| GIFTS arrive for teachers | By: Chris Menees, Staff Reporter
| Posted: Thursday, August 11, 2011 9:24 pm
| | By CHRIS MENEES Staff Reporter Students across Obion County will be on the receiving end of some very special “GIFTS” given to select teachers Tuesday. Ten elementary school teachers from schools throughout 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. He was joined by foundation president Mike Cox and board member Kris Dunn, who is also a teacher. 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 had 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. “Some 1,200 Obion County School System students will benefit directly and many others indirectly from these 2011 GIFTS award-winning proposals,” Smith said at Tuesday’s announcement. He said this year’s grants bring the total awarded so far to more than $120,000 over the past several years since the grants program began in 2004. This year’s GIFTS recipients and their winning proposals were: • Jennifer Quinton of Black Oak Elementary, fifth grade, “Speak Loud and Proud.” • Melissa Logan of Black Oak Elementary, kindergarten through fourth grade, “Get Along Monsters.” • Linda Darnall of Black Oak Elementary, second grade, “Can You Comprehend?” • Ali Perkins of Black Oak Elementary, kindergarten, “Hands-On Learning.” • Elaine Barnett of Hillcrest Elementary, grades 3-6, “Watch and Learn!” • Candice McMahan of Hillcrest Elementary, kindergarten, “They’re Not Letters! They’re Friends!” • Stacy Gray of Lake Road Elementary, seventh and eighth grade science, “Let’s Practice and Reinforce!” • Kim Little of Ridgemont Elementary, kindergarten, “Get to Moving!” • Annette Ferguson of Ridgemont Elementary, first grade, “Planting Seeds of Science.” • Alisha Hedge of South Fulton Elementary, grades 3-5, “HOT Science Lab.” The grant proposals were judged by a panel of out-of-county independent judges with expertise in educational grant writing, according to Smith. 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. “We have teachers who wrote some outstanding proposals,” Smith said. Published in The Messenger 8.11.11 | | | | |
