Thanks Mary Lin Foundation! Logical Choice was here yesterday installing the second grade Promethean Boards! Our second grade teachers are so excited! The Promethean Boards provide the teachers with yet another way to engage the students in meaningful, challenging learning activities.

Mary Lin has also started a professional development course centered on integrating Promethean Boards into instruction. This course is designed for the teachers who have had some experience using Promethean Boards. Our second grade teachers will be attending professional development provided by Logical Choice.

Although we are excited about leveraging another piece of technology at Mary Lin, we understand that an effective teacher is the most important factor in a child's education.

We love what we do at Mary Lin!

Dr. Mitchell, Principal 

1. Remain above needs improvement status
2. Demonstrate that at least 20% of students exceed standards in all test areas as measured by state assessments
3. Demonstrate that at least 95% of students meet or exceed standards as measured by state assessments.

Tomorrow is Principal For A Day (PFAD) in each Atlanta Public School. Mary Lin's guest principal is Regina Folks, Director of the Druid Hills Development Center. The purpose of PFAD is for schools to create partnerships with community-based businesses. A strong link between school and the community creates opportunities to increase student achievement.

Our goal is to link Regina with our kindergarten teachers and establish a dialogue that focuses on the expectations for Pre-K and kindergarten. Through this dialogue, we could be better aligned with supporting the respective programs at each school.

I am looking forward to a great day!

Dr. Mitchell

Assessing students is an important component of instruction. Teachers need to assess their students to find out how much they know or how much they have learned. Assessing students is also necessary to find out exactly what skills need to be taught so mastery of a standard is achieved.

Formative assessments are used to assess students “along the way”. In short, teachers cannot wait until the end of a nine-week unit to find out if the students “got it”. What teachers should be doing is assessing their students periodically during the nine-week unit. Formative assessments can take the shape of many formats. Oral assessments, exit tickets, and group activities are just a few.

Want to find out more? Ask a Mary Lin teacher!

Dr. Mitchell

Mary Lin Elementary...

Looking Over the Horizon.

Understanding the importance of being responsive to each student's academic needs is our driving force. The Mary Lin teachers pride themselves on knowing what skills each student needs on the journey to mastering each Georgia Performance Standard. Being responsive to each student's academic needs is a teacher's biggest challenge and we improve on rising to this challenge daily.

Using data to inform our decision making to increase student achievement is a best practice at Mary Lin. We simply cannot wait until the end of a unit to find out if students mastered the standard. Using formative assessments (along the way) to determine if students master the skills being taught is a necessary building block for differentiated instruction. When teachers differentiate their instruction, they provide students with work that is challenging. When the work is challenging, students are learning and using the skills necessary to demonstrate mastery of the content being taught. Want to find out more about how the Mary Lin teachers use data to differentiate their instruction? Please, just feel free to ask them!

Dr. Mitchell