The WCSB was recognized by as an invaluable member of the 2020 Census Community Partnership and Engagement Program last night at the WCSB Meeting.
The WCSB also recognized our Teacher and ESP of the year for 2020-21 with their plaques last night.
Congratuations to Leslie Coone the 2020-21 WCSD Teacher of the year.
Congratulations to Tanya Durham the 2020-21 ESP of the year.
WCSD Monthly Video Update for March 2021
Walton County School District Superintendent A. Russell Hughes shares his monthly video update for March 2021!
As an AVID school, WMS teachers design and lead lessons full of WICOR (writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading) strategies. Teachers use the WICOR learning model to guide students in comprehending concepts and articulating ideas at increasingly complex levels. Through WICOR, students build mental toolboxes of strategies they can apply to learning situations both in and out of the classroom.
Last week, while preparing students for the upcoming FSA writing assessment, sixth grade ELA teacher Mrs. Alex Parker led a two-day lesson full of writing, reading, and organization strategies. First, she taught students how to “PAT” the explanatory prompt they were given to write about, teaching them to text-mark and look for the purpose, audience, and task the prompt required. Reading the directions carefully to understand these key elements helps student writers better organize their thinking. Mrs. Parker also gave students a reading purpose based on the prompt, instructing them to text-mark two non-fiction texts, looking for evidence about why and how art can be created from trash. Teaching students to read for a purpose and mark key details along the way helps aid student reading comprehension in general. Before turning students loose to write their essays, the teacher showed students various organizational styles for constructing their thoughts, encouraging them to “do the way that works for you.” She even went a step further and provided students with sentence starters to help them organize their thoughts within paragraphs.
Teachers like Mrs. Parker use WICOR strategies to help students build mental frameworks they can apply to not only the tasks at hand but also to other learning situations. Across campus, WMS, as an AVID school, strives to develop well-equipped lifelong learners.
The Freeport Middle School Art department has made a new batch of Japanese Gyodan clay fake food. We studied Gyodan, the Japanese art of fake food and became Shokunin, Japanese fake food artists. Way to go students!!!
MSE collects $1,722.23 for Change for Children!
The collecting and counting is over and according to these 5th grade ac"count"ants, our students collected $1,722.23! Ms. Andrews students collected the most change ($224.24) which earned them a pizza party. Mrs. Dahl's class brought in the most quarters (519 quarters) to make her the 2021 MSE Quarter Queen! Our school participates in the Positivity Project and our focus this week was "Other People Matter". Our students certainly embraced this belief as they worked to raise money for "Children in Crisis", a nonprofit organization that provides a home to abused, neglected, and abandoned children in our community.
The Walton County School District was well represented at a recent event in Orlando sponsored by the Florida Department of Education. Pictured (L to R) Ms. Jeanine Abadie, teacher at Emerald Coast Middle School and past Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Devon LaMonica, past Teacher of the Year in Okaloosa County and current administrator at the Magnet Innovation Center at St. Joe Watersound, Mr. Richard Corcoran, Commission of Education for the State of Florida, and Dr. Alexis Tibbetts, Principal of South Walton High School and finalist for Principal of the Year.
Thank you, CVHN!
While at Mossy Head School this morning, Superintendent Hughes had a chance to speak with two ladies who were on site with the Mobile Dental Health Clinic from Children’s Volunteer Health Clinic, Denise Lisciotti – MDC Manager/Hygienist and Christina Peterson – MDC Hygienist. The Mobile Dental Clinic provides preventative dental care and education about how students can take care of their teeth.
Ashanti Kee attended Walton County schools as a child, including Maude Saunders, Walton Middle, and Walton High. As a middle schooler, Ashanti was blessed to receive the 2 + 2 Take Stock In Children scholarship. This is where the idea of college and becoming an educator began to blossom. Ashanti graduated from high school with honors in Math and was a member of the Mu Alpha Theta math honor society. She also graduated with honors in Spanish as a second language. After high school, Ashanti went straight into college at FAMU in Tallahassee, Florida. Later she finished her Associate of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees at NWFSC in Niceville, Florida. Ashanti has been working in the Walton County School District for about 8 years. She began as a substitute teacher and Title I Tutor from elementary to high school level. She then became a teacher’s aide at the WISE Pre-k. While finishing her bachelor’s degree, Ashanti came back to MSE, where it all started, to complete her student teaching. This is also where her teaching career began 3 years ago and continues now into the present. Ashanti has even had the privilege to work side by side with one of her childhood teachers.
Ms. Andrea Andrews is a proud teacher at Maude Saunders Elementary School, where she has taught for the last 5 years. She has been in education, in a teaching capacity, for a total of 6 years; spending a brief time teaching at both West DeFuniak Elementary and Paxton School. Andrea adores and respects the faculty and staff she works with, and loves being able to help students reach their educational goals.
Ms. Andrews began her own educational journey as a young child at West DeFuniak Elementary School. While attending elementary school, she made the decision, at the age of 8, to become a teacher. She attended school in Walton County until she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Walton High School in 2011. Andrea went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education K-6, graduating from Northwest Florida State College in 2015. After taking a couple of years to settle into her educational career, Ms. Andrews enrolled in the University of West Florida and graduated with a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction in 2018.
Andrea plans to call MSE home for as long as she can, and she wants to share it with her future son who will make his appearance in August 2021!!
During this semester, Ms. Kalli McMillan's seventh grade ELA class has been doing a novel study on the book Holes by Louis Sachar. This week, they completed a STEM project in which they were given the scenario of travelling across the vast desert after escaping Camp Green Lake. They had to create a scale shelter that would protect them from the elements of the Texas desert. The groups had to work together to complete the task efficiently.
