Grovetown teaching team honored

A group of seventh-grade teachers from Grovetown Middle School were recently recognized for their teamwork.

The Georgia Middle School Association named math teacher Kim Hampton, language arts teacher Penny Barclay, social studies teacher Jennifer Barefoot and science teacher Sue Cottingham the Central Region Team of the Year.

"They were selected because of the variety and quality of their instruction," Grovetown Middle Principal Carolyn Fries said. "They have a lot of enthusiasm for what they're doing."

Hampton nominated her team to the GMSA and they were chosen from hundreds of other applicants, Fries said.

"It's hard to work with a group of people who don't have the same philosophy," Hampton said. "Our personalities are all different, but we have the same philosophy for student learning."

The team, which has been working together for four years, met four criteria required to become team of the year, Hampton said.

The criteria included advancing middle-school philosophy in school and community; creating interdisciplinary integrated curriculum planning; designing specific activities to meet the social, physical, intellectual and emotional needs of young adolescents; and promoting of parent involvement.

"They have had outstanding testing results and they're willing to try different things," Fries said of the team's qualifications for the honor. "I'm real pleased they recognized some of our teachers for their hard work."

Many middle schools form teams of teachers representing one content area. The teachers collaborate on lesson plans to help ease students' transition to middle school. They share planning time and a common group of students.

"I knew we could possibly be team of the year, because we are so actively involved with all of our kids together," Hampton said. "We plan together and we're always thinking about the other teacher and their subjects, like how what I'm doing will affect them."

Each teacher was awarded a plaque by School Superintendent Tommy Price at a recent school board meeting, and were to be recognized again at the GMSA convention in Savannah next month.