New Albany Schools Newsroom

New Haven Clients Learn About Wellness Equipment at NAES

New Haven clients enjoy warming up with "AJ" prior to working out on wellness machines.

The clients of New Haven Center received a special treat at New Albany Elementary School (NAES) on Monday, April 15 thanks in part to a “Healthy Lifestyles:  Making Your Community Healthy” Shared Use Agreement Mini-Grant funded by the Mississippi State Department of Health-Bureau of Community & School Health.  NAES and New Haven Center are currently community partners in a Shared Use Agreement.

Lori Beth Elder demonstrates the safe and proper way to work out on an elliptical.

Anthony “AJ” Johnson, a Certified Exercise Specialist and owner of One Body by AJ, gave a tour of the Staff Wellness Center at NAES, discussed safety tips for working out on machines, and demonstrated proper tips for using wellness equipment.  Johnson also showed students proper ways to stretch and warm up prior to working out.

Clients enjoyed working with Johnson to learn the proper use of treadmills, exercise bikes, ellipticals, and bowflex machines.  After Johnson’s tour and demonstrations, clients were given time to choose a wellness machine and show off what they had learned.

“We have been fortunate to receive many healthy schools grants over the past five years and are pleased with the progress our school has made in the areas of health and wellness,”  said Tammie Reeder, Health Services Coordinator for New Albany School District.   “This particular grant has allowed us to reach out to community groups and share our facilities and resources.”

“We are especially excited about the creation of this partnership with New Haven because many of their clients were once students in our school district,” said Jackie Ford, Superintendent.  “Allowing access to our physical education facilities and resources will improve the health and wellness of the clients of New Haven.”

Clients from New Haven have been utilizing the NAES Physical Education Building on a weekly basis to participate in physical fitness activities such as basketball and walking since February as result of this Shared Use Agreement.  They will continue to be introduced to new physical education equipment and supplies for the remainder of the school year.

A group of New Haven clients challenged "AJ" to a push-up contest.

NAES Participates in “Dr. Seuss Week”

NAES Principal Windy Faulkner interacts with some famous Seuss characters during a Dr. Seuss storytime.

Students at New Albany Elementary School joined millions of their peers across the country to celebrate “Dr. Seuss Week” and the joy of reading March 1-8.  Each day students and teachers participated in special dress-up days and students were treated to special activities or readings of the famed author’s books.

Pictured: Kindergarten students in Mrs. Bridget Spencer's class display their winning decorated door.

Friday, March 1 was “Read the Most from Coast to Coast”.  During the morning students were encouraged to read and take AR quizzes on as many books as possible.  Students also dressed as their favorite Dr. Seuss character.

Monday, March 4 was “Fox in Socks” and students wore crazy socks.

Tuesday, March 5, Mr. Glen Reeder, Director of PreK read “Daisy Head Mayzie” and students came to school with crazy hair.

Wednesday, March 6, Assistant Principal Linda Grisham read “Wacky Wednesday”.  Students had mismatched outfits or wore their clothes backwards and inside out.

Thursday, March 7, New Albany High School Head Football Coach read “Oh, the Places I’ll Go!” and students came dressed as the career they would one day like to pursue.

Friday, March 8, Principal Windy Faulkner read “Green Eggs and Ham” to the students as they ate green eggs and ham in the cafeteria.  Students dressed in green and visited with special Seuss characters:  “The Cat in the Hat”, “Thing 1” and “The Grinch”.

Teachers participated in the Door Decorating Contest during the week.  Winners were:  Rebekah Wiseman, Laura Reedy, Tameri Dunnam, Bridgett Spencer, and Susan Kelly.

“Our goal is to show our students both the joy and the importance of reading,” said Principal Faulkner.  “It is wonderful to see our students involved in the week’s activities and excited about reading.”

Pictured: "The Cat in the Hat" encourages some kindergarten students to try their green eggs and ham during breakfast.

NAES Receives $8,000 in Grant Money to Partner with New Haven, Boys & Girls Club

Pictured l-r are those who participated in the initial grantee teleconference and training: Melanie Shannon, New Albany School District Grant Writer & Public Relations; Tammie Reeder, New Albany School District Health Services Coordinator; Zell Long, CPO Boys & Girls Club of North Mississippi; Jackie Ford, New Albany School District Superintendent; Windy Faulkner, New Albany Elementary School Principal; Dr. Collett Cross, New Haven Center Director.

New Albany Elementary School (NAES) is the recipient of two $4,000 grants through the “Healthy Lifestyles:  Making Your Community Healthy Mini-Grant”.  These Shared Use Agreement (SUA) grants have been possible by the Mississippi State Department of Health Bureau of Community and School Health and the Mississippi Department of Education Office of Health Schools.

Through this grant agreement process, NAES has formed partnerships with both the New Haven Center and the Boys & Girls Club of North Mississippi-New Albany Unit.    Grant funding will assist in the launch of policy and community based change initiatives to promote wellness, improve nutrition and health education, and to prevent obesity.

The New Albany School District (NASD) and the Boys & Girls Club already has a well established partnership in place as the New Albany Boys & Girls Clubhouse is a school district owned and maintained facility.  Grant monies will be used to provide games and supplies to improve physical fitness and health, nutrition, and character education.

The NASD is excited to begin to establish a new partnership with New Haven Center.  Clients of the center will visit the physical education building at NAES weekly for physical fitness activities and structured play.  Grant monies will be used to enhance the already existing facilities and supplies with an emphasis on expanding supplies to use with clients and students that have special needs.

“We are pleased that these grants will allow us to expand our Coordinated School Health Program to better meet the needs of our community,” said Tammie Reeder, School Health Coordinator and Grant Project Director.  “We are so excited that many of our current students and former students will be served through these grant processes.”

NAES Meeting the Needs of Students Through Technology

5th grade students use iPads to complete an assignment.

Teachers at New Albany Elementary School (NAES) have found unique ways to meet the needs of all learners and to enhance instruction with the use of technology.  NAES has two iPad carts, each containing 30 student iPads.

Tatum Nowlin, a fifth-grade teacher uses iPads to assist students with weekly testing.  Some of these students have reading deficiencies and need additional accommodations while testing.  The teacher uses a drop box feature to upload the test to the student iPad and she records her voice reading the test.  When the student begins the testing, they have the ability to read the test along with the teacher recorded voice reading it aloud.  “The iPads are wonderful because these students are able to work at their own pace while using headphones,” Nowlin said.  “The iPads allow the student the ability to pause and rewind to listen to test questions or passages if necessary.”

Fourth grade EXCEL students use iPads to complete independent research projects.

Amy Welborn, a gifted teacher, uses the iPads to increase students’ knowledge of technology while completing independent projects.  Students in the 3^rd and 4^th grade EXCEL gifted classes have used the iPads to do find information for their state research projects and to do other independent research.

Teachers throughout the school use the iPads for many lessons and activities in their classrooms.  From literary circles and Accelerated Reader testing to using apps for skill drills and reinforcement , teachers have found that this technology is an asset to their instruction and the students enjoy being able to use the iPads in class.

NAES also has 30 Neo boards that are used in the classrooms on a daily basis.  The Neo board is a small laptop computer, has a full size keyboard and a small screen that allows for six lines of text at a time.  Neo boards have many educational uses including individualized lessons for Accelerated Reading and skill drills for math.

“It is exciting to see all of the creative ways our teachers have used the iPads and Neo boards in their classrooms to enhance instruction and to meet the needs of all of our students,” said Windy Faulkner, Principal.  “It is important for our students to understand all of the educational opportunities that are available through technology.”

Action for Healthy Kids Improves School Nutrition with Support from Wal-Mart

Pictured: First grade teacher Tameri Dunnam watches as Evan Williams moves his pin on the behavior chart. Williams was able to move his pin to the duck because he was "Flying High With Good Behavior" for being a helper in the classroom. The Action for Healthy Kids mini-grant will assist teachers in buying rewards for their classroom such as pencils and stickers to help reduce the amount of candy that is used as rewards.

Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) announced this month that it has awarded 400 schools nationwide with Action for Healthy Kids in Schools grants, averaging $2,000 each, for the 2012-2013 school year. The grants, funded by the Wal-Mart Foundation, are part of AFHK’s School Grants for Healthy Kids program, which is designed to improve access to healthy foods at school and bolster nutrition education for over 270,000 children.

“These grants have allowed us to give schools direct assistance in the way of money and human resources so they can offer healthier food choices and adopt strong wellness practices within their building,” explains AFHK CEO Rob Bisceglie. “These are the kinds of changes that improve students’ health over the long term. So, we couldn’t be more pleased.”

Totaling $1.5 million, the Action for Healthy Kids in Schools grants are part of a broader commitment made by the Wal-Mart Foundation in support of nutrition education in the United States. The funding has enabled AFHK to provide direct support to the 400 schools through mini-grants and health-improving programs ranging from the creation and expansion of summer feeding programs to the placement of healthier foods in competitive food venues, including vending machines and school fundraising events, breakfast programs, and to providing access to healthy foods through food tasting, nutrition education lessons and food curriculum enhancements.

The grants have been awarded during a time that many of the nation’s children are subject to the epidemics of childhood obesity and food insecurity. In fact, one out of three kids in this country is overweight or obese. These dual epidemics can threaten children’s long-term health and have an adverse effect on their ability to succeed academically. Fortunately, AFHK’s grants, technical assistance and volunteer support help schools improve food access and school nutrition practices as well as optimize the impact of their food access and nutrition programming in schools, where children spend so much of their time.

New Albany Elementary School (NAES) is one of twelve schools in the state and the only school in northeast Mississippi to receive this national grant.  “The goal of our grant is to assist Kindergarten-2^nd grade teachers in rewarding students in their classroom with items such as pencils, erasers, and stickers thus reducing the amount of candy rewards,” said Tammie Reeder, NAES School Nurse and Project Coordinator for the grant.  Reeder added that teachers are doing a great job in the classroom with healthy initiatives and funding from this grant just gives the teachers the resources to improve.

Fourth Grade Students at NAES Participate in Physical Activity Research

Teacher Erica Crotts helps a 4th grade student put on a pedometer at the beginning of the school day. Crotts's 4th grade class at New Albany Elementary School has been selected to participate in a physical activity research project developed by the University of Mississippi.

New Albany Elementary School (NAES) is one of fourteen public schools randomly selected from seven north central Mississippi counties to participate in a physical activity experimental study conducted by researchers in the Department of Health, Exercise Science, and Recreation Management at the University of Mississippi.

Fourteen 4^th grade classes in public elementary schools in the counties of Marshall, Tate, Panola, Yalobusha, Calhoun, Pontotoc, and Union are participating.  The purpose of the project is to determine how much in-school physical activity 4^th graders receive in a typical school day.  Experts recommend that students get at least 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day while at school.

During the week of November 5^th, students who are in Erica Crotts’s class and have parental consent  have worn small pedometers on his/her right hip while at school.  Students put their assigned pedometers on each morning when school starts and the teacher collects them at the end of the school day.

The pedometer counts how many steps each student takes.  By keeping track of the number of steps, researchers will be able to determine the amount of physical activity students are getting daily.

In two weeks, the teacher and the students’ parents will receive a report that states the average amount of physical activity the students received during the study.  This report will allow parents to see how close the child came to the recommended time of 30 minutes of moderate –to-vigorous physical activity during the school day.

At the end of the project, NAES will receive data from the project to see how NAES compares in the amount of physical activity to other schools who participated in the study.

“We are pleased to partner with the University of Mississippi in this project to see how we compare to area schools and to improve the physical activity of our students,” said Tammie Reeder, Health Services Coordinator for New Albany Schools.

NAES Celebrates Literacy Day

Students in Mrs. Erica Crotts's fourth grade class dress as characters from books for Literacy Day. From l-r: Joseph Fennell as Charlie from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory; Andrew Fennell as Tim Tebow; Gray Goode as Eli Manning; Emma Reed as Samantha - American Girl; Alex Seger as Heidi; Joanna Fernandez as Kanani; Emma Laney as Nancy Drew; and Abby Wiseman as Nancy Drew.

October 31^st was a day of celebration at New Albany Elementary School (NAES).  The day began by celebrating literacy.  Students at NAES participated in the NAES Bullpup Read-A-Thon from 8:00-9:00 a.m.  and were encouraged to read as many books as possible during the one hour time slot.  Students were treated to a Bullpup Read-A-Thon Pep Rally featuring New Albany High School cheerleaders and Bully, the school mascot.

Many students brought blankets and pillows to create comfortable places for reading.  PreK teachers dressed as storybook characters and read to the youngest students.  Fourth grade students dressed as a character from a book and gave book report presentations.  Many classes used Mimio technology to listen to books.

During the Read-A-Thon, more than 5,466 books were read school wide.  The kindergarten classes read the most books as a grade level and Dawn Stroupe’s 5^th grade class read the most books by classroom.

PreK read 176; Kindergarten read 1,343; 1^st grade read 1254; 2^nd grade read 1,306; 3^rd grade read 698; 4^th grade read 578; and 5^th grade read 1,267.  The class winners in each grade were:  Kindergarten-Thrasher; 1^st Grade-Farned; 2^nd Grade-Reedy; 3^rd Grade-Latham; 4^th Grade-Ohler; and 5^th Grade-Stroupe.

“We are so proud of our students for the amount of books they read during the Read-A-Thon and the excitement they showed during the event,” said Principal Windy Faulkner.  “We want them to understand the importance of learning to read  and developing a love for reading.”

PreK Assistant Teacher Donna Graham portrays the character "the little old lady" as she reads the book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything to a group of PreK students.