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mbt shoes School board attorney gets creative with
By day, Donna Waters serves as general counsel for the Escambia County School Board.
By night, she writes romance novels.
But every Thursday morning, she takes off her attorney hat, stops thinking about court cases and contracts, and transforms into a wordsmith for fourth-graders.
When she enters teacher Dian Isert's classroom at Global Learning Academy, she is greeted with hugs and enthusiastic waves.
For an hour, she helps the students craft stories and fine-tune their writing skills.
Waters signed up to become a mentor at the school last fall. Her office is next door, in the School District's Vernon McDaniel Administration Building near the corner of Garden Street and Pace Boulevard.
Instead of being paired up with a single student, Waters was assigned to Isert's entire class to help the students prepare for the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test 2.0,mbt shoes, which they took this year for the first time.
'It's a very positive impact that's allowed them to explore their creativity in ways they normally wouldn't be able to,' Isert said.
Seeing results
Waters' time with the students quickly turned into much more than FCAT prep. Soon she began seeing them show more and more interest in their writing. She watched their eyes light up while writing,mbt sale. They were enjoying it.
'One day, I walked into class and this kid gave me a wad of papers,' she said.
Student Tyrone Walker, a soft-spoken 11-year-old, had written a 550-word story called 'The Boy Who Got Adopted.' It is technically a work of fiction,mbt, but Tyrone drew from his own experience of being adopted to write the story.
Waters ' touched and impressed ' typed it up, printed it out and presented Tyrone with the nine-page book he had authored.
'This was totally on his own, just because he wanted to do it,' Waters said. 'The next week, seven kids handed me wads of paper.'
Speaks with pen
A few days ago, Waters organized a book-signing event and reception for Tyrone to celebrate his book.
'If you've got your words, you can solve any problem,' Waters told the small crowd gathered in the school's media center. 'Tyrone took experiences that were not easy and turned them into a novel.'
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Tyrone quietly sat among a stack of small, spiral-bound books, with pen in hand.
'Tyrone speaks with his pen,' Waters explained.
A line of his proud classmates, family members and teachers formed and Tyrone began signing books for each person.
Tyrone's mother, Jackie Walker, said he has been living with her and her husband, John, for about a year,and his adoption was finalized last month.
'He's been really enthused about writing,' Walker said. 'I was amazed and shocked. I knew he was writing,mbt shoes uk, but I didn't know what. He's working on a second book.'
Lifelong writer
Waters said she has written since she was able to hold a pencil, keeping journals and writing stories. Four years ago, she decided to try her hand at romance writing.
'I always wanted to write (a book),' she said. 'It was a bucket-list thing. When my daughters got to middle school and high school,, my husband said, 'OK, we're going to get you a laptop.' '
Her first book, 'Proof of Love,' was published by a small publishing company called Champagne Book Group under her great-grandmother's name, Arabella Stokes.
When she visits Tyrone and his classmates, she encourages them to channel their feelings through writing, as she does.
'I try to tell them, 'If you get upset about something, write about it,'' she said. 'Journaling, fiction, nonfiction ... whatever it is, it can help you through.'
She works with them on word choice, using descriptive language and really having fun with words.
'I think the FCAT takes that out of education,' Waters said.
Waters found that, more than anything,mbt schuhe, the students need encouragement and to know that someone is paying attention to them.
'The kids need somebody to listen,' she said.
With school ending Friday,mbt footwear, Waters is sad to leave this group of students she has gotten to know, but she hopes to continue working with Isert and is looking forward to meeting a fresh batch of students in the fall.
Fourth-grader Reina Thomas, 10, said Waters taught her how to write for fun.
'I like it,' she said. 'When I'm bored, I write.' |
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发表于 2013-5-30 18:32:10
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