Business items were short at the April meeting of the Winn Parish School Board as the school year draws near its end. The most excitement came during the “School Spotlight” segment of the agenda with presentations from Winn Primary and Winnfield Senior High schools.
While the spotlight generally focuses on students, principals James King and Chase Bartlett used the opportunity praise the efforts of teachers at their schools.
King mentioned that the WPS was preparing for a Family Night April 4 to get the students “pumped up” for the testing that is about to take place and brought with him PE teachers Trish Phelps and Carla Tinnerello who were certainly “pumped up” about new equipment they’ve been able to incorporate into their health and education programs.
Trish Phelps described the 12×19-foot Lü board that has been installed as “above and beyond” any expectations, “bringing cutting edge technology into the gym.”
Lü is described as a video and audio system built for education that allows educators to transform the gym into an engaging and immersive environment. It provides immersive educational environments with giant and bright wall projections, 3-D camera and touch-screen experience.
Carla Tinnerello’s enthusiasm was evident as she described ways the this interactive screen can transform rote learning like math facts into an engaging learning experience for students. “You can build a program to fit your lessons. Add exercises and make it different every day.” She said that the Lü can even break a class into groups with different activities like exercise, dance, shapes and math facts.
“Anything you can put together on a laptop, we can do with this interactive screen in the gym.”
When it came Bartlett’s turn to talk about WSHS, he agreed that students are normally in the spotlight and are, in fact, the primary goal of education. “But I want to spotlight the group that is responsible for the success of our students, and in this care, a very particular group: the faculty and staff at WSHS. It takes us all.
“As our school focuses on excellence, we try to be better tomorrow than we are today. We are all pulling in the same direction.” As he indicated the group of WSHS educators in attendance that night, me mentioned that not all were able to come due to prior commitments, often with other community involvement.
He pointed out that while academics is No. 1 in the educational process, it’s not the only building block that allows students to excel. There are also athletics, club activities, special trips and more that allow teachers to help give students purpose. He boasted on each and stressed that the dedication of educators makes the difference.
In comments at the meeting’s conclusion, Supt. Alfred Simmons said that school testing will begin soon. “Teachers and students have done about all they can do. Now we’ll see the results.” He advised board members of observe education-related matters before the legislature, noting the School Board Association can keep them posted. Dates of note are the Seniors Honor Reception on April 30 and the Retirement Reception that will be held at WMS on May 6 prior to the board’s meeting, also at the school.
