Teachers growing professionally

One of the many great things about our staff at Baker-Butler is that our teachers continue to grow professionally. At our recent faculty meeting our teachers began our year-long discussion of how to increase our effectiveness in supporting all students to learn how to read.

During this time together there were several activities for professional development for our staff. As one example, teachers shared the "look fors" (what we would expect to see during a visit in a classroom) of effective reading instruction as well as why they thought that look for was important. For instance, one look for was small group instruction, and the why was because it allowed teachers to teach  students on their individual academic level. To make these two ideas stand out, the look fors were written on blue Post Its and the whys were written on pink Post Its, and they were placed together on 4 large sheets of paper throughout the library.

After teachers shared their thoughts, they then did a "gallery walk," where they examined other teachers' thoughts and then we analyzed the responses for patterns and common themes.

Gallery walking for patterns and themes

This is just a small example of the many ways that Baker-Butler teachers continue to grow professionally all the time.

5th grade historians uncovering the past

Fifth grade students have been investigating primary and secondary sources in order to understand how historians figure out the culture and events of the past. Mrs. Whitenack is leading the classes in a hands-on exploration of actual 19^th century artifacts found during site preparation for the construction of Agnor-Hurt Elementary School twenty-five years ago. Students are challenged to try to figure out what each object might have been used for, and what the whole collection can tell them about the everyday life of the owners. This activity not only gives students an opportunity to interact directly with primary source material, but gives our predominantly urban/suburban students a tangible connection to our agricultural past. Check out these pictures below!

Our first school-wide Morning Meeting!

          We strive to be a strong community at Baker-Butler. One way we are strengthening our community is by having school wide Morning Meetings as one part of our Responsive Classroom work (https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/). On Friday, August 26th we had our first school wide Morning Meeting to welcome all of our students and to start this school year. According to many teachers, this was the first school wide Morning Meeting in at least 6 years at Baker-Butler.

Our students greeted each other in different languages, shared their favorite activities from the first week, and learned our school song. Check out these videos and pictures of our school wide Morning Meeting!

Teachers leading the Morning Message

Each grade got to share their favorite activity of the week

Learning the school song

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year!

Welcome to the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year at Baker-Butler!

We are excited to begin this new year with our students on Tuesday, August 23rd. Whether you are returning to BBES or are a new family or student, we know how excited you are for the beginning of this school year.

This year we welcome back over 600 students and 80 teachers and staff members. We are excited to announce several new teachers who will be joining our team this year:

• Ms. Catie Clark, Special Education
• Ms. Caroline Harn, Special Education
• Ms. Whitney Lipscomb, Special Education Autism-BASE
• Ms. Lexy McCallum, Art
• Ms. Melissa McReynolds, Art
• Ms. Marcee Porterfield, Reading
• Ms. Tana Strike, School Psychologist

We have had a very busy and productive summer preparing for this school year. Our building has received new solar panels on our roof throughout the building, and the energy generated from these panels will be used in part to help power our building. Check out these pictures to see some of the installation work this summer:

We have also received a complete renovation of the library, including new carpet and furniture. Check out some of these pictures taken during the renovation:

Removing the old carpet in the library.

New flexible bookshelves and carpet

In the first few weeks of school we will have a total renovation and replacement of our back playground structures in the first phase of a two summer playground renovation. Our gym will also be receiving a new sound system in the coming weeks.

Baker-Butler teachers have been hard at work the past few weeks preparing for another great year. They've been examining our recent academic data to find areas of strength and improvement, meeting together as teams to plan for this year, and making the final touches on their classrooms for our Open House and first days of school. Here are some pictures of our staff during the past two weeks working to get ready for this year.

New teachers meeting together. 

Faculty meeting with teachers discussing our academic data.

Teachers in a Morning Meeting answering the question: "What Olympic Sport would you not participate in?"

We are excited to begin the 2016-2017 school year together. Please check back here throughout the year to see and to learn more about the wonderful things that are happening at Baker-Butler.

BBES & Sights and Sounds Fine Arts Academy

Recently Baker-Butler hosted the ACPS Sights and Sound Fine Arts Academy, and it was a smashing success. BBES teachers Donna Rehorn and Karen Purdon did an amazing job leading these students on a African Safari, with both artwork and music tied to this engaging theme. 

The culmination of the week was a music performance and art gallery walk displaying the pieces of art that the students created. Both the music and art that the students created were exceptional, and they were all the more impressive considering they were made in just one week. 

Enjoy these pictures and videos of the students' work from the camp. We are already looking forward to holding this program again next summer!

Baker-Butler in the national news

Recently several national magazines have featured Baker-Butler and our innovative work with students.

Check out this article from THE Journal that describes our work with students and Minecraft EDU in our 3rd and 4th grade classes.


And check out this article from Education Week around the concept of "maker education" and what "making" as a concept looks like both here and at Monticello HS.

There have been exciting things happening at our school, and we're looking forward to continuing this work next year!

Our sculpture is finished!

UnEarthEd, our sculpture collaboration with UVA, is finished and we had our official unveiling this week.

For the unveiling we had the entire school as well as invited guests from UVA, our central office, and the community, gather together for the dedication.

The Daily Progress has a nice article discussing this sculpture and its purpose, and you can read the article here.

Check out some pictures from the final work to complete the sculpture as well as the unveiling and ceremony below.

Final Preparation before the mound is created

Earthen mound and sculpture are installed

The sculpture before the adobe bricks

Metal ballards(handrails) were installed

Creating the earthen mound with adobe bricks

The unveiling ceremony

All 600 students and 100+ adults attended the ceremony

There was a poem written and read in honor of the sculpture

The sculpture and mound visible in the background

As a part of the dedication students unearthed some artifacts during an archeological dig