Commercial Bank, FMC provide iPads to local teacher

Published 12:26 pm Wednesday, October 4, 2017

A friendly Facebook ‘feud’ between Commercial Bank and Family Medical Clinic of Harrogate (FMC) ended with a local teacher receiving five new iPads for classroom use. On the afternoon of Sept. 26, Adam Robertson, president of Commercial Bank, awarded three iPads to Kayla Covington, a second grade teacher at Ellen Myers Primary School and Janet Zachary, District Reading Coach for Claiborne County Schools.

After donating the iPads, Robertson verbally challenged Family Medical Clinic of Harrogate to provide Covington with two additional iPads to fulfill her classroom wish list. Covington had posted a fundraiser on Donorschoose.org for iPads for her classroom, stating that “placing iPads in the hands of (Covington’s) students will foster creative learning and enable them to form a better understanding of the world around them.”

Covington elaborated on donorschoose.org about why she wanted the iPads.

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“In my classroom, technology for students is limited. Providing students with iPads will open up many learning opportunities by allowing students to drive their learning through problem-solving. When technology is integrated into the classroom, students can create projects, increase literacy fluency, and create a classroom environment that individualizes learning for each child,” she wrote. “Placing iPads in the hands of my students will foster creative learning and enable them to form a better understanding of the world around them. For example, iPads can allow students to flip their learning and make learning tangible through apps such as Osmo. Students will also improve their learning by accessing differentiated lessons to reinforce skills through Google Classroom lessons and teacher videos.”

Family Medical Clinic of Harrogate accepted the challenge from Commercial Bank and responded the next morning by presenting the three iPads and an Apple TV to Covington and Zachary. In addition, Dr. John Michael Robertson provided Zachary an iPad for her important role with all the schools in the county. FMC continued the friendly challenge by asking Stanifer Drugs, Minton Family Dental Care, Covenant Health of East Tennessee and Claiborne Medical Center to donate money to either Cumberland Gap High School Band or the Claiborne High School Marching Band, which is currently hosting a fundraiser on Snap! (app.snap-raise.com) for its first field show competition, new instruments and equipment, competition/travel fees, etc.

At press time, Stanifer Drugs and Minton Family Dental Care had answered the challenge by making donations.

Adam Robertson of Commercial Bank said the Facebook challenge to FMC was “all in fun.” He added, “We (Commercial Bank) are committed to all of the communities we serve. We believe in helping local schools and businesses be a successful as possible, and we are thrilled to have a small part in helping challenge, teach, and grow the young minds in Ms. Covington’s class in Ellen Myers.” Dr. George Day from FMC added, “Ms. Covington and Mrs. Zachary are most deserving and we are honored that Commercial Bank included us in this challenge to help our local schools. We hope that other businesses and entities in the area will accept the challenge to help our local schools as well.”