New school year, new class, but same results on 'Roll Call'

Grassy Pond Elementary teacher Terri Bridges has a new group of students, but continues to have the most popular extension on "Roll Call," the Gaffney Ledger's talking newspaper. A $50 check from Roll Call has become an annual rite of passage for Grassy Pond Elementary fifth grade teacher Terri Bridges' class.

Bridges' class received a $50 check from The Gaffney Ledger every month last school year and has won the incentive most months since 2003 when the newspaper began rewarding the teacher with the most popular extension on "Roll Call." This year's class continued Bridges' uncanny streak with 800 calls to her extension in September.

Overall, "Roll Call," The Ledger's talking newspaper received a total of 6,846 calls last month.

How does Bridges win the Roll Call incentive so much? This question has been asked by other county teachers and has been answered by Bridges in the exact same way for four years.

"I'm still doing the same exact thing," Bridges said. "I put a math word problem on my extension each week and give students clues to use in solving the problems." Students with the right

answer to the math word problem receive a treat each Friday. Math problems are one of

several uses Bridges has found for "Roll Call" since she began using the newspaper's school information line.

"It helps the students out a lot," Bridges said. "It's hard to get students excited about solving math problems sometimes, but students do get excited when it's on 'Roll Call.' Their parents will sit down at home with the students and help them write down the information to solve the math problems."

Bridges was one of several teachers who had a high call volume on "Roll Call" in September.

Grassy Pond Elementary gifted and talented teacher Charlene Key received 314 calls while Donna Childers had 296 calls on their "Roll Call" extensions.

Northwest Elementary kindergarten teacher Lori Hardin had 193 calls on her extension number.

"Roll Call" allows parents and students to dial 489-0060 and get specific information about homework, school lunch menus, yearbook photos and other special announcements. Each teacher has their own extension number that can be called 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A list of all extensions is published each Monday in The Gaffney Ledger.