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JCTimes 3-3-23.indd 8
3/2/2023 9:56:57 AM
Page 8 - Friday, March 3, 2023
The Jenkins County Times
thej enkinsc ountytimes. com
JENKINS COUNTY SCHOOLS
GEORGIA PUBLIC B
library!
Experience more than books
at the library
EAGLE
NOTES
Tara Cooper
Superintendant
Jenkins County School System
I found my Kindergarten Memories book and smiled at the picture of the curly haired five-year-old that was me! I attended
“Miss Ann’s” kindergarten and have the sweetest memories of Ann and Gene Tallent. I drive by that house multiple times
each day and can still see, in my mind’s eye, the duck that was attached to the swing set and the playhouse in the comer. I
remember nap time and popsicles and the time a snapping turtle snapped my thumb! That might have been the best lesson
in kindergarten!
My memory book noted, as no surprise, that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. And I stuck to it! Then I began to
wonder as I often do. How much did I know over the years about careers? How much “more” was I exposed to as I grew up?
Not much, frankly. And not because my parents didn’t encourage me to leam about other options necessarily, but because I
live in Millen. Rural. Remote. Don’t get me wrong, I have loved growing up and living in Millen, but...
We all know that we live in a mral community, but our community is also considered “remote,” meaning that we are more
than 25 miles from an urbanized area. This isolation limits career opportunities besides the ones in our small town. Hence
the educational, community helper, and medical field aspirations of our youth. Lord knows we need teachers, firefighters,
and nurses! I just don’t want our students to believe their options are limited to those alone.
So, I will add as a barrier for rural communities - student access to occupations beyond those found in Millen. Our pathways
are solid at the High School, and career planning begins in the elementary school. But leaving the comfort of this small town,
fear of the unknown in bigger areas, lack of transportation, low economic support, low familial support, and so many other
factors limit our growth beyond Millen.
I love to see the success stories of our graduates! And I would love to see them go out into this big old world to leam, then
come back to Millen and thrive. We need doctors and lawyers, car repair and veterinarians, welders, and business owners.
We need them all. I am just as proud when they live where they land!
We can encourage these students in school... we do. But they need support and encouragement at home and in our com
munity as well. Ask for a student to help in your business as part of our work-based learning program. Mentor a student you
know, so that they are supported in decisions about their future. They need a bridge from graduation to career. Let’s all work
together to build that bridge!
jfy JENKINS
,TCJ COUNTY
SCHOOL SYSTEM
Jenkins County Elementary School staff members nominated students for the February “FLY Student of the Month”
to reward academic excellence and behavior. These students are great representatives of the school discipline model:
“FLY” (F- Fly straight, L- Love of Learning, Y- You are responsible for YOU). Students received a Planters Electric
Student of the Month t-shirt and a lunch provided by our local Dairy Queen.
Bottom Row: Kamari Gardner, Mims Morris, King Major, Berenice Jimenez, Dawson Hooks, Kylie Green, Skylar
Lovett, Morgan Harris, Morgan Saxon, Tamar Washington, Makenzie Smith
Top Row: Adrianna Bessent, Honesty Lacue, Romelo Lacue, Skylar Hicks, Dominic Flanders, Harper Sipes, Paislee
Hendrix, Treble Lastinger, Sha’leyah Brown, Kylie Harrell
By Sharon Blank, Special Contributor
for
The Times
March is here, and that means spring isn’t far behind!
We know that with the warm weather everyone is wanting
to get out and enjoy themselves, and we can help with
that! There’s an amazing variety of ways we can get you
into fun places all over Georgia. From free admission to
Georgia’s stunning state parks and historic sites, to getting
a discount for the Georgia Aquarium, to exploring the
different aquatic ecosystems of our state from the ocean
to mountain streams at Go Fish Education Center, and
much more, find out what we can do for you at www.
georgialibraries.org/partnerships
If you’d rather spend this springtime in your own
backyard improving your property, we can help you with
that too! We have books for every subject from building
a treehouse for your kids to designing a beautiful stone or
wood patio to picking the best time to plant your tomatoes
to get the maximum harvest.
But if you’re looking for fun things to do at the library,
there’s two great programs that we’d love to share with
you! First is our weekly afterschool storytime every
Tuesday at 3:30 pm. Your kids and you can enjoy a fun
story and then do a cute craft related to the story.
Another fun thing to do is our Crafts To Go kits! All you
need to do is come into the library once a week and ask,
and we will give you a creative craft kit to take home and
make on your own time. You never know what our clever
staff members will come up with!
Want to know more about the library and what’s
happening here? Head over to www.facebook.com/
jenkinscountymemoriallibrary and “Like!” us.
Well, that’s all for now - see you at the library!
Jenkins
County
HONOR
(; RADS
Jashlyn Aurie Allen
Adeline Belle Bennett
Allen Stacey Bennett
Natalie Alyssa Caldwell
Cassidy Na’Kayla Carrie
Grace Noel Curry
Marcus De’Samnuel
Golphin
Jayla Mariah Grant
Zachery Dalton
Green-Jackson
Marisol Guzman-Rangel
Anna Kate Hearn
JaQuan Terel Kelly
Jackson Burke Lanier
Peyton Kimi Merier
Emily Jeanine Nelson
Tahdriana Amarea Pierce
Ida Elizabeth Roberson
Aralyn Mikayla Scott
Imagine Free Nation Scott
LawrenAniyia Scott
Emily Bernice Suggs
Shamiya Yomaris Thomas
Garvin Crosby Underwood
Robert Lane Waters
Emma Claire Whitlow
Torence Rebecca Williamson
Terra Elaine Wommack
Laughter is the Best Teacher
How humor and history go together
in this classroom
Special to
The Times
Bottom Row: Joshua Graham, Ryan Bazemore, Josue Aponte, Sueiry Yaneth Velasquez, Lainee Aspinwall, Aubrey
Morris, Vernicia Williams, Daniel Zetina, Broderick Moody
Top Row: A’layah Williams, Karen Guzman-Rangel, Ian De La Cruz, Brayden Flakes, Taylor Major, Luke Gaines,
Ta’Porche Byrd, Maliyah Buchanan k _
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Live Auctions Every Friday & Saturday!!
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425 Hwy 25 South
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AfNe'
Millen, Georgia 30467
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Welcome Jenkins County Times!
Miss Arbury teaches history at the local high school. On
the excitement scale, learning history for most kids sits
somewhere between math and art. A few cool things and
lots of facts to memorize. And yet Miss Arbury’s classes
have been the favorites at her school for over two decades.
Students arrive early, sit quietly, and wait for class to be
gin. What could possibly make rowdy high school students
so suddenly eager to leam?
When all are settled. Miss Arbury enters the classroom
decked out in the full regalia of a British soldier during
the revolutionary war. There are a few snickers as she
approaches an old boom box. She pushes play and throws
herself into a cheesy rap about the Boston Tea Party and
the Declaration of Independence. She then challenges stu
dents to a rap off where they have to rhyme their responses
to taxation without representation. Miss Arbury is not a
good dancer. She looks nothing like a British soldier. She
is short, a little round and by her own admission is mostly
tone deaf. But the kids love it. And they know to come
prepared with their own rhymes about world history.
At lunch time the cafeteria is abuzz with kids laughing
about Miss Arbury’s history class. She dresses up as a
witch when teaching about the Salem Witch Trials. Wears
a Winston Churchill mask when discussing the Battle of
Britain. Her British accent is not even close, but the kids
remember what she teaches.
At the end of the semester the lesson becomes clear. In
order to make the future better we have to understand the
past. Having a good laugh along the way makes the lesson
much easier to remember. “I try to launch these kids into
the future with a better understanding of how far we’ve
come and how much more we can do,” Miss Arbury says.
And then adds wryly: “You know, the court jester always
taught the most profound lessons.”
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