Ms. Juanita Williams is the Seminole County Public Schools Featured Teacher!

You may also view her Featured Teacher Video here.

Message from Ms. Williams:

Hello. I am Juanita Williams, and I am pleased to be the McDonald's Featured Teacher for Seminole County Public Schools. I teach English II Honors and Advanced Placement English Language and Composition at Crooms Academy of Information Technology, a nationally-ranked technology magnet high school here in Seminole County, Florida.

Florida has been my home since I was about six months old, so I am nearly a native Floridian. I have lived in the Orlando area since I was eight and all of my education happened locally. After attending Orlando public schools, the University of Central Florida granted me a Bachelors degree in Applied Sociology in 1989 and a Masters degree in Secondary Language Arts Education in 2006.

I came to teaching after a twenty-plus year career in the insurance and information technology industries. I went back to school at age 40 to train in a new career field and started teaching during the 2005-2006 school year. I have always been a voracious reader, and it was my love of literature that brought me to the teaching profession. My love of writing was really developed by my participation in the National Writing Project in 2007. The idea of the project is that teachers who are writers will be better at teaching writing. I use things I learned from the research-based principles of the National Writing Project every day in my classroom. Some of my core teaching principles are that every student can excel, writers write, project-based learning stretches our brains and gives an accurate snapshot of student learning, and we all need to constantly learn throughout our entire lives.

My school honored me during my first year of teaching by awarding me the Crooms Academy Rookie Teacher of the Year recognition in 2006 and further honored me as Teacher of the Year in 2009. My colleagues continued to invest in my future through training and through the guidance of such hard-working and talented administrators as Dr. Connie Collins and Dr. Mickey Reynolds. I cannot say enough about these women who molded me in my early days of teaching. They are amazing!

I am currently the sponsor for the Reynolds Right Hands, a group of empowered students who work diligently for student safety by advocating against distracted driving, and the Crooms Writer's Guild, an after-school writers group where we write, share our writing, and flex our writing muscles. Daily interaction with students is the very best part of this job that I love.

Education improves your life. Teaching improves my life. Thank you for the honor of being the McDonald's Featured Teacher.

Effective July 1st, some new and familiar faces have joined the Crooms AoIT Alumni Association, Inc. Leadership Team. At the Alumni Association’s Annual Meeting, Angeline Gores, Class of 2010, was appointed by the Board of Directors to the Marketing Coordinator position while Greg Raymond, Class of 2011, and Christopher Lopez, Class of 2007, were both elected by the membership to serve in at-large positions on the Board of Directors.

"Angeline Gores’ appointment to the Marketing Coordinator position fills a gap on the leadership team that I’m happy to see filled. I know many of us are looking forward to reading her marketing plan," stated Secretary/Treasurer and Director Frank C. Bracco, Class of 2006. Gores graduated this summer from DeVry University with a bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Design and Development. She is also starting her own web design business called Around The Web Designs.

Gregory Raymond’s election to the Board of Director’s also means another new, and younger, Croomie is joining the Leadership Team. He is currently pursuing his accounting degree at the University of Central Florida and is actively involved in the Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity, the Student Government Association, and several other student organizations. When he is not busy at school, he is working as a human resources consultant at Aon Hewitt, serving as Treasurer for Reynolds’ Right Hands, or volunteering in numerous ways with the Boy Scouts of America’s Central Florida Council following his youth career as an Eagle Scout and member of the Order of the Arrow. Raymond takes over for Class of 2007 grad Gaelan Adams who had been on the board since 2011 and was instrumental in founding the Crooms AoIT Alumni Association. Adams will continue to serve in an advisory capacity for the Alumni Association.

Last but certainly not least, Christopher Lopez has been re-elected to the Board of Directors for his third term. Lopez has been a manager at McDonald’s for going on 6 years and is also the owner of Late8 Solutions / Wireless, a mobile services provider and a Simple Mobile dealer. Late8 Solutions also provides web hosting at http://late8host.com/. In his spare time, Lopez is an avid Harry Potter fan and is working on various Potter fan sites and activities, including this October’s Harry Potter fan camp, Camp 9 ¾.

It's official, the new principal at Crooms Academy of Information of Technology is Demetria Hayes-Faison. Ms. Hayes-Faison previously served as the assistant principal of Crooms AoIT and has officially been approved by the School Board to become the principal in the upcoming school year following Superintendent Walt Griffin's recommendation in early June. She replaces Dr. Connie Collins, who was named principal of Seminole High in the domino effect of administrator switches under way. Dr. Collins served as Crooms AoIT's principal for 13 years.

The 2013 Seminole County High School Rookie Teacher of the Year is Crooms Academy of Information Technology teacher Derek Jensen. Derek is a Biology teacher at Crooms AoIT. Derek loves to share that his classroom is entirely paperless. At any time, every student can access his class virtually on their laptops, tablets, and smart phones. They complete and submit assignments digitally, and he grades and provides written, spoken, and video feedback to them. Even when his students are not at school, they simultaneously participate in virtual discussions, labs, and collaborate on projects with the other students in the class. Derek believes that blended learning in his class provides expanded opportunities for his students to develop mastery.

When Derek not busy cramming science knowledge into his students' brains, he sponsors the Freshman Class and Art Club. His major hobbies involve teaching, grading papers, and reading life science periodicals. An avid pirate enthusiast and pinball player, he loves polar bears almost as much as they love him.

This is not the first time a Crooms AoIT employee has received an "Of the Year" recognition at the county or state level. Since 2009 (when our website went live):

• Bradford Barsalou was named the SCPS Teacher of the Year in 2011
• Coach Nat Perkins was named School-Related Employee of the Year in 2011
• Dr. Connie Collins was named Principal of the Year for SCPS and the State of Florida in 2009

The Florida Department of Education has released some FCAT and End of Course examation results. Crooms AoIT students have once again flexed their academic muscles by outperforming their peers in Seminole County Public Schools. Check out some of the highlights below:

• Highest 10th grade mean reading score
• Second highest 9th grade mean reading score
• Highest Spring 2013 Biology 1 EOC exam mean score
• Highest percentage of students to achieve a 3 or above on the Spring 2013 Biology 1 EOC exam (higher than the next closest by 10 percentile points)
• Highest Spring 2013 Geometry EOC exam mean score
• Highest percentage of students to achieve a 3 or above on the Spring 2013 Geometry EOC exam (higher than the next closest by 7 percentile points)
• Second highest Winter 2012 Algebra I EOC exam mean score
• Second highest percentage of students to achieve a 3 or above on the Winter 2012 Algebra I EOC exam
• Second highest Spring 2013 Algebra I EOC mean score
• Highest percentage of students to achieve a 3 or above on the Spring 2013 Algebra I EOC exam
• Highest Spring 2013 US History EOC exam mean score
• Highest percentage of students to achieve a 3 or above on the Spring 2013 US History EOC exam
• Highest FCAT writing test mean score
• Largest percentage of students passing with a 3 or above, 3.5 or above, and 4 or above on the FCAT writing test

Crooms AoIT's only competition in Seminole County proved to be Hagerty High School. The two schools largely traded places between who placed number one versus number two in the various rankings. Overall, Crooms AoIT students appear to have topped the rankings more than any SCPS school. Crooms AoIT performed particularly well when it came to preparing minorities and economically disadvantaged students for the workforce and advanced studies. The school has the most diverse high school student population of the traditional public schools in Seminole County. With 49% minority enrollment and 45% economically disadvantaged enrollment, Crooms AoIT and its students have continually matched and outperformed their peers across the state in similar or better economic circumstances. Congratulations are in order for the Crooms AoIT students, faculty, and community.