November is Family Engagement Month in Georgia, and districts and schools across the state will be highlighting the important role parents play in their children’s education. In addition, November 16 is National Parent Involvement Day, a time for all schools and parents to reflect on the vital partnership needed for Georgia’s students and schools to be successful. I invite you to access the following opportunities to strengthen those partnerships with your students’ parents and families:

On behalf of all schools in Georgia, I wrote a Thank You Letter to Georgia’s Families to show our appreciation to the parents and the family members who support student success. Click here for the link to the letter.
The Georgia Department of Education’s Family-School Partnership Program has released their newly revised video network to highlight best practices and to provide ideas and strategies to engage parents in their students’ academic success. Click here to here to access the Family Engagement Partners Video Network.
The Family Engagement Month 2017 webpage has links to the state proclamation declaring November as Georgia Family Engagement Month and an archived copy of the Parent Resolution adopted by the State Board of Education in 2010. This webpage also has ideas from Georgia school systems on last year’s celebration of Family Engagement Month. Click here to view the links to these documents.
I want to thank all of you who have taken on the important task of engaging parents and families in your schools. Together, we can continue to create meaningful Family-School Partnerships, in November and year-round. 

Sincerely,

Richard Woods
Georgia’s School Superintendent     

​MacIntyre Park Middle School eighth grade students learned about the design process and developed an understanding of the influence of creativity and innovation in their lives and the lives of others with MPMS Teach of the Year Tiquilla Futch in a Design and Modeling elective made possible through Project Lead the Way. 
Through the Georgia Innovation Fund grant, schools in Southwest Georgia have the opportunity to implement PLTW’s K-12 pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science for students.  MPMS was awarded the three-year grant that provides access to the Project Lead the Way website’s instructional resources, curriculum, design software, and other materials needed for the prototypes created by the students. 
Once the students have worked to learn about the design process they are then challenged and empowered to use and apply what they’ve learned throughout the unit to design a therapeutic toy for a child who has cerebral palsy.
Although the budget provides materials that the students can use to construct their toy or game, the groups mainly use recyclables like egg cartons, plastic bottle caps, and cardboard boxes.  
Futch teaches 8th grade Physical Science and she has a hand in the selection of the student in the class. 
“Because I teach in a traditional science class, I know who will have the work ethic and motivation to succeed,” said Futch.   
In the beginning, Futch was hesitant about delivering the content of the class to the students because she was concerned that she didn’t have enough training. She immediately found through teaching the class that she was well-prepared and the students picked up on the concepts quickly.
“The students are so intuitive with technology and when they got engaged, they exceeded my expectations,” said Futch. “I have been so pleased with the outcome.”
Shemekia Clark and Yancey Kelly created a game called “Color Stick Bounce” which combined the bouncing of wooden spools onto dowels and bouncing metal washers into indentions in an egg carton.  Clark not only learned steps in the design process, she also learned about the people with cerebral palsy for whom she was creating the game.
“I didn’t even know the disease had a name,” said Clark. “I now know that they have muscular issues and our game can help build stronger muscles.” 
Ijuana Bradshaw, Lena Mickens, and Antony Davis crafted a game called “Mysteryland” that used a set of six-sided dice made from cardboard that are tossed from a cup so that the player can make moves on a board. 
“We learned that people may need improvement with gesturing, and the things that they have to do when they play this game helps with wrist movement,” said Bradshaw.
     Kiana Sapp, Tydarius Ivey, and Asia Monroe also focused on fine-motor muscle building, but they also took frustration-level into consideration in the creation of their toy. 
     “The person has to solve a puzzle with the sliced parts of a picture on popsicle sticks, but if it gets too hard then we numbered them on the back and they are still working muscles that help with gesturing,” said Sapp.  
Kevin Andrews and Alexis Smith composed a stack of questions from all different subject areas that players must try to answer correctly.  Correct answers are rewarded with a chance to shoot a basketball on a miniature court. 
     “The ball is special because they can squeeze it when answering the question, and then they have to work on the extension of their arm when shooting the ball,” said Andrews. “Hand grip strength can improve.” 
The students overwhelmingly leaned toward the personal aspect in all of their design choices. Their intentions were thoughtful and researched to produce a fun, yet therapeutic toy.  They will present their projects to fellow students in the class and to potential Design and Modeling students in younger grades. 
Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is a nonprofit organization that provides a transformative learning experience for K-12 students and teachers across the U.S. PLTW empowers students to develop in-demand, transportable knowledge and skills through pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science. PLTW’s teacher training and resources support teachers as they engage their students in real-world learning. More than 8,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia offer PLTW programs. 
"Between now and the year 2020, STEM fields will introduce more than 79,000 new jobs to Georgia,” said Governor Nathan Deal. "With this multi-million dollar partnership between Project Lead The Way and the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement in place, schools in the southwestern region of our state will be able to implement strategies that will better prepare our students of today to be our workforce of tomorrow.”

​Tiquilla Futch is married to Mark Futch, who is also a Thomasville City School system employee, and they have two children. Mrs. Futch has been te​a​ching at MPMS for 11 years. ​She ha​s​ a B​acherlor of Science degree in ​C​hemistry  from the University of West Georgia.  ​Mrs. Futch completed the teacher preparation program from Valdosta State University. ​She also ha​s a Master's Degree in Brainsmart Education from Nova Southeastern University.  

​Mrs. Futch thoroughly enjoy​s​ teaching and being a role model for ​her students. ​The motto that ​she live by as a teacher and a parent is "knowledge is power". ​Mrs. Futch tr​ies to instill in ​her students that with knowledge and an education the possibilities are endless. ​She share​s​ ​her knowledge with ​her students daily because ​she want​s​ them to go far and be successful and productive citizens.

​Mrs. Futch motto is inspired by the following quote from Nelson Mandela: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."​

Recently the students at MPMS completed the Be The Voice That Stops Bullying program. Be THE Voice was launched in October (to coincide with “National Bully Prevention Month”) in collaboration with the Rotary Club. The program includes 12 short videos (2–3 minutes) and corresponding collateral that show creative ways for bystanders to neutralize Bullying. Each student also completed a pre and post survey and competed in a poster contest. 

The following earned first place honors. We received 8 state slots (out of 22 available) and 3 alternates:
​Andrew Cannon, state
Sam Carter, state
Clara Clifton, alternate
Winston Cornish, state
Clarke Finger, state
Mallory Fletcher, alternate
Addie Rinehart, state
Braxton Sizemore, state
Macy Taylor, alternate
Jocelyn Watson, state 
Julianna Watson, state