This year, 6^th grade students won’t be the only people new to the school.  Fannin County Middle School Principal, Keith Nuckolls will be new, too.  Granted, his eyes won’t be wide-eyed with first day jitters. But, he will be just as excited as the new students about what is possible in this new chapter in life.

Last week, Mr. Nuckolls sat down with Fannin County newspapers to introduce himself to students, parents, teachers and the community.  Mr. Nuckolls has a clear sense of the character and academic ability he wants Fannin children to leave middle school with.  He knows that the success of his vision depends on collaboration among teachers, students and parents and support from the community.  Mr. Nuckolls said that all great schools have community buy-in.  Talking to people around Fannin County, he realized that people here believe we (the Fannin community) are doing something great for kids.

Mr. Nuckolls’ belief is that each child is an individual.  It is a teacher’s responsibility to guide a child’s learning so that the child has pride in that “A-ha” moment, when the connections between different information click and the child has learned something that positively affects the rest of life, not just the scores on state-mandated tests.  He wants children to be who they are and, at the same time, be able to fit into mainstream society.  He thinks that great learning comes from students asking the question why and teachers giving student the freedom and framework for finding out the answers together.

Mr. Nuckolls thinks that parents, children and teachers are all on the same page. “In children’s heart of hearts and in mine, they want to be the best.  Parents want them to be the best. We are all on the same team.  When you are on the same team, great things happen,” says Mr. Nuckolls.  On those unfortunate occasions when parents must visit the school due to an incident with their child, Mr. Nuckolls want them to leave with a better understanding of the situation and all different parts that play into it, not just their child’s part.

In terms of the teachers at the school, Mr. Nuckolls sees himself as the driver of a great machine that already exists.  As such, he wants to grow the school with the direction of the teachers instead of impose it from the top.  One style of teaching he particularly encourages is collaboration between teachers, a style that Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) teaching uses.  STEM teaching techniques use less traditional teaching methods and more individualized teaching methods. Also, STEM teaching familiarizes students with the scientific method: observe, make a question, look for the answer and start again, ever growing the knowledge.  Mr. Nuckolls sees STEM teaching is a great answer to “the bundles of energy waiting to explode” that middle school kids are. STEM teaching is hands-on, active learning, which is a good release for the bundle of energy and grows confident children who are secure in what they know.

He realizes that teaching is only 2/3 of what a teacher does in the classroom.  The other 1/3 is a teacher emotionally connecting with a student so that the student is receptive to learning the information.  He calls this “invisible nurturing”.  Also, the connection gives the teachers a gateway into learning who the student is as an individual and how the individual learns the best.  Mr. Nuckolls also likes his faculty to use education data about learning styles and effective methods. In fact, as a school administrator in Clay County, North Carolina, he implemented the data analysis system for the school.

By now, Mr. Nuckolls has met most of the faculty and he is “exceptionally impressed” by them.  He also thanks former Principal Lori Chastain for the tremendous time she spent teaching him the ropes, not just the rules, of the school.

Mr. Nuckolls has short-, mid- and long-term goals he wants for Fannin County Middle School.  First is changing the school’s mission from “getting children ready for high school” to one that incorporates abilities for all of life, not only high school.  He sees a middle school’s mission as building minds, reasoning, logic and enhancing traditional values.

His mid-term goals, which he believes he can start at the beginning of his second year, is building up the STEM program at the middle school.  He wants students to be able to choose mini-STEM classes in their electives.  He hopes to start a Robotics team at the middle school and enter into state competitions.  This area is not new to Mr. Nuckolls.  In North Carolina, he started the STEM program at his school.

For long-term goals, he wants to see more high school credit classes offered at the middle school.  He gives an example of math.  Right now, the middle school does not offer Algebra I or II.  Only the high school does.  If some middle school students can complete Algebra I and II in middle school, it means that they can study more advanced math in high school, like Calculus I and II.  Fannin County High School Principal Erik Cioffi agrees with the goal.

Then there is that passion that has been with him throughout his life, baseball.  Mr. Nuckolls played college baseball for Piedmont College in Demorest.  When he was in North Carolina he helped coach his high school’s team to the state play offs.  FetchYourNews asked if he had any goal of taking the baseball team to the Little League World Series.  No, he said, but he will make sure that the Fannin baseball players know that they can play anyone anywhere and be confident about competing.

Mr. Nuckolls comes to Fannin County from Clay County, North Carolina where he has over 20 years of teaching and administrative experience. He has been a teacher, Assistant Principal at middle school and high school and a high school Principal.  His wife of 33 years is also a teacher.  They have three children in their 20s.  Mr. Nuckolls and his wife live outside of Young Harris, just over the state line in Weaver, North Carolina.

Mr. Nuckolls sought out a way to work in Fannin County, not the other way around.  During trips passing through Blue Ridge onto another place, Mr. Nuckolls kept saying to his wife, “Blue Ridge is a nice place to live.”  Around 2014, he started looking for a way to become part of the Fannin Community.  He applied for the Middle School Principal position this year and was hired on the recommendation of the Fannin County Middle School’s School Governance Team.