“People learn most when teaching others.” –Peter F. Ducker

WMS seventh grade math teacher Mrs. Makala Ellenburg strives to make learning both straightforward and challenging for her students.  During instruction, Mrs. Ellenburg guides students toward standards-based understanding using the AVID note process.  She models how to work problems and walks students through the thinking processes involved.  She then allows students timed practice opportunities to work problems independently.  As they work, she circulates the room, checking answers and awarding tickets to those with the correct answers and work.  She then selects students to work out the problems and explain their thinking to their peers.  These students also earn tickets for their work.  At the end of class, Mrs. Ellenburg holds a prize drawing for all ticket recipients.  Mrs. Ellenburg creates an environment for students to OWN their learning while having fun doing it.

This week, Mr. Joe Proffitt shared one of his ag class’s tower gardens with Mr. Tommy Martin and students at Emerald Coast Technical College.  These aeroponic growing systems can be found throughout campus at WMS, providing an easy way to grow fresh produce, both indoors and out, year-round.  The teachers are excited to share this unique gardening experience with students at both schools.  And undoubtedly, the products of their learning will be both healthy and delicious.

Paxton High School’s aerospace students send a huge shout out to USAF Colonel Tucker Hamilton for joining them via Microsoft Teams today to lend his expertise to the students’ glider project. Students have been tasked with turning a shoebox into a functioning glider, using cardboard, foam, and other easily procured materials.

Hamilton shared tips for determining center of balance of the glider, adjusting angle of attack, and provided ideas for ways to test the airflow around the aircraft’s surfaces, as well as answering a myriad of questions about his Air Force career as a test pilot. Hamilton is currently the director of the USAF/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Accelerator, and joined students from the MIT campus today. 

PHS thanks you for your service and your continued support of STEM education!