Student Growth

What Comes Next, Graduates?

By on June 17th, 2020

This post was written by 2019-20 FLVS Full Time Senior Class President, Matthew Ferguson. 

To my classmates and my friends, we made it! We are finally graduates and have survived the seemingly endless challenges of high school. Looking back, every action you’ve taken, every choice you’ve made over the past four years has led to this day.  

Continue reading

My Writing Timeline

By on March 8th, 2017

This post was written by Natalie, a student in the FLVS Creative Writing Club.

Blog_Creative_WritingWhen I was much, much younger, I saw writing as a chore. There’s not a lot a 7-year-old girl being homeschooled in southwest Florida had to write about, and I certainly didn’t do much of it.

As I grew older, the process of writing morphed from a chore into a helpful emotional outlet and then into a hobby. Although I’ve never been a serious, hardcore dedicated writer, I can say that writing definitely should be credited for its impact in my life.

The earliest I can remember writing would be in my tween years. As most people behave when going through that time in their lives, I could get quite emotional and crave an outlet to vent my frustrations or just write a poem expressing my honest feelings.

I read a ton of books back then and can attribute a lot of my literacy skills to my reading. I kept diary after diary for a few years and grew my writing skills without even realizing it. Writing about anything going on in my life made me think about events and interactions more deeply than I ever had before. Continue reading


Thankful for the Mountains We Climb

By on November 22nd, 2016

blog_thankful_challenges2016 is an incredible time to be a teacher.

I am grateful for each and every day I get to work alongside the best of the best in education.

While expectations are high, standards seem impossible to meet, and the everyday trials and struggles we face seem endless, this time in our country and our world is truly an incredible time to be a teacher. We have so much more access to research about how and why we learn. We have clearer pictures of our brains and all they can accomplish.

We might be up against some very difficult mountains to climb, but the teachers that have gone before us have never been as well equipped as we are today.

As a teacher I’ve always been fascinated with the brain – how it operates so much more than just our physical bodies. Each and every day, new research is published confirming something I think teachers have always known. Continue reading