JME and the Great Big Caterpillar

Students at Joseph Martin Elementary are proud of their Accelerated Reader Caterpillar! Each

time a student scores an 80% or higher on an AR quiz he or she can add a circle to the caterpillar. Students note their score, book title, and name on the circle. At the beginning of the school year the caterpillar started as only a face outside of the media center. Now his body runs down every hall and wraps around the building back to the beginning.

Thank You Tech4Learning

The Liberty County Student Media Festival had a corporate sponsor for the first time this year, Tech4Learning! Tech4Learning is an educational software company that specialize in project-based-production software. They produce programs like Frames, Twist, WebBlender, and Pixie just to name a few. Please visit www.tech4learning.com to learn more about their wonderful programs.

As part of their sponsorship, each student that created an individual student media festival project that earned a superior score at the county festival has been awarded a free download of one of Tech4Learning's programs. Students were able to select from a list, which program they would like.

Now all student will have to do is go to the Tech4Learning website, download the software using the provided code and register their software at home. Early next week, each school with qualifying students will receive a letter to send how for parents and students to do this.

Liberty County is grateful for this opportunity! We look forward to even more student involvement in the festival next year!

Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Students are Recognized

Thursday, April 9th, the Liberty County Board of Education recognized the Helen Ruffin reading bowl teams and coaches from Joseph Martin Elementary, Snelson Golden Middle School, and the combined high school team from Bradwell Institute and Liberty County High School, the Liberty Cats.

What is the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl?

The Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl was the creation of Mrs. Helen Ruffin, a media specialist from Dekalb County, ten years ago! The bowl encourages elementary and middle school students to read from the Georgia Children’s Book Awards nominee list and high school students to read from the Georgia Peach Teen Book Award nominee list.

This year marks the third year that the Liberty County School System has organized teams to participate in the bowl. This year all of the elementary, middle, and high schools in Liberty County organized student teams for the county level competition. Brittin Elementary School of Fort Stewart also participated in the county reading bowl, making it the most attended reading bowl to date! The winning teams from the county reading bowl, Joseph Martin, Snelson Golden Middle, and the combined high school team called the Liberty Cats, earned the right to advance to the regional level of the bowl.

Students in Attendance from the Liberty Cats Team

















The annual Southern Regional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl was held at Valdosta State University, February 7th. Each team competed against four or more other schools for the chance to advance to the divisional level of the bowl.

Students in Attendance from the Joseph Martin Elementary Team










Joseph Martin’s team dominated the elementary portion of the bowl, earning first place. The Snelson Golden Eagles won the second place and the chance to continue to the next level of the bowl. The Liberty Cats faced fierce competition and earned third place in the high school portion of the bowl.

Joseph Martin Elementary and Snelson Golden Middle advanced to the Divisional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl at Southeast Bulloch High School, February 21st. The divisional competition matched up the first and second place winners from three southern regions.

After facing off against the best teams in the southern half of the state, Joseph Martin Elementary earned third place in the competition and Snelson Golden Middle earned second place.

Students in Attendance from the Snelson Golden Middle School Team

Through both the Southern Regional and the Divisional Helen Ruffin Reading Bowls, Mr. Floyd of the Heritage Bank helped to support the student teams by generously donating funds to cover the expense of their lunch at both bowls. The student reading bowl teams would like to thank Mr. Floyd for his generosity and support!

CRCT Test

I hope everyone is surviving the CRCT Test!

Celebrating the Superior State Level Student Media Festival Participants

The Georgia Student Media Festival is May 1st in Atlanta. 99 superior student projects from the Liberty County Student Media Festival will be scored at the festival. Projects earning a superior score a the state level festival will be invited to a special evening viewing of student projects and an awards ceremony the night of May 11th at the Liberty County Board of Education.

Last year, the event was very successful! Here is a picture from the 2008-2009 celebration.

Liberty County High School Welcomes Up and Coming Freshmen

April 7th was the night of the 8th Grade Parent Night at LCHS. Eager soon-to-be freshmen and parents toured the school, met school staff, and learned about the clubs and services available.

Of course, the media team of Mr. Staggs and Ms. Williams was on the scene to introduce families to the media center! Mr. Staggs introduced several online resources. The resources included, but were not limited to Nettrekker, Atomic Learning, and Destiny.

Ms. Williams presented a kiosk and display of the 2009-2010 Peach Teen Award Nominee Books for students, in the hopes of recruiting reading bowl team members. (LCHS and BI are known for their fierce Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl teams!)

For more technology-geared students, Ms. Williams showcased a sampling of student media festival projects and other student-produced videos. Two student participants from the LCHS media festival were also on-hand to answer any questions.