Ty Ankrom has been a lifelong educator, giving back to Pickaway County where he’s lived his entire life. 

     As superintendent of the Pickaway County ESC since 2007, he has made it a priority to add staff members to the ESC and add programs that help meet the needs of the county school districts. Examples are additional ESL teachers and behavior specialists, increasing preschool services offered, and creating partnerships within the county and with other ESCs. He also was instrumental in working with district superintendents to create Pathways Plus, a program to help at-risk students fulfill graduation requirements. 

     Ankrom has created or expanded partnerships with the Pickaway County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Pickaway County Family & Children First, Pickaway Works, Pickaway-Ross Career & Technology Center, Ohio Christian and Ashland universities and the University of Phoenix.

     Before becoming superintendent of the Pickaway County ESC in 2006, Ankrom was superintendent and CEO for Circleville City Schools, leading that district from 1997 to 2005. 

     How did it get to be April?

     A year ago, we were one month into a lockdown that would upend that school year’s final quarter and create a summer of questions and plans — and revised plans — ­for the 2020-21 school year.

     The weather the first few days of spring were less than pleasant but other signs brought home the fact that we are returning to some normalcy. 

     Vaccine clinics have taken place for most educators in the county and those 16 and older also are now eligible. More students have returned to in-person classes and schools are releasing plans for traditional spring events. 

     An article in Greater Good Magazine this week addressed positive and negative outcomes from the pandemic.

     Personally, I think enjoying the little things will be appreciated more after not having them for a year. As a consummate baseball fan, I can’t wait to get back to a stadium and watch my beloved Cincinnati Reds take the field.

     The article identified social connectedness as having the greatest positive outcome and political conflict as the most negative post-COVID result. 

     The Greater Good Science Center, part of the University of California, Berkley, used the predictions to found the World after COVID project, “a multimedia collection of expert visions for the post-pandemic world, including scientists’ hopes, worries and recommendations.” 

     Check out the full article at https://tinyurl.com/4vydm53h.

     A series in Education Week asked 28 educators, “what is the most important teaching advice that you have either received or given?”

     While I was not among those queried, it did make me think about the tenets that I believe are valuable to anyone in education:  

     I have the privilege in my job of getting to work with and know Pickaway County educators and administrators and I believe that these qualities are embodied by so many in our schools. This has been especially necessary as we navigate a vastly different — and at times, trying — year.

     See the fourth part of the series at https://tinyurl.com/ustpp634 (with links to the previous installments) and ask yourself: What is the most important teaching advice that you have either received or given? And how have you adapted how you do your job during COVID?