Emma E. Booker Principal Passionate About Inspiration and Motivation Students Gain

Dawn Clayton, Principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, talked with me about the two $5,000 EdExploration awards the school received from the Education Foundation of Sarasota County.

All 90 Emma Booker second graders will go to six outstanding community venues and relate their classroom learning to each. Second grade teachers collaborated to plan these explorations. Science teacher Andy Vitkus will add Mote Marine hands-on learning for all 600 Emma Booker students.

Connecting students to real-world applications in their own backyard will make a difference in learning scientific concepts. Principal Clayton hails from the Bronx and related a firsthand story of connecting her own passion to an early school field trip experience. In the fifth grade, she went with her school to see an orchestra performance at Carnegie Hall. A few years later, she took up the violin. As a member of a community orchestra, she played in Carnegie Hall --- her mom who chaperoned that fifth grade concert traces her violin interest to that early exposure.

Watch Ms. Clayton talk about how EdExplorations are inspiring the entire school:

A New York native, Ms. Clayton also shares how the arts and culture experiences she had at young age have lasted a life time.