Times are changing, and Tipton County Schools seem to be doing a good job of keeping up. 

With our culture becoming more and more technologically advanced, we’re presented with a wealth of opportunities to do things in new and different ways. Few aspects of our everyday lives go unaffected by these advances, and in a lot of ways our lives are made better for them.

The education of our county’s children is no exception. The Tipton County School Board has long been brainstorming ways to utilize up-and-coming technological advances in the classroom, with a lot of careful discussion about the pros and cons of different resources and what it would take to implement them.

The board has been discussing the use of cell phones in the classroom for a while now, and they’ve been careful to cover their bases regarding how those policies would affect the quality of education. This week, though, as any Tipton County student could tell you, it’s once again time for TCAP testing, and that’s shifted the technological focus of the board for a bit.

This year, grades 8 and 11 of Tipton County Schools are taking the writing portion of the test online over the next week. It’s been a big undertaking, but the school board and faculties of each school have been working hard to ensure its success.

When I spoke with him this afternoon, Director of Instruction Dr. John Combs sounded pleased with the way things went for their first day using the new testing procedures, which was today. He reported that the technology department and the testing administrators as well as the faculties of each school have all done well in preparing for the eventful testing year, and – knock-on-wood – there have been no major problems yet.

I’ll have more details about the new testing procedures in this week’s paper, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, best of luck to all the students taking the TCAP this week, and to all those administering it!