Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Birney Elementary School

First Presenter’s Email Address

Katherine.Stieber@cobbk12.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Ms. Stieber is an Academic Coach at Birney Elementary School in the Cobb County School District. Her entire career has been spent serving Title I schools. For the first thirteen years of her career, she taught at Fair Oaks Elementary where she not only taught second through fifth grades as well as ESOL, but coordinated the monthly bilingual Northwest Eagle Literacy Program in partnership with Northwest Exterminating, volunteered to coach the Science Olympiad team and utilized her Teacher Master Gardener certification to maintain and expand the Outdoor Classroom. The past three years of her career have been spent serving as an Academic Coach at Birney Elementary School where Stieber designs and delivers professional learning, collaborates with teachers to lesson plan, models and observes lessons, and works with the Parent Facilitator to plan family engagement events. In addition, Stieber has coordinate with Birney’s Partner In Education, Northwest Exterminating, to bring to life the Literatura Bilingual Family Literacy Program. Stieber was born and raised in Michigan, but relocated to Marietta, GA to pursue her career in education. She has a Bachelors in Elementary Education from Alma College and a Masters in Teaching and Curriculum from Michigan State University, as well as her Academic Coaching and ESOL Endorsements. In the summer of 2021, Stieber received her Tier 1 Educational Leadership certification after completing program requirements at the University of West Georgia. As an active member of the Junior League of Cobb-Marietta (JLCM) since 2010, she has served in many leadership capacities including 2019-2020 President of the JLCM. Stieber enjoys supporting her community and has also served on LiveSafe Resources and the Cobb County Youth Museum’s Board of Directors. Stieber is a 2021 LiveSafe Resources Woman of Achievement honoree. In her free time, she enjoys helping her best friend with her award-winning bakery (Miss Mamies), reading, walking her Cairn Terrier, Stanley, and doing a plethora of DIY projects. Stieber has presented at several conferences including: The Leader In Me Symposium (February 2015) The Georgia Children’s Literature Conference (March 2015) The Literacy and Beyond Conference (October 2015) Georgia Department of Education Federal Programs Conference, Summer 2019, Establishing a Successful Bilingual Family Literacy and Math Program Kennesaw State University's ESOL Conference, Spring 2019, Northwest Eagle Family Literacy Program: Establishing a Successful Bilingual Family Literacy Program

Second Presenter's Institution

Northwest Exterminating, Inc.

Second Presenter’s Email Address

kmilligan@callnorthwest.com

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Kristen Milligan is a Co-Director of the Northwest Exterminating, Inc., Good Deeds Team, with Greg Green. Their team works to provide opportunities to positively impact the communities they serve. While Northwest Exterminating is known for their superior pest control for homes and businesses, they are ultimately focused on positively impacting their community. At Northwest Exterminating, the Good Deed Team provides opportunities to volunteer and support the communities where we live and work, so they see the heart of Northwest. It is that vision that led to the development and coordination of the Literatura Bilingual Family Literacy Program. Since 2017, Northwest Exterminating’s Good Deed Team has made bilingual family literacy a priority by first partnering with the Tuscaloosa City School System's ESOL department and developed a district-wide program that offered a two-part monthly session. That program targeted children from preschool to second grade. In 2018, Northwest Exterminating brought the idea to Fair Oaks Elementary to pilot a Bilingual Family Literacy program that included math and literacy. The monthly school-wide program was strategically designed to meet the needs of the school community and provided parents different opportunities to help their children build language, literacy and math skills in Spanish and English. COVID-19 brought new challenges to continuing a literacy program. In 2019, Kristen Milligan and Katie Stieber began collaborating on a drive-through bilingual literacy program, Literatura (Book by Book). Milligan was raised in Kentucky and is a huge University of Kentucky football and basketball fan. She moved to Georgia in 2003 with her husband. For the last 8 years, she has spent her free Tuesday's and Sunday's volunteering with Grace Chapel's Forsyth County Jail Ministry. She enjoys spending her time with her 4 kids, watching football on Saturdays with her husband, volunteering in her community, mentoring with the Forsyth County School system, and training her new German Shorthair Pointer: Winnifred to be a therapy dog. Milligan has presented at the following conferences: Georgia Department of Education Federal Programs Conference, Summer 2019, Establishing a Successful Bilingual Family Literacy and Math Program Kennesaw State University's ESOL Conference, Spring 2019, Northwest Eagle Family Literacy Program: Establishing a Successful Bilingual Family Literacy Program WIDA Conference, Fall 2018, Books!- A Bilingual Family Literacy Program in Action Alabama NBCT Network Conference, Spring 2019, Books!- A Bilingual Family Literacy Program in Action National Youth at Risk Conference, Spring 2019, Reaching EL Families through Family Literacy Programs

Third Presenter's Institution

Northwest Exterminating, Inc.

Third Presenter’s Email Address

ggreen@callnorthwest.com

Third Presenter's Brief Biography

Greg Green is a Co-Director of the Northwest Exterminating, Inc., Good Deeds Team, with Kristen Milligan. Their team works to provide opportunities to positively impact the communities they serve. While Northwest Exterminating is known for their superior pest control for homes and businesses, they are ultimately focused on positively impacting their community. At Northwest Exterminating, the Good Deed Team provides opportunities to volunteer and support the communities where we live and work, so they see the heart of Northwest. Greg Green was born and raised in Georgia. He began working at Northwest Exterminating in September of 2002. He started working as a termite technician at the Smyrna Service Center and soon went into sales for the Smyrna Team. He took on the Lawn Care Service Manager role in 2013 and in 2015, was blessed to transition to the Co-Director of the Good Deeds Team. Greg enjoys spending his time with his wife, 2 daughters, and 3 grandchildren. In his free time, Greg enjoys gardening and keeping his lawn maintained, as well as the numerous diy projects he has around his house.

Location

Session Eight Breakouts

Strand #1

Home: Family & Community Engagement

Strand #2

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Relevance

The Literatura program is a bilingual drive-through family literacy program developed through a partnership between Birney Elementary School and Northwest Exterminating, Inc. to engage families and provide them with resources to support grade-level reading, math and science standards. The activities provided enable families to support students at home which help to close achievement gaps in school.

Brief Program Description

In order to meet the needs of their school community, Birney Elementary School collaborated with their Partner In Education, Northwest Exterminating, Inc., to develop a successful drive-through bilingual family literacy program. Presenters will share how to develop and implement an effective bilingual family engagement program that continues to grow and positively impact the school community with each subsequent event.

Summary

One of the keys to ensure student success in school is through parental involvement. Birney Elementary School is a Title I elementary school that collaborated with their Partner In Education, Northwest Exterminating, Inc., to develop an innovative bilingual Family Literacy Program. The program is designed to help all parents to be active participants in their student’s academics at home. Topics of discussion during the presentation will include program development, design, implementation, community and teacher buy in, parent engagement and Partner In Education support. The program has been so successful that other schools, including Middle Schools, have come to see how the bilingual Family Literacy Program is implemented.

Evidence

With each subsequent Literatura program held at Birney Elementary School the numbers of students and families that participate has increased. Parents have provided positive feedback about the support they receive through the quarterly Literatura program. Other schools in the Cobb County School District have seen how Literatura is successful at Birney and are working to implement a similar program at their schools.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to learn about program development, design, implementation, community and teacher buy in, parent engagement and Partner In Education support.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to identify next steps in planning their own program and be more prepared to collaborate with potential Partners In Education.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to access resources to help them implement a successful bilingual family literacy program at their school

Keyword Descriptors

family engagement, bilingual family literacy program

Presentation Year

2022

Start Date

3-9-2022 9:45 AM

End Date

3-9-2022 11:00 AM

Download

Files over 10MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "Save as..."

Share

COinS
 
Mar 9th, 9:45 AM Mar 9th, 11:00 AM

Reimagining Family Engagement: A Drive-Thru Bilingual Family Literacy & Math Program

Session Eight Breakouts

In order to meet the needs of their school community, Birney Elementary School collaborated with their Partner In Education, Northwest Exterminating, Inc., to develop a successful drive-through bilingual family literacy program. Presenters will share how to develop and implement an effective bilingual family engagement program that continues to grow and positively impact the school community with each subsequent event.