Hello Tigers. As many of you know, last Tuesday I was elected "Teacher of The Year" at Blanche Ely High School.  I now move forward as a nominee for the "Caliber Award" for Broward County Public Schools.

"The Caliber Awards program recognizes the exceptional leadership, hard work and dedication of Broward’s outstanding teachers, principals, assistant principals and school-related employees, and honors the best of the best in their class. The Teacher of the Year, Principal of the Year, Assistant Principal of the Year, School-Related Employee finalists and all nominees will be honored at this event."
http://www.browardschools.com/caliber-awards


I want to thank all my students for making my days so wonderful that I love coming to work every single day! All of you inspire me to be my best! I love all of you...we are a family. Ms. B. 

     Hello everyone! I will begin implementing a new education model called, "Flipped Classroom". This is the newest movement in teaching! The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. I will create short video lectures that students view at home or on their mobile devices before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions.

     Teaching large classes that contain multiple courses within each class period is a challenge. My AP Studio Art class is also composed with Art II students. It is my hope that by "Flipping My Classroom" with videos posted on this site under the tab, "Flipped Classroom" I will better service my AP Art students with a higher quality of instruction. My videos will also be posted on Youtube under education. Lets see what happens. I am expecting my students to soar to higher levels immediately! All my love, Ms. B.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom

   I am sitting here in front of my computer trying to come up with the perfect words to describe Marla. The first word that comes to my head is "STRONG", then words like talented, creative, goal oriented, hard working, lovable and independent follow. Marla is a survivor. She has more common sense and inner strength that I had at twice her age! She is only 17 years old, has a job as a cashier, pays her own bills, has her own apartment and gets herself to school every day. School starts at 7:30 but Marla arrives in my classroom at 6:45 EVERY DAY so she could paint. Art flows from her creative brain so naturally. I have only 2 students (out of 290 a day) who paint from their own imagination, not from Google images; Marla and Kenson. 
   Marla, I love you! It has been my pleasure and honor to be your AP Art teacher last year and this school year.  I promise to stay in touch with you and I wish you all the happiness in the world. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. If you ever make it back to Florida, always know that you have a home in the art room at Ely. It is going to be sad for all of us to see your empty chair first period. :(
    All the best to you Marla. Ms. B.

Hello Tigers! I hope you are enjoying your day off from school.  I want to share a story with you. Today is a special day for me because it marks an important anniversary. It was one year ago today that I decided to leave NYC and move back to South Florida.  I remember the moment and place that I made that decision, just like it was yesterday. 

I was walking home from work between 3rd and 2nd Avenue on East 60th Street. It was cold, dark and I was alone. I thought to myself, “What am I holding onto here?” The work that I was doing was not fulfilling to me intellectually and I felt lost, alone and defeated. My eyes welled up with tears and I knew that it was time for me to make that dreadful decision that I kept putting off.

By the time I reached my apartment, I had decided to throw in the towel and leave Manhattan.  At that moment, I made a choice to be brave and strong. I stood up tall, washed the tears from my face and took a deep breath…then I began to make a plan. Once I make up my mind to do something or achieve something, I almost always see success.  I had many things to do. I had to get my car back, sublease my apartment, quit my job, interview for a South Florida position, pack up all my belongings and buy an airline ticket. I did it all in 5 days…no exaggeration!

I remember so well what I did the night before I got on the plane to leave. I walked around the entire city for hours, thinking and dealing with all that transpired during my time in New York. I stopped by St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pray. I then wrote a  letter to someone dear to me to say goodbye. I purchased a special item from the Cathedral’s gift shop that I held onto as a 'spiritual memorabilia' of my time in NYC. 

So, needless to say, it was bittersweet, but I knew that it was time to let go. Leaving NYC and returning back to Florida has been a saving grace to me in many ways, I have no regrets at all, but I left behind a great love and a great dream.  It was hard to let go of both.

Yet, if there is one thing that I have learned in my life is that when we let go of something that we should not be holding onto, we free our hands to grab hold of something else. I use to think that holding onto something made me strong, but I realize that at times it takes more strength to let go.

There are times when life forces us to ‘turn the page’ and as we turn the page we realize that our story is not over, it continues.

So, if you have been stuck on the same page of your story, and you know that it is time for you to turn the page, allow my life to be a living example to you. Trust me, it will be ok in the end. Face your fears and just turn the page, just like I did! It is the best feeling in the world to realize that there are more pages, life goes on…the story is not over! 

Read a previous blog about how I returned to pack up my apartment. You might glean some wisdom from my experience.

Good Bye New York: http://www.msbonavia.com/-blog/archives/03-2014

Good night Tigers! Ms. B.