I had an enjoyable visit to Crystal River Primary on Wednesday, October, 20, 2010.  Crystal Primary is going through extensive renovation right now.  In the next several weeks  some students will move into newly renovated classrooms and others will move out of temporary class space.  Principal Eddie Speight and the entire CRP Administrative team are doing an amazing job at keeping up with the many challenges this renovation program presents and minimizing its impact on the students.  When completed, CRP will feel much like a new campus with the front of the school relocated to Crystal Street, the same as both the Crystal River Middle School and the Coastal Library.

“Rock Crusher Ready”, was the saying when I visited Rock Crusher Elementary (RCE) on Wednesday, October, 20, 2010.  I always enjoy my visits to RCE and  Wednesday was no exception.  Principal John Weed and I talked about many of the great programs RCE is doing and the positive results so far this year.  Then we went through many of the classrooms to see our students and educators in action.  Outside ,  Mr. James Wellborn and his Reach class were flying specially made airplanes they had been designing and building in class.  After airplanes the class will begin designing and building model rockets to fly.  One of the first things I noticed as I came on campus was the new walking track that was being installed.  The school district applied and receive grant monies to install a walking track at some of the elementary schools in the district.  Schools that did not have the room for the walking tracks had their bus lanes stripped as a walking track.  Many of our elementary schools had after school walking and running clubs and these tracks are a welcome addition.

Related Links

• Crystal River Primary
• Rock Crusher Elementary
• Reach

Comments Off on CRP & RCE 10/20/2010
Filed under: News & Updates

At the 2010 General election November 2^nd, voters in Florida will be voting on Amendment 8, “Revision of the class size requirements for public schools”.  The ballot will officially say:

NO. 8 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ARTICLE IX, SECTION 1 ARTICLE XII, SECTION 31

Revision of the class size requirements for public schools

The Florida Constitution currently limits the maximum number of students assigned to each teacher in public school classrooms in the following grade groupings: for prekindergarten through grade 3, 18 students; for grades 4 through 8, 22 students; and for grades 9 through 12, 25 students. Under this amendment, the current limits on the maximum number of students assigned to each teacher in public school classrooms would become limits on the average number of students assigned per class to each teacher, by specified grade grouping, in each public school. This amendment also adopts new limits on the maximum number of students assigned to each teacher in an individual classroom as follows: for prekindergarten through grade 3, 21 students; for grades 4 through 8, 27 students; and for grades 9 through 12, 30 students. This amendment specifies that class size limits do not apply to virtual classes, requires the Legislature to provide sufficient funds to maintain the average number of students required by this amendment, and schedules these revisions to take effect upon approval by the electors of this state and to operate retroactively to the beginning of the 2010- 2011 school year. YES [ ] or NO [ ]

Personally I will be voting ‘YES’ on Amendment 8. In 2002 I agreed when the Voters of Florida voted for the Classroom Size Amendment because we needed to reduce the number of students in a classroom and bring it to a more manageable number. We have greatly reduced the number of students in a classroom but now ,  in order to meet the classroom level ,  a district must open a new classroom once one new student enrolls in school. As an example,  if the cap is 22 students for third grade and you get a 23rd student  , you must hire another teacher AND provide a new classroom space — all at the taxpayer ‘s expense. In order to meet this requirement, a school might have to add another teacher to the classroom making one classroom with as many as 44 or more students and two teachers. That is not a positive learning environment for our students. The Amendment would give schools and districts more flexibility at the school level to meet the cap on a school average rather then a hard cap.

Research for yourself but consider voting, YES on amendment 8.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Related Links

• Florida Class Size, Amendment 8 (2010)
• Project Vote Smart on Amendment 8

Comments Off on Amendment 8
Filed under: News & Updates

I had an opportunity to observe Ms. Melissa Hardy’s 3^rd grade classroom at Central Ridge Elementary School on Thursday morning.  Ms. Hardy is  using an exciting and fast pasted learning strategy called “Power Teaching” (a.k.a. Brain Teaching).  I was first made aware of it from our Assistant Superintendent Mary Curry at a recent School Board meeting.  Power Teaching is a technique from Power Teachers of America.  Power Teaching/Whole Brain teaching is an instructional approach derived from neurolinguistic descriptions of the functions of the brain’s left and right hemispheres. Neurolinguistic findings about the brain’s language functions show that in the integrated brain, the functions of one hemisphere are immediately available to the other, producing a more balanced use of language. Whole-brain teaching emphasizes active learning, in which the learner makes connections that tap both hemispheres.

Silvia Flores / The Press-Enterprise Fourth-grader Aranza Quito , 10, left, gets a “ten-finger whoo” from classmate Jamie Meneses, 10, right, as positive reinforcement for getting a correct answer during class Wednesday at Urbita Elementary School in San Bernardino.

I was so impressed with the students’ high level of participation, energy, and engagement during the lesson.  I loved how Ms. Hardy would switch from asking students to turn to a partner and “teach” a vocabulary word to, “learn”.  The students would mimic a clap, or voice level or hand motion which Ms. Hardy would use to give her next instruction.  This further kept the students engaged and attentive as they wanted to know what direction to do next.   It was exciting to watch and it was hard not to want to participate as well.  As I observed with 4^th grade teacher Ms. Christina Touchton, we both were impressed with the lesson.  Ms. Hardy further used a Power Point presentation projected o to the video screen in her classroom to provide additional visuals for the students.

I visited Crystal River High School and spent time with Principal Mark McCoy.  We talked about some of the new challenges facing high schools due to recent legislation passed this spring in Florida Senate know as ‘Senate Bill 4’. SB4 now requires that all Florida high school students MUST pass algebra I, geometry, algebra II, biology I, chemistry or physics.  I have grave concerns that public school education is not a “one size fits all” and I worry at a time when we should be expanding our vocational options to high schools that  we are having to instead focus on the expectation that our Legislators believe that all students MUST go on to college.  While that is a wonderful desire,  it is just not a realistic option  for some of our students. CRHS is currently  in the middle of phase one of a large three phase multi year renovation project.  During phase two the center section of the campus will be demolished.  Mr. McCoy spoke about some of the planning and challenges the renovation will bring but safety and security of students and staff was of foremost concern.  When completed, CRHS will be a near fully remodeled more state of the art high school with a an increase of approximately 200+ more students which will greatly help the overcrowding we have at both Lecanto and Inverness High Schools.

Related Links

• Central Ridge Elementary School
• Power Teaching
• Power Teachers of America
• Videos for”power teaching”
• Power Point
• Crystal River High School

1 Comment »
Filed under: News & Updates