They don't make public librarians any better than North Avondale librarian Saundra Ross-Forrest. She's a dedicated, creative, enthusiastic and compassionate librarian who goes beyond the call of duty to develop outreach programs for student and teachers at Whatley, Gibson and Glen Iris schools. She has made it her mission to create educational resources and fun programs that enrich and supplement the curriculum and keep children interested in learning.

Ross-Forrest's efforts to make learning fun have gained national attention. Recently, the Carnegie Corp. of New York and The New York Times honored Ross-Forrest and nine other librarians for their outstanding service. More than 1,700 librarians were nominated for the national award. Ross-Forrest was the only winner from Alabama.

"I still have to pinch myself to believe that I won the award. The children and the other patrons made this award possible,'' said Ross-Forrest,

Students from Carver, Huffman and Parker high schools have been selected as members of the Alabama Vocal Association Honor Choir. Click here to read more.

Gifted program enriches learning

The Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Program in the Birmingham City Schools offers gifted third- through fifth-graders educational experiences beyond what they get in their regular classrooms. Students in the program spend one day a week in GATE classes.
 

Adrienne Acklin's GATE classes at Gibson Elementary School are a perfect example. During the first semester, the third-graders in her classes did a variety of creative and forensic science projects.

One activity required students to use only newspaper, tape and paper clips to create an object. Once a month, the students become artists with creative pictures using water colors, color pencils and markers.

Each week, the students work in design groups. One group designed a new wrist watch that could also be a mini-television set.

The students became forensic anthropologists as they dissected owl pellets, shown in the photo above. The students became crime scene investigators as they sketched a crime scene in the classroom. The students became fingerprint examiners in the bottom picture as they blew up balloons with their fingerprint on them to determine the fingerprint pattern.