Susan Gaboriau

Friday, April 12, I had the pleasure of spending the day with a great group of educators! They are making a change in education! Media Specialists from all over North Florida came together to share the wonderful things happening in their media centers. They showcased how they are helping students and teachers learn skills for future jobs in fun and innovative ways. Suzanne Buckles from Kelley Smith Elementary School and I showcased Dash and Dot, Ozobots, Lego Mindstorms EV3, WeDo, Bloxels, and STEAM Park. It was a great day of learning and sharing across North Florida, very inspiring! @LibMakerFest

Classrooms across the district have been sharing and collaborating through Hangouts. One of our fifth grade teachers wrote a grant for a weather station and invited all fifth grade classroom in the district to check it out through Google Hangouts! We had four classes participate! The students from the other classes were excited to see other fifth graders in the district and had great question! What a great way to bring the district together!

I wonder... where will education be five years from now? I have personally seen many teachers hang up their hats in teaching. In the district I work in and many district around the state of Florida. You may say or think, they were not good teachers, but they were. They worked hard every day to help their students be successful. They arrived at work early, stayed late, and you could find them at the school on weekends. They truly cared about their students and wanted to give them the best education they possibly could. Unfortunately, due to many obstacles out of their control, they chose to leave the profession. Not only are teachers leaving the profession, but new teachers are not entering the profession. According to the Orlando Sentinel in January 2019, they wrote, "Halfway through the school year, Florida's public schools need to hire 2,217 teachers to fill open jobs in classrooms across the state, a sign of Florida's growing teacher shortage, according to the stat