JMCSS students get to view solar eclipse

JACKSON, Tenn. — Students and teachers at Community Montessori on Monday got a break from school for a once-in-a-lifetime view.

Kids lined up and filled the front lawn of the school with their eclipse glasses in hand.

“It’s something that you think you’d never see before, the moon going in front of the sun,” Adrian DeSpain, an 8th grader, said.

They then sat on the front lawn and watched as the moon began to cover the sun. Teachers have been preparing students since school started to see the event.

“We have watched all kinds of really cool YouTube videos and learned all kinds of songs,” Rachel Van Hook, a Lower Elementary Teacher, said. “Mr. Tom Meiners made a really great video that our class watched together a couple of times, so we are prepared for today.”

Other teachers want to help their students relate what’s happening in the world to their own lives.

“So this just seems very easy to just have them experience the eclipse and then have them connect it to anything in astronomy and just talk about the movement of planets and how events like this take place over time, probably more piquing their curiosity,” Bruce Greenway, an eighth grade teacher, said.

Students also had talks at home and came to school prepared to stay safe.

“Do not look at the solar eclipse without the glasses because you will get blind,” Brycen Williams, a second grader, said.

Some students even got creative with how to view the eclipse, using a cereal box instead of the glasses.

There were 14,000 glasses bought for students in Jackson-Madison County schools to view the eclipse.