Leigh Ann Norris and Christina Mosteller participated in the Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA) A.V.E. for Success program July 7-10, 2015, in Altamonte Springs, FL.  A.V.E. for Success, which stands for Aligned to Standards, Vetted by Teachers and Embraced by students. The end product will be over 150 courses accessible to educators at no cost.  FASA has teamed with Apple to use iTunes U as the access point for teachers to view course outlines and resources tied directly to Florida Standards.  Fourteen (14) courses were already been created before this week and available for use in iTunes U.

Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Mosteller worked with over 350 other Florida teachers completing courses for every Florida course code offering in English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and various career and technical education courses for grades 6-12.

A.V.E. for Success on the iTunes U platform provides teachers with access to consolidated collections of discrete educational content assets (some in iTunesU and many outside).  Teachers are able to easily identify the grade level and desired standards, and find the learning targets within the standard. Students then have targeted, meaningful and engaging content, making learning more “rigorous and relevant” by creating experiences that reward and encourage students to create, share and inquire through the use of digital platforms. A.V.E. for Success empowers and enables students of all levels as well as instructors by being an on-demand, use anytime resource. A.V.E. for Success allows teachers to supplement daily instruction, provide remediation for students who may be struggling in a particular area as well as reinforce already mastered concepts.

Hamilton County Superintendent Tom Moffses had an opportunity to review and observe the last day of this event and was impressed.  Moffses stated that, “our teachers did an outstanding job contributing math and science course content in to this project.  Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Mosteller are helping set the standard for educational content in the State of Florida and are to be commended for their hard work.”

These newly created courses are being forwarded to the Florida Department of Education for final approval and then will posted on the FASA A.V.E iTunesU site for use by all Florida teachers.