Educators in the Pell City School System have accepted the challenge to engage students in innovative ways to inspire them to become life long learners.

Encouraging educators to “Get Your Teach On,” rock star teachers Wade and Hope King, Best-selling authors of “The Wild Card: 7 Steps to an Educator’s Creative Breakthrough,” challenged faculties worldwide to “Rock Your School!”

The Kings’ goal was to have 50,000 educators participate in rocking their school. To their delight, they exceeded that goal. Striving to reach as many students as possible, the Kings’ vision is stated on their website, www.getyourteachon.com. They wondered, “What if we could get every student in every classroom to love to learn?”

Coosa Valley Elementary School (CVES) Principal Jennifer Hannah and Williams Intermediate Schools (WIS) Acting Principal Haley Williams were pumped to rock their schools.

“It’s all about student engagement,” Hannah said, “Coosa Valley teachers went above and beyond to create an educational experience for our students that they will not forget.”

Educators from Pre-K to fourth grade participated in Rock Your School at CVES. Third grade teacher Lauren Brascho received shout outs from Hope and Wade King via social media. Brascho and the CVES third grade team (consisting of Renee Santiago, Alyson Hazelwood and Ashton Baker) transformed their rooms into donut shops where each student was a donut shop owner. Students completed bar graph and pictograph math challenges where they had to complete 10 challenges correctly to win. Wade King was so impressed with how Brascho’s classroom was transformed that he shared it on his Facebook page and Hope King replied on Mrs. Brascho’s page, “This looks good enough to eat!”

At WIS, acting Principal Williams and staff asked students to arrive dressed as “tacky tourists.” The excellent educators at WIS set the stage to engage and offered their tourists an opportunity to visit different countries for their “Rock Your School” day experience.

“The ‘Rock Your School’ initiative is to promote learning in a fun way,” said Williams. “Teachers created engaging lessons accommodating a variety of learning styles.”

Students rotated classrooms, visiting different countries, states, and cities. The sixth grade history teachers decorated classrooms like Japan, Spain, Scotland, Russian and Germany. Students learned facts about each country, including geography, social studies, local customs, foods and music.

In Kayla Lee’s technology class students learned to use Google Earth while embarking on a virtual scavenger hunt throughout Africa! As seen on a Facebook post from Lee, she stated, “Our school registered in the nationwide Rock Your School event and chose “Rockin’ World of WIS” as our school-wide theme. Our kids got to globetrot around the world with passports today while teachers merged their chosen countries into their subject matter. It was so much fun!”

Again, the Kings expressed their excitement for what teachers and students in the Pell City School System (PCSS) were doing and included WIS in their “Rock Your School Rockumentary” that can be seen on the Pell City School System’s Facebook page.

PCSS educators enjoyed taking part in this incredible day and look forward to continuing to rock their school each and every day. For all things regarding the Pell City School System visit the Facebook page or log onto, www.pellcityschools.net.