Polk County Public Schools
Two Polk teachers have been invited to participate in the C-SPAN & Bright House Educators Conference in Washington, D.C. on July 17 and 18. C-SPAN is paying for the teachers’ roundtrip airfare, lodging and meals during the conference.
Representing Polk is Pat McLarty of Kathleen High and Janel Vasallo of Haines City High. This professional development opportunity will allow the teachers to learn about C-SPAN’s television programming, Web sites, classroom applications and other learning initiatives. The conference will focus on 2008 campaign programming. McLarty and Vasallo will learn about resources to help other teachers and students prepare for this year’s presidential campaign and other elections.
Bartow High teacher James A. Harrison Jr. was named 2007-2008 Polk County Teacher Of The Year by the Central Florida Chapter of the Air Force Association.
The chapter selects a Teacher Of The Year from each of the five Central Florida counties (Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole). Teachers are chosen for the award for their ability to inspire and motivate students about science, math and technology. Harrison’s teaching specialties are engineering and design technology.
Melanie Harden, social studies teacher at Lakeland’s Traviss Career Center, served as a mentor teacher at the Justice Teaching Institute held at and sponsored by the Florida Supreme Court. More than 20 teachers from across the state participated in the week-long institute held during the 2007-2008 school year in Tallahassee.
Teachers learned law-related lessons to bring back to classroom and received an overview of the courts system. Teachers also participated in mock oral arguments, case studies and learned about court technology, alternative dispute resolution and issues facing the courts. They visited trial and appellate courts and also learned about the Florida Supreme Court’s history.
The week is geared to helping them prepare lessons and learning to bring back and convey to their students. Harden was a participant during the 2005-2006 Justice Teaching Institute and was chosen to mentor other teachers attending the 2007-2008 institute.
The North Lakeland Rotary presented its Voluntary Award to Donna Cross, college and career facilitator at Kathleen High. She received the award for her involvement with the Rotary and for work in helping students attend the Rotary’s Seminar For Tomorrow’s Leader conferences at Lakeland’s Florida Southern College.