On Tuesday, the EPIC Van stopped by the Early Head Start Program in DeFuniak Springs to provide socialization and learning experiences for DeFuniak’s tiniest learners!  Mr. Cashman, Mrs. McKee and Mrs. Lathinghouse spent time with the tiny tots making friends, teaching early learning skills and sharing trinkets to remember their experience.  Coach Wassman and Coach Smallwood share markers, smartboards and bubbles in Hammock Bay Wednesday afternoon.  Walton County School District advocates for excellence in learning for all student residents.  If you haven’t seen the van in your community, be sure to look at the schedule for dates, locations and times in the link below.  We hope to see you at the EPIC Van soon!

Just because it's summer doesn't mean teachers in Walton County stop thinking about their own learning and how it can impact their students.  A group of committed educators from Maude Saunders Elementary, Walton Middle School, and Walton High School chose to join together for a local AVID professional development experience hosted by WMS.  On June 15th and 16th, these teachers gained new knowledge and shared insights about the schoolwide AVID program, whose mission is to close the opportunity gap by accelerating student learning.  AVID believes that if educators can improve the likelihood that kids can go to a four-year college, then they can change the trajectory of students' lives.  By investing in the AVID philosophy and schoolwide WICOR strategies, teachers help students see possibilities, no matter their circumstances.  Through rigor and relationships, teachers equip students to envision their own potential.  In the two-day training session, facilitated by Gaby Brown (WMS), Jana Currid (WDE), Olivia Garrett (WDE), Lynne Martin (WCSD), and Kristen Nelson (WMS), teachers collaborated to gain more strategies and ideas for giving students the essential tools for clearing their paths of obstacles and setting themselves on the road to success.

The WCSD believes in the importance of providing continuing education opportunities related to current and relevant topics to assist our school counselors in the performance of their job tasks.  The trainings are planned with interactive content and so they are immediately implementable.  During the 2020-2021 school year, trainings on topics such as Social Emotional Learning, Trauma Informed Classrooms, MTSS and Early Warning System Data and many more were provided to the WCSD school counselors. These topics were chosen based on input from the counselors, as well as, state and district initiatives. We are very proud of the dedication, collegiality and professionalism of our school counselors.