Day one of the 2013-14 school year
has come and gone at MHS and we had a fantastic first day! There were lots of
smiles as everyone greeted old friends and met the new ones for the first time.
From the opening prayer in the gym with grades 7-12 to my tour of all the
elementary classes, I certainly felt the excitement of opening day.
There have been so many changes over
the summer. From personnel to technology, and facility improvements to
professional development for the faculty and staff, it has been an incredibly
busy summer.
We have several new faces on "The Hill" this year. In math we added Mrs. Ann Robbins; in science we added Dr.
Shelly Self and Mrs. Sharmin Hughes; in English Mrs. Lynn Savage; to our coaching staff we added Mr. Winn
Scott who will also serve as our Director of Technology and Mr. Dusty Hughes
who will also teach history; and finally, some of our teachers from last year
have changed positions. Mrs. Rebecca Atkinson has moved to the junior high;
Mrs. Janice Taylor has moved to the secondary library; Mrs. Hayley Warren has
moved from kindergarten to the second grade; Mrs. Sunny Lane will be teaching a
3K section; Mrs. Mikelle Perry will direct the elementary technology center; and Ellen Glosson will teach art full-time.
On the technology front, year one of
iMHS is in full swing; students in grades 10-12 are now using their MacBooks to
access classroom resources to enhance the educational process; elementary
teachers are piloting iPads this year thanks to a generous donor; the PC’s in
the secondary computer lab were replaced with some of the MacBooks from last year,
with the rest going to all secondary teachers; the school’s technology
infrastructure was completely re-vamped with new access points and other
infrastructure switches and routers; and finally, the faculty attended various
workshops and conferences like the iSummit Conference in Atlanta a few weeks
ago.
The school has also been the
beneficiary of a new coat of paint and new ceiling tiles. Soon the doors on the
gym will be replaced with attractive full glass doors, and, as always, the
custodial staff did an awesome job getting the floors shinier than ever.
Fall sports are also underway. Our softball ladies are off to a great start and look to make it back to the State Tournament again. Varsity and junior high football are also underway with the varsity traveling to Pillow for their jamboree Friday, August 16th, before opening up on the road at SBEC (now Northpoint Christian School) Friday, August 23rd. The junior high opens with their jamboree on Thursday, August 22nd at Pillow, with their first game at North Delta on Thursday August 29th. Also our ladies’ soccer team under the direction of Coach Allen Holley has been practicing hard for the opening match with Kirk this Thursday, August 8th.
As you can tell, we have been busy,
but we are also mindful of the tremendous opportunities that God has blessed us
with. We get to work each day molding the minds of students to prepare them for
the challenges of college and beyond. We never take that for granted. As I told
the faculty during in-service, we never know where our influence stops. I used
the following video to show how far -reaching our efforts can go, and I would
like to share it with you.
