Education

By Tina Sayward

Published: 13 April 2016

The grading scale for schools ordinarily goes from zero to one hundred, with zero being the lowest grade you could score on any assignment. Back when most of us were in middle school, if we didn’t do an assignment or if we got every question wrong on a quiz, we earned a zero. That one zero would drag down our entire average and we would have to struggle to bring it back up just to pass, or drown ourselves in extra credit just praying that it would be enough. The Greenville County School District wants to change that. By establishing a policy with a grading floor of a 61, the lowest grade a student can receive on any assignment or test would be a 61. It is still an F, though falling in the upper range. Even with the grading floor, students would still have to make up the work they failed so that they will learn the required material. According to Derek Lewis, the District 24 representative of the Greenville County School Board, the policy isn’t exactly new. The Board approved the grading scale in 2007. “[It] was designed to allow ample opportunity for a teacher to award a student an F for failing to master a skill, but still provide the student and parents with some opportunities to bring that grade up.”

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By Press Release

Published: 20 January 2016

Steven Brundage, a 2011 Bob Jones University graduate and a DMA piano pedagogy candidate at the University of South Carolina, was recently awarded the American Music Teacher magazine’s Article of the Year Award for 2015 by the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).

Brundage, a resident of Greenville, will be recognized for this top-level honor at the 2016 national conference in San Antonio, Texas, and in the American Music Teacher magazine.

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By Press Release

Published: 11 November 2015

Dr. Katherine Stenholm, 98, director and academic head of Bob Jones University’s Unusual Films since its founding in 1950 until her partial retirement in 1986, passed away last night in Greenville.

Once hailed as the “godmother of religious films,” Stenholm directed 72 films including six feature length films, as well as sermon films, travelogues, documentaries, sacred musical productions, promotional films and educational films during her 36 years at the helm of Unusual Films.

During an era where Hollywood produced few influential women, Unusual Films’ Stenholm ascended as possibly the most influential female filmmaker of the mid-twentieth century. For years, Stenholm was the only woman director who held a membership in the University Film Producers Association (UFPA) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

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By Bob Dill, Publisher

Published: 21 October 2015

Displays Feature Blue Ridge, Travelers Rest and Slater Marietta Sports History

A display of sports history of three northern Greenville County High Schools will be on display at Slater Hall in Slater and open to the public on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of this week. There is no cost for admission.

Thursday hours are from 12:00 Noon until 8 PM. Saturday hours are from 10;00 AM until 4:00 PM. The exhibits will be open to the public from 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM on Sunday. Sunday October 25 will be the last day of the exhibit titled “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shaped America.” The traveling Smithsonian exhibit is funded by the United States Congress. The education materials are supported by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee.

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By Press Release

Published: 07 October 2015

Bob Jones Academy students participating in the various fine arts programs at BJA set off for the first fine arts tour to Washington, DC, in school history. 58 students who participate in art, band, choir, orchestra and speech, along with 10 faculty members and chaperones, participated in the four day trip.

During the tour, students visited the various memorials in DC and several museums. Additionally, they were given tours of the Pentagon, Library of Congress, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Mount Vernon. Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Trey Gowdy spoke with the group and answered numerous questions and Congressman Jeff Duncan gave an “after hours” tour of the Capitol which included a visit to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, prayer in the members’ chapel and culminated with the singing of “Amazing Grace” in the capitol rotunda.

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By Bob Dill, Publisher

Published: 19 August 2015

Shiree Turner Fowler, a kindergarten teacher at Hollis Elementary Academy, has been named the Greenville County Teacher of the Year. Fowler holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and social work from Seattle University and a master’s degree in elementary education from City University in Seattle.

Fowler has been a teacher for 12 years, and has taught at Hollis for the past two years.

Fowler wanted to become a social worker so she could create empowering community-based programs for at-risk youth. Once she began working with youth, she realized that although the children needed the programs, they were in need of something much greater. “To improve their lives, they first needed a quality education,” she said. “I became committed to teaching in Title I Schools, which are schools with at least 40 percent poverty rate, because of my commitment to the young people I worked with.”

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