AVID in Putnam County

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:

Resources for Students and Parents

Upcoming Events!

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PCSD AVID News & Events!

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AVID Summer Institute 2024

In June 2024, we took a team of educators from each of our AVID schools to AVID Summer Institute in Orlando, Florida. AVID Summer Institute is three days full of amazing training in various communities of practice as well as designated time for school teams to collaborate and create SMART goals for their schools. Communities of practice are focused on enhancing teaching strategies, fostering academic rigor, and supporting students’ growth potential in all aspects of their lives. One highlight of the conference is AVID General Session where we hear from AVID educators and students about the impact of AVID. Joseph Yeboah, Math instructor at CCJSHS, said, “This professional learning has impacted me positively. I am ever ready to implement the experiences from the summit in the coming school year.” Michele Knowles, math instructor at QIRJSHS, is excited about collaboration opportunities as she explained, “The training will help with explaining to other teachers the purpose and connection between the work done in AVID and their classrooms!” Here is the amazing team we took to SI this year:

Palatka Jr. Sr. High School: Brittany Thompson, Alicia Trunk, Edward Polly, Sherry Everett, and Amanda Leary. 

QI Roberts Jr. Sr. High School: Sharice Williams, Karen Clark, Michele Knowles, Amanda Lamb, and Cynthia Lehtinen. 

Interlachen Jr. Sr. High School: Cammie Foshee, Maddie Brown, JD Thompson, Jamie Mclerran, and Cat Irizarry. 

Crescent City Jr. Sr. High School: Aaron Gieselman, Lloyd Parrish, Joseph Yeboah, Jhansi Bai Thakur, and Kayleigh Pagano. 

We can hardly wait to see the great things these educators do in their classrooms this school year! Stay tuned!! For more pictures from this event: AVID Summer Institute 2024


AVID

AVID Makes a HUGE IMPACT!

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.”



Elijah

AVID gives back!

AVID

AVID Demonstration School Visit

Staff from Interlachen Jr. Sr. High School recently had an incredible experience at Narcoossee Middle School, an AVID Demonstration school in St. Cloud, FL! NMS began their AVID journey in the 2010-11 school year with 92 AVID Elective students in grades 7 and 8. Since that time, they have grown to 438 AVID Elective students and 3 AVID Elective instructors. The passion for education there is palpable, and it's clear why they're a shining example of AVID success. From dedicated educators to engaged students, the atmosphere is nothing short of inspiring! AVID strategies are seamlessly woven into the fabric of learning, fostering critical thinking and college-readiness skills. The emphasis on student collaboration and inquiry-based learning is truly commendable. Kudos to the incredible staff for creating a nurturing environment that promotes not just academic excellence, but also personal growth.

View more pictures from the visit HERE!

Gabriela Perez Martinez

New AVID Elective Teacher @ CCJSHS

This year Mr. Adams made a last minute decision when he realized he had more AVID Elective students than one teacher could handle. He decided to give veteran Spanish teacher, Gabriela Perez Martinez, a shot at teaching a class she never dreamed she would be teaching, AVID 4. Ultimately, as Gabby shared her college journey with me, it became clear that she is the perfect fit for this job–her goal is to show her students that they can make their dreams and goals come true. Gabby has enjoyed teaching the AVID Elective and we recently had a day of training at Crescent City Jr. Sr. High School just to make sure she knows about all of the resources she has at her fingertips. Gabby loves the new WAGs and especially enjoyed introducing her students to the tutorial process–she thinks all students should know and understand this process. We are so excited to have Gabby on the AVID team!! 

Site Teams

Site Teams

For AVID, the Site Team is the heartbeat of the AVID school. Site Teams are made up of school administrators, school support staff like school counselors and instructional specialists, AVID Elective teachers, and core academic teachers. Site Teams have an open door policy–they welcome anyone willing to volunteer to improve their school as an AVID school. The Site Team sets goals for the school and then works all school year to make sure those goals are met. We have amazing Site Teams at our schools!

View pictures of the IJSHS Site Team and QIRJSHS Site Team HERE!

ELA Learning Communities

ELA Learning Communities

This year the district focus for Teaching and Learning is Scaffolding and AVID WICOR Strategies made a huge debut with the recent ELA Learning Communities for grades 7-12.  AVID district support worked with Kristin Hudson, Secondary Literacy Coach for the district, to introduce several AVID strategies into these meetings. At these meetings, ELA teachers looked at district dats from the first round of testing, they reviewed explicit instruction (last year’s instructional focus), they learned what scaffolding is and what it is not, they engaged in a demonstration lesson that incorporated AVID WICOR strategies as scaffolding, and planned scaffolds for upcoming benchmarks. Some of the strategies teachers experienced included 4 corners, carousel brainstorming, world cafe’, give one get one, and philosophical chairs. They ended the day with collaborative planning time. I think the biggest “Aha!” for the teachers was that AVID is “not just one more thing,” many of them already incorporate AVID strategies into their classrooms because they are just good teaching strategies. We had an amazing time and hope to continue this collaborative partnership!

View more pictures from the event HERE!

AVID

Sometimes the best things in life are surprises!

When we ended summer this year and creeped into pre-planning, we found out that two of our schools were going to have new AVID Elective teachers. At Palatka Jr-Sr High School, six new teachers were added: Erika Brazzeal, Edward Polly, Melissa Fox, Alicia Trunk, Brittany Johns, and Veda Crosland. Ms. Oyster, the principal, wanted to spread out her middle school AVID students among core subject teachers in the hopes that the AVID buzz would spread faster among that group of teachers. So what did this mean? They needed some training to become the AVID Elective teachers we know they can be! Last week, we spent Thursday at PJSHS talking all things AVID Elective. The teachers were so grateful for the time to meet and ask questions. Helping Amanda Burney with the training was one of our veteran AVID Elective teachers from QI Roberts Jr. Sr. High School, Amanda Lamb. She was able to share what she does in her 7th grade AVID classes and give great tips and tricks to the teachers. We had a great time and learned so much!

View more pictures from the event HERE!

Breakfast

PJSHS Senior Breakfast

PJSHS AVID instructor, Leigh Anne Lands, treated her seniors to a special breakfast on May 10th, 2023. The breakfast was to honor her seniors and present them with their AVID stoles and cords. Ms. Lands also had a special message for them. Former PJSHS Principal, JT Stout, volunteered to cook the pancake, sausage, bacon, and egg breakfast for the students. Many school employees popped in during the celebration. Students also had group pictures made outside in front of the school. There were lots of hugs, smiles, and a few tears!

View more pictures from the event HERE!

College Field Trip

2023 Spring College Field Trips

IJSHS AVID and Health Science groups visited Daytona State and Bethune Cookman College.

PJSHS AVID visited Santa Fe College.

CCJSHS AVID visited Daytona State and Bethune Cookman College.  

PJSHS Middle School AVID visited Daytona State.

View more pictures from the College Visits HERE!