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Tallassee Elementary School

Empower, Engage, Inspire

About

About

 

ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Tallassee Elementary School is a Title I school, pre-kindergarten through fourth grade facility, currently serving 632 students. The student population is 53% male, 47% female, 63% white, 31% African American, 4% Hispanic, <1% Asian, and <1% Native American.

The faculty is composed of 50 certified members. These include two administrative units, one counselor, a school nurse, one media specialist, and grade level teachers. Faculty resource teachers serve in the areas of special education, technology, library media, and physical education. TES is currently a Title I schoolwide school with two Title I teachers and three Title I aides. Tallassee Elementary Title I status is based on the percentage of the student body qualifying for free/reduced lunch assistance under the U.S. Department of Agriculture standards.

The community is a mixture of manufacturing, service industry, and retail businesses. The religious orientation of the community is varied, including the following houses of worship: African Methodist Episcopal, Assembly of God, Christian Church, Church of Christ, Church of God, Congregational Christian Church, Episcopal, Full Gospel, God’s Congregation, Holiness House of Prayer, Independent Baptist, Independent Methodist, Jehovah’s Witness, Missionary Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Primitive Baptist, Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, and United Methodist.

Tallassee Elementary School consists of 29 homeroom classes. This includes:

  • Four pre-kindergarten classes
  • Six kindergarten classes
  • Six first grade classes
  • Five second grade classes
  • Five third grade classes
  • Five fourth grade classes

There are three certified physical education teachers, one nurse who is stationed at TES, one media specialist, one full-time counselor, one principal, one assistant principal, one administrative assistant, one bookkeeper, one Reading Specialist, two Title I teachers, four special education teachers, one art teacher, one Gifted and Talented teacher, two speech therapists, thirteen instructional assistants, and five lunchroom workers.

In 1998 Tallassee Elementary School became one of the first 16 schools in the state to be selected as a state Literacy Demonstration Site for the Alabama Reading Initiative. All teachers received intense training in Reading/Language Development. While being a Literacy Demonstration Site, TES has concentrated on struggling readers. Struggling students are provided with additional assistance and technology.

The computer lab is used to help these as well as all students with math and reading skills. Students also use computers to take individual assessments for the Accelerated Reading program and Scantron.

Since 2017, STEM has been a large part of our focus at Tallassee Elementary. A state of the art STEM lab was installed for daily use by all age groups to enhance student growth in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and technology. An instructional assistant provides daily instruction in STEM for grades Kindergarten through 4th grade.

Students are on a rotation that allows five days of STEM instruction on a four week cycle along with art, computer, and library.

Students at Tallassee Elementary School provide outreach to the community through participating in the following:

  • Cards provided to the nursing home
  • ACTS food drive
  • Coats for Kids
  • Jump Rope for Heart
  • St. Jude Children’s Hospital Math Marathon
  • Pennies for Patients

 

 

 

School's Purpose

Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students.

Purpose: The purpose of Tallassee Elementary is to lay the foundation in fostering an environment where students are eager to learn.

Motto: Every student matters, every moment counts.

Mission: The mission of the Tallassee Elementary School is to inspire students through quality education to become responsible citizens and leaders of tomorrow.

Areas of Notable Achievements

  • The process of producing a morning broadcast video has provided new opportunities for the students at Tallassee Elementary School. The students have an opportunity to display leadership skills, perform public speaking, and practice using video streaming technology while developing daily announcements. These announcements are recorded and edited in our broadcasting room. The video is uploaded to youtube and then published on a google site. The google site is titled “Tiger News.” The URL for the google site is shared with the faculty and staff within our building, which enables everyone to view our daily broadcast. Our video streaming technology enables the students to be involved in presenting information such as daily updates, events, lunch menu, the pledge, school vision, safety reminders for the pandemic, and the school motto. Video streaming encourages creativity, reinforces reading and comprehension skills, introduces the importance of speech articulation, and creates opportunities for innovative ideas. The students also experience the behind the scenes work in creating a broadcast. They learn how to operate an iPad, record, use a green screen, use a microphone, edit individual clips, copy frames, add media from different sources, incorporate sound and frame transitions. Students look forward to viewing "Tiger News" each morning and look forward to the opportunity to be a part of the “Tiger News” broadcasting team.

  • Alabama College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) are rigorous academic standards that build from kindergarten through 12th grade to support students' preparation and success upon graduation from high school. During the month of November, we celebrate National Career Month.

    Career Day at Tallassee Elementary is a highly-structured Career Awareness activity in which business partners from a variety of companies come together to share information about their company, job, education and skills that are required for success in their career.

    When planning a career day at Tallassee Elementary, students are introduced to the jobs available to ensure that they are College & Career ready. The goal of career day is to introduce students to careers by bringing community members into the school to discuss their jobs. Career Day may encompass the entire student body. Also, students dressed as their favorite occupation for the day.

    College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS) are rigorous academic standards that build from kindergarten through 12th grade to support students' preparation and success upon graduation from high school.

  • Tallassee Elementary School is providing students with an educational opportunity through its new Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) lab. Students are immersed in engineering design skills, coding and computer programming, circuitry and power circuit basics, and robotics. Under the guidance of Mrs. Moore, students are learning the design thinking approach to where they are understanding the problem, creating a solution, and testing their theory.

    While in the STEM lab, students are engineers building structures that require determination and persistence. On occasions, students create circuits that power multiple objects at the same time. When students develop their student driven project, they have a great sense of accomplishment.

    Students of Tallassee Elementary School competed in the Alabama Consortium for Technology and Education for the first time in school history. Furthermore, the TCS district hosted the ACTE Region 8 division of the ACTE Fair at Tallassee High School, on March 7, 2019. Contestants who placed 1st or 2nd in their category at regionals were able to compete at the ACTE State Fair, hosted by Auburn University Montgomery on April 13, 2019. These students' courage, creativity, and dedication to technology has not only paved the way for future participants, but has set the bar for next year’s competitors.

  • Tallassee Elementary has two classrooms through the Office of School Readiness. According to program guidelines, "The First Class Pre-K Program is Alabama's state funded voluntary program for 4-year old children who are residents of the State of Alabama. The program is funded by the Education Trust Fund and the Preschool Development Grant through the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (DECE) Office of School Readiness (OSR). This program provides a notable foundation for students in our community as they prepare to enter Kindergarten. Our First Class Pre-K program is a Region 9 training site for neighboring districts to come and observe to train their teachers.

  • During each nine week period, students are administered a post assessment based on the content that is being covered for the nine week period. Based on this data, teachers use this information to streamline their area of instruction. Also, teachers create a line item analysis for each major assessment to use as an instructional guide. Once the data is collected, teachers meet as a grade level to identify the common trends to readdress in future instruction.

  • In the area of technology, 100% of the classrooms are equipped with a Promethean Board or interactive television. Teachers utilize this instructional tool on a daily basis within each content area. As of the year 2020, we are now a one-to-one school with iPads for each student. This is critical to the need for virtual learning and the enhancement of face-to-face instruction as well. Also, the school has established two mobile Macbook labs to administer assessments and small group instruction. In addition to having iPads and interactive televisions in the classroom, at least 90% of the classrooms have Apple TVs or Air Servers. These devices allow teachers to sync their school issued MacBook or iPad to their interactive white board to demonstrate or share learning. It also opens up the opportunity for students to share their iPad screens as well.

  • At Tallassee Elementary, we encourage parent involvement. Throughout the school year, we host Parent & Family Engagement Nights for each grade level. During this event, parents have an opportunity to get a glimpse of their child's typical school day. Parents are informed of various teaching strategies they can use at home to foster learning at home. During the Make and Take session, parents receive an instructional activity they can utilize at home with their child.

  • The Purple Ambassadors is a 4th grade Honor Society. The ambassadors consist of students maintaining high academic excellence in all areas. This group of students exhibit their academic skills, good character, and willingness to serve others within our community. The purpose of the Purple Ambassadors is to produce lifelong community members. The experience of being a Purple Ambassador should motivate the students to want to do more for others. Purple Ambassadors are a symbol of honor in our school. Several Purple Ambassadors have wanted to be a part of the honor society since Kindergarten. This is a launching pad for a well rounded student who wants to achieve greatness.