• Seventh-grade gifted English students at Bennett's Mill Middle School in Fayette County got five seconds of national fame Jan. 15 in a "Week-in-Rap" shout-out sponsored by Flocabulary, a creator of educational hip-hop videos, interactive activities, and online assessments for students. English teacher Carol Saboda had been using Flocabulary in her classroom, and noticed the weekly contest while she and her students were watching "The Week in Rap," a collection of videos by students who rap on current events. Her gifted classes were studying poetry, and she decided to try it. "I cannot tell you how the concepts of poetry came alive for them as they laid down those lines. My students are not going to forget this experience any time soon," Saboda said. Thirty-three students in her two classes submitted a six-line rap, as well as video, after looking at prominent news stories of 2015 and doing more research. One class focused on the upcoming presidential election, the other the Black Lives Matter movement. Their "shout-out" was on Flocabulary.com.
• Each week the students in the Reading P.A.W.S. Program at High Point Elementary School in Fulton County receive a special visit from some four-legged friends. The visits allow students to practice their reading skills to a non-judgmental and furry audience while the visiting dogs learn socialization and companion skills.
• South Forsyth High School students Alex Forbes, Jack Johnson and Ben Braner were finalists in a national video challenge sponsored by Herff Jones and DECA. The team, with DECA adviser Katie Urbanovitch and yearbook adviser Rebecca Bennett, earned an all-expense-paid trip to Palm Desert, Calif., to present their research, promotional plans, and outcomes to Herff Jones executives. The students had conducted research using focus groups and individual interviews to figure out how to most effectively market the school's yearbook to freshmen. They saw a large increase in yearbook sales after their promotions ran. The video detailing their procedures. In California, Forbes, Johnson, and Braner, competed against a finalist group from Battle Creek, Mich., and one from, Smithtown, N.Y., who were the overall winner.
• Math teams from Sandy Creek High and Starr's Mill High held on to their championship status from last year, finishing first once again in their divisions at the 2016 Griffin RESA Regional High School Math Contest among schools from the Butts, Fayette, Griffin-Spalding, Henry, Lamar, Newton, Pike, and Thomaston-Upson county school systems. Among medium schools, Sandy Creek High and Whitewater High placed first and second. Starr's Mill and McIntosh High placed first and second among larger schools. Students Jihoen Smith of McIntosh and Rickey Macke and Joshua Tysor of Starr's Mill High took first-, second- and third-place honors for students.
• Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia's largest school system, received the highest rating, Aaa, from both Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's Investors for the district's 2016 general obligation sales tax bonds, and both companies affirmed the Aaa long-term rating on the district's outstanding general-obligation debt. Gwinnett is the only school district in Georgia and the Southeast that has attained an Aaa bond rating from both Moody's and S&P. Only 17 school districts nationwide have earned this fiscal stamp of approval from both bond-rating agencies.
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