District News

Walton County School District Elementary and Secondary Choral music students presented the 3rd Annual All-County Choral Concert on Saturday, January 25, at the beautiful Freeport Auditorium. 10 school choral programs came together to form the All-County Elementary Chorus, All-County Middle School Chorus, and All-County High School Chorus, for a total of over 170 singers in performance! Congratulations to all the participating students on a moving and musical performance!

Elementary Clinician, Michelle Tredway, has taught at all levels K-12, plus college, and is currently the choral director at Ruckel Middle School in Niceville, Florida. Mrs. Tredway has taught ten years in elementary schools, twelve years in middle schools, two years in high schools, and eight years as a professor in a small central Florida college. Her choirs have consistently received the top rating of Superior at the Florida Educators District Music Performance Assessments, and she currently serves as the FVA District 1 chairman. Choirs under her direction have also been named Choirs of Distinction by the Florida Vocal Association.

Middle School Clinician, Joy Tyner, has taught public school choral music education for 22 years, and is currently teaching both choral music and Exceptional Student Education at Thomas L. Sims Middle School in Pace, Florida. In its fourth year, the choral program at Sims has grown from 90 singers to 220. Mrs. Tyner has served as a music therapist in a residential setting for mentally and physically disabled and has taught piano in her private studio. She served as District Chair for Florida Vocal Association’s District 1 and earned her National Board Certification in Adolescent Music.

High School Clinician, Caroline Ireland, is the 2020 Santa Rosa County Teacher of the Year and the choral director at Navarre High School, Navarre, Florida. Since 2010 her choral program of 200 students has received superior ratings at both the Florida Vocal Association District and State Music Performance Festivals. Four of her choirs received the prestigious “Choir of Distinction” award presented by the Florida Vocal Association.Throughout her tenure at Navarre High School, she has served as the District Chairman for the Florida Vocal Association and has conducted Honor Choirs in Okaloosa and Duval County.

Students were selected at their individual school sites, and came together as a group for a total of 5 hours over two sessions, performing repertoire selected by clinicians. All three choruses combined on stage for a closing Finale piece conducted by Walton County Fine Arts Coordinator, Keitha Bledsoe.

Thanks to our wonderful clinicians for their time and expert preparation of the All-County repertoire, and for sharing their passion for music with our students!
Thanks to music educators William Goodman, Mossy Head Elementary; Cathy Drake, Maude Saunders Elementary; Nathan Hight, West DeFuniak Elementary; Angela Saltsman, Freeport Elementary; Daniel Browne, Van R. Butler Elementary; Corrie Sober, Dune Lakes Elementary; Lona Robinson, Walton Middle School and Walton High School; Susan Behrens, Freeport Middle School and Freeport High School.
Congratulations to these amazing students on a phenomenal performance

2020 All-County Chorus

Pictured: Wyndy Crozier, ECTC Principal; Leslie Harrison, ECTC TOY for 2019-2020; Superintendent A. Russell Hughes

Emerald Coast Technical College is proud to recognize their 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year, Ms. Leslie Harrison. Ms. Harrison was named one of the top three finalist in the District Teacher of the Year selection process.

Ms. Harrison is in charge of the Information Technology Programs at ECTC, and is considered to be a highly valuable, dedicated and productive member of the ECTC team.

Congratulations to Ms. Leslie Harrison, Emerald Coast Technical College!

ECTC TOY 2019-2020 w Supt Hughes

Third grade students at WDE are learning about Canada, and recently had the opportunity to taste maple syrup candy! Canada is the world’s largest producer of maple syrup. Students learned about the importance of the Sugar Maple tree, and why the maple leaf is on the Canadian flag. Students had mixed reactions to the maple flavored candy, but the memory will last forever!

Shout-out to Mrs. Stephenson's leadership class for their recent participation in the Mock Trial competition held at the Walton County Courthouse! Through this competition, students learn critical thinking skills, legal reasoning, analysis, and professionalism, as well as the structure and function of the courts and the legal process.

The following students participated in the event:
Jackson Campbell
Michelle De La Rosa
Emily Hicks
Amber Kendrick (Best Prosecution Witness)
Lorenzo Miodus-Santini
Tyler Morse (Best Defense Witness)
John Pennington
Fiona Robinson
Cody Warren (Best Defense & Prosecution Attorney)

MSE students and families rotated through dozens of hands-on activities and experienced the wonders of the Night Sky inside a mobile planetarium at MSE’s STEM Night January 21^st. The engaging activities were created to inspire and grow interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. Each activity exposed the students to basic scientific and mathematical principles, and reminded us all how much fun learning can be! We are especially thankful to community members, Paxton School, Walton Middle School, Walton High School, and the STEAM school for contributing to our successful event!

MSE STEM

STEM MSE

It is an EPIC day at the STEM symposium in Pensacola. Carrie Sneed, Christine Petersen, and Alecia Hogans attended the STEM Symposium in Pensacola. They are excited to bring some EPIC ideas back to Walton County teachers and students.

This two-day event hosted by Discovery Education and Santa Rosa County Public Schools focused on how to create a shared STEM vision, provide professional development to educators and administrators, and cultivate inquiry-based, transdisciplinary instruction to prepare students for their future.

From left to right: William Holley, Dariyon Moore, Ethan Miles, Destiney Waggoner, and Saffire Lewis

Choosing a college and career path is not to be taken lightly. In the efforts to have our students begin thinking about college and careers, each 5^th grade class was assigned a college to represent. Students conducted research on the universities to determine location, majors offered, requirements to attend, yearly cost, mascot, history of the college, and any major awards the school has received. Each student was also to consider a major offered at the assigned school that may interest him or her. Many of our students already have career goals in mind, and informing themselves of college requirements is allowing them to begin planning their individual paths of education. Mrs. Currid’s class – Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University, Mrs. Garrett’s class – Clemson University, Ms. Dickey’s class – Oklahoma State University, Mrs. Bush’s class – Southeastern Louisiana University, Mr. Stafford’s class – Emerald Coast Technical College

College Posters

Congratulations to Sydni Free and Olivia Mixon of Freeport High School for advancing to the regional weightlifting meet. Sydni finished 1st and Olivia finished 6th at the class 1A District 2, girls weightlifting meet at Arnold High School.

FHS Weightlifting competition winners

Mr. Stephen Byrd's instructional style proves that literacy matters in the career and technical subjects. Students in Mr. Byrd's eighth grade ICT class recently learned to create simple web pages using HTML code by engaging in a paired programming activity. In paired programming, one partner carefully reads aloud the task instructions for creating the web page, while the other partner listens and responds, creating the web page as they go. In this hands-on lesson, students learn the importance of both reading carefully and listening closely, else their website creations will veer far off course. At different points in the lesson, students switch roles so everyone gets to experience the reading, listening, and creating aspects of the assignment. After this introductory lesson, students will delve into deeper detail about web design (colors, aesthetics, placement, alignment, proximity, etc.) throughout the unit, testing at the end to earn their industry certification in web design. Mr. Byrd does an excellent job of building students' literacy and listening skills while equipping them with high-demand technology competencies.

Cover photo - A.J. Lardiere reads instructions for creating a web page, while Kyla Brown listens and follows along step-by-step.

Noah McKnight and Grace Bell practice paired programming.

WMS Byrd

Rolly Benitez and Gunner Sharp make a great team, showing off their completed web page.

Students at the Magnet Innovation Center are hard at work in their Principles of Engineering class designing, building and executing their latest projects.

Sophia Roessler and Emily Sidrony are working on designing, Blake Stevenson, Tray Toups and Davis Cleveland are building and Dalton Robinson is executing his project in the world of virtual reality to see if all components in his design are working effectively so he can move into the building stage.

Elementary and Secondary All-County Chorus 2020

January 31, 2020

ECTC Recognizes Their 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year

January 30, 2020

Third Grade at WDE

January 27, 2020

WHS Leadership Students Participate In Mock Trial

January 27, 2020

STEM Night at MSE

January 27, 2020

STEM Symposium in Pensacola

January 27, 2020

WDE 5th Grade College One Pagers

January 27, 2020

FHS Students Advance to Regional Competition in Weightlifting!

January 26, 2020

Literacy, Listening, and Tech Learning at WMS

January 26, 2020

Magnet Innovation Center!

January 26, 2020