🍎 **Attention Hancock County Educators!** 🍎

Join us at the Hancock County Educational Service Center for our upcoming workshop: Readiness Assessments and Assessment Authoring!

Learn how to leverage powerful Readiness Assessments and Assessment Authoring tools to directly inform your instruction and evaluate student understanding.

🗓️ Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2026
📍 Location: Hancock County ESC
⏰ Times (Two Options Available):
• Morning Session: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
• Afternoon Session: 12:00 PM – 2:30 PM

👤 Presenter: Beth Lewis, Education Program Specialist with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
💲 **Cost:** FREE for HCESC members!
💻 Bring a device and be prepared to login to your TIDE/CRS/TDS account - supported work time will be provided

Don't miss out on this great opportunity to enhance your classroom assessment strategies. Reserve your spot today! 👇

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGIf2nyeLwMIn3twodaknnsiwlkQ6O8ijuQU-sShShLXACrQ/viewform?usp=send_form

Transforming collaboration into momentum! 🤝➡️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Over the last two days, our teacher-leader PLC brought together educators across grade levels to co-create our vision for inter-district content and grade-level communities of practice, working with Margaret Searle.

Some themes that guided our discussion and planning:
* Vertical alignment in action
*Powering up assessments
*Learning that sticks, grounded in brain-based research
*Student-centered strategies

We are leaving these two days with strategies to use not only in our classrooms, but also to prepare for inter-district communities of practice meetings. These sessions will bring the collective wisdom of seventy 7-10 grade English language arts, math, and special educators from across all eight Hancock County districts together in November!

📚 Attention K–5 Educators! Ready to transform math conversations in your classroom?! 🔢✨

Join us for a hands-on professional development day with Kristin Hilty, an educator with over 25 years of classroom experience specializing in mathematics and special education! Learn simple, daily number sense routines that build student confidence and deep thinking without adding another complicated program.

🗓️ Date: Thursday, November 5, 2026
📍 Location: Hancock County ESC
📩 Questions: Contact Tammy Kissell at kissellt@hancockesc.org


🕒 Choose Your Session:

* Grades K–2 (Session 1): 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Focus:* Building number, spatial, and geometry sense through ready-to-use routines and engaging activities.


* Grades 3–5 (Session 2):12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
*Focus:* Deepening understanding of whole numbers, fractions, decimals, computation, and mathematical reasoning.


💡 What You’ll Get:

* Easy, ready-to-use daily routines
* Practical strategies that spark rich math talk and strengthen connections

BONUS: Free access for the rest of the school year to all materials on MakingMathMakeSense.org for attending teachers!


💵 **Registration Fees:**
Curriculum Services Member Schools: $45 (Arcadia, Arlington, McComb, Riverdale, Vanlue)
Nonmembers/others: $60

REGISTER TODAY! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3qO7Npt_G7ndDlaQHlfqYqCzofd0Hvxlz_g7vnhn87T3aqw/viewform

Grandparents Day in Ms. Wymer’s class yesterday was a complete success! The room was filled with so many smiles as grandparents joined us for a fun afternoon. They spent time creating some special art projects together and wrapped up the visit with a delicious lunch. A big thank you to all the grandmas and grandpas who came out to make memories with our class! We loved having you! ❤️🍎

Mrs. Tyson’s class put their problem-solving and collaboration skills to the test today with a tricky tarp challenge! Students took turns navigating the grid—stepping left, right, or up to uncover the safe path. To get every single classmate across, they had to watch each move closely, communicate, and work together to eliminate the wrong squares. It was amazing to see them encourage one another and figure it out as a team!

🎃🔨 Learning in action! Ms. Wilson’s students worked on their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination yesterday with a super creative fall activity. Using safety hammers, they carefully hammered golf tees into pumpkins to create their own unique designs!

The Riverdale FFA chapter brought the farm to school for Harvest Day today! Our students got to meet some fantastic farm animals up close and take a scenic hayride around the grounds. A huge thank you to our FFA members for putting together such a great event and sharing the joy of agriculture with everyone. 🐴🐮🍂

Multiple classes had an absolute blast visiting Suter’s Produce! Our students got to pick out their very own pumpkins, test their navigation skills in the corn maze, enjoy cozy hayrides, and burn off some energy in the play area. 🌽✨ It was the perfect autumn day for making memories outside the classroom! A huge thank you to Suter’s Produce for having us!

Yesterday, our young scientists practiced making predictions before putting heat to the test! They placed plastic containers in boiling water for 5 seconds, set them on the counter, and observed how the heat made the plastic super flexible—just flexible enough to shape into adorable ghosts! 👻

Education is an inherently isolated profession. Bringing people together has the biggest impact. ⭐

Jimmy Casas kicked off today's Hancock County ESC Connect, Collaborate, and Culturize event. Jimmy left the nearly 600 Hancock County educators encouraged and inspired to work on ourselves as we create amazing cultures for our students and communities.

Over 70 breakout sessions were led by local and regional educators and community partners. The day wrapped up with time where each of our school building teams reflected and synthesized their learning, determining next steps for their individual schools.

When we work on ourselves, we get results.

Thanks to The Community Foundation for their support of the countywide Culturize initiative and Liberty-Benton Local Schools for their hospitality.

#Collaboration #Connection #Culturize

Mrs. Perkins’ class has been busy learning all about fire safety this week in honor of Fire Prevention Month! 🚒✨ Our students practiced important habits, learned how firefighters keep us safe, and talked about what to do in an emergency. It's never too early to learn how to stay safe! Ask your student what they learned this week, and don't forget to test your smoke detectors at home this month!

Mrs. VanDenEynde’s class put their scientific and math skills to the test this afternoon! Students practiced making hypotheses (educated guesses) and using estimation skills to inspect various leaves up close. 🔍✨

🍂 Check out the fantastic fall creativity in Mrs. Tyson’s class! Our hard-working students have been busy channeling their inner artists to craft some amazing autumn decorations. They put in so much effort to build their scarecrows—and they turned out absolutely adorable! 🎨✨

Mrs. Tyson’s class wrapped up reading The BFG and watched the movie adaptation to compare similarities and differences! 🎬✨ Our students also put their math skills to work by using their own money to buy movie snacks. They practiced the dollar up method to round their totals, make sure they had enough cash, and check for change.

✨ Inspiring the next generation of educators! ✨

Today, the Hancock County Educational Service Center curriculum/ instruction/ leadership team represented K-12 education careers at Raise the Bar’s Career Connections Day!

We challenged students to step into a teacher's shoes with "The 90 Second Spark Challenge" where they taught a skill or shared a passion, sparking curiosity and conversation. 🔥

It was amazing seeing local students light up as they realized that teaching starts with sharing what you love.

Pass it on! Share your spark—teach the world! 🌟

#HancockCountyESC #RaiseTheBar #CareerConnectionsDay #FutureEducators #K12Education #TeachTheWorld #InspireTomorrow

🎶 Ms. Ashley’s class had a special treat this week! 🎶 Miss Lorna stopped by to play music, sing songs, and bring so much joy to our classroom!

Our high schoolers in Ms. Altman's class headed to Suter’s Corn Maze for a day of teamwork and fun! Using their map-reading skills, teams tackled this year’s “A Zoo for You” themed maze—discovering fun animal facts and collecting every stamp along the way. 🗺️🐾

Last Friday, Mrs. Kahle’s class had an absolute blast visiting Challenged Champions Rescuing & Restoring for a day of horseback riding! Before hopping into the saddle, the students spent time grooming and brushing their horses' manes, building a great connection with their four-legged friends. It was a wonderful day full of smiles, hands-on learning, and fresh air.

Mrs. Tyson’s class is bringing the energy for this year's county-wide Can Drive Competition! All of our county schools are going head-to-head to see who can collect the most cans. The school that collects the most will receive a generous donation from Ball!

🍎 Apple-solutely Amazing Week in Ms. Wymer’s Class! 🍏 Our little scientists and chefs spent last week diving into all things apples! From cutting them open to explore the inside and making stamped paint art, to taste-testing different varieties and whipping up our own homemade applesauce (peeling, cooking, mashing, and eating!).