January 2024 - Collaborative Leadership in the Peachtree Ridge Cluster

This January, we examine Collaborative Leadership in our Peachtree Ridge Cluster.

Through Collaborative Leadership— Team GCPS students, families, and staff intentionally seek and engage opportunities to work with others toward a common purpose, building relationships together through trust, compassion, and principled behaviors. Our school communities encourage a win-win mindset as they seek and maximize opportunities to actively listen and elicit diverse perspectives and contributions from others, consistently seeking collective commitment. Each and every student and staff member take risks and know how to develop, organize, and manage new technologies, initiatives, and ventures to positively impact the world, crafting inspiring visions and action in the process.

Throughout the Peachtree Ridge Cluster, Collaborative Leadership means creative thinking, relationship building, and solving challenges together in a supportive environment where students can excel individually, and in collective efforts.

Parsons Elementary takes pride in student-led decision making through its Student Council. Parsons has worked hard to make the Student Council a chance for students to share their vision for what the school needs and how to make it an enjoyable place for themselves and their classmates. In 2023, the council called a local co-op and managed to organize a food drive. The students promoted the opportunity around the school and made announcements to increase participation, and filled all the barrels.

They also lead events like Trunk or Treat at their school. Mona Vosough, Parsons ES School Counselor, says “They truly stepped up their leadership and ran it on their own. All we had to do was supervise. It is wonderful to see how they take thought after an event and use that to improve their ideas for future events.” Furthermore, students are encouraged to build relationships with students in all grade levels to promote collaboration and unity. Leadership opportunities are abundant for the students. Elizabeth O., a 5th grader, says, “We’ve done a food drive, we’ve done kindness missions, we also put positive notes around the school, and we got to go to a leadership conference, too.”

Jackson Elementary displays Collaborative Leadership through several group and after-school opportunities that encourage students to engage with each other in a learning environment. Through “One Ridge” culture, collaborative learning starts early in the Peachtree Ridge cluster, with the expectation that students practice using their collaborative skills each and every day in the classroom. The Jackson ES team extends this by supporting students in tutoring, mentoring, club sponsoring, and participating in schoolwide events.

Let out a “roar” for the Jackson ES RoboLions Robotics team! The team began in 2010 and has made a lasting impression on the Jackson learning community for more than a decade. The team starts meeting in September and meets twice to three times a week until the first regional competition in December. This school year, the RoboLions moved on to the Super Regional competition. During their regional competition, the RoboLions presented a solution to students being afraid to play football, out of fear of being hit by the ball. The team presented the idea to invent a new football that was lighter and made noise to alert a person when the ball was nearby. The process of listening to others’ ideas and respecting those ideas, as well as practicing their speaking skills, helped RoboLions team members grow as leaders throughout the process.

“Our students learn that it takes the entire team to meet the challenges. Not one individual can do it alone. They learned that respecting each other fosters communication which makes the team stronger,” said STEM and Robotics Teacher Aurey Massey.

It’s the end of the day at Peachtree Ridge High, and it’s time to sharpen your focus as you join members of the school’s Gwinnett Student Leadership Team (GSLT) for "Lion Leadership” at Hull and Northbrook Middle Schools.

No, you won’t be taming any lions, but you will utilize leadership tools while engaging in character lessons with 8th grade middle school leadership teams. These monthly Lion Leadership sessions strengthen interaction and partnership between middle and high school leaders and help unite the cluster both in-school and after-school, further strengthening the “One Ridge” mindset. The mission of these “Lion Leaders”: foster a culture dedicated to the pursuit of excellence where each and every student feels worthy and valued.

“This collaboration within the cluster allows middle school students to interact with their high school peers at various points in the semester on important topics related to growing as leaders,” adds Assistant Principal Sean O’Connor.

Grab your computer, a trifold poster board, some construction paper, and your team! At Mason Elementary, a GaDOE (Georgia Department of Education) STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Certified, National Green Ribbon, and CSforALL (Computer Science for All) school, the STEM & Innovation Fair is a school-wide, and community event.

It starts with the Mason STEM Leadership team composed of teachers from grades K-5, special education, special areas, tech team, and administrative members who meet monthly to collaboratively plan STEM and Project Based Learning (PBL) experiences that equitably engage students in the school-wide Design Thinking Model (Define, Empathize, Ideate, Prototype, Test).

The STEM Leadership team says business and community partners are paramount to student success. Throughout the year, many of Mason Elementary’s partners work with students and teachers on STEM learning experiences ensuring real-world relevance. The school PTA is another integral part, providing financial support so that each and every K-5 student has access to robotics and coding pathways.

Mason Elementary alumni and Peachtree Ridge High (PRHS) teachers and students also support STEM learning by volunteering their time to help robotics students, providing demos at science fairs, acting as judges in tournaments, and in one special case— founding a Coding Club. Mason Elementary graduates Rhea and Alyna created KIDZ CODE, a club for 4th and 5th grade girls to increase access to Computer Science in STEM and explore coding in a fun and friendly environment.

“The club has played a pivotal role in equipping young girls with programming skills. In the current year, our focus has expanded to teach coding fundamentals, provide hands-on experience with drones, and delve into the intricacies of Python programming,” says Rhea, a club founder and current GSMST junior. “Through a team-oriented approach, students were organized into groups to explore the nuances of drone flight, fostering a spirit of collaboration and teamwork. This emphasis on teamwork is particularly evident in the presentation of the team’s drone projects at the school's science fair.”

Business partners, alumni, PRHS teachers and students, and community members are all on deck for the STEM & Innovation Fair where Mason students display their problem-solving, research, teamwork, presentation, and communication skills. Colorful trifold posters and project displays line the halls and lunchroom of the school, showcasing students’ development of empathy for their community and world and research for solutions to real-world relevant problems through their collaborative STEM work.

“We want students to know they belong in STEM and have opportunities to develop the skill sets needed to be successful beyond their Mason STEM experience. We want them to see themselves as confident problem-solvers who can leverage design thinking to move from problem to solution and whose solutions can and will impact others and their community,” says K-5 Computer Science/STEM teacher Shay Buchanan. “We hope our students will learn perseverance as they engage in a continuous improvement cycle, and we believe Mason students will become effective communicators who are confident in sharing their own voice and ideas, and who can collaborate with one another and respect and listen to the voices of others.”

At all schools in the Peachtree Ridge Cluster, Collaborative Leadership is synonymous with support, partnership, community, and growth. The considerate and purposeful development of supportive learning environments and relationships ensures collective, and individual success for each and every student.

About the Peachtree Ridge Cluster