PMS AVID Cleans Up its Act

This week, AVID classes performed their first community service project of the year by cleaning up the trail near our school that our program has adopted. Students filled 10 trash bags of litter that had been left along the trail or that had washed into the creek. Way to go, PMS AVID!

The trail runs for about half a mile, near Pflugerville High School and Moose Park, and can be found on the city's Adopt-a-Trail map (#17).

PMS AVID Has a Secret Santa!

The big focus of the AVID program is college - we always want students to be thinking about where they want to go, and why.

So this year, our AVID program reached out through a Teacher gift-exchange program to create connections between classrooms and individuals around the world. Our AVID class was matched with a Secret Santa who works at the Texas A&M Libraries. She sent us a care package full of college-y stuff, including a set of Big 12 pennants, Texas A&M posters, pencils, and keychains. She also sent us a personal letter describing her own higher education experience.

Thank you again to our generous Secret Santa!

AVID Leads at 6th Grade Camp!

Nineteen 7th and 8th grade AVID students gave up a day of their summer break to come in to school and show the new 6th graders around Pflugerville Middle School at this year's 6th grade camp. How cool is that!?

Here are some action shots of PMS AVID stepping up as role models and leaders:

AVID students keeping it real.

AVID waits patiently for the pizza to arrive.

AVID students showing off the AVID classroom!

Serving the pizza.

Chillin with the new 6th graders!

Pflugerville Middle School thanks all of you for your service to our community!

Who is Mr. Dawer???

There's a new AVID teacher at Pflugerville Middle School!

It's Mr. Dawer!

After four years of teaching 6th grade Language Arts at PMS, Mr. Dawer will be taking over the AVID program--and he couldn't be more excited! We here at the PMS AVID Blog asked Mr. Dawer a few questions about who he is, why he wanted to teach AVID, and what he expects for the upcoming school year. Enjoy!

Where did you go to college?
I attended the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University. I got my B.A. in English at UT (Hook 'em!) and my Master of Education at Harvard.

Why did you want to be an AVID teacher?
AVID's mission is the same reason I became a teacher: to prepare all students for college readiness and success. I believe every student has the potential to succeed, but every person is different, which means that every student needs different types of support in order to succeed. AVID targets students who have the desire to go to college, but maybe don't know all the steps to get there. I want to be an AVID teacher because I've navigated the path from middle school to college, and I want to help my students get where they want to go.

What is your favorite thing about teaching?
My favorite thing about teaching is watching a student discover something new, or finally learn how to do something they couldn't do before. There's this moment when you finally just get something, and to me it's magical to watch that happen every day.

What are your expectations for AVID students?
I expect AVID students to do their best (of course), but I also expect them to support one another, like a family. AVID only works if every student feels like they're part of the AVID team, and to do that they need to be able to trust one another and be there to support each other when one is feeling down.

What else should we know about you?
Well, I was named the Pflugerville ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year. Check it out--I'm Youtube famous!

Good luck in the 2014-15 school year, Mr. Dawer!