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Connecting with UNM Makes a Difference

Posted October 25, 2024, 7:30 AM. Updated October 24, 2024, 5:06 PM.

In her weekly message, Dr. Blakey discusses a collaboration with UNM and another round of leadership visits to schools.

Happy Friday, everyone!

It goes without saying that our top priority at APS is improving outcomes for our students. Among the things we must do to succeed is connect with the work happening at our schools. 

We’ve launched two initiatives to help us do that.

The first is a collaboration with the University of New Mexico’s College of Education called Lobos @ APS Day, which was held on Thursday. The second is a continuation of the APS leadership team’s visits to schools that we did during the first two days of school.

Lobos @ APS Day is essentially a job shadowing initiative in which faculty at UNM’s College of Education had the opportunity to shadow their APS counterparts for a day. A College of Education faculty member who teaches aspiring high school teachers, for example, was able to shadow a high school teacher for a day. Faculty members who teach aspiring school counselors spent the day with APS counselors. Same goes for school administrators, nutritionists, and athletic trainers. 

I was happy to host School of Education and Human Sciences Dean Kristopher Goodrich for the  day. We visited Tony Hillerman and James Monroe Middle Schools.

The goal of the initiative was to give College of Education faculty and staff the opportunity to “experience a full day of all aspects of public school in Albuquerque.” 

We have so much on our plates that we often lose sight of the fact that we’re part of a much larger ecosystem and that we’re all interdependent on each other. What happens at UNM’s College of Education trickles down to our classrooms, and what happens in our classrooms flows up to the College of Education. 

Given that reality, it’s incumbent on us to work together and figure out a way to better connect what’s happening in classrooms across the city of Albuquerque with what’s being taught in the College of Education. An added benefit is that APS staff being shadowed had the opportunity to bounce ideas off of UNM faculty. 

I’m grateful to UNM College of Education for working with us on this innovative initiative and to APS staff who participated!

As for the leadership team’s visits to schools. I’m proud to announce those will be taking place next week.

You may recall that the APS leadership team fanned out across Albuquerque at the beginning of the school year and that every school received a visit from at least one leadership team member in the first two days of school. Those visits were aimed at helping schools address any issues they were facing. 

Our leadership team will circle back to those schools next week to check-in. These visits are important because they give us an idea of what’s going well and what isn’t. 

That’s it for now. Have a good weekend and Happy Halloween!