Letter from Alabama's First Lady!

Look what we received in the mail!  Mrs. Dianne Bentley, First Lady of Alabama, sent our classes a letter of appreciation for the ornaments we sent the mansion for Christmas tours in Montgomery!

Governor's Mansion Christmas

GATE students have been busy elves making Christmas ornaments!  Students will be able to take these ornaments home to decorate at their homes this holiday season....but we made extra ornaments to share with Governor Robert Bentley and his wife, Dianne, at the Governor's Mansion this year.  Heather Hannah who works with Mrs. Bentley is a former Albertville GATE student.  She sent an email to school systems in Alabama asking for handmade ornaments from students to decorate the trees in the mansion and in the John Blue Hill House next door to the mansion.

GATE students have made "BLUE DOG" ornaments inspired by the artist George Rodrigue.  Rodrigue, a Louisiana artist, is famous for his paintings of his BLUE DOG.  GATE students drew their own BLUE DOGS as well as painted dog bones blue...with blue glitter, of course....and hand-stamped "dog tags" with GATE 2012 on a "blue dog" collar.  Each student will take home their Blue Dog ornaments in BLUE tissue paper for their families to enjoy.  Our ornaments for the Governor's mansion were mailed to Montgomery today.  The Governor's mansion will be open for Christmas tours on Dec. 3, 10, 17 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. and admission is free.

Our GATE students along with the GATE students at Evans will be decorating the Christmas tree at the Albertville Board of Education office wishing everyone a "Merry BLUE DOG Christmas!"  Our tree will have blue lights, blue tinsel, and our blue dog ornaments!

Mrs. Dianne Bentley, the First Lady of Alabama, visited the Albertville Museum last spring.  Pictured with her are Betsey Adams, Lynn Ayer, Mrs. Bentley, Gayle Cribbs, and Dianna Adams.

Gifted Teacher Share Fair 2012

On Friday, November 16th, Mrs. Mary Shurett (the GATE teacher at Evans) and I hosted gifted teachers from all over North and Central Alabama for this year's Gifted Share Fair. As teachers arrived, they were met and escorted to the media room at AES by AES Ambassadors.

Twenty eight teachers from different school systems came for a day of meaningful professional development.  Each teacher brought a concept-based unit, lesson plan, or idea to use in the gifted classroom.  As each unit was shared, a copy of that unit was passed out to everyone in attendance.  By the end of the day our large notebooks were packed full of great ideas, lessons, units, and resources to use with our gifted students.  Mrs. Shurett and I were happy to be able to share a little bit of the Albertville City School System with the teachers.  Dr. Ayer, Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Sheets, Mrs. Robinson, Dr. Sims and Mrs. McCulley welcomed our guests at the beginning of our great day of sharing.  We are thankful that Albertville was able to host this year's event and look forward to a great day of sharing next year in Piedmont.

Zentangle

If you have seen your child "doodling" at home or talking about "tangles".....I have to say GATE is responsible for that conversation!  We are experimenting with a new type of art/doodling/stress reliever called Zentangle.  Students have learned different "tangles" to use in their art and some students have even designed their own tangles!  We have ordered the "official apprentice kit" and will begin using it in class as soon as it arrives.  The students and I are having a great time learning the art of systematic doodling!

Pumpkin Walk 2012

The AES Fall Festival would not be the same without our famous Pumpkin Walk!  Thanks to all GATE kids and parents who sent pumpkins to our class.  Students used their creativity to paint and decorate pumpkins.  We had Alabama/Auburn pumpkins, cats, ghosts, funny faces, polka dots and glitter, farm pumpkins, and more!  Students and guests of our AES Fall Festival enjoyed walking for pumpkins with winners selecting their favorite pumpkin to take home.

Please enjoy this slideshow of 3rd and 4th grade GATE students creating their pumpkins!

iPads in the Classroom!

Christmas in August??? That is what it felt like when Dr. Slivka told me that our GATE classroom would have a brand new iPad cart with 15 iPads for students to use in class!  We are learning how to add and use apps and, of course,...we are having fun!  Students have enjoyed learning how to navigate the iPads and use apps such as Dragon Dictation, Puppet Pals, iBooks, Flow, Crazy Copy, Origami, and Math Ninja.  We will be using our iPads to learn new apps and create cool technology projects in class this year.  How neat is it to see pictures of kids using iPads at school!?

Red Ribbon Week

Students decorated classroom doors in October to recognize Red Ribbon Week and our Say NO to drugs week!  Our door stated, "Drugs SCARE us!"  Scary-faced pumpkins just in time for Halloween! We all wore our "shades" to SHADE OUT DRUGS!

Glue Pastel Portraits

Fourth grade GATE students created this year's self-portraits out of large black construction paper, glue, and pastels.  The end product is FABULOUS!  I absolutely LOVE these portraits!  These works of art will be hung in the AES hall and in the media center for several weeks then will be sent home for families to enjoy.  Children's artwork is so special and unique.  It makes me happy and I hope it does you, too!  Below are a couple of photographs of the art and a slideshow of students creating these masterpieces!  Enjoy.

Hats Off to Mahala!

AES and APS students and teachers joined together this week in support of a friend!  Mahala, a 5th grader at Evans, was one of our students for the past four years at APS and AES.  These two schools hosted "Hats Off to Mahala!" on Halloween day!  Any student or teacher who brought a dollar donation was able to wear a hat to school.  Students and teachers wore a wide variety of hats:  witch hats, team caps, cowboy hats, toboggans, fancy hats, etc.  Everyone was happy to know that their donation would help a friend!  Between the two schools, we were able to donate $1617.70 into the Mahala Lowery Fund at Vantage Bank.  Our thoughts are with Mahala and her family in hopes that her treatments go well and she is able to come home soon!  We love you, Mahala!

AES WinSouth Credit Union is Open!

AES 3rd and 4th graders have an opportunity to open a real bank account and save money each week.  AES WinSouth Credit Union is open every Tuesday morning at 7:45.  Interested students may ask Mrs. Adams for an application to open their very own account.  GATE 4th graders are the "employees" of our credit union.  GATE students have an opportunity throughout the year to work as a teller greeting customers and taking deposits or a runner going class to class to escort students to the credit union.  Several teachers and central office personnel save with us on Tuesdays, too.

Jackson greets Mrs. Wilson, special education coordinator

Our first BIG deposit this year!

Opening day of AES WinSouth

Torn Paper Self Portraits...GORGEOUS!

Third grade GATE students have completed their torn paper self-portraits and they are beautiful!  Made only from torn scraps of construction paper and glue, these works of art are sure to brighten anyone's day!  Each student painted handprints around the border of each portrait.  One group of 3rd grade portraits is on display in the hall right now and the other set will be displayed soon! I hope all the families will enjoy this artwork when it comes home soon!  Enjoy the slideshow below of the 3rd grade students creating their art.

GATE students learn PAGES!

 GATE students have been working in Pages on the MacBooks recently.  Third graders created a class newsletter about our torn paper self-portaits.  Each newsletter was personalized by adding individual photos of each student.  These were printed "hot off the press" and were taken home that same day!  After learning as a group, students have begun their own personal newsletter about themselves and their interests.  These will be printed and displayed for all to see!  Great work, 3rd graders!

Fourth grade GATE students have begun working in groups to create a brochure for the Keep Albertville Beautiful (KAB) campaign.  These brochures will be given to students their own age to let them know about how we can help to beautify Albertville!  These brochures will have factual information as well as photos of Albert the KAB mascot!  Third graders will join in on the KAB brochure project next week.

Introducing...Albert the KAB mascot!  See the cute photos of Albert below!

Personality Owls....3rd grade!

G.A.T.E. has begun!

This week has been a great start to G.A.T.E. at AES!  I finally have seen all my students and have started classes!  I was ready to see my students!   I hope you will check our blog often because I will upload photos and short videos of our class activities.

Our essential concept this year is TALENTS!  We will be exploring different learning styles, completing interest inventories, and taking online personality tests to learn more about who we are, how we like to study, what our interests are, and how we can work with others to share our TALENTS to make a difference in our class, our school, our community, and for our future!

Fourth grade GATE students created "personality owls" this week to share a little bit about "Whoooooo they are!"   Third grade students will create these next week.  Enjoy a short slideshow of the kids and their creations.

Third graders had a "photo shoot" in class to take pictures for their Ambassador badges.  I have uploaded a short slideshow of our Ambassador pictures.  Enjoy.  Check back soon to see 3rd grade personality owls!

We will be exploring our talents through a variety of ways this year.  Students will have the opportunity to share their talents and express creativity through our drawing/writing journals, self-portraits, INSPIRE art contest, and our study of "Blue Dog."  Fourth graders will be our AES Tech Team creating high quality research technology projects, such as videos, podcasts, brochures, and keynotes.  Third graders are our "Technology Team in Training."  This year students will have the opportunity to use a MacBook in class to learn iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, Pages, Keynote, and more!  Some exciting news.....we have a class set of iPads!!!  The students and I are so excited to have this up to date technology at our fingertips!

2012-2013 will be a great year for GATE! I am excited about all the possibilities that await my students and me!

Welcome back to AES GATE!

Welcome to 2012-2013!  I hope everyone had a terrific summer and is looking forward to a great school year!  We have 15 new additions to our class....15 new iPads!  I am so excited!  Every student will now have a MacBook and an iPad to use while in the GATE classroom!  The possibilities are endless and I am thrilled to have this great, updated technology in our classroom!

Our essential concept this year will be TALENTS.....searching for your own and valuing those of others!  We will explore different ways to learn more about ourselves:  our personalities, our learning styles, our interests, our talents, and ways to share our gifts with others.  Students will be creating art in the next two weeks to reflect a little bit about their own personalities.....check back for pictures soon!

I am very excited that Albertville City Schools will be hosting the "Gifted Teacher Share Fair" for North Alabama on November 16, 2012 at AES.  Gifted teachers from different areas of Alabama will be at our school to share about their gifted programs and learn from each other.  I can't wait for them to see our school, meet some of our Ambassadors, and feel a part of the GREAT Albertville City School System!

Welcome to GATE....we have exciting adventures ahead this year!

AES Tech Team ROCKS State Technology Competition!

Congratulations to EACH MEMBER of the AES Technology Team who represented our school at the State Technology Competition at Auburn University in Montgomery on Saturday, May 5th.  I am so proud of each of the students!  They presented their projects with 100% confidence!  They looked great in our "skittles colors" of AES shirts, used fabulous manners and held adult conversation with judges, and KNEW their projects so well!  TO ME THEY ARE ALL 1st PLACE WINNERS!

AES brought home two 1st place trophies, three 2nd place trophies, and one 3rd place trophy!  Woo hoo!!!  The other Albertville schools did well also!  As the cheer goes, "It's GREAT to be from Albertville!"  So many people came by our table to ask how we got our fabulous technology...I told them the truth...we have great administration from the top down who truly care about our students.  Our main question is "What is best for the students?"  Thank you, Dr. Ayer, Mrs. Bishop, Mr. Tidmore, Dr. Slivka, and Mrs. Sheets for supporting our GATE class with the best in technology!  These kids made ACS look great this weekend!  I could not be more proud!

Please enjoy these photos of our fun times...beginning with 'finger mustache tattoos", Red Robin, swimming in the pool, then the competition!  Enjoy!