ENGINEERING BETTER READERS
Kick-off assembly
2 October 2019
Briceville School in Coal Creek, TN

A PROVEN SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM THAT BASICALLY
BRIBES THE STUDENTS TO READ!

Students read books and pass a comprehension test with their teacher
to earn points to "purchase" prizes.  Their reading and other studies improve!!

Funding for the prizes was provided by CCWF

STUDENT QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Best question a little girl asked of Barry while he was dressed as historic character John Crockett today: 

Why are you wearing a fox on your head?

LOTS OF PICTURES BELOW!!

Why did Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank take time out of her busy schedule to attend Briceville Elementary School’s Engineering Better Readers Assembly today?  It’s because Briceville students are future leaders of the county, state, and Nation.  Inspiring them to become avid readers is how we prepare them for those future roles.   

READ THE EXCERPTS FROM JOHN CROCKETT'S NARRATIVE DURING THE KICK-OFF AS SHOWN BELOW

After opening the curtain to display the prizes students can earn, first-grade teacher Melissa Fleming explained how the program works.  Students read books and pass comprehension tests, for which they are awarded points.  Students save their points to purchase prizes, which include Xbox, Play Station 4, tablets, Nintendo DS, iPods, Legos Minecraft, scooters, and balls.

EXCERPT FROM HISTORY LESSON FOR ENGINEERING BETTER READERS (EBR) KICK-OFF ASSEMBLY AT BRICEVILLE SCHOOL

My name is John Crockett, Davy Crockett’s daddy.  I time-travelled from the past to participate in your Engineering Better Readers assembly two years ago to tell about one of the most pivotal battles of the American Revolution, the Battle of Kings Mountain.  Before Kings Mountain, America’s fight for independence seemed doomed.  After King’s Mountain, all American patriots knew we would succeed.

My brother Walter is joining me here today.  We fought at Kings Mountain with the Overmountain Men of Tennessee under the leadership of Col. Isaac Shelby.  Today, I will tell you the rest of the Isaac Shelby story and how Tennessee’s most populated county came to be named to honor his many achievements.  He was one of the many patriots of Welsh ancestry who took a leadership role in the development of this country

After the American Revolution, Col. Shelby moved to Kentucky to pursue his career as a surveyor.  He became a leader, helping Kentucky gain statehood, and serving as the state’s first governor in 1792.  In that position, he helped organize an effective and efficient government.

After leaving government, Shelby lived a peaceful life on his farm, pursuing his surveying career until 1812, when the United States went to war with the British in the War of 1812.  Because of his war experience during the American Revolution, citizens of Kentucky convinced Shelby to once again run for governor, which he did and won. 

Allied with the British and fighting against the United States was the Shawnee Indian Nation led by its legendary war chief, Tecumseh.  William Henry Harrison, who would later become the 9^th president of the United States, was selected to lead militias from Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois to fight the British and Shawnees in the northwestern theater of the war. 

General Harrison sent word to Governor Shelby asking him to raise 1,200 Kentucky volunteers for the army, which Shelby did.  Sadly, many of those volunteers were massacred at the Battle of the River Raisin in Michigan where they were scalped by the Shawnees. 

General Harrison then asked Governor Shelby to raise yet another 1,200 volunteers, but with a different twist.  In his letter, General Harrison suggested, “To make this last effort, why not, my dear sir, come in person.” 

Governor Shelby then drafted a call to arms to his fellow Kentuckians, which said, “Believing as I do, that the ardor and patriotism of my countrymen has not abated, I have appointed the 31^st day of August next, at Newport, for a general rendezvous of Kentucky Volunteers.  I will meet you there in person.  I will lead you to the field of battle, and share with you the dangers and honors of the campaign.” 

Instead of the 1,200 volunteers requested by General Harrison, Governor Shelby led an army of 3,500 Kentucky volunteers.  At the Battle of the Thames in Canada, Shelby and his army destroyed the army of British soldiers and Shawnee warriors, killing the great war chief Tecumseh in the process.  For his service to his country, Governor Shelby was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.         

Tennessee also had its hero of the War of 1812 when General Andrew Jackson and his Tennessee Volunteers defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans. 

In 1818, President James Monroe suggested that the United States offer to purchase the land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers in West Tennessee and West Kentucky from the Chickasaw Indian Nation.  Native Americans respected great warriors, so President Monroe recruited the two greatest warriors of that day to represent the U.S. in those negotiations, Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson.    

Shelby and Jackson negotiated for the United States the purchase of the western parts of Kentucky and Tennessee from the Chickasaw Indians and that’s how the most populated county in Tennessee, Shelby County, came to be named in honor of Isaac Shelby.  Another one of the counties of West Tennessee was later named Crockett in honor of my boy Davy who fought and died in 1836 at the Alamo when Texas was fighting for its independence from Mexico.

Things are different today.  We no longer fight the Shawnees for they, too, are citizens of the United States.  Today, many people consider our Navy Seals to be our greatest warriors.  The creed, or set of shared beliefs, of the Navy Seals honors a great warrior of the past—not Jackson or Shelby or Crockett, but Tecumseh.  Tecumseh wrote a creed for the Shawnee Nation, which is now the creed of the Navy Seals.  It’s called Tecumseh’s Song of Death, but it’s really a song of how to live your life.  It says:

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

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