| Obion County teachers presented special ‘GIFTS’ |
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Posted: Thursday, August 9, 2012 9:04 pm
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Obion County School teachers have plenty to share with their students after receiving special “GIFTS” Tuesday.
Six elementary school teachers from the Obion County School System were awarded this year’s GIFTS — Grants Inspire Flexible Teaching Strategies — grants, administered through the Community Foundation of Obion County.
The grant recipients were announced at Tuesday morning’s teacher in-service at Obion County Central High School by Jimmy Smith, a former county school board member who now serves as Obion County General Sessions judge and as a board member for the Community Foundation of Obion County.
Elementary school teachers from across Obion County applied for this year’s grants, made available through an endowment created by the late Elmo (Short) Worley in honor of her sister and best friend, the late Madge Short, who dedicated her life to teaching and was a longtime educator in the former Samburg and Hornbeak schools.
Miss Short died in 1997 at the age of 93 and Mrs. Worley died in 2002 at the age of nearly 95.
In addition to the funds earmarked for the classroom grants for teachers, the sisters left additional funds to help perpetuate the teaching profession. Those funds are distributed through the local Rotary Scholarship program.
“It’s a challenge to you in the classroom to realize the difference you make,” Smith said at Tuesday’s announcement about the grants and the reason the ladies started the fund.
Smith encouraged the recipients and other teachers to lift students up instead of bringing them down because of the influence teachers have on them.
“What those students will invariably remember is how you treated them,” Smith said.
He said this year’s funding was challenged because of the economy. Despite that, the funds given brought the total awarded to more than $200,000 since the grants program began in 2004.
This year’s GIFTS recipients and their winning proposals were:
• Melissa Logan of Black Oak Elementary, “Safe, Smart and Successful in Middle School.”
• Elaine Barnett of Black Oak Elementary, “Who, What, Where, When and Why?”
• Deanna Wilson of Hillcrest Elementary, “Let’s Get Literate!”
• Mindy Galbraith of Lake Road Elementary, “Multiplication Rhymes-n-Times & Divide-n-Slide.”
• Dawn Alfter of Ridgemont Elementary, “Movie Star Math.”
• Shannon Preuett of South Fulton Elementary, “Expanding Vocabulary.”
Josephine Keightley of Lake Road was also announced as a recipient, but the counselor retired last year and was unable to accept the award. Smith said the grant will still be used.
“We’ll try to provide the resources to her school and its new counselor so the students can benefit from Miss Josephine’s efforts and good work,” Smith said.
The grant proposals were judged by a panel of out-of-county independent judges with expertise in educational grant writing. The name, identity and school of each educator who submitted a grant proposal was unknown to the judging panel since each proposal was assigned only a number when submitted and identification information was closely guarded by the school system’s central office until the winning proposals were announced Tuesday.
Published in The Messenger 8.9.12 |
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