It Must Be May

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…”

This is almost more enjoyment than one person should have.  I love this time of the school year.  With May begins Speech contests, Orientations, Talent Shows, and Banquets only to be followed shortly behind with Senior Scholarship Awards and High School Graduations.

Last week began the May madness, but let me be clear it is a good kind of madness.

Tropicana Speech Contest

This is one of my favorite events that I can be a small part of.  On Tuesday, School Board Member Ginger Bryant, Chief Deputy Clerk of Citrus County Courts, Angela Vick, and I were the judges for the Citrus Springs Elementary School’s Tropicana Speech Contestants.  I am always so impressed with every student who gives their speech.  I always learn so much about a specific subject that each of the students speak on, or I laugh so hard from the comical delivery of some of the students. CSE’s 1^st place winner was Alden Westfall who’s speech was titled, “Mom for Sale!”, 2^nd place was Peyton Burdette with a speech titled, “Operation Pre-K” and 3^rd place was Peyton Vilardi for his speech entitled “My Cruisin’ Vacation”.

On Thursday I had the opportunity of being a judge at Central Ridge Elementary School’s contest with Citrus County Commissioner Joe Meek, and College of Central Florida Professor, Connie Tice.  Again, it is difficult to fully explain how impressive these young people’s speeches really are.  At CRE the 1^st place winner was Truman Roland with the speech, “The Cloning Machine”.  The 2^nd place winner was Andrew Esser speaking about, “Sharks” and the 3^rd place winner was Ronnie Romanelli talking about “Ban the Bands”.

Middle School Orientations

I was with the Crystal River Middle School 5^th grade orientation on Tuesday.  It was great fun, and even more so, educational for me to see the orientation and programs being offered at CRMS.  I very much enjoyed the orientation video your students prepared and thought what a great commercial it would be for CRMS.  My favorite part of the video was Mr. Dan Epstein’s segment promoting CRMS’s Track & Field program.  Hearing and seeing the 5th grade students get excited about school because of his promotion of Track & Field was wonderful to see and hear!  Even more, it was reinforced when a student raised their hand and asked Ms. Claudia McCoy, “Does Mr. Epstein teach too, I want to have him as my teacher”.

My remaining time at CRMS was filled over and over with seeing the positive, and academically rich, programs at CRMS.  It made me wish I was headed back to middle school again.  Thank you for all you do for our students, staff and district leaders each day, and continue the great work you are doing at CRMS!

Bearcat Night of Talent

Friday evening I headed back to Crystal River Middle School to help judge their annual “Bearcat Night of Talent”.  This is similar to an “America’s Got Talent” type of talent show and AGT has nothing on these young people.  The show began with CRMS teacher Suzie Holstead Martin opening the show by leading a rendition which included all the performers that were planned for the evening being a part of this opening number.  The opening musical number was performed by the “student studio band” that was nothing less than amazing.  Following that, there were 15 acts performed for the audience and the judges.  Crystal River Councilman Mike Gudis, Mr. Troy Strawber and I judged the performances. Each was impressive and after the scores were counted and added, Sherry Dourms’ lyrical dance performance of “A Thousand Years” won 1^st place.   2^nd place was won by Tiffany Kulas with her acrobatic cane performance of “Endangered Species” and 3^rd place was won by Lauren Wade for singing “Mean”.

International Baccalaureate Senior Banquet

It was evening dress, suits, and tuxes, at the first ever Senior IB Banquet for the Citrus County International Baccalaureate graduating class.  The banquet took place at the Citrus Hills Golf & Country Club and was sponsored by the Citrus County IB Parent Organization.  The event was an exciting evening to reflect on all the work and accomplishments of not only the seniors graduating, but also the IB program itself.  IB Coordinator, Darrick Buettner, was master of ceremonies for the event and did a tremendous job praising all the individuals and groups that have work together to make IB a success.  If you, or a student you know, is interested in the Citrus IB program at LHS, please visit their web page at: http://sites.google.com/site/pibsandibatlecantohighschool/Home

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Estuaries Program at Middle School

Tuesday evening I got a message from Chuck Mulligan the Marine Science and Chemistry teacher at the Academy of Environmental Science, which is our only “public charter school” in Citrus County telling me that a group of his students from the Academy would be at Citrus Springs Middle School in the 7^th grade science classrooms presenting lessons on Estuaries, and how they affect our waters.  Last year I had the opportunity of spending the day with his Student-Teachers as they escorted middle schoolers on boats around Crystal River Bay so I was excited to see the students in the classroom.  The class began with a multimedia presentation given by two AES Student-Teachers.  The Student-Teachers talked about the local environment and explained how “we” each play a part in contributing positively or negatively to our environment and local clean water.  Throughout the presentation the Student-Teachers would interact with the CSM students by asking questions relative to the lesson being taught, and providing information that was pertinent to the topics being discussed.  These Student-Teachers clearly were not reciting a memorized lesson. They clearly understood and were well versed on what they were teaching, which is a credit to their own learning environment at AES.  The Student-Teachers showed examples of Plankton and shared how the plankton has a positive effect on the estuaries.  They also showed pictures of some plankton and shared both their scientific names as well as the “nick” names the AES students give them.

After the presentation, the CSM students were given an opportunity to look through very high powered microscopes to view and identify plankton first hand.  Some of these microscopes have a value of over $10,000 dollars and were purchased using special grant monies obtained by AES with the assistance of Mr. Chuck Mulligan.

Student-Teachers also taught CSM students how plankton shape their bodies to float near the surface of the water nearest the sun to help feed themselves and how their shape can help provide some protection. Then CSM students were given an opportunity to form their own plankton, using a 2oz. size clay ball, to see what form would float the longest before sinking to the bottom.  While visiting I was given an opportunity to make my own plankton, and it should be noted that my shape floated the longest and even beat the times of CSMS teachers Mr. Hobson and Mr. O’Leary! Smile!

This program that the AES has of visiting the schools and having the Student-Teachers meet with other students in the County is not only an excellent learning tool but it also is an excellent way for middle school students to see what the Academy of Environmental Science is all about.

What is a Charter School Anyway?

The Academy of Environmental Science is Citrus County’s only Public Charter School. For those of you that don’t know what a public charter school is, they are very different from a Private Charter School. A public charter school is started through the public school board.  The public charter must, by Florida Statue, follow all the curriculum requirements of any public school, as defined by the Florida Department of Education and Statue.  The public charter staff and teachers must meet all the same requirements as any public school board employee or teacher.  Public charter students must take any standard tests that public school students do, such as the FCAT.  In a private charter school none of those requirements are mandated.

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Recap of School Board Special Meeting & Workshop on 4/24/2012

“The digits are coming… the DIGITS ARE COMING…”

Tuesday was a Special Board Meeting and Board Workshop. At the Special Meeting the board approved the appointment of Ms. Donnie Brown as the new principal of Crystal River Primary School, effective July 1, 2012. The board also approved the appointment of Suzanne Swain to the position of Coordinator of Certification and Professional Standards, effective July 1, 2012. I am excited about both of these appointments as I know these educators personally and I look forward to them beginning their new roles.

Also, at the Special Meeting the board was presented with a presentation of the new administrative appraisal system which was required to be changed under the new “Student Success Act” law (a.k.a. 2011 SB736) like the teachers’ appraisal system was earlier in the school year. After the presentation the board approved the appraisal system

During the Workshop portion of the meeting Assistant Superintendent Ken Blocker gave a 2012-2013 budget update. As I have shared previously, at this time the school board has agreed to keep things in “status quo” for the 2012-2013 school year

One of the most exciting news items was the announcement of a special pilot project shared by Dr. Mike Geddes, the Director of Instructional Technology. A new and recent Florida statue has expedited the implementation of school district’s transition from print to digital curriculum. As a result, last year the school board set funds aside from the Race to the Top Grant to pilot one student and one digital device. This is often referred to in education as a “One-to-One” pilot initiative. Dr. Geddes formed a Technology Standards Committee (TS) who was charged with recommending a digital device. I am the Board Member Representative on this committee. After great research, and even some debate, the committee recommended the Apple iPad. Next, middle and high schools in our district were encouraged to apply for the pilot program. The objective of being the pilot was to use a digital device (ex. iPad) to impact approximately 200-300 students by transitioning them from print to digital curriculum. Additionally, the pilot would track the results of the one-to-one pilot program and compare a digital curriculum to the traditional print curriculum. The TS committee reviewed and scored the pilot applications and the school with the highest score was recommended by the TS committee to be awarded the pilot program. After the scoring was completed, all thirteen TSC members gave Citrus Springs Middle School the top highest number of points and CSMS was awarded the pilot program

For the 2012-2013 school year 7^th graders at Citrus Springs Middle School will each receive an iPad. The iPad will replace the textbook for Social Studies and will supplement the textbooks for other subjects. A great deal of curriculum planning is underway to maximize the use and effective learning using the iPads. Teachers are already scheduled for training in the use of the iPad in their classrooms. Students will be given training for the use of the iPad when they are issued their iPad in the Fall. As a school board and district we have been developing new technology policies and guidelines for the use of these emerging technologies. This year a special filter student wall-to-wall wireless network was installed in all of our middle and high schools. Many details of this initiative and pilot will be released in the coming weeks and months.

I am tremendously excited about this pilot study and initiative. I strongly believe that in order for our students to be competitive in college and in the job arena they must learn for the world of the future instead of the world we have come from. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read my blog post “Steve Jobs on Education”, Posted on February 16th, 2012.

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