AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a college readiness system for elementary through higher education that is designed to prepare students in the academic middle for four year college eligibility and completion.  It has a proven track record in bringing out the best in students, and in closing the achievement gap.  AVID is currently offered at all four of our Jr/Sr High schools.  Each site has an AVID coordinator who is responsible for recruitment and implementation of the program. Please contact your school's coordinator for more specific information:

Michele Knowles, one of our AVID trained and AVID Site Team members at QI Roberts Jr. Sr. High School, was honored as HCA Teacher of the Month for December by HCA Putnam Hospital and the Education Foundation of Putnam County. Michele teaches pre-AICE Geometry and Advanced Placement Statistics. She is the advisor for National Honor Society and the Debate Team. She is an integral part of the math department and the AVID Site Team at QIRJSHS. As her principal Joe Theobold said, "Michele shows she is Fearless Learner because no matter the challenge, she meets it. She has been a key part of the QIRJSHS math team, participating with Impact Florida, whose mission is to empower education leaders to recognize, support, and scale great teaching practices so that all children are able to realize success in life--as a learner and a presenter." Our AVID district team finds it no surprise that Michele was honored in this way--when you walk into her classroom space you can feel the enthusiasm and excitement she brings to the classroom each day. Congratulations Michele!

Ms. Wanyanga's AVID students at Crescent City Jr. Sr. High School were in the "thankful" spirit this last day before Thanksgiving break and wrote some sweet thank you notes to their teachers, past and present! Happy Thanksgiving!

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As we wind down the first nine weeks, AVID has gotten off to an amazing start in our schools this year! Here is what has been happening: 

Palatka Jr. Sr. High School:

Ms. Barnett has set the stage for success in her AVID Elective class by having a set schedule for students each week to include grade/planner checks, special projects, and tutorials. Meanwhile, she has also let AVID bleed into her US History classes by working on vocabulary word webs!

Ms. Brazzeal celebrated AVID Impact Day on August 30 to have her AVID students show what their impact will be! Ms. Brazzeal said, her impact will be “increasing math confidence in my students!” One student said, “My impact will be to be more organized through the year.” Another student stated, “My impact will be I want people to feel better about themselves and I want to have amazing grades this year and the rest.” Those sound like amazing AVID students ready to take on the world!

Interlachen Jr. Sr. High School:

This year our two AVID Elective teachers, Maddie Brown and Cammie Foshee, are so excited to have a common planning time where they can bounce ideas off of each other and make similar plans for their classes. They love being on the same page! On a recent visit, they were caught in the act putting their planning time to good use! 

Ms. Irizarry’s jr. high school science students have been working on one pagers about all things space and they look amazing. One pagers allow students to combine information into one place and provide an illustration connected to the information. Visual information paired with written information is a tool students can use to retain information. 

Crescent City Jr. Sr. High School:

This year we have several new AVID Elective teachers at CCJSHS including Linda Wanyanga. Ms. Wanyanga hails from Africa and she is so excited about teaching in Crescent City. This year she started the year in AVID by introducing herself to her students and sharing information about her background and culture. We can hardly wait to see the impact she makes in AVID!

High school AVID Elective teachers, Paula Carter, Veronica Glover, and Gabriela Martinez recently were given a half day to work on AVID planning. Since they are all very new to AVID, they were so excited to have Leigh Anne Lands, Palatka Jr. Sr. High School AVID Elective high school teacher, come in and share lots of ideas and strategies for attacking the AVID curriculum with their students. 

QI Roberts Jr. Sr. High School:

Michelle Knowles was representing for AVID the first week of school! She is excited to bring some of what she learned at AVID Summer Institute into her math classes this year–one of her big projects–interactive notebooks. From the looks of it, she is off to a great start!

Cynthia Lehtinen, another math teacher, had her students doing a carousel gallery walk activity during the first week. Students were activating background knowledge and showing Ms. Lehtinen what they already knew about functions. 

QI Robert’s Site Team also began meeting and are ready to get started on making things happen at their school! 

Check out the pictures here: AVID First Days

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AVID students make an impact, even beyond the classroom. The AVID curriculum in grades 6-12 requires students to participate in community service. Many of our teachers at our four AVID schools do a variety of community service projects throughout the year. One teacher and group of AVID students have taken community service to a whole new level. At QI Roberts Jr. Sr. High School, they call their community service projects AVID Impact Projects and they typically try to complete one project a month. For example, the AVID students raised money to pay for the flight lessons for the students enrolled in the Aerospace program at QI. As Amanda Lamb, the AVID Elective teacher at QI Roberts explains, “We really try to do projects that ooze out from AVID into our school community. Our goal was for AVID to impact our whole school not just academically, but in as many ways as possible.” In fact, Lamb and her AVID kids have donated back over $13,000 to various clubs and organizations at the school for different projects throughout the school year. 

    Amanda has a heart for community so when she heard about a local family in need, she assembled her AVID students and got to work planning a community event to raise money for little Elijah. Elijah is a local toddler who  lives with both Fragile X Syndrome and Autism and needs a service dog. The service dog, training for the dog, and other associated costs can add up to more than $20,000.  Did it matter that it was the end of the school year? Did it matter that she had never planned one of these events before? Did it matter that they need the funds as soon as possible? Not for Amanda and her AVID students!! Amanda and her students began a campaign to recruit other clubs, organizations, schools, and businesses to help her put on the event on June 8: X-CEPTANCE FOR AUTISM 5K and Family Fun Day. 

    Around 200 people showed up for the event at Coventry Oaks on Saturday that started with a 5K run/walk. Ethan and his family were also there and enjoyed a special area set up  just for them. Several clubs and organizations associated with QI Roberts Jr. Sr. High School provided booths with various snacks, merchandise, and activities like face painting.  Several local vendors and candidates for local office had booths. Many local businesses donated items for gift baskets and Fryer’s Chicken provided chicken dinners for purchase with proceeds going to the cause. Local fire-rescue and sheriff’s office personnel provided a “touch a truck” experience and much more. “It was cool to see the clubs we had impacted turn around and participate and help us put on the community event,” Lamb said. 

    In all, around $7000 was raised for Elijah and his family. His mother, Amanda Frame, said via Facebook, “I’m at a loss for words to accurately express the level of gratitude that we have for EVERYONE that helped make this day a success! I met and talked to so many new people today. Each one was so kind and eager to be a blessing to Elijah and our family.” Earlier this week she made an additional post announcing that Elijah has been matched with a service dog!  As Lamb later said, “We fell a little short of our original money goal, but our biggest accomplishment by far was that we showed how powerful our little town, our little school, and our AVID program could be.”