Barber News


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Barber Middle School
at
the Georgia State Middle School Conference
Make a Plan, Work the Plan: Lisa Williams, Mary Jo Dukes and Dr. Teia Gentry presented the Barber success story at the Georgia Middle School Association's 31st Annual Conference last week in Savannah. Participants could hear Barber Middle School's plan for increased student achievement resulting in significant academic success. Our administrative team shared the strategies Barber used to increase our Math scores by 16% and our Reading /Language arts scores by 15%.

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Barber Middle School
at
the Georgia Department of Education

Barber Middle School was recently invited to present the Barber success story to the Georgia Department of Education, the State Superintendent Kathy Cox, and a group of Principals and Superintendents from around the state. Principal Lisa Williams and Assistant Principal Bob Downs had a chance to share all the wonderful opportunities that are offered at Barber and provide some quick insight into the innovative ways Barber is attempting to meet the needs of every child.

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CODE RED DRILLS

Each school year, all schools practice an assortment of drills to be better prepared in the event of an emergency situation. During the 2006-2007 school year, Cobb County started practicing code red drills every semester. With the increase in violence occurring at or near schools throughout the country, implementation of this lockdown drill is of utmost importance.

We will continue to conduct code red drills each semester. In an effort to simulate the unexpected, the exact dates and times of the drills will not be previously announced.

This semester's drill will occur some time during the week of October 8-12. We want to give some advance notice to parents to alleviate any concerns or confusion leading up to and following the Code Red drill.

For more information please visit these Cobb County Resources on Public Safety:

http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/publicsafety/index.htm

http://www.cobbk12.org/communications/emergency/index.htm

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Online Assessment System

The Georgia State Department of Education has developed an online assessment system containing practice tests your child can take at home if he/she has access to the internet. There is no charge for the assessments and you can monitor your child’s progress easily. The practice tests are based on the skills and knowledge that will be tested next spring and test items are presented in the same format that students will see on the actual test. Students may take the student tests as many times as they wish, whenever they wish.

The online assessment system requires Internet Explorer 5.5-6.0 or Netscape 4.5-4.78 to run. The program uses a browser checker that will notify you if your browser is not compatible with the online assessment system. If you receive an error message from your browser, you will need to convert to a browser that is supported by the online assessment system for the program to work properly.

Beginning December 1st, your child can access practice tests in the following way:

Go to http://www.georgiaoas.org
Login with the student’s Georgia Test identification number (GTID). If you are not sure of this number, contact your child’s teacher. The GTID was placed on the parent letter that went home explaining the OAS. The number is ten digits long and there are no spaces in the number.
The password is education.
The Student Welcome Page will appear and your child can click Student Tests.
Choose the subject area from the list of available subjects.
Select the test from the list.
Click the Take the Test button. The test will begin.
Once the test has been completed, click the Grade My Test button at the bottom of the page; a pop-up window will display. Click OK.
The results of the student’s test will display. You can either save or discard the results.
Click on Return Home if finished or click on a test option button if you want to take another test.
Click the Logout button when you are finished working in the online assessment system.

We hope this resource will be helpful to you throughout the year. If you have any questions concerning your child’s progress, contact his/her teacher.

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2007-2008 Barber School Council

The Cobb County Board of Education implemented school councils with the provisions of the A+ Education Reform Act of 2000. The role of the the school council is to "bring communities and schools closer together in a spirit of cooperation to solve difficult educational problems, improve academic achievement, provide support for teachers and administrators, and bring parents into the school-based decision-making process." (O.C.G.A. 20-2-85)

The school council functions as an advisory body, and consists of a minimum of seven representatives. The representatives include two parents/guardians; two certificated teachers/instructional staff members; two business persons and the principal.

The 2007-2008 Barber School Council consists of the following members:

Lisa Williams	Dr. Linda Harvey
Kay Johnson	Nick Person
Lisa Carmean	Dana O'Bryan
Doug Allen

The minutes for each monthly meeting will be posted to this website. A hardcopy of the minutes will also be available in the front office.

October 2006 minutes

November 2006 minutes

December 2006 minutes

January 2007 minutes

February 2007 minutes

August 2007 minutes

September 2007 minutes

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