Tagged: education

When Andrés Moreno, the chief executive officer of Open English gets off the plane in Bogotá, São Paolo, Caracas or pretty much any other major Latin American city, people who recognize him from the company’s TV ads stop to ask for photos and autographs.

So why, with all this notoriety, did the CEO of a $350 million dollar company that specializes in teaching English online to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking students move the company’s main office from Latin America to Miami three years ago?

It’s finals week at Park Vista Community High School and a small group of students buzzes over an assembly line of used Dell computers that lie cracked open with all their electronic guts exposed.

Many of the donated computers that Stabio refurbishes in class will be given to families who don’t have computers at home. It’s part of a Palm Beach County program aimed at closing the digital divide.

The first English/Spanish bilingual education program in the country started at Miami's Coral Way Elementary in 1963. It was supposed to be a temporary curriculum to help Cuban students retain their language and culture, while people waited for the Castro regime to fall. 

Today the school, which has since expanded to the eighth grade, continues to thrive. Coral Way's elementary students spend about 60% of the day learning in English and 40% learning in Spanish.

Texting while driving is soon to be illegal in Florida. But does the new law actually have enough teeth to make a difference? What about those red light cameras? An update on the way we drive.

Key decisions are made in next month’s trial of George Zimmerman, who stands accused of murdering Trayvon Martin. What will jurors know about the Miami Gardens teenager’s background? What won’t they hear in the trial everyone will be watching in Sanford starting next month.

What have I learned this school year?

I've learned that teaching is hard. Not only because of the curriculum, not only because of the new tests, new rules, new measures. Not only because there are tests, tests, and more tests. But because it so often feels like an insurmountable, thankless, stressful endeavor.

The rules are always changing. The tests are always changing. And the blame for anything and everything that goes wrong usually falls squarely on our shoulders.

But teaching is also so rewarding.

It was a big year for education policy in Florida.