Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Teressa Mick, director of Hood County's new Trinity School, is excited for the upcoming open houses set for Sunday, July 16, and Monday, July 17.
Throughout all her years of teaching, Teressa Mick had never planned on opening her own private school in Granbury.
But one day, she received a calling from God that she just couldn’t ignore.
“It’s been on my mind for about a year or so, but really heavily towards the end of this school year,” she said. “I just really felt like God led me to do it, that (he said) ‘This is what I want you to do.’”
For the past 30 years, Mick has been teaching in some shape or form — from operating a preschool and daycare out of her home to serving as a teacher for local homeschool co-ops.
With a total of 45,000 hours in childcare, training, and management, teaching is both a passion and career that Mick said she feels is ingrained in her for life.
"Since I was 12 years old, I’ve always found some way to teach kids,” she said. “I tried to get out of it and bought a store on the square, but I just paid attention to the kids that came in. You just see the light and life in them, and the excitement that they wrote their name. You can get excited with them. Teaching is just in my soul.”
This past year, Mick said she felt that there was a need for more Christian-oriented schools in Hood County — so she took matters into her own hands.
THE TRINITY SCHOOL
On Tuesday, Aug. 15, The Trinity School will officially open its doors at 983 Whitehead Dr. (one block south of Sonic off Highway 377).
The Trinity School is a part-time Christian-based private school that will serve children in pre-K through eighth grade.
Unlike a public school, The Trinity School will operate on a three-day schedule from Tuesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“They can opt for work on Monday and Fridays — not at school, but at home — and I'll give them assignments to do at home,” Mick explained. “Or they can use that time to do their own field trips, or just be at home. It depends on what grade level they're in.”
There will also be an extended one-hour option from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily for childcare or homework help as needed.
"Two days a week, we will offer basic gymnastics, and basic theater from that 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. hour, as well, for an additional extracurricular option," Mick said. “They can still do 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. for childcare, but if they want to do theater or gymnastics, that's extra from their tuition.”
DAY IN THE LIFE
Mick said The Trinity School will operate just like a regular school, except with Bible study and a chapel.
“They'll come to school, have all-school chapel, and then they'll break into their grade levels,” she explained. “Then, each grade level will have a designated Bible class time that we'll go back and pick up from what that base chapel was. In the younger grades, history will be part of their Bible study, because they'll start from the beginning and talk about God's creation, so that's part of history.”
SUBJECTS
According to the website, the goal at The Trinity School is for each child to have an educational experience that’s uniquely tailored and aligned to ensure student success at every level.
The following lists how each subject will be taught at The Trinity School, as pulled from thetrinityschool.net website.
Writing: Students develop writing skills through multi-sensory, play-based instruction. Students move, touch, feel, and manipulate real objects as they learn correct habits and skills essential for fluid writing.
Reading: Reading begins with phonemic awareness activities, phonics, sight words, and vocabulary development. The curriculum combines grammar, spelling, vocabulary, writing, and handwriting instruction.
Science/STEM: Experiments will be brought to life with hands on engagements that ignite a student’s passion for Science/STEM.
Math: The math curriculum is a complete, skill-based, multi-sensory mastery curriculum for grades K-12. As grades are added, students will continue building on the skills they have already mastered.
History/Bible: History curriculum for beginning grades coincides with the Bible. These two subjects will be combined and will start at the beginning.
“All of our curriculum is Bible-infused,” Mick explained. “I think what's going to set (The Trinity School) apart is that it is Christian-infused. It's a true Christian school — not just a name."
She said that another unique aspect of the school is its focus on hands-on learning and small group instruction.
“The teacher will do the lesson, and then they'll do a lot of hands-on themselves,” Mick explained. “You might be working on single digit addition, but then you might have a group of three kids over here playing this game where they have to do addition too, rather than a worksheet. I always try to find fun ways for them to learn things and games to play where they don't feel like they're at school, but they're still learning something. That's my goal — to make it a fun learning experience, where they are still learning, growing, and meeting their needs, but yet, they're having a good time.”
ENROLLMENT
The Trinity School will have open enrollment all year for kids ages three to eighth grade, with a cap of 10 students per grade level to continue the school’s goal of small group instruction.
Originally, Mick was only going to offer enrollment for children ages three to third grade. However, with a growing interest and need from the community, she has decided to expand the school’s coverage area to include an eighth-grade cutoff.
"When we started out, we were going to do pre-K, three-year-olds, up until the third grade because third grade is a good breaking point,” she explained. “But then, we've had people inquire about ‘Well, I have a first grader and a fifth grader,’ and we're like, ‘Well, we could go up through sixth grade; that's another good breaking point,’ but then we started getting all these people that have an eighth grader. I don't want to cut people off that need a school for their children when we can provide that, so for now, we are capping it at eighth grade, so we may, at some point, go from ninth grade to 12.”
OPEN HOUSES
The Trinity School will host three open houses to try to accommodate everyone’s availability:
⦁ Sunday, July 16 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
⦁ Monday, July 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
⦁ Monday, July 17 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
“We'll have it all set up,” Mick said. “We'll have our classes set up, we'll have the curriculum setup where they can see what curriculum their student will be using, and then the facility will be ready for them to see what a (regular) day would look like.”
Meet the Teacher will be held on Monday, Aug. 14, while the doors will officially open for The Trinity School on Tuesday, Aug. 15.
“I just love meeting all the kids.,” Mick added. “They'll all be so excited, and it's going to be fun to see them. Some of them will be a little scared, but it's going to be fun to talk to them and reassure them."
To register for The Trinity School, visit thetrinityschool.net online. For more information, call 682-804-8127 or email trinitygranbury@gmail.com.
