TREA Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to Randy Clarkson, a science teacher at Prairiland High School in the Prairiland Independent School District—TREA's Teacher of the Year!

This year marks Mr. Clarkson's 24th year as an educator and his 18th with Prairiland ISD. Clarkson has been teaching science at the high school for five years.

Mr. Clarkson attended Paris Junior College and East Texas State University before graduating from Tarleton State University.

Clarkson is a 1972 graduate of PHS where he now teaches. Once a successful businessman in the wholesale grocery industry, Clarkson felt called to give something back to the community that at times “would give me money or fill my car up with gas.”

The encouraging words of his late friend, Buster Gentry, also helped compel him to teach. Mr. Gentry stressed how the community that helped Mr. Clarkson get an education deserved some thing from Clarkson. Although his family made some sacrifices due to his transition to the less financially lucrative career of education, Clarkson feels that overall his family has benefited from his choice.

Clarkson realizes that his, and every educator’s actions, will ripple through future generations' lives, and he takes his role in this cycle very seriously.

“Our job involves more than teaching what is in these books. People who don’t have that commitment have no business in the business.”

Clarkson believes in kids and he makes sure his students know that they can believe in him. He offers his help and support above and beyond the duties outlined in his teaching contract. A distinguishing practice of Clarkson’s is the way he begins each new school year.

“I tell them they will be my students from now on,” he said. “I tell them if they ever need anything that is not immoral, illegal or costs too much, they can count on me.”

Clarkson feels that kids today face more stressful times than those of the past, due to the “much more sophisticated world” and the fact that “they know things they don’t yet have the maturity to deal with.” Many students have taken him up on his promise through the years, and he believes they come to him, “because they know that I am sincere.”

TREA is proud to recognize Clarkson for his generous and committed career as educator. His positive attitude is a shining example of success.

“In my students, I see the future and the future looks good.”

With teachers like Mr. Clarkson guiding the way, it does indeed.

North Hopkins ISD Leads the Pack

North Hopkins ISD joins the small but prestigious group of public schools that provides laptop computers to students. Showing true forward thinking, the school district is an example of outstanding commitment in preparing children for the future technology-driven world.

Not only reducing paper consumption and waste, the program also eliminates the number of items students have to keep track of and streamlines the process of writing class notes, completing class assignments and writing research papers for classes. The computers also contain multimedia software that will be sure to enhance learning and create exciting opportunities for taking presentations beyond the written word to including databases, spreadsheets, photographs, movies and sound.

This practice helps start all children off on a level footing. Those before who did not have computers at home had to rely on other methods to complete work that required a computer. Now the computer is an arm's reach away at all times. Students can complete assignments and papers on their laptops, save it, and print it out at school.

Was the District nervous about trusting the students with such expensive equipment? When researching the idea, Superintendent Tommy Long said there were very few comparable school programs to investigate. Yet, school officials found that a similar program in Maine had very few instances of broken or misused computers. The district chose the seventh through twelfth graders for the computers because of their maturity level. Students signed a clear contract of appropriate use and consequences.

Not only are the students in charge of taking care of their respective computers, three junior students have chosen the added responsibility of computer maintenance and troubleshooting for all the student laptops. Brandon Glosup, Chris Lopez, and Logan Ferguson are getting a jumpstart on their futures by completing an advanced business information systems class, for which they will receive a certificate. These students also took weeks out of their precious summer to set up and prepare the laptops for the start of school.

Benefits of the program seem to go beyond just learning; also creating a feeling of excitement about learning- a valuable return for the district efforts. Government and Economics (and TREA Director) teacher Rob Stanley commented, “Anytime we can get them excited about learning, I think it’s great.”

We think so, too.

For more information regarding the North Hopkins ISD computer initiative, contact Superintendent of Schools Tommy Long – (903) 945-2192 or email tlong@northhopkins.net