A celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday morning will feature Garfield Adams, Oak Ridge High School principal.
It’s the 33rd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Program, and it’s titled “The Community Speaks.” The theme for this year’s program is “A Change Has Come.”
The program is virtual, and it will be on Zoom Webinar. The program will feature a past first-place winner of the NAACP Essay Contest, a press release said.
[Read more…]Garfield Adams has been selected by a committee of teachers and administrators to serve as the new principal of Oak Ridge High School.
Adams is from Oak Ridge, and he graduated from Oak Ridge High School. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, a press release said. He then went on to receive additional degrees in educational administration and supervision, and educational leadership, at Lincoln Memorial University.
Adams was a classroom teacher for 11 years, the press release said: three years at Central High School and eight years in Oak Ridge Schools as a special education teacher and behavioral specialist.
[Read more…]
Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge is the first middle school to ever be selected for a NASA program that launches small cube-shaped satellites into space. On Friday, March 9, 2018, the $70,000 science project got a $15,000 boost from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Celebrating above by saying “NASA, we are a go!” are RMS students, teacher Todd Livesay, ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, and other Oak Ridge Schools staff and project volunteers. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 2 p.m. March 11.
Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge is the first middle school to ever be selected for a NASA program that launches small cube-shaped satellites into space.
On Friday, the $70,000 science project, which started about three years ago, got a $15,000 boost from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Robertsville satellite, which will orbit a few hundred miles above Earth, will use a small camera to try to take pictures of forest regrowth in the Great Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg. That area burned in forest fires fed by high winds after Thanksgiving 2016, killing 14 people and damaging or destroying more than 2,500 homes and businesses.
The RMS satellite, named RamSat, will use a radio to relay its images and other data back to Earth.
A project proposal was submitted to NASA in November, and Oak Ridge Schools learned this month that the RMS proposal had been accepted.
“This is such an exciting opportunity for the students!” said Peter Thornton, one of the RamSat team leaders from ORNL. “They will now have the chance to design, build, carry out, and own a satellite mission.” [Read more…]
Garfield Adams
Garfield Adams, Robertsville Middle School principal, has accepted a position with the Hamilton County Department of Education as the exceptional education director.
Adams will continue in his role as RMS principal until December 31, a press release said.
Effective January 1, 2018, Tonya Childress will serve as the interim principal of Robertsville Middle School, and David Scott will serve as interim administrative assistant, the press release said.
Childress has both doctor of education and educational specialist degrees from Lincoln Memorial University. She received both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in technology education, the press release said. Childress has served as the vice principal of Robertsville since July 2017. [Read more…]
These charts depict the increase in use of the Canvas learning management system, or LMS, since its adoption in 2015 in Oak Ridge Schools. Dips in usage occurred in June and July of 2016 when school was not in session. (Image by Oak Ridge Schools)
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During the past two years, the Oak Ridge school district has been making new strides in our Access Oak Ridge digital learning initiative by putting Lenovo Yoga laptop computers into the hands of every student in grades 5-10.
Our vision in this initiative is “to empower all Oak Ridge students with equitable access to digital learning opportunities, and to innovate, design, collaborate, and ultimately succeed in local and global communities of the future.” Within this vision, we believe that learning should be student-centered, with technology that enables exploration of content with greater depth and breadth.
Our aim is to continue to grow Access Oak Ridge to provide opportunities that lead to substantial benefits for both students and staff. Fostering innovative thinking expands the classroom beyond the school walls for our students.
Prior to embarking on the Access Oak Ridge initiative, dedicated information technology (IT) staff and instructional technology coaches had been preparing our students and teachers with digital tools and software for more than a decade. In 2014-15, our instructional technology coaches worked with a team of teachers to research and select a learning management system, or LMS, to securely house all of our online content for courses such as soft copies of textbooks, course readings, designated internet content links, software, and videos, as well as student and family progress monitoring (course grading). The LMS the teacher team selected is Canvas by Instructure. [Read more…]
Pictured above during a Oak Ridge Board of Education meeting on Monday, March 28, are Phil Cox, left, Jefferson Middle School principal, and Garfield Adams, Robertsville Middle School principal. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 4:55 p.m.
Teachers and principals in Oak Ridge Schools have asked for 3 percent pay increases in the budget year that starts July 1.
The request was made at last week’s Oak Ridge Board of Education meeting. It’s too early to say whether the request will be included in the budget proposal that will be presented to the BOE, possibly later this month or sometime next month, or approved by the school board, possibly in May.
In a presentation by Robertsville Middle School Principal Garfield Adams and Jefferson Middle School Principal Phil Cox, officials said Oak Ridge Schools administrators’ pay has been on a downward trend, falling from eighth in the state in 2008-2009 to 13th in 2014-2015. They said that trend reflects what is happening for teachers. [Read more…]
The recent reclassification of positions announced earlier this week has created opportunities for other staff to assume new positions in the Oak Ridge Schools, including at Robertsville Middle School and Secret City Academy, a press release said.
Here are the organizational changes:
See a summary of the backgrounds of both Hobby and Roberts below. [Read more…]
Bruce Lay
Note: This story was updated at 6:05 p.m.
Robertsville Middle School Principal Bruce Lay is taking a new administrative position for Oak Ridge Schools, and RMS Vice Principal Garfield Adams will become principal.
The assistant superintendent job that is now vacant has been reclassified as executive director of school leadership. The position was reclassified and is now vacant after former Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak left to become director of schools in Maury County, south of Nashville. Lay has been selected to fill the new position.
Lay moved to RMS from Jefferson Middle School in 2013.
Adams was named RMS vice principal in June 2014. [Read more…]
Garfield Adams has been appointed vice principal at Robertsville Middle School, a school official said Tuesday.
Adams’ appointment is effective July 1, Oak Ridge Schools Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak said in a press release.
Adams began his career as a special education teacher in Knox County Schools in 2001. He joined the Oak Ridge Schools in 2004 as an alternative program teacher and remained in that capacity until 2011. [Read more…]
