Morningside Elementary students Yasmine Taveras, Jocelyn Ortega, Leilani Warner, Emily Casler and Summer McDonough enjoy dancing together at the Dress Code dance that the PBS team sponsored. Students in grades K- 5 were able to attend the dance if they were in dress code the entire first semester of the school year.

Students at White City Elementary enjoyed a visit from Commack, a very special Golden Retriever. Commack is a therapy dog certified by Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Inc. He has been specially trained to support students as they read and spend time with him. Students are looking forward to future visits from Commack!

The National Junior Honor Society volunteered at the Golden Corral Restaurant in Fort Pierce.   The students earned time towards their required community service hours as well as giving their tips to the school to be used towards several planned activities.   It was a fun night and we hope to make this an annual event. Pictured is Ximena Paz as she cleans up the tables after a long night of working as a server for NJHS.

St. Lucie West K8 eighth grade science teacher Debra Quintero has been selected to present at the 2012 National Science Teachers Conference in Indianapolis in April.  Pictured are Ms. Quintero and Todd Hilgendorff, of Farnsworth Middle School, Guiderland, New York, who will share a series of lessons based on their experiences working with marine researchers in the North Atlantic.  Their session is entitled Authentic Research Experiences in the Inquiry Science Classroom.  

Dean Debborah Estrada and Assistant Principal Latricia Thompson from Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition proudly display their trophy after winning second place for events held during Week of Kindness 2012.  This event was sponsored by the Charmettes and Delores Hines came to give them the good news and present the award.  Great job Rockets!

Students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition enjoyed “Twin Day” to help raise money for Relay for Life.  The students paid a dollar to dress up as a twin with a friend.  Pictured here are a group of third graders who participated and helped raise money for a worthy cause.

Students and staff at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition stand next to their float at the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade. Everyone that helped with the float and walked in the parade had a wonderful time.  Thank you to all that participated!

Janet Winikoff from the Humane Society of Vero Beach & Indian River County speaks to seventh grade students at Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Tradition about sick and neglected animals and about the Humane Society.  She did a PowerPoint presentation and answerd questions that students had about pets being neglected because of hard economical times and possible solutions to help.

Judges listen to Palm Pointe Educational Research seventh grade students as they present their Project Citizen reports.  Project Citizen is a student led class project in which students select a problem in the community and create a public policy addressing it.  Students select the problem as a class, research it, come up with two or three solutions, select the solution that best solves the public policy issue and develop an action plan to make their idea become a reality.  The top three projects selected by the judges to move on to the district Project Citizen showcase are: “No Homework, No … Read More

It took over 30 rounds to declare the 2012 spelling bee winners at F.K. Sweet Elementary. The best of the spellers from each fourth and fifth grade class recently took stage  to spell some very difficult words. In the end, pictured from left, Rida Ahmed emerged as the winner, followed by second place speller Cassie Ackenbrack, and Ariel Neptune took third place. Congratulations on a job well done.

Students in St. Lucie County schools have been learning about bullying in their classrooms. At FK Sweet Elementary, Joe the Biker talked with students at a recent assembly on how to recognize bullying  and strategies for dealing with this type of behavior. The children listened intently as Joe talked about his elementary experiences of being bullied.  Pictured, DeEra Nelson and Elijah Major both feel better equiped to handle any bullying incidents that might arise in the future.

Remember, Celebrate, and Take Action was the theme of the recent Martin Luther King parade. Second place winner in the elementary division from F.K. Sweet Elementary captured all three aspects perfectly with remembering  Dr. King’s speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, while children celebrate by joining hands and uniting in order to take action. Pictured, art teacher Carey Schott and her committee worked tirelessly to create this year’s beautiful float.

In celebration of Arbor Day, Mariposa Elementary School fourth graders were foresters for a day. The students were able to plant the state tree, Sabal Palm,  around the school grounds in hopes to bring awareness of the importance of plants and trees in our environment.  At the end of the day, each student was able to take home a Sabal Palm of their very own to plant in their yards.

Students in Nardi Routten’s fourth grade class at F.K. Sweet Elementary recently wrote a children’s book as part of their Disney Planet Challenge.  This book is about two sea turtles — Bianca and Timmy — and their journey to their ocean home.  They face many dangers as they strive to reach the ocean waters.  Published via DiggyPod, students are selling these books for $6.00 each.   Proceeds from the sale of these books will be donated to the Mosquito Control and Marine and Coastal Management Services to help fund their projects with sea turtles.  Pictured from left are Melanie Page, Jacob Corman, Lauren … Read More

Bayshore Elementary School is proud to announce its school spelling bee winners for the 2011 – 2012 school year.  The first place winner was Skylar Collins, left, from Leigh Grippe’s third grade class, second place winner was Brianna Creary, center,  from Jennifer Glidden’s third grade class, and the third place winner was Aisha  Jean Baptiste, right,  from Joanne Smith’s third grade class.

Look who stopped by — it’s Mary Poppins! Actually, Beverly Buehrig, second grade teacher at WestGate K8 joins some other book characters in her class.  WestGate students were recently invited to come to school dressed as their favorite book character as the kick-off activity for Literacy Week . Pictured with Ms. Buehrig are, fr0m left, Julian Guerro, Nicolas Tavares, Caleb Gross, Justin Padilla, Alex Daniels,  Noami Osceola and Nathen Rodriguez.

Northport K-8 students in Carissa Provencher’s fourth grade class received donations from the City of Port St. Lucie and Waste Pro USA to beautify the school area.  Students and their teacher planted Sabal Palm trees near the school parking lot and bike rack to provide shade and make the curb side appeal more inviting.  Students learned all about the importance of trees and the environment in classroom lessons, then applied that knowledge in an outdoor atmosphere.  Ms. Provencher scaffolded information using students’ prior knowlege and built on that information using real life lessons.

Southport Middle School recently held its annual Science Expo in the school’s media center.  Over 80 student projects were on display with 10 being chosen to represent Southport at the istrict level science fair February 7, 2012.  The event was attended by School Board vice chairman Debbie Hawley, District Science K-12 Curriculum Specialist Steven Shotola, as well many students and faculty members.  Pictured is eighth grade student Kaylee Tolliver with her project titled, “Which brand of toothpaste makes a Kool-Aid stained marble appear whiter?” along with science teacher Kelly Lunt.

Forest Grove Middle School reading coach Melodee Hickman has created an anti-bullying unit in her reading classes. The seventh grade class created Thinking Maps on a variety of topics and skills about bullying, including comparing and contrasting, classification, description and higher level thinking questions. Pictured are students signing a pledge to support a bully free zone. Students will also soon begin a Random Acts of Kindness unit, which will include an interactive PowerPoint slide show, an anticipation guide, Kagan strategies, higher level thinking skills and most important, will lead into the book The Bystander to be read by all seventh grade … Read More

Northport K-8 School is pleased to promote Excellence in Education by showcasing role models who promote a positive learning environment and display the camaraderie of a vital and dynamic school.  Northport’s Teacher of the Year is Mala Woessner, who reflects the best attributes of a well rounded teacher.  First Year Teacher of the Year is Dulce Castro, who teaches first grade.  Lorena Paez Ampuero, second grade teacher, is Minority Educator of the Year and media clerk Pam Crum has been named the School Related Employee of the Year. Pictured are Ms. Woessner, right, and Ms. Crum.