It was a big year for education policy in Florida. The state changed high school graduation requirements, started phasing out FCAT with tests based on new national standards, expanded online education options and approved a one-time teacher pay raise.
But as the school year comes to a close, StateImpact Florida’s Sammy Mack asked: What did you really learn in school this year?
Sheyla Avila is 12 years old and a student at George Washington Carver middle school. She said, " I dissected a frog and I learned a lot about the organs and the body. I learned a little more math for example we’re starting algebra. Reading - my vocabulary has been increasing."
It’s not just kids who have been learning new things. Jorge Gomez teaches special education at Hialeah High. He says he learned the potential of technology in the classroom this year.
"Special ed or not special ed, they’re into texting, they’re into all the social media, they’re into playing games", Gomez said. "Even students who barely can read, you’ll find them texting each other."
One of the people working on getting kids to learn with digital tools is Gary Weidenhamer. He was president this year of the Florida Counsel of Instructional Technology Leaders. They’re trying to figure out the best way to meet state requirements like the mandate that half of all public school instruction be digital by 2015. For him, the big lesson was about working together.
"Because with the 67 districts in Florida, we do not want to build 67 different wheels", Weidenhamer said. "There are so many requirements coming down from the state and every district is really really struggling and in some of our meetings that we’ve had it’s been very helpful to share some of our challenges and some of our successes and learn from eachother, collaborate with eachother."
And this was the year that Neyda Borges, language arts chair at Miami Lakes Educational Center, realized teaching is hard. And also rewarding.
"And each year when I think oh my god how am I going to get through another year? How am I going to get through a brand new pacing guide? Or all of these new lessons? Or all of these new test measures I have to learn? I have a fantastic group of kids that have so much potential", Borges said.
This spring, she got to see that potential come full circle. Borges traveled to Howard University in Washington Dc to witness one of the first kids she ever taught graduate from college.
"I really was so excited", said Borges. "I was sitting there with her family, cheering for her, snapping pictures and just beaming with pride."
This year Florida students sat for the second-to last FCAT. And 12-year-old Kyle Brooks cannot wait for the standardized to go away.