Thank you all for attending our Mid-Year Kick Off event last Saturday! We had a great day of learning and could not have made it possible without the energy and excitement from you!

• Mark your calendars! We will have our next Twitter chat January 16th hosted by the marvelous Jenn Lawson! More details coming soon! We have been trending EVERY month! I can't wait to blow it up again next week!
  
  
• In addition, our webinar will be focusing on coaching with the one and only Aaron Avera! You don't want to miss this!!!!

The Teaching Museum is looking for a teacher to design and judge a technology design challenge for Night @ The Teaching Museum. The event will take place on Saturday, March 7th from 4 to 8 pm at Teaching Museum North (Roswell). The event is an competition for middle school academic bowl teams to compete in academic, creative and fun challenges. We would love to include a “TECH Challenge” to this year’s event.

The activity should last 20 minutes and be designed for a team of 10 students. The activity will be offered repeatedly during the event, with two teams competing at one time (2 teams per “round”). There will likely be 16 – 18 teams competing (we are still receiving RSVPs from schools). A standard FCS computer lab will be made accessible for the activity. The Teaching Museum will try to provide any additional materials needed for the activity. The teacher will receive $224 in additional pay to cover the time needed to create/plan and then judge on the afternoon of the event – plus, free pizza and a t-shirt!

Interested? Please send a 1-2 paragraph description of the activity/challenge and a judging rubric to Amanda Smith (smitha17@fultonschools.org) by Feb. 1st.

If you have any questions, please contact Amanda Smith (smitha17@fultonschools.org).

Vanleads, do you see any vanguard members at your school doing something awesome? Were they struggling with a tool before and are now using it? BRAG on our Vanguard members. If you see something awesome, please submit about your team member.

Please share your success stories with us! You may see your "Spotlight" in an upcoming Vanweekly!

Share Your Success!

To ignite creativity in our students, Fulton County Schools is hosting our second annual student design competition in collaboration with Bridge Innovate’s Bright Spark program, and we need volunteers to help! This year, we have sixteen teams of students in grades 4-12 from twelve schools across Fulton County registered for the 2nd Annual Bright Spark Design Competition. These teams have been tasked with developing a prototype that addresses one of three design challenges:

• How might we re-imagine the student game-day experience?
• How might we eliminate food insecurity for the children of Atlanta?
• How might we develop an innovative paper food packaging that reduces food waste?

We need industry professionals, community leaders, educators and more to serve as prototype reviewers to provide valuable feedback to the participating teams. We will also need additional volunteers to serve as room captains and help ensure the day runs smoothly.

The Fulton County Bright Spark prototype review is scheduled for February 1, 2020 from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Riverwood High School (5900 Raider Drive, Sandy Springs, GA 30328). If you are interested in volunteering, please complete this form to let us know that you plan to participate. Once you’ve completed the form, you will receive a confirmation email. Certainly feel free to forward this opportunity to others who may have an interest in helping. If you have any questions, please contact Heather Van Looy at Vanlooy@fultonschools.org or 470-254-6899.

Don't forget our meeting next Thursday, January 16th at 7:00 pm! "See" you then!