Leader 2 Leader

  Drew Chiodo Assistant Principal, Pacetti Bay Middle School, St. Johns County How hard can it be to change the world?  As a young, wide-eyed teacher, fresh out of Teach For America institutes, and convinced of the simplicity of the public education system through documentaries like “Waiting for Superman,” I stood in my first classroom knowing that I could fix everything in five to 10 years.  I thought that I could teach for five years, earn a master’s degree, become a principal and then who knows- maybe become the supreme chancellor for education in the land of “Do as I say.”  It all made sense in my mind and then I ran into the biggest challenge…. Challenge is a bad word…. I ran into one of the greatest gifts of my life: students. There I stood, as a 21-year-old know-it-all, in front of high school sophomores and it was my responsibility to listen to them, care for them, and give them the tools they needed to be successful, not just in my intensive math ...

Steve Frazier , Principal of Silver Trail Middle School; Past-President of Florida Association of Secondary School Principals (FASSP); South Region Director of Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA); Executive Director of Florida League of Middle Schools (FLMS) Daniela Fatout , Administrative Support at Silver Trail Middle School “A Professional Learning Community is a collaboration of teachers, administrators, parents, and students, who work together to seek out best practices, test them in the classroom, continuously improve processes, and focus on results.” (Rick DuFour, 2002) The Vision Silver Trail Middle School’s mission is to provide a safe, progressive, stimulating learning environment that enables students to reach their fullest potential as responsible, productive citizens in a diverse society.  Silver Trail Middle School is an integral part of its community and focuses on developing and implementing programs that will fit the diverse nee...

Joseph B. Harrell Northwest Region Director, Florida Support Administrators Association (FSAA) Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services, Santa Rosa School District Santa Rosa School District provides students with a high-quality education and our students consistently lead the State of Florida in academic achievement. Indeed, the mission of our school district, Educate students for success by providing a superior, relevant education, drives our daily instruction in the classroom as we strive to prepare our students for a bright and prosperous future. With this mission in mind, Santa Rosa School District is currently in Year 1 of our Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics STEAM Innovate Program, a 5 year transformation and partnership with Discovery Education, a division of the globally recognized Discovery Communications. Research consistently demonstrates that STEAM education dramatically increases student achievement, literally eliminating achi...

Kirstie Gabaldon President-elect, Florida Association of School Administrators Assistant Principal, Creekside High School, St. Johns County  “Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into Benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” ~ John F. Kennedy  “I teach. What’s your superpower?” Anon. Visitors arriving at Creekside High School comment that the school feels like a college campus, or how happy everyone looks, or that the school feels like a positive place. What generates this atmosphere is not a well-placed palm tree or bench (although we have those), nor is it the tall rotunda, or shiny red paint. I would argue that what generates this atmosphere is confidence. At Creekside we have focused on developing opportunities for our 2,000 students to explore and discover what they are interested in, and where their talents may...

Mark E Shanoff, Ed. D President, Florida Association of School Administrators Principal, Ocoee Middle School  Currently, the students, teachers and school leaders in Florida are leading their schools without the standardized assessment data we have become accustomed to in years past. What’s worse is when the data is eventually released, the validity of the data has been called into question by practitioners and leaders from across the State. And, once the data is released in January, more instructional time will have passed since the students took the exam than instructional time exists before the next round of FSA testing. It used to be that the politics surrounding student assessment, albeit distracting, didn’t impact the planning and delivery of an instructional program based on the previous year’s data. In fact, school leaders relied on that data, to make placement decisions and lineup changes. But today, the politics of student assessment and the absence of any actio...