Schools of the Week: Longview Elementary, Woodland Middle

Published February 8, 2022

The Schools of the Week spotlight is shining on Longview Elementary and Woodland Middle. We asked the principals of both schools to share a few things that make their schools special.

Longview Elementary

• LVES opened in 2007.
• Longview Elementary the largest elementary school in Williamson County, housing approximately 1,150 students, faculty and staff.
• LVES earned Reward School status in 2013-14, 2014-15, 2017-18 and 2020-21.

Waves were the name of the game in Longview Elementary second grade teacher Kara Pickerill's class Thursday, February 3.

The Science Guy visited Pickerill's class for their in-house field trip, and students learned about water waves, heat waves, sound waves and light waves with a variety of fun games and activities.

"We did some cool experiments," said LVES second-grader Carmen York. "We used a parachute, lasers and other things to learn about the different kinds of waves. It was all really fun."

Woodland Middle 

• Woodland Middle Assistant Principal Dr. Bill Toungette has been at the school since it opened in 1994.
• More than 28 countries or nationalities are represented in the WMS student body.
• Woodland Middle is a pilot middle school for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center.

Woodland Middle science teacher Morgan Stewart found a tasty way to teach her class about tectonic plates.

Using whipped cream, graham crackers and a bit of wax paper, students learned about convergent, divergent and subduction, which are all different kinds of collisions between tectonic plates.

"These young scientists are studying the Theory of Plate Tectonics and the shifting of Earth's plates," said Stewart. "They were able to move the graham crackers in the same way and see how Earth's features, like valleys, mountains and volcanoes, are formed. At the end of the lab, students were able to enjoy a tasty tectonic treat."