Monroe County Public Schools

This afternoon I spoke at Key West High School to the teachers of Monroe County. I spoke of how important I believe it is to bring excitement and passion to teaching. Monroe County was the only district whose school board sent a resolution to the DOE asking that the proposed science standards be accepted without revisions. I think I was speaking to the choir when I talk about commitment, excitement and passion!

I also had the opportunity to reconnect with a former student. Recently I received an email from Brady Hodgerson, an ESL teacher at Marathon High School. I taught Brady in fourth grade and he shared with me that he decided to become a teacher after being in my class. I had read The Lion's Paw by Robb White to my fourth graders and the book connected with Brady. During his first year teaching he was beginning to doubt his decision and was in a used book store and picked up a book from the give away box - it was The Lion's Paw. He said it was like a sign. To this day I have always believed in the power of that particular book and it gave me goosebumps to hear the story. It was an email that shook me and reaffirmed how great this year is. Awards are nice, but the correspondence that I've had with my former students has impacted me in a very powerful way. I have always wonder how my former students are doing and if I made any difference in their lives. It's so wonderful to hear from so many of them. Teaching is a powerful experience.

Butterflies!

I spent the morning at the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. This is a wonderful indoor butterfly habitat that houses thousands of exotic butterflies. I took lots of pictures and plan to share them with the students at Camelot when I get back. It was great to see that our own garden uses most of the same host plants and our techniques aren't that different from the professionals.

Northeast High School

Today I visited another friend, and Florida TOY finalist, Dr. Sandy Melillo. Sandy teaches AP English and TV Production (I hope I got that right)in Broward County. I walked into her room and was immediately put to work as AP students were finishing their latest project, recreating Gulliver's Travels in a very different way.
Later I spoke to two classes about science, life as the State TOY, college and basically learned a lot from the experience. It is extremely office the high esteem Sandy is held by her students and it was a treat to spend the morning with her.

Alka Seltzer Rocket Launcher

At the request of a few people that have seen this thing at my workshops, I took a picture of my PVC alka seltzer rocket launcher.

St. Lucie County

Monday finds me in Fort Pierce at the St. Lucie County School Board giving an all day workshop to their district science contact teachers. Now that we have adopted new Florida Science Standards there are a lot of questions. I hope a few got answered. Unfortunately there is still a lot of work to be done before we begin using the new standards and my best advice may be patience. We still have to see how the big ideas will translate to the final curriculum, how staff development will support the curriculum and how FCAT will change to support the new standards. Most of this will be answered very shortly.
Thanks Shernett Alexander, Elementary Science Specialist for bringing me to St. Lucie.

A Few More Zero G Pictures

When you begin the parabola you experience almost 2Gs of gravity before going weightless. As a result you lie down on the padded floor, fix your eyes on an object and relax. Once you hit zero gravity it's pretty chaotic and hard to shoot pictures. I tried! I also put in a plug for my Alma mater: the University of Central Florida, UCF! On board with us were five experiments designed at the university, as well as the students who created them. Go Knights!

Zero Gravity !!!

What a day! Today I joined my wife, Susan, a group of science educators, news media and aerospace supporters as we flew on a specially designed 727 and experienced zero gravity. The flight was sponsored by Space Florida and was definitely one of the neatest experiences of my life.

Susan and I conducted experiments suggested by students in Orange County and we had a blast! We are now officially the first Florida husband and wife teaching team to conduct experiments in zero gravity. It is impossible to describe floating in zero gravity other than to say the experience was euphoric. The experience is produced in a 727 by flying a parabola, which is much like a roller coaster ride, only in a plane. At the top of the parabola inertia creates about 30 seconds without gravity. We did this 15 times over the course of an hour. It was such an incredible experience that the time passed too quickly to suit me and I found myself like many of my students asking to do it again. With the help of medication there was no discomfort and I'm ready to do it again!

I must thank the people at Space Florida (thanks Tony!), Zero Gravity (thank you Gwendolyn and Michelle!) and VieVie Baird from the Department of Education. They made this happen. I will have more to share as I get pictures and video; but for now take a look at a few of the pictures we took. To learn more about this experience go to my link for Zero Gravity. It is a great site for teachers and anyone interested in micro-gtavity.

Putnam County TOY

Thursday I drove to Northeast Florida to Palatka where I spoke that evening at the Putnam County Celebration for their Teacher of the Year and School-Related Employee of the Year. With over 300 people in attendance the room was packed with those celebrating the accomplishments of an incredible group of people. Congratulations to Julie McCoy, School-Related Employee of the Year and Maeghan Morris from Mellon Elementary School who was named Putnam's 2009 Teacher of the Year. This year's event was held at Ravine Gardens State Park and I look forward to coming back on a sunny day to get a better look at the wonderful grounds.

The drive home through part of rural Florida was incredible. I stopped at a road side stand selling honey on the honor system just honey and a box for the money. The bee hives can be seen from the road! I think my family will enjoy the wildflower honey (with comb) that I brought back. I know that I enjoyed stopping at a place in Florida that is becoming quite rare.

OCPS District Teacher of the Year Celebration

Tonight I went back to where this first began. I attended our district TOY celebration at Disney's Contemporary Hotel. It was a great chance to reconnect with friends across our district, give back to my district through my participation and just have a wonderful evening with the teachers of my district.

A red carpet led everyone to the gala event with interviews by our own "Joan Rivers", aka Patty Villane (see the second picture). Patty is a senior administrator for community relations at the district office, a great comic and cut up, and most importantly Patty is my first cousin. She is the spitting image of my aunt Jean, who was a major cut up and funny lady! Patty is my "baby" cousin and I love her dearly. Patty's interviews set the tone for the fun to come.

After a few short speeches (mine was 3 minutes), a nice dinner, and the recognition of all of our school Teachers of the Year our new district winner was announced. Jennifer Bohn heads the IB program at Evans High School (first picture). When our selection committee entered Jennifer's room all of the students rose as a display of respect. They do it any time an adult enters the room. Much of the school was scheduled to leave on buses for an Orlando Magic game during our observation. Not one student left that room. Jennifer was more important to those kids than an NBA basketball game. Evans is a failing school in a high crime, high poverty community. There is much concern with what to do with Evans. It's the type of school that can run off many teachers. Jennifer has been there for thirteen years, has been nominated school TOY three times and is incredibly devoted and proud of her students. And if all of this isn't enough - Jennifer and her students volunteeer at a homeless shelter and began interviewing people a year ago. As a result they wrote a book consisting of a collection of the student interviews which ended up changing the lives of many of these young authors. These are kids that have practically nothing and yet are thankful for their lives and care about the lives of those they have found to be even more unfortunate.

Our district finalists proved to be a hard group to pick from. Each could easily be the TOY for any school system in our state and across the nation. But we had to pick one. All five finalists are my heroes and it will not surprise me to see each in leadership roles across our district or even make a run for District TOY again.

I am extremely proud that I am being replaced as OCPS District Teacher of the Year by Jennifer. Her dedication brings tears to my eyes and I can't imagine a better story that needs to be told. I look forward to following her progress through the state selection process and spending time with her next summer at the state TOY Roundtable. This has been a very rewarding evening.

Lake Silver Elementary

Recently I received a call from one of our local school board members, Ann Geiger, asking me to visit an exciting school in her area. I respect Mrs. Geiger and know that if she says it's special then it is! Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Lake Silver Elementary School and meeting principal, Cynthia Dodge and her staff to learn about "environmental math". Lake Silver Elementary is an OCPS Math Magnet School and they have begun to focus their math on the environment and some of the most beautiful and productive gardens that I've ever seen. Their goal is to add even more gardens and make them the focus which drives this new program.
I enjoyed seeing their gardens, thinking about and sharing ideas that I think might add to their efforts, and getting excited about this project. What a great afternoon. Thank you Ann for your phone call.
Lake Silver is a special school for so many reasons. It's population of students represents two extremes of economics, the school is also a center for severely physically challenged students and they are a school with a rich history in our district. They also have wonderful business partners that I hope will enrich this incredibly ambitious project.
I plan to come back to Lake Silver because I want to follow their progress and steal a few great ideas! Thanks again.

The Results

The Board of Education voted for a compromise which inserts the words "Theory of" in front of evolution and a number of other concepts. Was it necessary? No. Does it add to the original? No. But it did allow our standards to be accepted without verbiage referring to "academic freedom" which would have severely changed our work. The final document will now give the students of Florida the chance to compete on an equal playing field with those from across the world.

Opponents of the new standards are threatening legislative action so we will see how the final chapter of this plays out. Meanwhile I want to recognize the 56 incredible members of the Science Standards committee. The framers and writers of this document spent over a year to create a document which maintains scientific accuaracy, rigor and relevance. I am so very proud to have been allowed to participate in this experience.

And I want to thank Commissioner of Education, Eric Smith and Math and Science Director, Mary Jane Tappen for their leadership and strength of conviction by standing by this effort and putting the children of Florida first in this discussion. Without the revisions that took place I am enough of a realist to know that we would have never achieved the giant steps that were taken.

An Important Day For Science

Today the Florida Board of Education votes on the new Science Standards. Anyone reading a newspaper in Florida knows that a huge controversy surrounding evolution has been fought. I have appeared at two statewide public meetings, been interviewed by both newspapers and television, and have a letter being published in today's Orlando Sentinel. My involvement began when I was asked to join the writers working on the standards. It was an incredible experience and I believe the results will give the teachers of Florida standards that are in fact "world class". I was tasked with the physical science portion of the standards, but I have read, discussed and support the entire document. The proposed standards are almost identical (in big ideas) to those of every high performing state and country our students must compete against.

I have been frustrated by the attempts to water down these standards. I want to publicly share with each of you that I believe in God, I am a Christian and I see no conflict with evolution and my faith in my creator. I am not alone in my feelings and my beliefs. But even if my beliefs were different I would still have to defend these standards. Because I don't just teach children of my faith and science is not the teaching of beliefs. I teach children of hundreds of conflicting belief systems and I owe it to each of them to provide the best opportunities possible. I owe it to these children to prepare them for success in a changing world. I owe it to these children to teach the truth. I want the discussion regarding ID or creationism to take place - but not in a science class. Evolution is a nonissue in science. The drugs you take today to combat the mutating viruses that plague us require a complete understanding of this big idea. Our constantly changing understanding of our geophysical world; our ability to observe the constant adaptations and changes of hundreds of species of plants and animals; and our ability to accept and meet the challenges of global warming depend upon our acceptance of this basic idea.
My hope is that the Florida Board of Education ignores the politics, ignores the voices of the minority and makes the best decision for all of the children of Florida. Today is a critical day for science in Florida.

As We Get Older

Bad things sometimes happen to good people. Our first principal at Camelot, Andrew Taylor, retired a few years ago. Dr. Taylor is the type of principal who knows all of the kids names, drops into classrooms every day and is one of the kindest souls on this planet. When he retired he was missed by everyone, but we were all happy for him because he looked really tired. A year after retirement he had lost 50 pounds, was riding a bike 20 miles a day and was looking 10 years younger. And then came cancer. Out of the blue Andy was diagnosed with colon cancer, had radical surgery removing his colon and has fought a constant battle as the drugs have stressed his body more than the cancer.

I made a silent promise to Dr. Taylor, and another aloud to my wife that I would do something that I have resisted for five years. Yesterday I had my first colonoscopy. Since I've had ulcers in the past they also came in from the other end with an endoscopy. I won't lie, the day before when you prepare for this isn't fun. But the procedures were painless (except for a slight sore throat). The best part was that I was given a clean bill of health.

I would encourage everyone to have these procedures done if you are approaching your 50s. If I can do this anyone can - because I am admittedly a wimp! I've lost my mother, an aunt, lots of other family, friends and even students to cancer. If there is anything I can do to make sure early detection takes place, I owe it to myself and the memory of those I care about. That's my public message for the day.

Carrying on a Tradition

Next week Orange County Public Schools will select the 2009 District Teacher of the Year who will go on to represent our district and compete at the state level. Tonight I continued a wonderful tradition that began many years ago. As the outgoing OCPS District Teacher of the Year I hosted an evening in which our finalists could get to know each other, ask questions (just not the big one), and learn more about what they have to look forward to. It was fantastic fun with a worthy group of finalists. Joining me were (from my left clockwise in the picture) Tamara Daugherty from Lakeville Elementary School, Donna Walker-Knight from Grand Avenue Primary Learning Center, Jennifer Bohn from Evans High School, Stephanie Johnson Possell from Olympia High School, and Emily Thorpe from Apopka High School 9th Grade Center.

Dinner was in Winter Park at The Hot Olive. Very trendy, very good food, and a great atmoshpere for a wet Tuesday evening. My special thanks to my good friend, Bev Cox who I always consult for the best places. Bev, you were right as usual! Thanks.

Orange County has five finalists who could each represent our district with distinction. I'm incredibly proud of the quality of teachers who will be representing our district. Next Wednesday we learn the results.

My First Podcast!

I just received word that my first podcast is now on the web. New Teacher Hotline is a website for beginning teachers designed to inform, entertain and help teachers through those first experiences. I was contacted by Mike Kelley and Glen Moulton, co-hosts of the website and recently participated in a telephone conversation that is now a podcast. If you go to http://www.newteacherhotline.com/ you can hear the entire interview. New Teacher Hotline is presented by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. Thank you Mike and Glen for helping me to sound better than I really am!

Columbia County

I left Tallahassee and drove to Lake City. This aftenoon I participated in the Columbia County Teacher of the Year Celebration. It was a fantastic event! It took place in the local Presbyterian Church (which reminds me of a similar church I once visited in North Carolina). Besides the teachers, administrators and families of the school Teachers of the Year, Columbia County invites all former District Teachers of the Year and recognizes them individually. It was both touching and a symbolic salute to the excellence in Columbia. A great time and a thank you to Columbia County teachers.

A Visit With The Governor

A quick visit is a better description. I was escorted through security at the state capitol building and found myself in the Governor's outer office - really interest Florida Highwaymen landscapes. We were then told the Governor was running late (I expected to be told he was cancelling. But after about 15 minutes I was led into his office. Beautiful office with a pleasant sitting area. After the photo op we talked for about five or ten minutes. Governor Crist is a very likeable individual nad it's easy to see why he so popular in Florida. For those who have asked: he's of average height, looks just like his pictures and looks you in the eye as he talks. His sisters are teachers and he minored in education. I did have the opportunity to make a pitch for supporting the proposed state science standards and for his participation in this year's TOY Roundtable. I pointed out he was missed last year and it is a great opportunity to hear from teachers first hand. Time will tell.
We talked abut the environment and the importance of education if real change is to take place. The Governor's Aide came in, I took my hint, and our meeting concluded. It was a nice visit, but I didn't have expectations that a meeting would change the world. Hopefully the Governor will be more of a presence at future teacher events. Mr. Crist has my card so maybe he will read this.

A Governor's Luncheon - Thank You Apple Computers!

Tuesday I drove to Tallahassee to attend a luncheon hosted by our Governor in honor of myself and our Teacher of the Year Finalists. In a rest stop on I-10 I got a call from the DOE and was told that the luncheon was on, but the Governor would not be joining us. My Superintendent, Ron Blocker summed it up best - it was the Governor's loss!
My colleagues and I met Wednesday morning at the Department of Education and had the opportunity to sit down with our new Commissioner, Dr. Smith and our new Chancellor, Dr. Haithcock. Both were wonderfully supportive and we began a conversation that I believe will continue. We each had the opportunity to share what we think the DOE should be doing to improve education in Florida in the near future.

After our meeting we drove to the Governor's Mansion (also referred to as The People's Mansion) where we were guests at a wonderful lunch. Apple Computers was the sponsor and it was an incredibly special event. Each of the teachers being honored was recognized and presented with a beautiful award and I also received a fantastic Mac laptop which will soon take over the duty of my traveling Blog companion. Thank you again Apple! Above I have inserted a picture of my new MacBook!

Tomorrow I am scheduled to meet briefly with the Governor. Look for an update. Meanwhile, the picture I'm sharing is of me with Chancellor Haithcock in front of an incredible sculpture found in front of the Governor's Mansion. It seemed fitting as I'm thinking of children and all that we try to do for them.

A Last Look At Dallas

After almost a week of training, workshops, dinners, and chances to meet with other state Teachers of the Year I left Dallas both drained and energized. In Florida we have a great deal to be proud of. Across our state you will find teacher support, innovation and an unparalleled commitment to children. As Florida Teacher of the Year I am among a small group of educators who are given a sabbatical in order to travel our state to share and learn from our teachers. I honestly resisted this because of my desire to stay with my Camelot students. But I now realize the value and importance of this opportunity. Not only for me, but for the teachers of Florida as I go about sharing what I see.
Our last evening was spent at a dinner in which the National TOY finalists were announced. They are a wonderful group, each of whom will represent us well. I was also challenged by Andrea Petersen, the 2007 National Teacher of the Year. Andrea is an elementary school music teacher who helped turn around an entire community engaged in an atmosphere of failure. As a result of Andrea and teachers like her that community now is filled with personal and community sucess. Andrea has had an incredible affect on the lives of the children that she has taught. But what impressed me the most about Andrea was a conversation I had with her at lunch on Saturday. When she ends her year she is going right back to that school and continue right where she left off. That's a powerful message to each of us.
My next meeting with these wonderful teachers will be in April at the White House. We will meet the President and rejoice in the announcement of the next National Teacher of the Year.
For now I've include a few more pictures of the wonderful teachers I now call friends.

Making New TOY Friends in Dallas