BCPS recognizes outstanding educators for professional accomplishments

BCPS recognizes outstanding educators for professional accomplishments

 Mustafa

      Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) recognizes several outstanding educators for their recent contributions and professional accomplishments. These individuals continue to learn, research, present, teach, serve and share expertise with their colleagues and students.

Congratulations to the following BCPS educators on their recent achievements:

Melton Mustafa, piano director at Parkway Middle School, and Kathryn Lotocky, music teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School, are both selected as a Grammy Music Educator of the Year finalists for 2016. They are among 213 music teachers from 194 cities across 42 states announced as quarterfinalists for the Music Educator Award™ presented by the Recording Academy® and the GRAMMY Foundation®. The semifinalists will be announced in September. This special award will be presented at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony and Nominees Reception during GRAMMY Week 2016.

Tammy Orilio, a 2015 Science Communication Fellow by the Ocean Explorations Trust (OET), participated in the 2015 expedition of the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus as it sailed through the Gulf of Mexico. Orilio, a science teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, teaches marine science, biology and Advanced Placement Environmental Science, and is the sponsor for the environmental science club at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. She engages her students through telepresence to communicate and discuss her research, as well as her experience living and learning aboard the E/V Nautilus.

Dr. Andrew Shipe, English teacher at Pompano Beach High School, participated in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) institute entitled “Scholarship and Performance: A Combined Approach to Teaching Shakespeare’s Plays.” The two week NEH program was held at the Theater for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bruce Klasner, teacher of Advanced Placement World History, U.S. History and Holocaust History at Everglades High School, and Amiee Sarajian, teacher of Government, Economics and Holocaust at Cypress Bay High School, participated in the Teacher Information Exchange Program in Lithuania with the Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at Florida Atlantic University. Klasner and Sarajian are working with the State Task Force to revise and update the Holocaust Education Manual used in schools throughout Florida.

Meredeth Legg, library media specialist at Cooper City High School, completed a six-day immersion program in American History at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute this summer in Williamsburg, Virginia. Legg was the only teacher from Florida to attend this unique program that provides an opportunity to exchange ideas with historians, learn from other educators and develop instructional materials.

The 2015 P3 Eco-Challenge awards recognized three top BCPS educators for their efforts to learn and implement environmentally sustainable measures and green initiatives within their schools and com-munities. Congratulations to the following 2015 Top Educators: Lynn Walsh, Maple-wood Elementary School, Top Elementary School Educator; Diana Dworzan, Apollo Middle School, Top Middle School Educator and Jessica Brown, South Plantation High School, Top High School Educator.