In recent weeks, three Sullivan South students have made significant decisions about their futures.  Grant Miller has been honored with an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.  Jacob Strickler has received a full scholarship to play football and further his education at the Naval Academy.  Dylan Wieger has accepted a full scholarship through football to attend East Tennessee State University.  

 

 

  

Grant Miller and Jacob Strickler

 Back Row - Coaches Greg Jordan, Justin Hilton, Sam Haynie, Hunter Jordan and Eric Rowe

Front Row - Dylan Wieger and Jacob Strickler

 

  

Here at Holston Valley, we have been in the ongoing process of building a brand new type of classroom, a Functional Development/Life skills classroom. In this classroom, students will have the opportunity to be responsible for cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes along with their everyday curriculum. According to the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring, "The advantage of using a functional developmental approach to defining children with Special Needs, and to evaluating and treating them, is that it is consistent with the reality that every child is a unique individual with specific strengths and weaknesses. By defining these children on the basis of exactly what they currently can and cannot do and basing intervention on their functional development would take their individual differences into consideration." Such classrooms in schools have been shown to promote a sense of ownership, increase fine and gross motor skills, and encourage kids and families to embrace and learn skills that will allow them to be functional members of their community.

 

We are lucky to have a committed and talented team of people who will continue to work to ensure this classroom is a success. We have had an outpouring of community support to help this classroom get off the ground from private monetary donations to businesses donating the classroom appliances. We also were able to obtain two grants. Through the Lowes Toolbox for education Grant ($4,885) and the IDEA grant (roughly $4,700) through the Tennessee Department of Education and help from so many individuals, we have been able to turn our classroom into something that can continue to mold our students into outstanding, functioning members of the community.

 

 

 

 

  

The Holston Valley Middle School Lady Rebels' Basketball team recently ended their season with a loss, but the accomplishments made by the team this year were far greater. The Lady Rebels posted an undefeated season in conference play, taking a 15-3 overall record into the Big 3 Conference Tournament. The Lady Rebels were able to secure the Championship with wins over Lamar and Mary Hughes. All 12 girls played a part in the success of this year's team and the 8th graders will be greatly missed. CONGRATULATIONS LADY REBELS!!!!

 

 

  

Two Innovation Academy students, Cole P. and Mason H., have won a place in the Tennessee State Individual Chess Tournament.  The competition is held at Tennessee Tech on February 14.  Only eight players in each division are invited to play for the title.  To accomplish this, both Cole and Mason played against over thirty contenders in their division in January at the Tennessee Regional Individual Chess Tournament. Tomorrow, they will compete against sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from across the state for the title.  Innovation Academy is proud of their achievements and wish them the best!

 

  

  

  

Students at Sullivan North Middle participate in an EPIC / Mental Health activity on school bullying and depression, sponsored by the Related Arts Department of SNMS. All students were involved in the program during their related arts periods.
      

Students at Bluff City Elementary School are preparing for a nationwide effort to "Read the Most Coast to Coast" on Friday, February 27. They are among hundreds of thousands of students who will join in this fourth-annual reading celebration.

  

Third graders have been working very hard on multiplication and division and are proud to announce they have inducted two members into the "Math Hall of Fame" for third graders.  To be inducted a student must complete 81 multiplication problems and 81 division problems (1-12s) in three minutes or less.  Emmett wants to congratulate the first two members of the Math Hall of Fame, Alex Hamilton and Jack Ragan!

 

 

 

Second grade at Emmett Elementary has been "Writing Up a Storm"! 

 

Students spent time exploring books and choosing what weather they would like to study.  Then they recorded information and details regarding their chosen weather on information cards.  Next, each student completed a foldable with new vocabulary and weather words.  Finally, pictures depicted each student's project along with their final draft which are displayed in the hall.

 

  

Indian Springs School 4th grade students participated in the 4H Cornmeal Muffin Contest on February 12.  Forty nine students measured, stirred, baked and presented their three muffins to our judges.  Everyone enjoyed this project!!  The winners were: 

Robinette's Class:

First Place:      Brooklyn Baker
Second Place:  Rachael Spencer
Third Place:     Parker Leming


Mains' Class: 

First Place:       Sara Monds
Second Place:  Peyton Legg
Third Place:     Lindsey Crawford

Calhoun's Class:

First Place:      Aubrey Mason
Second Place:  Rachel Niebruegge
Third Place:     Alexis Stuart

 

  

Marty Silver came and visited Sullivan Gardens 2nd Graders this week.  The children always enjoy his exciting nature lessons.

 

 

 

  

The Johnson City Power Board has concluded its 2015 Calendar Contest and Miller Perry Student Alexis Ford's art work was chosen for the month of July . The theme of the 2015 calendar is "Power Safety." Art was judged on creativity, quality, relevance to the theme, and overall appeal. All contest winners are featured in this month's Johnson City Power Board's newsletter "Get Connected." The 2015 calendar is being used daily in the Miller Perry office! We are very proud of Alexis! 

 

 

 

  

My name is Nichole Green and I am a student teacher in 2nd grade at Miller Perry Elementary. As part of our learning for the third nine-weeks, we took a week to look at how measurement is used in everyday life. We measured all over the classroom and then took it a step further. I chose five students to outline and, in groups, we practiced measuring in inches and centimeters; the students focused on different distances that spanned the human body. After measuring, the students were able to decorate and record measurements on their outlines. This was a social, hands-on approach to learning that allowed the students to better practice the skill of measurement.

 

The image shows one of the five outlines and features the students Destiny Harkleroad, Michael Wayner, Sydney Culhane, Emma Demic, and Blake Jones.

 

  

  

Upon returning from Christmas break, Weaver Elementary's fifth grade has been "all about that ball," - football, that is. Hoping to help their students past the post-holiday slump and get them excited for their final semester as elementary students, the teachers began a cross-curricular unit using football terminology, rules, and statistics to help in teaching some very important standards.

 

The Wildcat fifth graders kicked off the unit with Football Friday, when everyone came to school dressed to represent his/her favorite team. At that point, many of those involved were excited to still be cheering on their favorite teams, but that changed over the next few weeks. Like all true sports fans do, many students whose teams failed to make it to the next round reported dutifully to school and commiserated with fellow fans regarding the agony of defeat, while others simply chose another team to follow till the end of the season.

 

Students readied themselves for the in-depth football discussions with a study of the vocabulary specific to the football domain. Once they had mastered the language, they assumed the role of the analysts by researching opposing teams' offensive statistics and engaging in spirited debates on whether Green Bay's defense was ready to shut down Seattle's Marshawn Lynch, or if Andrew Luck's Colts had a prayer of besting Tom Brady and his Patriots. Upon completion of the research and after thorough discussion, students were ready to write opinion essays explaining their predictions for each of the conference championship games. More writing practice came in the form of responses written to news articles on star athletes such as Russell Wilson and Richard Sherman, as well as response to a post-game interview with Kam Chancellor.

 

While football offers considerable opportunities for honing writing skills, it is also quite conducive to applying math concepts learned in the classroom to real-world situations. In order to effectively compare and contrast different teams' offensive lines, students calculated several quarterbacks' pass completion percentages and the average yards per carry of many running backs. The data from the opinion papers they wrote was used to create pie charts to display the information. Students also enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how much money they would have made off of Super Bowl ticket sales if they owned the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and approximately how many fans were expected to visit each of the stadium's concession stands and restrooms.

 

Overall, the unit's goal of getting students excited about school was wildly successful. For weeks, not one person complained about homework, and even those students who wouldn't have called themselves football fans prior to beginning this unit had to admit that reading, writing, and 'rithmetic about football was much more fun than "regular school stuff".