Greetings!

Brookwood has hosted several groups on our campus in recent weeks.  These groups included county officials, school administrators and teachers from Gwinnett and other counties.  Most have come to tour our facilities and see presentations on programs managed by our staff.  Most frequently, our guests want to learn how they can implement programs in place at Brookwood in their own schools.  Let me give you just one example.

One of Gwinnett County Public Schools' strategic priorities for 2010-2020 is to have technology permeate the education of Gwinnett's learners.  One piece of this multi-year initiative is eCLASS, a whole suite of resources to support teachers and enhance learning.  It's a major vision and, in September, Brookwood hosted the eCLASS Principal's Forum. While on our campus, this group learned how Brookwood is increasing teacher capacity for effective instruction with technology and how Brookwood uses technology to inform the community about what happens at school.

A new initiative for Brookwood this year will be to pilot the Curriculum & Instruction component of eCLASS, which will allow teachers of some subjects to develop a companion online instruction tool to supplement classroom instruction. This tool will offer features such as moderated student discussions and an electronic drop-box for submission of student work.  Visitors have seen the ways our staff stay savvy about innovations in technology for education and the steps we're taking towards becoming a "Bring Your Own Device" school, which will allow instruction on cell phones, tablets, laptops and e-readers in the classroom.

Incorporating new initiatives every year is a challenge, both in terms of human resources and the non-human kind.  We shift roles, learn from one another and re-organize our school day.  It's a testament to our staff's adaptability that they can stay out in front of changes on the tech front, deliver excellent instruction to our students, plan and collaborate with peers, all while still staying connected to kids on a personal level.

When the visitors come, I'm proud to brag about our staff in the classroom and those behind-the-scenes.  I'm also proud to show the vision-makers how their ideas look when put into place at a local school.  But, most of all, I want to show that we work together with one purpose, serving the interests of Broncos to ensure they are college and career ready.   

Warmly,

Debbie

Photography students take head shot photos of student actors in upcoming theater productions.

The thespians have also teamed up with other school curriculum areas for additional help with the show.  Music Tech classes are creating incredibly creepy music written by Brookwood students.  Students in photography class are snapping the head shot photos.

This is an enormous group effort and our drama students are truly fortunate for these experiences. You can see the scary results of this hard work when Night of the Living Dead comes to the Brookwood stage on October 10 and 12 at 7:00 p.m.

The girls cross country team won its third consecutive County Championship and its fourth in the last five years.  Laurel Sumner and Lauren Brennan finished in the top 10, earning them automatic All-County honors.  Freshmen Mackenzie Ellison and Lauren Flynt, and senior Nina Thomason also ran well, finishing in the top 20. There were also three JV races and the Brookwood girls won two of them and placed 2nd in the other.  

The boys varsity cross country team placed 2nd at the county championships. Finishing in the top 10 and earning automatic All-County recognition were Miles Yapp (who finished 5th) and Chris O'Brien (who finished 9th). Garrett Adams, Tommy Templeman, Jonathan Hanagriff and Michael Fadeley also finished in the top 20.  Our boys JV teams also won two of the three JV races. Our top finishers in those races were Matthew Hanagriff, Trevor Thorburn and Alex Weisel.