Hometown Brandon - Summer 2015

The CHALKBOARD
Brandon Middle School Theresa Bennett and Zach Roberts
The Rankin Five
As part of the 2014-2015 Leadership Rankin group project
“The Rankin Five”, the Rankin County Chamber of Commerce,
raised almost $4,000. The monies will be devoted to two special
education classrooms in RCSD. We are grateful to Craig Stovall
of Nucor Steel for coordinating with Theresa Bennett of BMS,
whose class is the recipient of $2,500. The monies will be used
to create a more enhanced environment for students who are
non-verbal, with unique educational needs. We are extremely
excited to have these funds and are grateful for the generosity
of the “The Rankin Five” and the Rankin County Chamber
of Commerce.. ■
L to R: Theresa Bennett, BMS Special Education Teacher; Dylan Proper, student at
BMS; Craig Stovall, Nucor Steel; Joni McClain, McClain Lodge; Scotti Mashborn,
Rankin County Chamber; Rachel Lombardo, Hometown Magazines; Sherry Franklin,
Group Mentor, and Dr. Charles Frazier, Principal BMS. Not pictured: Jonathan
Patterson, Bancorp South
1:1 Technology Initiative
As the 2014-15 school year comes to a close, I can say with
absolute truth that it has been a great one. In three years at BMS
and five years overall of teaching, this has been the best school year
for me so far. The students have far exceeded expectations, the
teachers have supported each other in everyway possible, and the
administrators have done an excellent job of leading us through
the challenges that have arisen. The level of dedication and effort
shown by each of these groups of people is what has made BMS
the great place it is today.
This spring has been one filled with excitement and anticipation,
especially following the decision by the Rankin County School
Board to fund a 1:1 technology initiative for our students and
teachers. This decision will place a laptop computer in the hands
of every 7-12th grade student over the course of the next three
years. As a teacher who tries to use technology as often as possible
in my classroom, few people were excited as I was when this news
was announced. Imagine how much more thrilled I was to find
out that 8th and 9th grade students would be the first students to
receive these laptops next school year. That news brought with it
a whole new wave of motivation to make use of technology every
day that I possibly could.
Our students were born into a world of almost complete
immersion in technology. They do not know a world without the
Internet or Google. They have the ability to know what is
happening on the other side of the world almost in real-time.
And more often than not, they are almost always at least a step
ahead of older generations when it comes to the most recent
technologies. These are the main reasons I am so excited to be in
a place that will enable me to teach my students using the tools
that come so naturally to them.
It is for this reason that I have plotted and schemed every
possible way to get a computer cart into my classroom as often as
possible this year. We have done everything including taking
tests that allow students to see their results immediately, using
Google docs to share essays and other writing with other students
as well as me the teacher, collaborating in real time to create class
vocabulary lists, and generating chapter by chapter summaries
and analyses. All of these uses are only a small fraction of what
we will be able to do in the years to come, and I am growing ever
more excited to be a part of this as next school year gets closer and
closer. I truly cannot wait for the day when all of my students
walk into my classroom and take out their laptops so that we can
begin working not only at a deeper level of understanding, but
working in a way that is natural to the future decision makers of
our world.
62 • Summer 2015