Around the District
Schools Celebrate National School Library Month in Creative Ways
Schools around the District celebrated School Library Month in a variety of ways. In honor of National Library Week and Reading Across Broward, Apollo Middle School invited special guests to join them in a “read-in,” as part of the school’s celebration. Guests, included detectives, a judge, attorneys, a musician, politicians, a World War II pilot and school officials, were asked to share a memorable book or story from their childhood, read it to a group of students and then pass along bits of wisdom for success. By the end of the day, they had read to more than 1,000 students! According to Reading Coach Marcy Gray, the goal was to have community role models instill in the students the importance of life-long reading.
Cypress Elementary School marked the celebration by having students sign a pledge to not watch television during the “read-ins” week. They also staged a door decorating contest with favorite book themes, held an “ice-cream voting social” that called for students to eat ice cream and vote for their favorite book and encouraged students to dress-up as their favorite storybook character. Guest readers and designated times to read under the school’s cypress trees rounded out the festivities.
Boulevard Heights Program Earns National Civic Star Award
Boulevard Heights Elementary School was recently named the state winner of the National Civic Star Award for its Read, Connect, Learn @ BHE Media Center Program – an extended learning outreach program geared toward students, parents, staff, Partners in Education and the community-at-large. Unlike most school libraries that close their doors at 3 p.m., the media center staff cordially invites the community to join forces with them each Wednesday from 4 - 7 p.m. to share in the resource-rich environment of the media center. Once there, they’re encouraged to utilize the collection of print, technology and staff resources to increase student achievement at school and in the home learning environment.
Florida Master Digital Educators
Program Taps Broward Foursome
Four outstanding Broward educators are among 31 that have been selected from the around the state to participate in the Florida Master Digital Educators Program. Those chosen to take part in the program – which is designed to train participants to become technology integration experts – include Daryl Diamond from ETS, Tony Dutra and Elyse Brunt from New River Middle School and Angella K. Morris from Apollo Middle School. They were selected from a pool of more than 400 interested educators throughout the state.
The group will be trained by state and national experts in the field of technology integration in either Tampa or Tallahassee. Upon completing the program, the educators will participate in summer institutes and become regional experts, training other educators in how best to provide the technology skills necessary to launch Florida’s students into the digital age. They will also serve as mentors and provide their peers with the skills necessary for today’s students to engage in the higher order thinking skills necessary for project-based learning in the classroom and in a global economy. |
