Jackson-Madison Co. students head back to school

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — Friday was the first day of school in Jackson-Madison County, and students were up bright and early to meet their teachers, like Charlotte Jackson, who teaches sixth grade language arts at North Parkway Middle School.

“We want to get started. We want to get in there,” Jackson said.

This is Jackson’s first year at North Parkway, and she said she was just as nervous as the students. 

“I didn’t think I knew anyone. Come to find out, when I got there, I knew several teachers that were there,” she said.

She encourages her students that they will find people they know at school. “Once they get here and they realize that they do have friends that came with them to the same place, they do have somebody that they know,” she said. 

In her first-period class, Jackson is getting to know her students and finding out what they look forward to learning this year.

She says she has never used LearnZoom before, but has had lots of training on it. She says the new curriculum really challenges the students.

“Across the entire county, we are all teaching the same thing at the same time, and so it makes it super easy for the kids that have to move in the middle of the year on one side of town to the other,” she said.

Since she and her students are new to North Parkway, she wants them to all feel welcomed.

“I want the kids to know that from the moment they walked into my classroom this morning, they’re my kids. I loved them from the moment they stepped in the door,” Jackson said.

Friday was only a half day for the students. Their first full day will be Monday.