Archive for News & Updates

October 2011 Regular Board Meeting Review

Posted on October 19th, 2011 by

October 2011 Regular Board Meeting Review

Not all Board meetings are alike.

Not all Board meetings are alike. That was my thoughts as we finished the regular Board meeting on October 11th, 2011.

After the opening exercise by Board Member Linda Powers, we had several presentations.  The first was a Presentation by the Nature Coast 9/12 out of Springs Hill, Florida.  I encourage you to read my separate blog on this presentation.

Our next presentation was to give directions to “Staff” on how to proceed with improving the vehicle circulation at Inverness Middle School during the entrance and exiting processes. After reviewing four options the Board voted not to spend any significant funds at this time. Instead we will spend a limited amount of funds on installing a gate and signage.  The school administrators and Board felt that by doing this we will be able to test the proposed options to see if they would really improve traffic control without spending the funds and later finding out whatever was spent on change didn’t work.  Look for a gate at the end of Middle School Drive in the not too distant future.  The gate will only be closed during specified periods.

Next the Board approved a Proclamation for Red Ribbon Week October 23rd -29th, 2011.  Representative from Partners for a Substance-Free Citrus were on hand to accept the proclamation.  Visit their web site www.SubstanceFreeCitrus.com to learn more.

The last presentation was the Insurance Committee’s recommendation for the 2012 Health Insurance Rate Structure. If you have any questions regarding this matter please feel free to contact me directly and I would be happy to listen and share with you.

The Board also approved to Adopt/Amend the district school board member residence areas/districts as required by Florida Statue 1001.36.  This identifies the districts/areas where board members must live in order to run for a specific school board seat.  This is part of the whole state wide re-districting that is going on.  Only a few minor amendments were made in Citrus County.  The largest change was in my own district in the Pine Ridge area although it did not affect me.  In addition to the recommended, Florida Statue amendments also prohibit making changes in a district that would “un-seat” a sitting elected official.

Salary schedules for Administrative, Non-Union Support, Professional Technical and Teamsters Support and Professionals were approved.

Our next board meeting, which will be a Special Meeting and Workshop, is scheduled for October 25th, 2011 beginning at 9:00am. (Click here for the agenda)

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EdCamp Citrus 2011 Recap

Posted on October 19th, 2011 by

EdCamp Citrus 2011 Recap

“To be a Geek or Not be a Geek…”

EdCamp is a new grassroots movement happening all around the United States.  EdCamp Citrus started in 2010 by Educational Technology Specialist Jerry Swiatek.  The goal of Edcamp Citrus is to bring educators together to discuss technology that works in the educational system. It’s a conference for educators, by educators, and the participators are those that give presentations of technology at the event.

The opening presenter was Silvia Tolisano (http://www.langwitches.org/blog).  I first learned about Ms Tolisano by reading a blog posted on Larry Ferlazzo’s site (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/).  I then shared what I had read with EdCamp Coordinator, Jerry Swiatek. Jerry responded to me with the following, “Thanks for this. Langwitches (Silvia Tolisano) is going to be at EdCamp Citrus 2011.”  Needless to say, I was VERY excited about both the planned education session and of the opportunity to meet her.  Ms. Tolisano is a wealth of knowledge, and I encourage educators to visit her blog.

I not only attended, but loved the conference, because not only was I in “Geek Educational Heaven” but it was great for educators that are generally so busy with their day to day work and activities that they often times don’t have an opportunity to sit down and learn, collaborate, and fellowship together about the technologies used in our schools and with our students.

I attended the following sessions:

Session #1

Enhancing Learning using Multi-Sensory Techniques – Handwriting, Reading and Letter Sounds by IPS’s own Jackie Howard.

Session #2

Twitter is Terrific for Educators (Susan Bearden and Cybraryman- www.cybraryman.com)

While I do twitter a little, I learned more about how to get the most out of it.  Susan and Cybraryman taught how to use Twitter to expand your Personal Learning Networks (PLN).  They explained that when you first start using the PLN system, might have a group of 10 colleagues in your Networks.  Over time, from attending conferences, and district meetings, that number might grow to around 100 PLN email contacts.  Added to that, if you’re on Facebook, your list of contacts might even grow to 100s of people on your PLN.  But with Twitter you can have 1000s of potential PLN contacts in a matter of minutes.  That gives you 1000s of teachers that have often struggled with whatever challenges or ideas in the classroom you have dealt with also.  This could possibly give you the potential for collaboration and brainstorming together for possible solutions.

Session #3

Building your own PLN – Personal learning network (Silvia Tolisano @langwitches)

This was one of my favorite sessions because I had the opportunity to hear Ms. Tolisano speak about how to use technology to expand the classroom.  She talked about “CSI Twitter” where students use their iPhones and SmartPhones to explore and take pictures of “natural evidence”.  For example, they can take pictures with their “smart phones” of sticks, bugs, vegetation, etc. that they find around their campus.  They can then use the photos to demonstrate a collection of evidence for specific projects or other types of school assignments.  In one case they found a bone and used the iPhone’s camera to send the picture to a University where the university students helped the high schools identify the specimen.  She shared that when students, and/or teachers, use Twitter to communicate, people at the other end don’t’ necessarily know if the originators are young, older, male, female, ESE, or handicapped, etc.  Using the PLN system helps to put learning on a more even playing field.

What a great day! From the free breakfast and free lunch to the giveaways and interesting sessions, it was non stop fun and learning

Plans are already beginning for EdCamp 2012 so look for it and plan to attend.

Web Sites Shared at EdCamp:

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Former Crystal River Graduate Honored by President of U.S.

Posted on October 13th, 2011 by

“Over 20 years ago before I had even started dating my wife,  I kept hearing from my close friend, Tim Stuart, about this amazing Crystal River Middle School student of his who was so smart that he would talk to him about ‘Quantum Physics‘.  That student’s name, Ben Lev.” ~Thomas

Former Crystal River Graduate Honored by President Obama

Obama names Stanford physicist Benjamin Lev for honor

(Click here to also read Citrus Chronicle Story By Cathy Kapulka)

Benjamin Lev, who studies the behavior of quantum matter, will attend an Oct. 14 awards ceremony in Washington D.C. for early-career scientists.

President Obama on Monday named Benjamin Lev, an assistant professor in applied physics at Stanford, as a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. It is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.

Lev will be among the 94 researchers to be honored by Obama at an Oct. 14 ceremony at the White House. Those awarded were selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology, and their commitment to community service.

The awards are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the executive office of the president. Sixteen federal departments and agencies join together to nominate the most promising scientists and engineers.

Lev received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2008. The new honor follows his significant breakthroughs in physics.

Last year, Lev also received an $875,000 Packard Fellowship for his work. He said his work attempts to understand the behavior of quantum matter. “I want to create new forms of quantum matter and study their properties in novel ways,” he said. “This can then lead to better intuition about how materials such as high temperature superconductors behave.”

To create these new forms of matter, Lev and his group of researchers used lasers to cool an exotic gas made of highly magnetic dysprosium atoms.

“It was long thought impossible to cool them with lasers, but we found a way do that,” Lev said. They eventually chilled the atoms to “a billionth of a degree above absolute zero – one of the coldest objects in the universe.”

Lev and his group also created a “first-one-of-its-kind” quantum matter wave of these dysprosium atoms – another feat that was considered impossible before the breakthrough.

The implications of his research are powerful: “It could revolutionize the power grid or lead to quantum computers, but that’s all very far-off at this point,” he said.

Lev received his PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 2005, and joined the Stanford faculty earlier this month from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

(source: https://news.slac.stanford.edu/features/obama-names-stanford-physicist-benjamin-lev-honor)

Media Contact
Benjamin Lev, Physics: (626) 676-5529, benlev@stanford.edu
Cynthia Haven, Stanford News Service: (650) 724-6184, cynthia.haven@stanford.edu

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Blessings Meals Project was a big success!

Posted on October 10th, 2011 by

Blessings Meals Project was a big success!

If your bellies were full last Friday from the Inverness Kiwanis’s Fundraiser for “Blessings in a Backpack”, I thank you! Blessings sold 883 chicken box lunches on Friday, and that was as I understand, every meal that they made.  That exceeds last year’s sales by over 50 meals.  The total raised is enough money to feed 88 kids on the weekends for a year!!

We must thank the Inverness Kiwanis as they did another absolutely amazing job for Blessings!

If you weren’t able to order a meal and/or still want to help, here is a suggestion.  Peanut Butter, Jelly and milk are the most expensive items on Blessings menu for the kids, therefore; Blessings is always in need of more peanut butter, jelly and milk (Parmalat).  Other examples of the most used food items are on the website (www.citruscountyblessings.com/donatefood.html), or if you prefer, you can make donation of money by visiting www.citruscountyblessings.com/donate.html

Thanks for all you help!

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Speaking to Teens at “Teen Court”

Posted on October 10th, 2011 by

Speaking to Teens at “Teen Court”

I had the honor of being asked to speak to the teens at Teen Court last Tuesday.  For those that are not aware Teen Court allows first-time offenders between the ages of 12 and 17 who have committed misdemeanor or felony offenses the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions.  Sanctions are imposed by “teen juries”, former offenders, who are in the program.  The sanctions imposed include community services and jury duty, remedial classes, and essays. Additional sanctions may also include restitution, apology, curfew, anger management classes, no association with codefendants, random drug/alcohol screenings and random substance abuse evaluations. Teens must also attend school regularly and obey rules both in school and at home. All sanctions given must be completed within 3 months.  Some of the types of cases heard in Teen Court include vandalism; drug or alcohol possession, trespassing, interfering with school functions, driving with no or suspended license, burglary, and battery.

Since many of the teens are students with learning challenges, I wanted to share with them my own learning challenges and some of the strategies I have used to help me along life’s path.  I began by telling about my work experience in both real estate and construction prior to becoming a School Board Member.  I wanted to share with them some of the details regarding my career path, so they could then understand some of the challenges that had to be dealt with during that time.   I then shared with them what was required while serving as a School Board Member and what School Boards actually do in support of the Educational Systems in Citrus County.  Next on my agenda, I took a sharp turn to explain that none of that might be greatly impressive to them, but might be more interesting if they knew I did it while being a severe dyslexic.  (Click here to read “Talk to Teen Court” – October 4th, 2011)

I was given the opportunity to stay afterwards for the court proceedings.  The Teen Court Judge that evening was a very impressive current State’s Attorney Prosecutor.  The “Prosecuting Attorney” and the “Defendant’s Attorney” are Student Volunteers.  While I would love to be able to share with you the details of the cases and the opportunity I was given to go back and be a standby while the jury deliberated, legally I can’t.  The reason is because we all took an important “Confidentiality Oath‎”.

I was captivated with the Teen Court system, Court Officers, Volunteers, and the Teen Court Coordinator – Anita Morris.   Most especially I was impressed by the “Teens”, themselves.

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School Improvement Plan Site Reviews

Posted on October 7th, 2011 by

School Improvement Plan Site Reviews

Same topics, different chair.

The last two weeks I have been spending time with District Directors, School Administrative teams and SAEC Chairpersons on the School Improvement Plan Site Reviews. Each year our district has these school stakeholders and their assigned School Board members meet to review their school’s improvement plan.

What is a School Improvement Plan? “School improvement planning is the process schools use to ensure that all students achieve at high levels. The continuous school improvement planning process is the course of action employed to coordinate and prioritize all the work of the school in the context of increasing student success. A school improvement plan (SIP) serves as a blueprint for the course of action needed to produce school improvement and directs this process. An effective school improvement plan process allows Florida schools to develop a strategic and continuous plan that focuses on quality education and high levels of student achievement. Section 1001.42(18)(a), Florida Statutes (F.S.), requires that districts “annually approve and require implementation of a school improvement plan for each school in the district. The school improvement plan shall be designed to achieve the state education priorities pursuant to S. 1000.03(5), F.S. Each plan shall address student achievement goals and strategies based on state and school district proficiency standards.”  (Source: http://www.flbsi.org/word/2011-2012_SIP_TAP_Final.docx)

It was exciting for me to be a part of this as it wasn’t that long ago that I was on the other side of the table. In fact, in 2006 at Citrus Springs Elementary School it was its principal at the time, Ms. Trish Douglas, Carol Mainor, the Elementary Education Director, and myself in the same room talking about the SIP.

Attending and participating in these reviews provides me as a Board Member an opportunity to have the schools share what strategies they are using at their school to educate our students. It also gives me as a Board Member an opportunity to ask what is working and what isn’t with our students. In particular, with another challenging budget year coming for 2012-2013, this can be an excellent chance for Administrative teams to show us what is working and what is becoming a challenge.

Some of the impressive parts of my visits were seeing the “Data Rooms” where often the Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) conduct the “Data Days”. These are the days set aside for teaching teams to review student performance data, share best practices, and review as a team what is working and what isn’t.

Thank you to the students, parents, teachers, staff, principals & administrative teams for all the other work performed in research, participation, developing and writing these SIPs, and for your work done every day to make ALL our Elementary and Middle Schools into “A” schools. (High school grades have not been released yet.)

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