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A MESSAGE

FROM

MR. WATKINS

NEWS FROM

CENTRAL

OFFICE

NEWS FROM

THE SCHOOLS

Upcoming events

Fall Break October 12-16

Classes Resume

10/19/20

Tim Watkins, Director of Schools

October 2020

In this issue...

Obion County Newsletter

Saying that the 2020-21 school year has already been different than any other year would be a gross understatement. The chal-lenges and changes that we have had to endure have been great. However, I have witnessed the students and staff of Obion County Schools rise to the occasion and show that they have the strength and toughness to overcome whatever challenges arise.

Everyone is having to be more conscious of their surroundings and daily actions that we used to take for granted. Students and teach-ers are having to learn new ways of operating in the classroom. We are also learning that the classroom is not limited to the same four walls. We have learned that we can teach and learn not only in person but remotely as well. I truly believe that as we face each of these challenges, overcome them, and continue with the educa-tional process we will be better for it.

I want to thank all students, staff, parents, and community mem-bers of Obion County for working alongside of Obion County Schools during this unprecedented time. During the last year I have seen how the people of Obion County respond to support their schools. Once again I am humbled and awed at what I have witnessed.

Thank you for all you do to make Obion County the special place that it is and thank you for all you do for the students of Obion County Schools.

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The Early Years

Ms. Sandy Simpson

Many changes have taken place in schools across the country this school year. Our school sys-tem has not been exempted from all the changes that the pandemic has placed on society. Ad-ministrators, teachers, custodians, cafeteria staff, educational assistants, bus drivers, and mainte-nance workers have had to adapt, adjust, learn new ways to keep our students safe, and provide an education to all our students.

There have been other adjustments as well. Our system adopted a new Reading curriculum for this school year. Learn Zillion’s EL curriculum was chosen by our K-2 teachers and is now be-ing implemented. The EL program is heavily grounded in foundational reading skills. This pro-gram begins by helping students learn how words work. It teaches students the foundations of reading. Learning to read is pivotal. Without the foundational skills necessary to show a solid start, children are at risk of academic difficulties that can affect their entire education. This strong start will support students in their academic studies all throughout their lives.

While K-2 learners are focusing on learning to read, our 3-12 learners are focusing on reading to learn. Through Learn Zillion’s Guidebooks curriculum, students use engaging authentic texts to learn concepts and deepen their understanding of the written word.

What have I witnessed so far this school year? I have witnessed teachers working tirelessly, col-laborating, and supporting one another. I have witnessed students excited about being at school regardless of masks, social distancing, and other new normal circumstances. I have witnessed school administrators adjusting schedules to help their teachers get a little extra time to prepare their lessons. I have witnessed custodians working hard to keep our schools sanitized and clean. I have witnessed educational assistants helping in any way that they are asked. I have witnessed cafeteria staff maintaining their smiles amid very rigid rules for serving food. I have witnessed students engaged in activities and learning. I have witnessed SRO officers reminding students to stay six feet apart and keep their masks up.

Mostly, I have witnessed a comradery among all Obion County employees and a determination to work together to ensure our students learn and stay safe. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the students of Obion County. You all are AWESOME!

Dr. Greg Barclay

Special Education

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The Obion County Special Education Department has two additions for the 2020-2021 school year. Traci Spencer has joined the faculty at Ridgemont, and Ryan McMackin is now teaching at Hillcrest. We are excited to have both teachers join our Special Education Department!

Ms. Traci is from Martin and graduated from Westview in 2012. Upon her graduation from high school, she attended Jackson State and obtained an Associate’s degree in K-6 Elementary Education. After that, she transferred to the University of Memphis at Lambuth and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Education in 2016 with a license to teach Kindergarten through 6th grade general education and Kindergarten through 12th grade special education. Ms. Traci started her teaching career in the Jackson-Madison County School System in 2016 and taught both special education and Kindergarten during her four years in that school system. She has now entered her fifth year teaching and first with Obion County as the Kindergarten through 4th grade special education teacher and said, “So far it has been a great start!”

Mr. Ryan is new the 5th through 8th grade special education teacher at Hillcrest. He attended the University of Tennessee at Martin for both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. The 2020-2021 school year is his first year with his own classroom, and he is enjoying getting to know his students and the staff at Hillcrest.

He has been married to his wife Melissa for seven years, and they have two wonderful chil-dren: Bailey, a four-year-old girl, and Dansby, a one-year-old, wild boy. They attend Bethpage Baptist Church and teach the pre-teen Sunday School class. In his free time, Mr. Ryan likes to hunt, generally be outdoors, and spend time with his family. He is close to his extended family, and they are very sports oriented with baseball being their favorite. Their household chant is “Go Braves!”

Please join the Special Education Department in welcoming these two new teachers to our school system!

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In the Middle

Ms. Lesa Scillion

Welcome back! As you know, because of COVID-19, we began this year amid many challenges around how to educate the students in our care. After weeks of planning for in-person learning, distance learning using Microsoft TEAMS, and providing paper packets, there continue to be challenges to overcome for which there are no great answers. Despite the challenges, we have continued to provide training for educa-tors to use the suite of technology we have available to us, implemented a new ELA curriculum in all grades, and modified daily procedures of what school traditionally “looks like” in our district. While we do not know what the future holds, this is one thing I know for sure: Obion County has THE best staff in the entire state!

Throughout the current challenges, our teachers continue to give their hearts and energy to do all that is pos-sible to help each student learn. I want to take this opportunity to share a few examples of the great work I have been fortunate to see thus far in the year. Tori Jones and Ericka Reaves had their 4th grade classes “visit” each other by using TEAMS. Jenny Crittendon and Jeni Wilder had a few of their distance learning students participate in class in real time via TEAMS. Misty Tibbs’ students made individual bags of ice cream while in science the first week. Who would not want to join in that fun learning?! Ms. Pam Wade has shared multiple times how excited she is about the new ELA curriculum. Shane Upchurch has been working hard to help students and parents learn how to use TEAMS to access lessons. I could continue listing the great work being done in our schools, especially during such a challenging time. Thank you!

Thank you to all our educational assistants, cafeteria ladies, custodians, maintenance staff, and bus drivers who go above and beyond to help keep our students in school. Additionally, thank you to our principals and assistant principals who keep each school running so well each day.

Finally, from Jon Gordon, author of Stay Positive, the following thoughts are inspiring as we navigate these trying times. First, do not listen to your negative thoughts. Second, feed yourself with positive encourage-ment. Third, choose faith instead of fear. Keep up the great work!

Data

Our ELA and Math teachers in grades 4-8 and high school have finished the Start of Year (SOY) Checkpoint that is accessed through the new Tennessee formative assessment platform - Schoolnet. This brief assessment is de-signed to provide teachers with information about students’ understanding of the previous year’s standards (for grades 4-8) or serves as a baseline assessment for high school students. Teachers have access to student data and have been provided with the Checkpoint Results Interpretation Guides. These guides contain the questions, an-swers, standards, and rationales for each of the items on the assessment. The questions on the checkpoint are pre-vious TNReady questions, and the guide provides a detailed description of each question and answer. Using these items can help teachers and students prepare for summative assessment at the end of the year.

Our next assessment will be the CASE benchmark. It is scheduled for November 18-24. Grades 3-5 will test on paper and grades 6-12 will test online.

Technology

As we get closer to the 1:1 device implementation for our middle and high school students, we are planning new professional development opportunities. If anyone has a need or an idea for a technology PD topic, please send suggestions to astephens@ocboe.com. We will work hard to try and meet the professional development needs and help everyone be successful.

Mr. Adam Stephens Data Analysis

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Ms. Judy Denman

Food Service

Our cafeterias…along with every other aspect of school life…is operating “outside the box” this year. Beginning when school shut down in the spring due to COVID-19, our cafeteria staff has changed our way of feeding children time after time, but always with smiling faces. From March through May, our staff boxed up meals twice a week and carried them out to children in our community as well as having meals available at our schools for pick up. When school started again in August, and we reopened in Phase 2, our wonderful café staff had to improvise again and feed our students while maintaining “social distancing” guidelines. We can no long-er allow students to serve themselves or even be able to sit next to each other while they eat lunch. From taking meals to the classroom to serving in the gym lobby, our cafeteria employ-ees have risen to the challenge of making sure everyone has the opportunity to eat breakfast and lunch. You may see “sack lunches” and “boxed lunches” in every part of the school this fall. They are also making meals available for students who are distance learning. Since we are not having in-person classes on Fridays and are not concerned as much with meal patterns, our cafeteria staff is also trying to prepare meals that our teachers and support staff love. From sal-ad bar to loaded potato soup to turkey and dressing, these dedicated personnel have tried to prepare meals to attract even picky eaters.

Even with all these changes taking place, our biggest change has to do with funding. For now we are being allowed to feed all students at no charge. USDA is allowing this through Decem-ber, or as long as their funds allocated for reimbursing this program last.

In the spring because of Covid, our cafeteria personnel were designated as “essential” employ-ees. Even though they no longer have that designation as far as Covid is concerned, each one of our cafeteria staff is still “essential”, and they have always been HEROES.

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Mrs. Regina's guidance classes created self portraits that feature their own character traits.

Mrs. Nichole’s Kindergarten class is practicing social distancing on their way to specials!

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Black Oak Yearbook Club By Sarah McAlexander, Yearbook Advisor, Black Oak Elementary School The school yearbook is some-thing students and parents purchase each year so they can look back on cherished school memories. It is important that students have a say in what is included in the yearbook. This year, Black Oak has created a Yearbook Club to give students that option. A few students have written about why they chose to apply for the yearbook club and how they applied for it: “Being part of the Yearbook Staff is a great way to express my creative thinking and work on my photography skills. It will help me learn more about teamwork and cooperation with my fellow staff members. I hope to learn editing skills and truly get to see how the yearbook pro-cess works. This experience will be truly rewarding because I will be helping my classmates make lifelong memories.” -Genesis Wil-son, 8th Grade at Black Oak “I joined the Yearbook Staff mainly because of how much fun and amazing it seemed, and I guarantee that it is that and even more. From improving my teamwork skills to just enjoying what I like to do, the Yearbook Staff is something I will have fun being a part of! I get to improve on valuable life skills and do things I enjoy while improving core values important later in life. Yearbook Club can greatly improve your teamwork skills, independence, and responsibility. All of these things will most likely be used later in life for jobs or employment, so it is quite important to develop them early. Maybe you join, not just to be serious, but to have fun also, in which case you are in luck! It is not always all serious business; we have fun too. I highly recom-mend that you join the Yearbook Staff. It is definitely worth it and it’s quite simple to join. First, you have to at least be in the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade. Next, through the application process, which would include teacher recommendations, you would then sign up and wait to see if you were approved to join the Yearbook Staff.” -Ezra Gurien, 7 th Grade at Black Oak “I joined the BOS yearbook staff because I would like to represent my school in the best way possible. Not only do I wish to assist in the yearbook, but also to give creative ideas. I consider myself helpful, and I expect of myself to show that to others. I enjoy working with a group, learning from one another. I joined the BOS yearbook staff so someone can look back and say, ‘That was a great year for me.’” -Chloe Ad-ams, 6th Grade at Black Oak Some other reasons for why students should join a yearbook club are that it teaches responsibility, computer skills, and social skills. Students can learn to take ownership of their assigned pages and take pride in their completed work. Students learn social skills through working as a team and conducting interviews. If you do not already have a yearbook club at your school, it would be a wonderful idea to start one! Students love being involved in their school. Giving them a chance to create a yearbook for other students to cherish provides them with skills they can use in the future: responsibility, computer skills, and social skills. So, let students take the reins to create a wonderful yearbook full of memories to be looked back on in the future!

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Cougars Raising Money for a Good Cause

Upon looking around and seeing all of the work going on to help the family of one of our fellow stu-

dents, the kids at Hillcrest wanted to be able to take part too. With that a fundraiser was quickly arranged to

help raise money for Landon and his family. It was a simple plan that would allow for the students to feel as

though they were being a part of helping out. The school had, what was thought to be, a good goal of $1,500.

We found out very quickly that we were underestimating our students when on only the second day we passed

that goal. After a mere 4 days, our students brought in a grand total of $3,006.38.

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Lake Road Pre-K, taught by Mrs. Antionette Waites and Kellye Albright, posed for the camera dressed as their favorite Lake Road sports team! These future athletes and musicians are excited to be part of Lake Road School!

Lake Road recently held a "blue out" day, as well as a coin drive to honor Landon Matheny. During the 5 day coin drive, the General family raised $1,536.89 for the Matheny Family. Pictured is Lake Road's third grade class supporting Landon in their blue, and two students making their daily coin contribution. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Matheny family.

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Mrs. Bruner’s Culinary 3 class recently did a food innovations project. They had to design a display board, a 3-D package, and a prepared breakfast entree. The stu-dents were judged by creativity and taste of food.

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Mr. Eric Lipford and Mrs. Kristy Vincent have spent quite a bit of time decorating our school with our theme, “Soaring For Excellence.” They decorated Mrs. Pitts of-fice windows and the ceiling tiles.

• The SFE Faculty and Staff had a virtual open house. Our grade level teachers made videos together that were sent out on our Facebook page.

• On August 3rd

, we were excited to have the Obion County Sheriff’s Department officers present with our own SRO Ben Burnett on hand for our active shooter drill. Coach Mack Pirtle, Mrs. Kristy Vincent, and Mrs. Laura Pitts were participants in the drill

On September 1st, SFE was “Blue for Lan-

don.” Students, faculty, and staff all wore blue for our Hillcrest friend, Landon Matheny who is at St. Jude cur-rently fighting a brain tumor.

• Recently, SFE had their cite evacuation drill with Mr. Heath Cunningham. It was a great success.

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Sophomores were able to order their class rings this week as Jostens visited the school.

Seniors ordered their caps, gowns, and other senior swag this week. Ian Gilbert was SUPER excited about his order!

Mrs. Leah's students using their "Saving Fred" sci-

ence skills! They had to work together to save Fred

who couldn't swim and needed his life preserver

from under the boat.

Students could only have 4 paper clips to save him

and couldn't touch the materials with their hands!

Right photo: We also want to recognize Mr. Eli Carlisle who joined the National Guard this week. We are so proud of our young men and women who choose to serve.