As I sit down to write this message, I find myself asking one question, “where has the time gone?” Just yesterday, it seems, summer vacation was ending. Now, with the second nine week period of school almost over and the holiday season already upon us, my understanding of “time flying by” begins to take on new meaning. Anyhow, even though the school year feels as if it is cruising by, the PTSA has a few great events planned to end out 2006 with a bang.

First, this Friday, December 8, the PTSA will be hosting a Holiday Faculty/Staff Appreciation Breakfast as a way to celebrate the teachers and administration for their wonderful support of our parent, teacher, and student association. Although we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week in May, we want the teachers and administrative staff to know how grateful we are for their dedication to our children. Second, our Holiday Winter Book Fair starts the second week in December. Kate Pulver, our PTSA Reading Programs Chair, and her reading program committee volunteers, do a phenomenal job organizing and executing all aspects of the book fair! We hope you all come out to enjoy the book fair and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to buy gifts for family members, friends, and teachers.

In addition, there will be a PTSA General Assembly Meeting on December 12th, the same night as the book fair family night and cookie dough product pick-up. If you are available to come, we would love to have you attend. At any rate, I hope you enjoy the PTSA activities planned for December. Most of all, however, I hope you enjoy the extra “vacation” time you get to spend with your children; enjoying the holidays and building great memories together.

Happy Holidays!

Heidi Abernethy
President

Dear Parents,

Have you ever had one of those days where everything just hasn’t gone your way? You are running a little late and you pull into the car drop-off circle at 2 minutes till eight, and find a long line of cars! Well with a little help from everyone, we can at least try to help with the long line. When you pull into the car line, pull all the way to the front of the cones. Now I know that our middle school and high school students might have a little further to walk, but there will be room for at least 5 more cars than if you stop at the curve. Also, as soon as you stop by the coned off areas, please let your child out of the car and have them go right up to the sidewalk. They all now know where they are going.

Students can help as well! When they pull into the driveway, they can be ready to disembark. When the car stops, they can unbuckle, give a quick kiss or goodbye and hop out of the car (on the passenger side is most helpful). They can put their jackets, backpacks, and sweaters on when they get out. This would be very helpful.

Walkers can help too. If you walk your child to class, you stop traffic twice if you cut through the car loop. Might I suggest staying on the grass and coming around by the front office. You can say “Good morning” to the Director and the Elementary Principal as well! This is much safer for your children (and for you, too!).

So with a little help form everyone, we can try to cure those Car Drop-off and Pick-up Blues!

T. Neal Trafford
Elementary Principal

Advice From Your Middle School Guidance Counselor

Many parents wonder how their child is able to do well on homework, but not on tests. There are several reasons for this:

• Homework usually covers information that the student has recently worked on in class. This involves the use of short-term memory. Tests, on the other hand, usually include material covered over a longer period of time, and require the use of long-term memory.


• Tests also require higher-order thinking: drawing conclusions, making comparisons, and synthesizing information.


• In addition to requiring greater recall and critical thinking skills, tests are usually more stressful than homework assignments.

The Classic Cookie Fundraiser totals are still being tallied at this time. Your chance to pick up your cookie dough will be December 12 from 2:30 -6:30, which is also Family Night for the book fair and our PTSA General Assembly meeting. ALL PRODUCTS NOT PICKED UP ON THAT DATE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE RESOLD. We have to do this due to limited storage space so if you can not pick up your products that day contact me directly.

The Bake Sale at the Southwood Harvest Festival was a big success. Thank you to the parents who provided baked goods for the event. The goodies got rave reviews! All the proceeds are going to a Holiday Staff Breakfast on December 8 to show our appreciation to them during the holidays.

A special thank you to Alicia Cherry for organizing this event and doing a great job!

Lori Fitzpatrick
1st Vice President, Fundraising

“Louder, Prouder and Growing”

The Annual Florida PTA conference in Orlando on November 3-5, 2006 featured a variety of high-quality workshops and speakers, a Platform and Bylaws Hearing, Region Socials and Celebrations, and four General Meetings.

The keynote speaker was 2005-2007 National PTA President Anna Weselak, who emphasized that the PTA is the oldest volunteer child advocacy organization in the country. By becoming a member at our school level, we are also members at the state and national level. When an organization advocates for children and youth, the larger the number of people the organization represents, the more powerful the voice with legislators and other decision-makers.

Guest speaker Marilyn Moats Kennedy, career expert and journalist, spoke about differences and similarities of different age cohorts in the workplace, then related that to PTA member characteristics and ramifications for PTA membership and activities. The Florida Department of Education Teacher of the Year, Conney Dahn from Martin County , gave a funny and inspirational talk about how she motivates her students with various disabilities to participate in activities with students without disabilities. She also helps her students get practice jobs while in school so that they can eventually live independently.

The Platform and Bylaws Hearing and the four General Meetings went very smoothly, and the amendments to the Florida PTA bylaws and the proposed platform item of green schools were debated and voted on with a minimum of discussion. For details about the proposed Florida PTA platform item as well as other legislative information, please visit www.floridapta.org and select Legislation from the main menu.

Susan Epstein
Legislative Chair

DATE	EVENT
DEC 8	Faculty/Staff Appreciation Breakfast
DEC 11-15	Winter Book Fair
DEC 12	Family Night/Winter Book Fair
DEC 12	General Assembly Meeting
DEC 12	Cookie Dough Pick Up
DEC 15	Box Top Prizes Awarded
DEC 20	Elementary Fun Friday
JAN 5	Submissions Deadline Jan Council Oak

Click here for PTSA Calendar Dates
Click here for FSUS Calendar

School Gardens
Major progress was made on the gardens in the last month with several students and parents teaming together to remove the sod from the three plots. Seven cubic yards of mushroom compost was delivered to the school, and the task of tilling the compost into the soil is expected to be completed by the first week of December. The gardens will then be turned over to the Florida High faculty for use, with the PTSA retaining an advisory role.

SNAP Nutrition Program
Review of the snacks available on campus continues with the initial reports showing that the large majority do not meet the criteria for healthy snacks as outlined in the Florida High Wellness Policy. The results of the survey will be turned over to the Wellness Committee for action.

Upcoming plans include surveys of the snacks offered at athletic and other school events. The PTSA is also putting together a group of volunteers to work on finding healthy alternatives to replace those that don't meet the Wellness Plan criteria. Anyone wishing to help with this project can contact me at dannivogt@earthlink.net.

Trees on Elementary School Playground
One year after planting, the majority of the 11 shade trees planted by the PTSA and Alumni Class of '72 on the playground have survived one of the worst growing seasons in history and daily abuse by elementary students and look like they will make it to maturity. The magnolia, sycamore, pear, tulip poplar and drake elm trees are thriving and already providing limited amounts of shade, with the amount of shade expected to grow exponentially during the second year. The maple and nutall oak trees are doing well but need to be moved because they are planted too close to existing playground equipment. The two live oak trees and a willow oak did not grow well for unknown reasons and a request that the the nursery replace these trees will be made. The tupelo tree was doing fine but it was broken off by students, and it will be replaced as well. The transfer and replacement of these trees will be done while they are dormant for the year, during January and early February. The PTSA is also considering adding a few more native trees to the area.

Health Fair
The Health Fair is scheduled for March 28.

Danni Vogt
Health & Safety Chair

Congratulations to the following students who represented Florida High at the 2006 North Florida Fair!

K

Alyssa Harley	Selected for Display
Anders Johnson	1st Place
Carly Steed	5th Place
Taylor Tozzi	4th Place
Gabriel Springer	2nd Place

1st Grade

Lily Sweet King	Best in Show K-1
Carina Richardson	3rd Place

2nd

Tess Hogan	3rd Place
Tyler Brown	5th Place
Stanton Monroe	4th Place
Victoria Kercher	1st Place

3rd

Stephanie Lane	2nd Place
Sydney Harrison	1st Place
Akshar Patel	2nd Place
Nathan Jones	1st Place
Sammy Simenon	Best in Show 2-3
Adam Milligan	First Place

4th

Abigail Brown	2nd Place, Pastel
Abigail Brown	1st Place, Mixed Media
Hannah McMullen	2nd Place
Taylor Snipes	2nd Place
Austin Smith	1st Place

5th

Kari Baasch	3rd Place, Pastel
Kari Baasch	3rd Place, Misc
David McMullen	1st Place
Jeffrey Clegg	3rd Place
Brooke Harrison	2nd Place
Susana Peleyo	4th Place
Mariah Kill	5th Place
Brittany Corbett	1st Place
Precious Inchite	1st Place
Kayla Johnson	1st Place
Danielle McVicar	Best in Show 4-5

I-SAFE is an internet safety service for parents and students and has been at a few of the PTA conferences. Their information is great. This non-profit foundation's mission is to educate and empower youth to make their Internet experiences safe and responsible. The goal is to educate students on how to avoid dangerous, inappropriate, or unlawful online behavior.

Hope you find this information valuable. We'll add this link to our website.

Bonnie Abellera
3rd Vice President, Programs
President, Leon County PTA

Orchestra News
Congratulations to 12th grader Crystal Duval for being selected to perform with the Florida 11/12 All-State Orchestra. This is Crystal’s 5th year to be selected as a member of a Florida All-State Orchestra.

Congratulations to 9th grader Matthew Allen for being selected to perform with the Florida 9/10 All-State Orchestra. This is Matthew’s 3rd year to be selected as a member of a Florida All-State Orchestra.

Congratulations to 12th graders Raine Guthrie and Crystal Duval for being accepted into the Florida State University College of Music for the fall of 2007.

Terice Allen
Orchestra Director

Builders Club
Key Club is beginning a new club called Builder's Club for Middle School students. One of our main goals this year is to start this club in order for Middle School students of FSUS to participate in community service projects and work to better our school, community, and world. Key Club is proud to announce that Builder's Club will have Miss Pittman as its sponsor. So, if any students in the grades 6-8 are interested, High School Key Club is hosting meetings every Thursday afternoon at 3:05 in room 2-218.

Taylor Conley
Key Club Editor