State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tommy Bice was in Centre on Friday visiting with Cherokee County Educators during their annual Back to School Institute.

Dr. Bice challenged teachers in the audience to “rethink how school might look” as they prepare to educate a group of schoolchildren more familiar than some of them with even a standard Smartphone.

Bice said that is the job of those in Montgomery to create a positive environment, provide a budget to get the things teachers need to do their work, and then mostly get out of the way.

Bice pointed to Plan 2020—his department’s goal of reaching a 90 percent graduation rate by the year 2020—as one policy that didn’t need years of focus group study for everyone to realize it was a step in the right direction.

During a brief slide presentation, Bice gave examples of unique teaching styles already in place at schools around the state—from tilapia farms and community gardens that teachers in a variety of subjects integrate into their lessons, to after-hours schools established to reduce dropout rates.

Bice encouraged the educators in the audience to try something similar when classes in Cherokee County begin later this week.