A NEW WAY TO EXPLORE: Opportunities like this Atwater Elementary field trip in 2009-10 to Oscar Scherer State Park will be easier for teachers to learn about with the launch of EdExploreSRQ.com, a website that links teachers with learning experiences in the area. Picture from left to right are students Ryan Miller, Andrew Parenteau, Corey Gray, Jesse Steinmetz, Hugh Jephthe Calice and Master Naturalist Greta Man of Around the Bend Nature Tours. 

SARASOTA COUNTY - Last year, The Patterson Foundation and the Sarasota County Schools joined with the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, the Science and Environment Council of Sarasota County, the Education Foundation of Sarasota County and 34 local cultural organizations to create an initiative called Cultural Connections with K-12 Sarasota Students.

The purpose of the initiative is to link teachers with organizations offering programs aligned with state instructional standards so enrichment activities relate to the content students are studying. The Patterson Foundation supported the development of the EdExploreSRQ.com website to provide a single place for organizations to post and teachers to find approved activities.

The website is an interactive database educators can use to search for cultural activities or "explorations" that support the standards they are teaching and to find possible sources of funding for student participation. Read more... 

NORTH PORT - Cindy Hall has begun her first year as principal of Woodland Middle School. She succeeds Kristine Lawrence, who is now principal of Brookside Middle in Sarasota.

Hall, a former assistant principal at Pine View School, said, "I am excited to be named as Woodland's principal and look forward to working with the students, parents, faculty and staff to ensure the continuation of the programs begun by Kris Lawrence."

Prior to joining the Sarasota County School District, Hall served as a middle and elementary school principal in Alabama, as supervisor of secondary and middle school curriculum for the Baldwin County, Ala., Board of Education and as assistant principal at Bay Minette Middle School in Bay Minette, Ala.

She holds a doctorate degree in education from Auburn University, an educational specialist degree and a master's certification from the University of South Alabama, a master's degree and a bachelor's degree from Auburn. 

SARASOTA - Media from as far away as Australia traveled to Emma E. Booker Elementary School this summer as part of their coverage of the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

National networks, including ABC, CNN and Fox News, as well as local TV stations and newspapers, joined international reporters from BBC Radio and ITV Television (United Kingdom), Expressen newspaper (Sweden), La Repubblica newspaper (Italy) and many other journalists in their search for personal stories from students and teachers about President Bush's visit to the school a decade ago.

Many interviews were conducted in room 301, the classroom President Bush visited on 9/11. Interviews scheduled after the start of the school year were conducted after school hours or in other locations. BBC Radio transmitted a live three-hour broadcast throughout the U.K. and on the World Wide Web from the North Sarasota Library, across the street from the school.

Lazaro Dubrocq, a senior at Riverview High who was featured in a May issue of TIME magazine along with fellow classmates Chantal Guerrero and Mariah Williams (now seniors at Sarasota Military Academy), said he lost track of the number of interviews he has given reporters.

Kay Daniels, the classroom teacher who welcomed President Bush into her classroom on Sept. 11, saw the interviews as a chance to reconnect with her former students and tell the world how well they behaved that day as second-graders.

Guerrero, who also sang in a community chorus as part of "Summon the Heroes," a 9/11 commemorative concert held at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Sept. 10 and 11, said, "The 16 students who were in that classroom will never forget 9/11. It was a tragic day, but we are forever part of history."