• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About Us
  • Videos
    • Featured Video
    • Foodie Friday
    • Monthly ReCap
  • Online E-Editions
    • This Week’s E-Editions
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
  • Social Media
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
  • Advertising
  • Local Jobs
  • Puzzles & Games
  • Circulation Request

The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

       

Click to join our weekly e-newsletter

  • Home
  • News
    • Land O’ Lakes
    • Lutz
    • Wesley Chapel/New Tampa
    • Zephyrhills/East Pasco
    • Business Digest
    • Senior Parks
    • Nature Notes
    • Featured Stories
    • Photos of the Week
    • Reasons To Smile
  • Sports
    • Land O’ Lakes
    • Lutz
    • Wesley Chapel/New Tampa
    • Zephyrhills and East Pasco
    • Check This Out
  • Education
  • Pets/Wildlife
  • Health
    • Health Events
    • Health News
  • What’s Happening
  • Sponsored Content
    • Closer Look
  • Homes
  • Obits
  • Public Notices
    • Browse Notices
    • Place Notices

Students learn life lessons during teach-in

November 23, 2010 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By Molly McGowan

Shrieks of excitement and the patter of eager feet filled the hallways of area schools as teachers led their young students to different speakers and activities last Thursday.
Nov. 18 marked the annual Great American Teach-In, a day during which a wide range of professionals bring their careers to the classroom and share different employment opportunities with students.

Tampa Guitar's Dan Harrison helps fourth-grader John Anthony Perrone play guitar at Lutz Elementary.

At McKitrick Elementary School in Lutz, students began a day early with a visiting armored truck on Wednesday, followed by a Drug Enforcement Administration truck on Thursday. Agents from the Tampa District DEA explained that the truck is used for support in dismantling clandestine labs and showed the children the truck’s first aid equipment, air pressure hoses and shower, as well as their entry equipment, tactical vests and helmets.
The rest of the school was buzzing with different activities, as well. Nearby, soccer player Rafael Giraldo taught Cheri Gamm’s and Liisa DiTarando’s kindergarten classes the basics of the game and set up a scrimmage, while fifth-grader Abby Sutch directed speakers to the correct classrooms. Her favorite speaker was a dentist who had her class smell and eat different things to demonstrate how scent changes the taste of food.
Guidance Counselor Kelly Goforth said her favorite memories of the days’ events came whenever the children become inquisitive. “The kids were … asking questions you and I wouldn’t think of,” Goforth said. “They’re so outside the box.”
Students at Denham Oaks Elementary also stayed active, particularly a group of kindergarteners and first-graders who got their own personal trainers for a day.
Biko Claxton, Denny Locascio and Daniel Peterson from Sports and Field athletic club shared tips for eating healthy then took the children outside for some exercise. The students, who collectively named themselves “Team Alakazam,” competed in relays followed by a few sets of pushups.
“C’mon, let’s see your speed,” encouraged Peterson, while the children ran sprints.
Ready for a rest, the students filed back into a classroom for a visit with Deputy Tobias Smith, who has been working at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for the past 16 years.
Smith listed his history working in a jail, on patrol and on special projects, and explained some of the training and other requirements necessary to become an officer.
Good driving records and college degrees seemed to be too distant to Smith’s young audience whose attention was immediately drawn to his gun. Smith explained that his gun was just one part of his uniform and proceeded to point out the details on what he was wearing. And the instant the shiny, silver handcuffs came out, Smith had won the crowd.
At Lutz Elementary, students were similarly intrigued by what Dan Harrison was holding. Visiting from Tampa Guitar, Harrison was showing a fourth grade class the basics of playing guitar. He began by asking the students a few questions, and was impressed when many knew the difference between acoustic and electric guitars.
Harrison showed them what “fretting a note” was, then let his fingers slither across the fret board to show that chords were “a bunch of different pitches being put together.” With a few more examples and instructions on how to hold a pick, fourth-grader John Anthony Perrone got to strum a few chords on the guitar before Harrison continued his lesson, showing the children just what 10 years of dedication to a craft can create.
A little further away at New River Elementary School, members of the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association were outside showing kindergarteners, first- and second-graders the basics of lacrosse outside, while inside a cosmetologist from a JCPenney Salon shocked students with the news that they each had 100,000 hairs on their head.
At Double Branch Elementary School, the horses of Pasco County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse towered above enraptured second- and third-graders, who learned that the most important jobs of the horses and their riders are search and rescue missions.
Pre-K students at Chester W. Taylor Elementary School learned that horses come in smaller sizes, too. Bakas Horses for Handicapped brought miniature horse Buddy to the school to teach children the proper way to care for a horse, and to show that regardless of size, horses can be therapeutic.
With a multitude of speakers visiting different schools in Hillsborough and Pasco counties on Thursday, and with such a variety of classes and grades within every school, each student participating in the Great American Teach In was sure to have an individual experience unlike any other child’s. But regardless of whether they saw a miniature horse or a draft horse, ran relays or played lacrosse, every child learned something on Thursday. They learned that everyone is good at something. That thousands of career possibilities exist.  And that they can be — and do — anything.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Sponsored Content

Get the Word Out: Orange Blossom Women’s Group is a Safe Haven for Women to Address All Their Healthcare Needs

November 7, 2023 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Orange Blossom Women’s Group, a state-of-the-art medical facility led by Dr. Reut Bardach, M.D. that offers … [Read More...] about Get the Word Out: Orange Blossom Women’s Group is a Safe Haven for Women to Address All Their Healthcare Needs

Tampa Bay Roofing Services Offers Quality, Experience and Honesty

October 24, 2023 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Our community is home to Tampa Bay Roofing Services led by Chris Hloska, a roofing industry veteran with over 20 years … [Read More...] about Tampa Bay Roofing Services Offers Quality, Experience and Honesty

More Posts from this Category

What’s Happening

11/29/2023 – Falling Letter Collage

The Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center, 12118 Lake Blanche Drive in Odessa, will host a DIY class for adults on Nov. 29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Participants can create their own “falling letter” collage with magazine cutouts. All supplies will be provided. Registration is required. Call 727-815-7126. … [Read More...] about 11/29/2023 – Falling Letter Collage

11/30/2023 – Agricultural Tour

UF/IFAS Hillsborough County Extension will host a Hillsborough County Agricultural Tour on Nov. 30. The tour will start at UF’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC) in Wimauma with breakfast, continue on a coach bus to Speedling Inc., then on to UF’s Tropical Fish Research Center in Sun City, an agritourism stop and lunch break at the Southern Barn at Lonesome G Ranch, a visit to Astin Farms (strawberry) Field, and a return to GCREC. For more information or to register, visit tiny.cc/hillsagtour, or call 813-744-5519. … [Read More...] about 11/30/2023 – Agricultural Tour

11/30/2023 – Big Band Extravaganza

The New Tampa Performing Arts Center, 8550 Hunters Village Road in Tampa, will present a Holiday Big Band Extravaganza with the Florida Jazz Express on Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. The band will perform modern and classic arrangements of holiday favorites. There also will be a full bar. Tickets are $15 for a table seat and $13 for a theater seat. To purchase tickets, visit NewTampaArtsCenter.org/Tickets. … [Read More...] about 11/30/2023 – Big Band Extravaganza

11/30/2023 – Christmas Tree Lighting

St. Leo and Saint Leo University will host the school’s annual Tree Lighting and Christmas Village on Nov. 30 starting at 5:30 p.m., next to the Student Activities Building, 33701 County Road 52 in St. Leo. There will be a brief welcome by Ed Dadez, Saint Leo president, and Vincent D’Ambrosio, St. Leo mayor; a prayer by Father Lucius Amarillis; a reading of the nativity story; lighting of the campus trees; and a carol sing-a-long. There also will be photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, snacks, crafts for children, and a Christmas Village featuring gifts for sale, and more. Requests for special accommodations can be made by emailing . For information, call 352-588-8992. … [Read More...] about 11/30/2023 – Christmas Tree Lighting

11/30/2023 – Cork ornament

The Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center, 12118 Lake Blanche Drive in Odessa, will host this DIY class for adults: Nov. 30 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Participants can make a cork snowman ornament. All supplies will be provided. Registration is required. For information, call 727-815-7126. … [Read More...] about 11/30/2023 – Cork ornament

11/30/2023 – Gingerbread House Party

The Salvation Army of Clearwater will host its fourth annual Home Sweet Home Gingerbread House Decorating Party on Nov. 30 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Belleview Inn, 25 Belleview Blvd., in Belleair. The event is to raise awareness, provide resources, and empower citizens to break the cycle of generational poverty. In addition to decorating gingerbread houses, there also will be DJ entertainment, awards, lunch, beverages and pop-up boutiques. Funds raised will help single mothers and their children break generational poverty by supporting the Hope Crest Home, a homeless prevention program. Registration opens at 9:30 a.m. For information and sponsorships, call Wendy Cassidy at 727-725-9777, ext. 105. … [Read More...] about 11/30/2023 – Gingerbread House Party

More of What's Happening

Archives

 

 

Where to pick up The Laker and Lutz News

Copyright © 2023 Community News Publications Inc.

   
%d bloggers like this: