Governor Ron DeSantis​ seeks your input on Re-Opening Florida including Education

Posted on April 25th, 2020 by

Governor Ron DeSantis​ seeks your input on Re-Opening Florida including Education

Please take the time to share with the Governor’s Task Force your thoughts.

Re-Open Florida Task Force Launches Public Comment Submission Portal— Floridians may submit feedback on any topic related to the re-opening of Florida’s economy, including the impacts to education. Access the portal here:‬ https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=59c1681fac504b6ab8da108d52501c92

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Thank you, businesses, for employing our students- please encourage them to also do their school work

Posted on April 17th, 2020 by

Thank you, businesses, for employing our students- please encourage them to also do their school work

…employers you can serve as bonus mentors, educational supporters, and encouragers in these students’ lives.

I want to thank our many businesses that employed our students before the COVID-19 crisis and thank those that have employed our students during this pandemic. Oftentimes these students have been on the frontlines, providing many essential services and have provided businesses with a much- needed workforce.

Remote/virtual learning has often given students and their employers’ additional opportunities to work times during what would have been the students’ school day.

Businesses, supervisors, managers, please encourage your student employees to promptly do their schoolwork to ensure they finish this semester successfully.  This is especially important for our Class of 2020 seniors. Teachers and schools are being flexible with students, but students are still in school and responsible for completing their work.  As their employers, you can serve as bonus mentors, educational supporters, and encouragers in these students’ lives.

We are so proud of our students and the hard work they are doing both at these businesses and especially in their studies.

Thank you, businesses, supervisors, and managers for all you are doing for our students, schools, and community.  As the African proverb goes, “It takes a village”, and in Citrus County we have the BEST village!

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MSS shares marine science content for educators

Posted on April 15th, 2020 by

Marine Science Station shares educational learning content for educators

Today the amazing education team of Earn Olsen, Josh O’Leary and Sheryl Janecek at our Citrus County School’s Marine Science Station shared with county teachers some excellent MSS content, along with additional other science resources to provide some extra special learning.  The MSS team also unveiled the new Marine Science Station YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMHraqFgDwdAwfu_tWJKhTg.

At this time of remote learning, in addition to our district teachers, many families find themselves as home teachers and I thought you might appreciate learning more about these great MSS resources.

MSS Supervisor Earnie Olsen:

Hello from the Citrus County School District’s Marine Science Station!  I know not all of you who are reading this actually bring your students to the Marine Science Station as part of your course curriculum, but I wanted to quickly share this information to as many Elementary School Teachers, Middle School Science Teachers, and High School Science Teachers (and other interested people) who may find the following information useful

Just like all of you, we greatly miss seeing our visiting students and fellow teachers.  We especially miss seeing the middle and high school student and teachers who were scheduled to visit the Marine Science Station during the current school closure.  My staff and I have taken this time to engage not only in social distancing, but also in a variety of facility, aquarium, equipment, and boat maintenance projects that will allow us to make future visits to the Marine Science Station as good as, or better, than before.  We’ve also created some brief educational video segments as well as stock video footage of our ecosystem explorations from over the years.  Within the descriptions of many of these videos you will see links for further reading and research.  You can access these videos via our brand new Marine Science Station YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMHraqFgDwdAwfu_tWJKhTg  You can also access the Marine Science Station on Facebook for other information and content at https://www.facebook.com/marinesciencestation/

If there’s any educational content related to watersheds, aquifers, springs, coastal rivers, estuaries, salt marshes, mangrove swamps, seagrass meadows, or other marine environments that you’d like us to research and share with you and your students, then please let me know.  CLICK HERE for a pdf document that has a list of Virtual Opportunities for Marine Science Educators that’s been compiled by the Florida Marine Science Educators Association (www.fmsea.org).  I hope you find these resources useful.

On behalf of the staff at the Marine Science Station, we are grateful for all of your hard work to ensure our kids are staying connected and engaged in learning.  My staff and I are looking forward to better days ahead and to seeing folks out here again soon.  Until then, we hope you stay safe and well.

Sincerely,
Earnie Olsen
MSS Supervisor

 

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We will miss you, Cicely Thomas

Posted on April 11th, 2020 by
Cicely Thomas

October 22, 2004, CSES Students Awards, Cicely Thomas, principal of Citrus Springs Elementary Schools, and kindergarten student, Ethan Kennedy.

We will miss you, Cicely Thomas

Mrs. Thomas: “…you as parents are your child’s first teacher”

Another of Citrus County’s special former educators and leaders passed away. My wife and I had the chance to know Cicely Thomas when she was our oldest children’s first principal at Citrus Springs Elementary.  I will always remember the way the kind and loving way she interacted with her students, parents, and staff.  I recall the first student awards event where Mrs. Thomas shared with all the parents, “…you are so important to your student’s life, you as parents are your child’s first teacher”.  She empowered us as parents to remember the important role we as parents have on our students’ academic life.  She would refer to the collaborative “partnership” we as parents and educators have as on our students’ education. Perhaps at this social-distancing time, those words mean more now than ever as parents find themselves on the frontline of remote learning at home.

Thank you, Mrs. Thomas, for loving our children, caring for our schools, and leading with your heart.  Our prayers go out to Mrs. Thomas’s husband, Tommy Thomas, their sons, and the entire family.

For more on Cicely Thomas’s life click HERE

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Citrus CARES is continually improving for students

Posted on April 2nd, 2020 by

Citrus CARES is continually improving for students

iReady weekly expectation now 45 minutes for ELA and Math

I am so proud of our Citrus County Schools Curriculum and Instruction Services team lead by Chief Academic Official, Dr. Hebert, who among their responsibilities includes curriculum and who have been led the development of the Citrus CARES remote learning plan. These are the leaders and specialists who have been working continually to monitor and improve the Citrus CARES plan and support our teachers in their plans for our students.  One of those improvements based on feedback from our parents, teachers, and leadership teams was to change the daily expectation of 45 minutes for ELA and Math iReady (MyPath lessons) to now be a weekly expectation. I want to personally add special thanks to Elementary Director, Trish Kahler and Title 1 Coordinator Rene Johnson, who have been tirelessly leading the improvement efforts at the elementary level which brought forward this improvement.

This is but one of the continual improvements the Curriculum and Instruction Services team have been doing along with endless assailant and support to teachers and families.

Well done Citrus County Schools Curriculum and Instruction Services team!!

 

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Students Read… (or listen)

Posted on March 31st, 2020 by

Students Read… or listen

My suggestion… Harry Potter

Yes, we are now going to be having remote/virtual learning to at least May 1, 2020, so this is a great time between Google Classroom, Tik Toks, and Fortnite to read for the first time, or rediscovery a new book series. My absolute favorite is Harry Potter. As some of you know I am not a strong reader, so I have taken advantage of the great audiobook versions.

If you haven’t read the first book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, you are in for a real treat. I can remember retired Crystal River High School JROTC Senior Naval Instructor, Captain Thomas Holme, U.S. Navy (Ret.) saying the first time he began reading HP, “I have to read this book and find out why all these kids are willing to read a book that is two inch thick book”.  Holmes himself quickly became a HP fan.

If you are interested in listening to the HP Chamber of Secrets you can follow this link https://harrypotteraudiobookfree.net/.

I was so pleased to read in the Insider that HP author J.K. Rowling has made the ‘Harry Potter’ series more accessible to help students and teachers.  At www.jkrowling.com you can even download a full set of HP Guidelines for Teachers by clicking here.

Happy reading! (NO cheating and watching the movie, you can do that after you read the book- and yes the books are better than the movies)

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