For the 2009-2010 school year, a Cobra has emerged as the state champion in the InvestWrite essay competition. Ashlee Baez was honored by the SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education for her efforts in the competition, which is held in conjunction with the Stock Market Game in Economics classes across the country. In her essay Ashlee had to create an investment strategy with specific recommendations for relatives who came into an unexpected inheritance. She was recently honored at a luncheon in Ft. Lauderdale. This is the third consecutive year that a student from one of Dr. Astuto's Economics classes has taken Florida's top prize in the competition. Check out images from Mrs. Rhinard's Movie-Project Festival Dr. Astuto has won First Place in the Governor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching Economics in a state-wide competition. The Florida Council on Economic Education hailed Dr. Astuto’s entry in teaching personal financial literacy, which guided students through saving, budgeting, investment, and even filing federal income tax returns. This is the third consecutive year that Dr. Astuto has been recognized at the Governor’s Awards ceremony; he took third prize honors in different categories in both 2008 and 2009. Officials from the FCEE presented the award to him at the “Teachers Rock!” luncheon in Orlando.   The final exam schedule for the 2010 school year can be found here. Click on the links below for information on 2010 graduation. The ceremony will take place at the US Century Bank Arena at Florida International University on June 7, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. Commencement Decorum Agreement Graduation Ceremony Guidelines Graduation Ceremony Guidelines Powerpoint The National English Honor Society recently sponsored its first spelling bee. Check out the highlights below. FEA would like to recognize Ms. Byrum as May's Teacher of the Month. Please congratulate her if you see her! Nearly a dozen Cobra scholars joined high school students from across the county to participate in the spring session of the Program in National Security Studies conducted by Florida International University. Students assumed roles as representatives of one of six international entities in a strategic recreation of the diplomatic negotiations connected to the ethnic cleansing occurring in Kosovo during the late 1990s. The purpose of the negotiations was to obtain an end to hostilities between nationalistic groups in the former Yugoslavia and avoid military intervention by NATO troops. Students conferred within their own group to determine the group's stand, then were challenged to negotiate with other groups to find common ground for a peaceful solution. Many of our Cobras served as lead negotiators or representatives to the final negotiations. For the first time ever, an educator has won the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Lesson Plan of the Year competition two years in a row . . . and he’s a Cobra! Dr. Astuto from the Social Studies department was honored by the central bank at the conclusion of this year’s competition, in which teachers from all or part of six southeastern states participated. The announcement was made at a luncheon at the bank’s Atlanta headquarters. Earlier in the year Dr. Astuto had been named the repeat winner of the competition at the Miami branch, which was open to competitors from the southern half of the state of Florida. Teachers from Georgia as well as from the territories of the bank’s five branches (Miami, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Nashville, and Birmingham) entered at each branch in the first phase of the contest with those winners moving on to the finals in Atlanta. The Sixth District is the only one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks to conduct the competition. Dr. Astuto’s lesson plan, which promotes student financial literacy, will be posted on the website of the Atlanta bank for other educators to see and use. His winning lesson from 2009 along with other winning plans, have already been downloaded by over 22,000 educators. He teaches government and economics courses, as well as Advanced Placement courses in Macroeconomics and U.S. Government & Politics, and sponsors the Social Studies Honor Society. Please join the Social Studies Department in congratulating the following seniors who finished in the top 20th percentile nationwide in the National Financial Capability Challenge, sponsored by the Department of the Treasury. The students are from Dr. Astuto's AP Macroeconomics/AP Government class and Mrs. Galeri's Honors Government/Honors Economics classes: Vanessa Alvarez Eduardo Aroix Jordan Avitan Nataly Cartaya Spencer Christopher Aubrey Dupree Carlos Estevez Cherry Flores Leslie Lombo Westley Pineda Ian Raisbeck Christoper Rodriguez Steven Rodriguez Ariana Sanchez Daniel Santana Congratulations to Natalia "Gaby" Huarto for being the 2010 Girls Singles District Champion for badminton. She was the only girl in the entire competition to go undefeated. She now advances to the GMAC finals on Tuesday. You can catch a glimpse of her in action by clicking here. The following magnet students participated in this year’s photography exhibition at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair 2010: First Place and Special Awards: Sasha Bruno 12 Daniela Carames 09 Genevieve Delsol 09 Alejandra Morato 09 Nicole Rebollar 09 Michael Russo First Place Valerie Aleman 11 Vanessa Alvarez 12 Alejandra Deleon 10 Alexandra Epstein 11 Jasmine Lee 10 Jessenia Morales 09 Christina Pinder 12 Cynthis Quinteros 10 Ian Raisbeck 12 Francesca Rodriguez 09 Joanne Rodriguez 12 Katryna Santacruz 10 Tahlia Utrera 09 Gabriela Velez 12 Second Place Mila Moreno 09 Mercedes Ortiz 10 Congratulations to the following Cobra Thespians for recieing superior or excellent ratings at the Florida Thespian Festival: Superior Rated Duet Scene - Rhyssa Beckford and Daniel Zamora Excellent Rated Duet Scene - Gabriel Bork and Marquies Wilson Excellent Rated Small Group Musical - Caleb Harmon, Joseling Castro, Yanet Felipe, Emary Aguilera Gabrielle Bork, Courtney Washington, Daniel Zamora Three of our Visual Fine Arts students and I are currently exhibiting work at the Ocean Bank Center 2010 Art of Found Objects show. For 17 years Ocean Bank and The Education Fund have sponsored an art exhibition for the children in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The artwork is made with materials recycled from The Education Fund's Ocean Bank Center for Educational Materials, a warehouse stocked with donated supplies for our public schools, where 15,498 teachers have shopped for free since 1993. This year's exhibition features artwork created by: Maria Garcia / Grade 9 Lizzie Hunter / Teacher ($100 Award of Merit) Alexa Morales / Grade 10 Yanelis Valdes / Grade 9 Alumni news - The Class of '87 will be having a Cobra Country Family Picnic on June 26th. Click on the here for more information. For information on the Class of 2001 reunion, contact the Class 2001 president at SMSH2001reunion@gmail.com for all correspondence related to the 10-year reunion in 2011.