ECMS students joined Butler Elementary students to celebrate the end of Summer Bridge! ECMS students attending Summer Bridge spent three weeks engaged in rigorous literacy activities led by their teacher, Mrs. Michele Holder, and paraprofessionals, Ms. Gina, Ms. Delgado and Ms. Jolie.

Submitted by Candy Bodie

WCSD Secondary math teachers Catherine Duggins, Gwen Parker, Brenda Farris, Kala Wilson, Christoper Eby, and Julius Mcmanus attended the College Board Algebra 1 Mastery Learning through Collaboration and Resource Sharing Workshop at PAEC (Panhandle Area Educational Consortium) on Tuesday, June 26. Our math teachers, James Ross, Katie Moore, and Crystal Appel spent the afternoon diving deeper into the Algebra 1 standards and collaborating with teachers across the panhandle to learn about rigorous resources. They are excited to bring back their learning to students this fall. We would like to thank College Board and PAEC for this experience.

Submitted by Katie Moore

WCSD Administrators recently had the opportunity to participate in a coaching and feedback workshop led by Dr. Rosemarye Taylor using TeachLive - a mixed-reality classroom simulator with avatars.  This cutting-edge classroom/conference simulator provided administrators, supervisors and instructional coaches with opportunities to practice and strengthen their coaching skills in closely realistic settings. 

The system, developed through a unique partnership between education and computer science professors at the University of Central Florida, works from two ends. On one end, an administrator views a screen on which a teacher avatar is projected. A motion-capture device and camera read the administrators movements. On the other end, an interactor controls the teacher avatar, speaking through a microphone and using head-mounted and handheld controllers programmed to respond to certain movements. Using student avatars, this virtual lab can also be used to allow teachers the opportunity to address a variety of classroom scenarios that occur every day without the worry of "making a mistake".  Each avatar has it's own unique "personality", and the program provides the opportunity to practice handling various degrees of situational difficulty.