July 2023 - Introduction to Our Blueprint in Action

In 2021, GCPS developed a new strategic plan, Our Blueprint for the Future. As we continue to shift our culture to one that is whole learner-focused, our efforts must be future-driven and prepare our children for their future, not our past. 

A community-wide effort to create our shared vision for student success– Portrait of a Graduate, includes the skills, competencies, and attitudes our community believes are vital for students to possess when they graduate from GCPS. The Portrait serves as the “north star” of our Blueprint for the Future.

The Blueprint is designed to ensure our Portrait of a Graduate becomes a reality by preparing each and every student for postsecondary and workforce readiness so that they have multiple pathways to achievement. When anticipating the future skills needed for success after graduation, our shared vision encompasses ten comprehensive strategic priorities and fundamental competencies. These priorities and competencies define the guiding principles that drive our educational approach districtwide and illustrate the tangible, actionable steps to align with our strategic plan.

With Empathy, Equity, Effectiveness, Excellence, Collaborative Leadership, Adaptability, Critical Thinking, Communication, Resourcefulness, and Student Voice, we focus on the knowledge, skills, abilities, and interests that demonstrate our Blueprint in Action throughout each of our diverse clusters. 

Join us each month of the 2023-24 school year to experience how our schools have been diligently weaving the district's mission and vision into every facet of the academic experience. We invite you on this journey throughout the school year with school and district newsletters, web features, engaging videos, and social media (#GCPSBlueprintInAction) as we spotlight the practical, actionable implementation of these principles within our schools and clusters.

As we approach the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, we want to highlight just what our Blueprint in Action looks like all year long. This summer, Maxwell High School of Technology hosted another installment of its Middle School Summer Adventures Program, exhibiting our Blueprint in Action with the actualization of various key priorities and competencies. 

Maxwell High School of Technology is a specialty school that is part of GCPS’ Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) program. In alignment with GCPS’ strategic priorities of Equity and Excellence, CTAE programs and pathways supply a wealth of enrichment opportunities, prepare students for postsecondary education, and provide training for in-demand, high-skill, and high-wage careers. Beginning in 6th grade, each and every student has the opportunity to engage in future-ready programs designed to combine relevance, rigor, and real-world, experiential learning with academic knowledge. 

Maxwell provides a seamless transition for students to college and/or career. In addition to its 17 cutting-edge programs, students may be able to earn college credit or Advanced Placement through articulation agreements with postsecondary technical colleges and universities.

Maxwell’s Summer Adventures Middle School Program helps expose students to the CTAE training that encompasses valuable academic, technical, and employability skills. Through this summer program, middle school students can develop first-hand experience with some of the CTAE pathways available to them when entering high school. 

Programs available this summer included Animation, Automotive Collision Repair, Automotive Services, Junior Chefs: Culinary Arts; Babysitting-Early Childhood Education, Junior Pilots: Flight Operations; Healthcare, Junior Firefighters, and Law and Justice. 

Maxwell’s Summer Adventures Program

Effectiveness and Excellence noticeably define Maxwell’s Automotive Collision Repair program, where students use industry-standard equipment in a state-of-the-art laboratory learning airbrushing, custom glamor painting, and the proper way to wash and detail a car from a team of experienced technicians. 

One attendee of this program, Jonathan, a rising 6th grader, “definitely” looks forward to attending Maxwell in the future. “I’ve always had a love for being creative and repairing things, and this hands-on experience [in automotive and collision repair] provides that opportunity,” he explains. “The instructors teach us how to be safe with the equipment, and I’m also seeing how I could build a stable and successful future for myself, and my family.”

Did you know that high school students who enroll in Maxwell High School’s Collision Repair program have an opportunity to receive a $9,000 scholarship to attend college? This industry has great job security in the Atlanta area, and there is a high demand for collision repair technicians nationwide. High School students have the opportunity to earn industry certifications throughout the school year and job placement opportunities upon graduation.

Now, let’s continue the Trek back through a maze of hallways and put your Critical Thinking and Communication skills to work as you listen effectively and evaluate a lesson on EpiPen administration from Healthcare Science Instructor Michelle Franke. Don’t worry, all needles have been removed from practice EpiPens, and Franke clearly instructs the action needed for successful administration as she walks around the room. 

Adult and infant CPR-AED training Manikins rest on the floor as students share some laughs, work collaboratively, and learn to communicate clearly with each other while practicing First Aid administration in the Healthcare course

Students enrolled in this portion of the Summer Adventures Program take a journey through the circulatory system, learn skills associated with CPR and First Aid, and touch on some of the knowledge and skills needed to become a nurse, EMT, physical therapist, or doctor.

Franke believes the Summer Adventures Program gives middle school students a good preview of some of the CTAE pathways available at the school. “Here at Maxwell, our main goal is to get students college and career ready,” she says. “With the Healthcare pathway, students will need a lot of information before putting their skills to use, so this course shows what students can expect when choosing healthcare services.” 

More laughter and some gasps float down from the other end of the hallway. Upon closer inspection, these familiar sounds blend with beeps and mechanical “gurgles” and “coos,” and you just might find yourself roped into some last-minute babysitting.  

Collaborative Leadership and Adaptability mark the subject matter of Maxwell’s Early Childhood Education program, which delivers lesson planning, teaching skills, nutrition, and menu planning in the classroom and then applies these skills when students begin working with children three to five years of age in Maxwell's Early Childhood Lab.

This summer, students are getting a preview of the program through the Babysitting Early Childhood Education class, taught by instructor Jennifer Mundy, a former student in the Early Childhood Education program at Maxwell herself. She engages the students sitting grouped on the floor, holding their babies, and they decide first things first; these babies need a diaper change and proper clothes. 

Cecilia, an 8th grader, has been attending Maxwell’s Summer Adventures Program consistently and sampling various courses. In the Babysitting-Early Childhood Education offering, she and other students demonstrate flexibility while working with partners toward the common purpose of learning how to determine between “nehs,” “hehs,” and “owhs,” to meet the needs of their babies, or infant simulators. Together, they’ll have to decide– is it time for a fresh diaper, a nap, a bottle, or a burp? 

“I’ve really learned a lot, and [Maxwell] is so organized in everything they do with plans for each day,” Cecilia says, as she describes her attendance at the Summer Adventures Program. “I feel the program has made an impact in helping me see different [career] options and in learning how our various workforce groups do so much for [our community].” 

Community, Communication, Resourcefulness, and Critical Thinking mark the training, learning, and skill-building exhibited in Maxwell’s Jr. Firefighter program. Take a stroll through the school parking lot, and allow your eyes to readjust when the sunshine bounces off the pavement, and tiny rainbows dance on sprays from the fire hose. Finding students around a glistening red fire truck, you may hear a small laugh or gasp. Certainly, all eyes are wide and trained on the subject matter at hand, and you also may wonder, “is that middle schooler’s mustache taped on?” 

With the support and guidance of various Gwinnett Fire and Emergency Services Dept. members, students enrolled in the Jr. Firefighter program get to explore the career options of fire and emergency services: firefighting, emergency medical responder, and public safety communications. 

Pull on your safety gloves and strap on your helmet. This personal protective equipment (PPE) is necessary and non-negotiable for your hike up through the Fire Training Tower to experience search and rescue, and receive hands-on training with fire extinguishers and other emergency services tools. 

Maxwell partners with the Gwinnett Fire and Emergency Services Dept. for training activities based on practical exercises. Students in the Jr. Firefighter course learn about “catching” or connecting fire hydrants, are coached on “stretching lines,” or rolling and unrolling hoses, utilize a digital fire extinguisher to put out a digital fire, and experience aiming and employing the fire hose, with adult supervision of course.

Marcela Nunez, a senior fire educator with Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services, attended Discovery High School and had no interest in firefighting when she enrolled at Maxwell for her senior year in 2018. Nunez was recruited by Maxwell’s Fire and Emergency Services instructor Gary LaPrad and would go on to meet Gwinnett Fire’s Lieutenant Wilson and Chief Rutledge during her time in the program. From them, she learned about the position of fire educator.

After graduating from Maxwell, Nunez immediately joined the fire department and has been serving for almost five years. When asked if she had any advice for students considering Maxwell, Nunez says, “I always recommend trying something new; you never know what is out there in the world. Maxwell provided that perspective of trying something else, and it [provided the opportunity] to secure a good career.”

Speaking of career, a pathway to a full stomach smells good right about now. Walking back into Maxwell, where the comforting aroma of eggs and hash browns wafts through the halls, the familiar sounds of “sizzle” and some metal “clangs'' get closer. Turn into the brightly lit commercial kitchen, where stainless steel workstations abound, ranges are warmed, and ingredients are at the ready. 

Adaptability and Communication are heavily entwined in this fast-paced course offering, Junior Chefs: Culinary Arts. This course provides lessons in basic sanitation and safety, measuring, nutrition, and food science concepts. Students hustle to clean used utensils and cookware, and a few gather at a remaining burner to finalize what remains of the morning meal. “Doh!” Breakfast is all but over, and students gather at their tables to watch a demonstration on making dough.   

A stand mixer with a dough hook sits at the ready as Chef Belinda Delvasto carefully walks through the steps of combining just the right amount of water, yeast, flour, sugar, and salt to yield a scrumptious breakfast pizza dough. An overhead camera gives a wide view of the process in action. Students quietly watch the TV monitors as the dough turns about the hook and rises. This next challenge will be a tasty one. 

Soon enough, it’s time for students to scatter to collect ingredients and prepare their workstations. They’ll have to work together as a group, listen effectively to feedback, and communicate to ensure their mixture forms correctly, is removed timely, and is kneaded properly for the rendering of a successful dough. In a further lesson, one on patience, students will have to wait until Friday morning to complete their breakfast meal. The dough will sit overnight as another day of Maxwell’s Summer Adventures Middle School Program comes to a close.

As the Summer Adventures Middle School Program draws to a close, students leave with a sense of accomplishment, equipped with skills they can apply in their daily lives, and armed with a clearer vision of their future. Maxwell stands as a beacon of learning, discovery, and empowerment, guiding students toward a bright and promising future.

 This Blueprint in Action “Snapshot” was completed with contributions from Cortney Compton, Stephanie Archer, and Jennifer Serrano of Maxwell High School of Technology.