or…

About 20 years ago, a group of parents in Grant Park, concerned about the fact that the neighborhood’s children were zoned for five different elementary schools, began to explore ways to bring the community together through a school.  Out of that seed of an idea, many, many twists and turns later, the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter…

At our new teacher and staff orientation each year, our new employees are asked to answer the question “What drew you to work at ANCS?”  As we begin the new school year, I’d like to share my answer to that question with you and to introduce myself to those of you who might be new…

Last week I attended a fascinating conference—the ASU + GSV Summit—that brought together educators, tech minds, and human resources leaders from around the world.  I decided to focus my time and energy on the session strands that centered on employee recruitment, support, and engagement because those are topics that are often on my mind, especially…

When the ANCS board completed its annual midyear amendment of the school’s budget a few months ago, we passed a threshold that’s never before been hit in the school’s history by exceeding $10 million in projected income for the current fiscal year.  Though that high water mark was reached in part by large one-time local tax…

I’ve had the good fortune to live in the wonderful, vibrant, diverse neighborhoods of southeast Atlanta for the past 10 years since moving here from Massachusetts.  And for the past 8 of those years I’ve also had the good fortune of being a parent.  Like many parents, I’ve spent my fair share of time on…

For many years now, the work of the School Reform Initiative has been central to my work professionally and to the schools in which I work.  The organization’s core practice of helping schools to strengthen their capacity for “educators to build trust, take risks, and surface assumptions and insights about the students they serve by looking…

The week before spring break was teacher and staff appreciation week at ANCS.  Our PTCA, students, and families provided an outpouring of appreciation in the form of kind notes, gifts, delicious meals, and more.  And our teachers and staff—at ANCS and in all schools–are certainly deserving of our appreciation.  In the close to 20 years…

This Thursday evening we will hold ANCS’s annual new student enrollment lottery for next school year.  With more applicants than space available at our school, holding a lottery is a standard practice required by charter school law at ANCS and other public charter schools, and it is an activity that happens pretty much the same way…