Newspaper Page Text
JCTimes 3-24-23.indd 8
3/23/2023 8:37:49 AM
Page 8 - Friday, March 24, 2023
The Jenkins County Times
thej enkinsc ountytimes. com
Upcoming Dates in School
April 3-7 - Spring Break
April 14 - Prom
May 26 - Last Day/Early Release/
Graduation
EAGLE
NOTES
Tara Cooper
Superintendant
Jenkins County School System
I am not a fan of the time changes each year. But this year,
whew, I saw the evidence - kind of like when we have a
full moon each month! Are you familiar with the research
surrounding the implementation of “daylight savings time”
(DST)? Well, I looked it up. I hoped that I could find the re
search to prove that the loss of that hour each spring makes
people act crazy for a bit; like they must make up for that
lost hour in the worst possible way. So, anyway, I did the
research...
According to Wikipedia, DST was introduced by Benjamin
Franklin in 1784 to “economize” candle usage and “calcu
late considerable savings.” That’s a hoot! We are observing
a universal practice based on an archaic principle?!? I had
to look a little harder to find a correlation between poor
behavior and time changes. And I found it.
Circadian rhythms. Time shifts adversely affect the body’s
regulation of sleep and the sleep/wake cycle. The Circadian
rhythm of our brain regulates cycles of alertness and sleep
iness by responding to light changes in our environment.
There it is. That makes sense. The loss of that hour affects
sleep habits. Disrupted sleep habits affect human behavior
by causing problems with decision making, learning new
things, slower reaction times, and managing emotions. I
needed that excuse this last week for some aberrant behav
iors (outside of our school system). But I’ll blame it on Cir
cadian rhythms- some people obviously need to get more
sleep! I just knew that changing time back and forth was
somehow to blame. Research proved it.
It also cements the fact that we need to continue to teach
and model for our student’s tolerance and respect. I shared
an email with the staff from a visitor to our school system
that toured the school while classes were in session and she
used the adjectives fun, happy, healthy, and thriving. Anoth
er visitor commented on how peaceful our halls were during
lunch and transitions. That is where faith is restored! I am
always encouraged by what we are doing in our school sys
tem. A peaceful environment with added new growth and
new opportunities has us always reaching for more for our
children! They deserve it.
I must say the highlight of last week was the High School
Math Night. Our high school math teachers did a mini-les
son and activities using “pi” that were instructional and fun!
I will admit that geometry is not my forte, and math has
never been my strength. My son Pace and I were a team,
and I don’t mind saying that he carried the weight! We both
realized afterwards that even though math is tough for us,
we persevered with the support of awesome math teachers.
I learned things about pi that I never knew (or if I did, it did
not stay in long term memory!) - ha! Most of the students
participating were ninth graders, and had not even had ge
ometry yet, but they stepped up to the challenges! Cookies,
moon pies, and other pie treats were icing on the cake. My
competitive nature, that drove Pace crazy, and Pace’s abil
ity to memorize foreign concepts, pushed us up right into
second place. Again, a miracle considering our previous
knowledge. Such fun!
Build your next adventure
around the library
By Sharon Blank,
Special Contributor
for
The Times
Happy Spring! Are you ready for some amazing adven
tures? We can help you out with all sorts of tickets and
free or discounted admission to a variety of Georgia’s most
amazing attractions.
We’ve also got quite a few things that most people don’t
know we have that can amaze you in other ways. For ex
ample, do you know what your pet’s hair looks like close-
up? We have a microscope you can borrow to find out. Do
you have old slides but no projector to see them on? Check
out the Wolverine film to digital converter, and you’ll be
able to put them right onto your computer or online to share
with family and friends. Want to have a movie night out on
the lawn? Borrow our mini-projector and portable screen
and enjoy a movie and the nice spring weather. Planning on
having a spring break party? We’ve got a karaoke machine,
microphones, and portable speakers. They’re all available
for checkout as part of our Library of Things collection!
Want to help your kids learn to read better, and to have fun
at the same time? Our storytimes are great for that! Ev
ery Tuesday at 3:30 pm we have our afterschool storytime,
where we read a wonderful story and then do a craft that
relates to the story. It’s a ton of fun for the little ones, and
helps them grow their love for reading!
Our Crafts To Go program is still going strong, and ex
panding! Starting this April, we will be adding teen and
adult crafts to our offerings. We will have a new kids craft
every week, and new teen and adult crafts once a month.
All you need to do to get one of these fun projects is stop
by the library and ask at the desk, then take them home and
make them on your own schedule.
To find out what else we have going on at the library, head
to www facebook.com/jenkinscountymemoriallibrary and
see what else we have to offer, along with library humor
and interesting articles.
Well, that’s all for now - see you at the library!
Jenkins County Elementary School staff members nominated students for the March “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.
Congratulations to the following students:
Bottom Row: Aubrianna Roper, Robert Silva, Joshua Darley, Amelia Suggs, Jaden Hughes, Deisrae Daugherty,
Taegan Yurista, Adrian Maust
Top Row: Weston Birdwell, Zhalen Mozee, Aaliyah Bonner, Bryer Sipes, Lillian Giles, Jordynn Lovett, Drake Lyles,
Brinlee Lane, Sophie Welden
Jenkins County Elementary School staff members nominated students for the March “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.
Congratulations to the following students:
Bottom Row: Zykera Foreman, Charleigh Sasser, Nabor Delgado-Pedroza, Aireonah Green, Brayden Carter, Jamar-
ion Tarver, McKenzie Lee
Top Row: Jordan Hemphill, Makayla Smith, Abigail Lovett, Staci Brown, Hubert Morris, Rebalyn Burke, Tyler
Wilkerson, Dalton Stanley
READING and treats.
Continued from page 1 The tags
stay on their
book bags all year so the students can
show off the goals they have met. Over
half of our students in 1st - 5th grade
have earned a book bag tag for at least
25 or more AR points. Currently, we
have a Read-A-Thon going on through
Monday, March 27th. Students ask for
donations, and in return, they read. We
are going to use the funds we collect
from the Read-A-Thon to go toward
buying a book vending machine and
the books to go in it. Here's more
information about it: https://wwwread-
a-thon. com/school/Jenkins-County-
Elementary-School_54123
The Read-A-Thon is just another way
to encourage our kids to read! We want
to use the book vending machine to
reward our students with free books!
We are also going to be participating in
the Greenjackets Reading program
after spring break which will give
our students an opportunity to earn
a baseball ticket to see the Augusta
Greenjackets play just for reading.
I also don't want to forget about our
middle and high school students.
They have checked out close to
4,500 books this school year. And,
even though that's not close to what
elementary has read, that's still a
large number for middle/high. Their
books are longer, and I think that
averages out to be about 10 books
per student. That's pretty good for
all they have going on. One thing
that we did when I first came in
was to sort all of the books on the
middle/high side by genre. This
makes it easier for our students to
find what they are looking for. It's
been amazing to see them come
in and out each week to check
out books and request books. Our
middle school students will also have
an opportunity to participate in the
Greenjackets reading program as well.
If we end up getting the book vending
machine for our elementary students
and see that it is a good motivator, I
think we will also work to get one for
middle/high as well.
We have several things going on
right now as you can see, but we also
have two book fairs to look forward
to coming up! Our middle/high book
fair will be the week of April 17th and
our elementary book fair will be the
week of May 8th. One thing I have
learned as the media specialist is that
our students love a good book fair!
I love them too because it's another
avenue to get more books in the hands
of our students.
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