Meet Our Teachers

Did you know that our STEM Coordinator and Literacy Coach are 100% funded by the Oak Grove Foundation?
This would not be possible without parent and community donations.

Kendall Xides

STEM Coordinator & Garden Teacher

Stacy Welch

Literacy Coach
Kendall Xides is OGE's STEM Coordinator. She has taught at OGE for the past 7 years, funded by the Oak Grove Foundation, and is a former OGE parent! She leads students in every grade at OGE in special STEM projects.
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2021-2022 Highlights:
  • Ms. Xides was the Georgia Department of Natural Resources 2021/22 Conservation Teacher of the Year 
  • Created and maintains OGE's garden which serves as an outdoor classroom where students learn about bumble bees, food production, irrigation and much more
  • Rehabilitated and  rededicated OGE's Birdsong Nature Trail in the spring of 2022 
  • Created OGE's first Lantern Parade where students worked with Ms. Deery to create their own lanterns 
  • Led school wide efforts in The Great Georgia Pollinator Count 
  • Updates OGE's StoryWalk on The Beat enjoyed by students and members of the community 
  • Planted radishes, strawberries, daffodils and more in the OGE garden
  • FOLLOW Ms. Xides @oge.quercus on Instagram
Stacy Welch is the literacy coach at OGE. She has 34 years of experience in elementary teaching and leadership. She is formally trained (twice) in Orton-Gillingham methods, recipient of Teacher of the Year (twice) and has been teaching at Oak Grove for the past 20 years, 9 of those years as the literacy coach funded by the Oak Grove Foundation.

2021-2022 Highlights:
  • ​Works with teachers and students to assess and identify literacy needs in the K-2nd grades 
  • Tested every K-2 student during the first week of school and then began tutorials. After a year of virtual learning in 2020-2021, she had her work cut out for her. 
  • Used multisensory and tactile methods, like play dough, “see-pop/say,” Elkonin boxes, and whisper phones to enhance learning 
  • Reader’s theater of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “The Very Grumpy Bear” performed to classmates and grade levels to increase fluency skills 
  • Reading clubs 
  • Fluency graphs and other tools to increase reading words per minute and report progress to parents 
  • “Pushing in” to each of the 1st grade classes to support student’s learning about the writing process, and working with the whole class to facilitate an Author’s Tea for parents to observe the student’s published pieces