It's almost time....THE BEGINNING OF SCHOOL!

....a work in progress...

It's that time of year...the time when teachers head back to their classrooms to dust and shine, reorganize, plan, and decorate!  The past two nights I have been in my classroom getting things "back to normal" to start our school year in GATE.

Check back often to see more about what I have in store for GATE students at AES.   The picture below is the beginning of my bulletin board outside my classroom.  I am excited about the many possibilities we will encounter as we use higher order thinking skills, research methods, and most of all our CREATIVITY to learn and create

FOLK ART!

Hats Off to Tigers!

Olivia Wood is a 4th grader who loves cats...not just any cats, but BIG CATS!  It has been her dream for two years to hold a fundraiser at AES to benefit the local Tigers for Tomorrow.  Olivia and her family visited Tigers for Tomorrow last summer.  She and her friend, Ethan, created a brochure about Tigers for Tomorrow for the Regional Technology Competition to share about this non-profit organization with their friends.

On May 21st, Albertville Elementary teachers and students who chose to share a donation of $1.00 were able to wear a hat to school all day!  We raised $309.70 to donate to Tigers for Tomorrow. Our goal was $250-$300 so that we would have enough to purchase a new tiger toy.

Today, Pockets the Macaw, and friend visited AES to accept our donation.  

Thanks, Olivia, for a great idea to benefit such a worthwhile organization!  If you have not visited Tigers for Tomorrow near Collinsville on Untamed Mountain, maybe you and your family would like to visit this summer!  Thank you, AES teachers and students, for supporting this service project!

State Technology Competition ... GREAT SUCCESS!

Eleven AES GATE students traveled to Auburn University in Montgomery on Saturday, April 26th for the State Technology Competition.  All of these students represented our school, our school system, our city, and their families well! I was so proud of how they presented their projects...like little business professionals!  Their behavior was wonderful and they were great sports cheering for each other!

This was our team anxiously awaiting the awards program!  Elaina was pulling "double duty" this weekend!  She was judged then left to play a softball tournament just down the road!  Since she missed the picture, I didn't want her to be left out!  This picture is from Regional Competition where she won three medals!

One of the sweetest moments of the weekend was seeing these three girls holding hands while being judged!  So precious and supportive of each other!

Meri-Lil, Caroline, and Ella Kate won 1st place for their video production titled, "Manners Matter!"

Canaan presented a website that he and Will created about Greek Mythology.  They won 2nd place!

Emma shared a website that she and Julissa designed about China.  They even used pictures of Mrs. Yu visiting our classroom.  Their project won 1st place!

Adyson's original website, "Fashion Through the Decades" won 3rd place!

Aislie's love for Sea Turtles is evident in her website about saving sea turtles!  She won 1st place!

Congratulations to the whole team for a great, fun weekend in Montgomery!  

A special thanks to the parents for spending your weekend supporting our GATE class.  I know it was an expense to make the trip and a whole day (or two) out of your weekend.  I greatly appreciate you all making the effort!  Great memories were made and I hope that the students will remember this awesome experience representing our school system.  Thanks to Albertville City Schools for paying the registration for students to compete and to Mr. Tidmore for traveling to Montgomery to support all of our Albertville students!

 Look for an article in The Sand Mountain Reporter about this great group of kids!  Maybe it will be in the Tuesday, May 6th edition.

Time Capsule Reunion

What a great group of seniors!  Back in 2006, a group of 4th grade gifted students at Albertville Elementary studied time capsules...what they are, why people make them...and they created their own.  These have safely been "buried" in my classroom since 2006!

Tonight we unveiled the "artifacts" inside!

Time capsules ready to be opened...

Bulletin board with pictures of the students "then...and now!"  The current pictures also have printed the students' plans for this fall.  They are all going to school, many have scholarships, and are all motivated and driven in their collegiate plans!

Before the opening of each...

What's inside!?

Back in the good old days of WAES Broadcast!

What a great way to end a school year...and begin new lives for these students!  I am so proud of each of them.  They are all leaders in band, choir, athletics, academics, ROTC, but mostly leaders in LIFE!  Their futures are bright, their outlook is positive...I am blessed to have taught each of these students!

Congratulations, seniors!  

AES Technology Team Represents AES Well!

Congratulations to EACH MEMBER of the Albertville Elementary School Technology Team!  Each team member represented our school with wonderful manners, polite attitudes, and really got to show off their hard work and projects to the judges.

Congratulations to our winners!!!

IT Test 

3rd place - Elaina Collins

General Applications

2nd place - Elaina Collins

3rd place - Brady Quarles

3rd place - Meri-Lil Massey and Elaina Collins

Website Design

1st place - Aislie Casey

1st place - Julissa Benitez and Emma Currier

2nd place - Adyson Brandon

2nd place - Will Broadhurst and Canaan Claborn

3rd place - Jonah Bilbrey

Multimedia

1st Place - Canaan Jones

3rd place - Alex Branch

Video Production

1st place - Olivia Wood

1st place - Meri-Lil Massey, Ella Kate Jones, Caroline Thomas

2nd place - Jaylee O'Dell

I am super proud of these kids!

INSPIRE WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Congratulations to our AES students who won awards in the Marshall Medical Center South's Art Contest!

1st place - Kayla Romero

2nd place - Jensyn Seay

4th place - Olivia Wood

Foundation Choice Award - Kinsley Little

Foundation Choice Award - Lily Laverty

These students will be honored at a reception on Thursday, April 24th at 6:30 p.m. at the Women's Center of Marshall Medical Center South.  Their award-winning art will hang in the Inspire Art Gallery for one year.

Congratulations!

INSPIRE Art Contest 2014

Each year Marshall Medical Centers celebrate Youth Art Month by sponsoring a student art contest.  The theme each year is INSPIRE.  G.A.T.E. students use higher order thinking skills to help guide them through this process.  They use PRODUCTIVE THINKING to think of all the many, varied, and unusual things they could paint or draw for this contest.  Our students are great productive thinkers and have many ideas to choose from.  Next, they use DECISION MAKING skills to decide which idea they will use and also which medium with which to create their art.  These thinking skills will help them in life -- now and as adults!

Students could choose watercolors, acrylic paints, pastels, colored pencils, markers, crayons, or torn paper collage.   AES G.A.T.E. students participated in this contest.  Our school is allowed to enter 15 pieces of art.  Judges had a hard time deciding which works of art would represent AES!  Congratulations to the following students:

4th grade

Jaylee O'Dell

Kinsley Little

Tristan Golden

Jensyn Seay

Kayla Romero

Olivia Wood

Adyson Brandon

Emma Currier

Marianna Aguilar

Daniel Pall

3rd grade

Evan Patterson 

Alex Watts

Lily Laverty

Ainsley Stephens

Courtney Morrow

Marshall Medical Center South will host a reception for winners of the overall contest in April.  We hope some of these students will be winners for this competition!  Winning artwork will be hung in a special gallery in the Women's Center of MMCS.  Check back soon to see a list of MMCS Foundation winners!

Please enjoy this slideshow of students creating their art!