District News

The WCSD is partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast to offer a new initiative to the DeFuniak Springs Club members. Boys and Girls Clubs already help members achieve academic success by providing homework help, tutoring, high-yield learning activities, and encouraging members to become self-directed learners.

This new initiative will assist the club to have direct access to the same education software, resources, applications, etc. being used in their classrooms. In order to fully utilize this educational opportunity, appropriate technological equipment is necessary. Walton County School District has reached out to the Boys and Girls Club through Community Engagement Coordinator, Lori Hughes, to provided 30 laptops. This will allow seamless access to WCSD school accounts for practice, review, study and completion of any homework assigned by their teachers. The goal is to create more opportunities for Boys and Girls Club staff to complement and reinforce learning that takes place during the school day.

Clubs will have access to:

ClassLink
Focus
Khan Academy
Study Island
and Much More

Computers for Boys and Girls Club Boys and Girls Club receive computers

Boys and Girls Club receive computers

Congratulations to these Walton High students for their wins at the FBLA district competition! They were honored at our last pep rally for bringing home 19 awards and advancing to the state competition in Orlando March 12!

Awesome job, Braves!

On the last day of January, WDE Kindergarteners enjoyed a day full of snow games and playing in "snow". The students enjoyed Pin the Nose on the Snowman, snowman bowling, snowball race, playing in artificial snow and even making a snowman snack from powdered donuts.

First graders have been utilizing “One-Pagers” and “Inside/Outside” as AVID strategies to explain their understanding of goods and services. On “One-Pagers” students were required to include illustrations of both goods and services, label each illustration, and write a sentence to explain one of the goods/services. The students enjoyed expressing themselves with this activity. For “Inside/Outside” students engaged with one another study for an upcoming vocabulary quiz. First Grade is committed to improving our study and organizational skills, which we will carry on with us even into our college and career settings!

Mrs. Rocketts class

Mrs. Sconiers class

FMS and WMS ELA teachers enjoy collaborating about the seventh grade Springboard curriculum

Under the coaching direction of Mrs. Lynne Martin, Walton Middle School and Freeport Middle School reading and ELA teachers have recently been provided opportunities to shadow each other to gain new creative ideas. Undoubtedly, teachers learn best when they learn together, and who better to learn from than cohorts who are creatively tackling the same challenges in the trenches each day?

Several weeks ago, Mrs. Martin coordinated and made it possible for WMS reading teachers Mrs. Emily Kent and Mrs. Jade Tucker to spend time watching Ms. Robin Walden in action at FMS. After classroom observations, the teachers had the opportunity to sit down together to brainstorm and debrief. Almost immediately upon returning to school, Mrs. Kent and Mrs. Tucker tried out new instructional strategies they gained from Ms. Walden.

Then on Wednesday, February 5th, FMS ELA teacher Mrs. Angela Jackson headed north to WMS. Alongside Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Jackson ventured into the classrooms of Mr. Brendon Murphy, Mrs. Michelle Seay, Mrs. Chastity McLaney, Miss Tara Manson, and Miss Regina Messer. After each visit, Mrs. Jackson and the teachers she observed debriefed and shared ideas. Everyone who participated benefited from the peer-to-peer collaboration.

Open doors open dialogue about instruction across the Walton County School District. Many thanks to Principal Jason Campbell and Principal John Olson for making this opportunity for professional growth possible.

President's Day, also known as Washington's Birthday, is on the third Monday of February each year and is a federal holiday in the United States. The day not only honors George Washington (born February 22), the first President of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln (born February 12) whose birthdays are both in February, but honors all the presidents who have served in the United States.

Presidents Day

Walton County School District is proud to partner with St. Joe to present the Magnet Innovation Center at St. Joe Watersound!
As Walton County’s first Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math (STEAM) school, it occupies the current St. Joe headquarters and will eventually grow to take over the entire campus.
Enjoy this video from St. Joe!

"The Reason for the Sneezin' "

Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Kendall's Pre-K class at WISE Center Programs read a story titled, "Sneezy the Snowman" which accompanied their snowball melting experiment. Our last report stated that "it was not looking good for the snowballs".

Walton High School's culinary students recently partnered with the Sonder Project to fill the raised bed gardens on our campus. Students and volunteers did a great job working together to get all 20 beds filled and 4 of the beds planted. Produce from the beds will help support the culinary program and the Walton High School Community. Way to go, Braves!

WHS Culinary raised bed gardens