Meadow Woods Middle School

Dear Meadow Woods Middle Families,

My journey as an educator began at an urban school district in New Jersey where I taught English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to students from diverse cultural backgrounds. For nine years I enjoyed teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) and I connected very well with these students and their families since I knew firsthand how it felt to learn a second language. After relocating to Orlando, FL with my family in 2000, I taught ESOL classes at Dr. Philips High School and Timber Creek High School. Through collaborative efforts with key stakeholders at Timber Creek, we were able to offer a multicultural class to help ELLs with the acculturation and language acquisition process. I also had to great opportunity of piloting the ELL AVID class at Timber Creek High School which supported students in taking rigorous classes and becoming college and career-ready scholars.

In 2010, through the support and encouragement of my mentors and family, I became an assistant principal. As an assistant principal at Lake Nona High School, I supported the ESOL and ESE departments by creating the academic support class ISSC (International Scholars Support Class) for ELLs, implementing the SIM (Strategic Instructional Model) curriculum for ESE students, and the MVP (Most Valuable Pupil) intervention program for students who needed extra support in reading. In addition, to continue building positive relationships and student engagement, I developed the Pawsitive Pride Recognition Program to give teachers the opportunity to recognize students for their academic excellence, improvement, collaboration, innovation and leadership.

After serving in the capacity of director of the Multilingual Department at Orange County Public Schools, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a principal. Through the support of great mentors in my life and a wonderful husband of 27-years, I was chosen to lead this great school—Meadow Woods Middle. I am truly honored to serve this community and my desire is to empower students and teachers to embrace “the leader in them”. I am extremely excited to begin this new school year with an incredible team that understands that it truly takes a village to lead our students to success (OCPS mission) and to be the top producer of successful students in the nation (OCPS vision).

One way that we will continue our journey as a Leader In Me school is by studying and applying the 7 highly effective habits of successful people based on Stephen Covey’s research. We will be teaching and modeling the 7 habits and we ask of your support in learning about them:

• Be Proactive
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Put First Things First
• Think Win-Win
• Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the Saw

Together as a team I believe that we can continue to greatly impact our Stallions, teachers and community by empowering them with the 7 Habits, leadership opportunities and aligned standards-based instruction. This will be an amazing and powerful journey that will lead us into becoming a Lighthouse school. Let’s stay Stallion-STRONG and synergize!