Education in the First State
July 29, 2015
Teaching, leading go hand-in-hand
Presidential award winners Kristin Carmen of Sussex Technical High School and Christopher Havrilla of Woodbridge High School

Two Delaware teachers have won Presidential honors for their excellence in mathematics and science teaching.


 

President Obama named Kristin Carmen of Sussex Technical High School and Christopher Havrilla of Woodbridge High School among the 108 recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Each award comes with a $10,000 prize.
 

We asked the teachers to share their thoughts about teacher leadership, which has been core to their careers.


 

 
Migrant summer program prepares students for fall
Western Sussex Boys & Girls Club Assistant Director Lucy Dutton helps a student.

 

Divided into groups, students crowd around tables collaborating on a poster project. When it is time to share their work, hands dart up. Everyone wants to go first. Down the hall, older students are wearing headphones as they independently study a literacy program, a teacher circulating to offer assistance as they need it. After lunch, all the children will don swimsuits to play in the indoor pool.

 

This is a typical summer day at Western Sussex Boys & Girls Club in Seaford, one of two sites where about 100 children of migrant workers in the state are accessing academic help and enrichment activities this summer thanks to the Delaware Migrant Education Program.

 

"Migrant children suffer from interrupted education. This program helps offset that," Program Director Terry Richard said. "The constant mobility makes it hard for them to ever get their feet on the ground academically. Migrant students check out of school early in the spring and register late in the fall to follow crop production cycles with their parents. Migrant summer school helps them to get on track again."

 

 
Students excel at national career tech conferences


 

High-school students from across Delaware won top honors in several national Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) competitions this summer, demonstrating their dedication, leadership and skill in pursuit of future technical careers.

 

More than 320 students and advisers from throughout the state attended national conferences in Louisville, Dallas and Anaheim last month. Thirty-seven student competitors and 18 school teams from Delaware earned Top 10 honors at these events.


 
Student Spotlight

2015 graduates represent Delaware at White House summit

Cab Calloway grad Nicole Mejia, Cab Calloway guidance counselor Kim Rigby and Hodgson grad Ke'Asiah Faulkner at the White House for the Beating the Odds Summit.


 

Two Delaware high school graduates visited the White House last week to take part in Reach Higher's Beating the Odds Summit.
 

Ke'Asiah Faulkner, a 2015 graduate of Paul M. Hodgson Vocational Technical High School in the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District, and Nicole Mejia, a 2015 graduate of Cab Calloway School of the Arts in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, represented Delaware at the July 23 summit, which brought together college-bound high school graduates from across the country to help them prepare for their academic journeys ahead.
 

Participants discussed topics such as how to get academic support in college, how to form strong networks at school and how to attain a sense of "career fluency" to figure out opportunities for the future. And they heard from President Obama and participated in a celebratory event with the First Lady. Kim Rigby, a school counselor at Cab Calloway, also attended as the Delaware delegation's chaperone.
 

Both graduates said they were honored to represent the First State at the summit.
 

Mejia said she looks forward to sharing her enrichment from the experience back home with her community.
 

"I feel so thankful and blessed for all of the people that have contributed to my journey, leading up to this moment," Mejia said. "I am so proud to be from Delaware."
 


School Spotlight

Stubbs Elementary shows power of community partnerships
Stubbs second grade teacher Megan Howe helps students in the summer program.

In a climate of limited resources and high needs, Christina School District's Stubbs Elementary School has partnered with its community to provide students with rich experiences during the summer through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary Summer STEM Enrichment Program.
 

"Our Summer STEM camp is very important to our students because it allows them to continue to enhance their proficiency levels in math and reading," explains Dr. Jeffers Brown, principal of the Wilmington school.
 

STEM activities provide real-world applications of mathematics, science, engineering and technology. That is important for Stubbs students, who Brown said enter kindergarten at least a year behind their peers outside the city. By mirroring a year-round school model, Brown aims to combat summer learning loss.
 

"It is my hope that we can eradicate the achievement gap that exists between our inner-city school versus the suburbs and other state schools," he said. 

Other Good News in Delaware's Public Schools