Florida History

Hey Malcolm! Why don't you run with this? (business term meaning expand on what I've included and teach it to the class)

This Day in History

Ponce de León Sets Foot on Florida (1513)

On March 3, 1513, Ponce de León set out from Puerto Rico and sailed NE through the Bahamas. He sighted the Florida peninsula, which he took to be an island, late in March and landed near the site of St. Augustine early in April. His arrival coincided with the Easter feast, Pascua Florida, which is probably why he named the land he claimed for Spain "La Florida." What is thought to be the source of the claim that Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth? More...

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

IT'S NOT BRIDGET! When the school news asked for applicants for the TV show, I asked you all to raise your hands if you were afraid of applying; either because you were afraid you wouldn't be chosen, or you were afraid you would be.

When the ones who did raised your hands, I suggested you apply anyway. If you didn't "FACE YOUR FEARS" now, it would only get harder to do it as you grew up. I passed along learning I've gained from great people like Plato and Eleanor Roosevelt, and passed it along to you all in hopes of helping you become the greatness I see inside of you. Bridget, you said you would, but only wanted to work behind the camera.

You were chosen, and for the past three mornings have been ON the news, IN FRONT of the camera. I don't know where you got your courage from, but I'm glad you chose to focus on your courage versus fear.

Not only are you becoming more each day by doing this, you are HAVING FUN doing it. You can see it in your smile and your energy literally comes through the camera to everyone watching, making us want to hear what you have to say.


You reminded me of the importance of choosing to be happy, to just "go with it", even when you might be scared to death of what you are doing. Now I think of Plato, Roosevelt, and Frost when speaking on having courage.

Why do I get the strong feeling that Robert Frost, the poet and writer, won't be the only Frost people remember?

And that goes for ALL of you. You can't control your life if you don't control your thoughts.


Remember what the structure was that we came up with together this morning: In your comments include:

1. What you INTENDED to learn.
2. THE WAY you intended to learn it.
3. Have you constructed new learning because of this day and can honestly say, I AM MORE than when the day began? (some may even feel like half the globe is in, or on, their head)

Don't forget to include the resources you used throughout the day. Here Sandeep's Hammer and The Mighty Malcom have to move beyond the limits of their textbook and access resources outside the classroom via the internet. This is also reading, and expanding your mind.

"The size of your world is the size of your heart and mind." - Me. I said that! Yes. Me! (imitating King Julian from Madagascar)

Boys, and you know who you are, I want to know how you felt about me "barking" at you when I caught you playing but not learning. Work hard. Play Hard. There's time for both. There's a way to combine both. But you gotta be strong, man. You gotta be strong to do this, man! (I think I see why my mother said I should be training marines and not kids)

Now everybody be quiet. Shhhh! Who keeps making that noise? Oh, it's me again.

Becoming Independent Learners

I know it was only a day, but being back with you guys feels great. I really enjoy teaching you. I like that you can't help giving me a hug first thing, Kenny, even before I can finish saying good morning to Sofia.

My trip to Illinois was one of tremendous learning and growth for me. So to come back and discover all the learning you have done in my absence lets me know you are truly becoming independent learners.

A few shining examples of students DOING MORE than just what I had the sub ask you to do in class yesterday: (from the MATH QUIZ on Friday)




Summer - you created a terrific PowerPoint on the questions you missed. You recognize you are a visual learner and create more elaborate presentations than I do.


I have much to learn from you, Graphics Master, and need to figure out how to get these on the blog.

Mahrukh - you used the internet to find websites that showed you different ways to learn how to do the problems you didn't understand.

You are our webmaster, correctly using the web to surf for learning resources.

You are now.............Spider Girl!


Ryan & Briana - you both used the FCAT Explorer to find similar questions to the ones you missed. This is excellent! I see you as Great Thinkers.



Serena - you used a word document to quiz yourself on the ones you missed. This is exactly what I do to help me learn what I don't know. I had great success becoming fluent in Spanish this way, and now am applying it to Italian. We both go with what works for us.

*Remarkably, you got an "A" on the quiz but still chose to learn the little that you didn't know. You are truly unstoppable by making these kinds of "growth" choices. I can't tell you how excited I am to watch your future unfold for you, because YOU are conciously choosing what you want and taking action to make it happen.



Belle - although you got a poor grade on the quiz I wanted to take the time to discuss your real ability to "do" math. Many times being able to "do" math is confused with being able to memorize algorithms, or ways to answer problems correctly without really understanding the problem at all.



This is dangerous "learning" since in the real world you won't be given a set of ways to memorize to solve the problems you'll encounter. Those that thrive are those that can solve problems that others can't. To do this you have to UNDERSTAND the problem fully.





YOU CAN DO THIS! You were the first one to solve a college level math problem, meaning your brain operates very well at higher levels. This also means you CAN learn the simpler 5th grade problems, and I expect you to!!!!!!


I was proud to see how hard all of you worked today. MALCOLM you were definitely MIGHTY in your determination to solve the problems that challenged you. We worked hard together and fused our minds in coming up with the right answers!

Remember to try to think in terms of place value versus "columns" and you'll understand the problems better.



The classroom really became a learning playground today. It was so enjoyable. I'm going to miss you all next year (sniff, sniff, no.....I'm not crying......someone must be cutting up onions... =:-)

Click here to see all the pictures from today.