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As we head into spring, you should begin to think about summer school and fall programs that can improve the educational experience of your students. I often talk about assessment and how to use your assessments to build better, more productive programs. It is important when you start to build a program to clearly picture that successful program in your mind. It is like the painter who pictures the final masterpiece before he ever puts paint to the canvas.

Your 3rd grade readers may be an average of a year behind national norms. The picture in your mind should be of your 3rd graders all scoring at least on grade level when they take their final assessment each spring. You then need to contemplate and picture the type of activities it will take to make sure that each student is reading at the proper level. You might picture small reading classes with each child getting individual attention from teachers, aides, or volunteers. You might picture students all reading hundreds of library books in the hour you give them each day to practice their reading.

Maybe during summer school you decide to attack the obesity problems of your intermediate students. You picture happier, slimmer students who have moved away from obesity and the bad habits that got them there. You see them exercising each day, eating good fruits and vegetables at school, and learning how to make good choices when it comes to their own nutrition and exercise programs. You visualize the people and the activities that will get you to that result.
You have to be able to picture the result of your program and the types of activities it will take to get your students to that end. Never let money get in your way when you are picturing your programs and results. If you can envision the positive conclusion of an exemplary program, you will be able to find the money to finance it in your regular budget or with grant funding – if you are determined to make it work.

Once you have made assessments and defined a problem, it is time to think and plan. Get clearly in your mind the results you want from the program. Visualize the activities it will take to get your students to that result. Build your budget to pay for the program. Once you have all that in place, go to your regular budget to see if there is money available to pay for the program. If there is not money available, go to a good grant database and begin to look for grant money to fund your program.

If you are absolutely determined to make positive changes in your school, you will get the money and the results you have visualized.

Haiti's president, Rene Garcia Preval, is expected to visit Tampa late today to accept donations of school supplies from the Hillsborough Education Foundation for his quake-ravaged island nation.

Through its Teaching Tools program, the foundation will turn over two pallets of crayons, notebooks, recycled paper, pens and pencils and two paper cutters as well as furniture, desks and chairs, spokeswoman Melinda Dale said today.

The supplies will help Haiti as it rebuilds schools in the aftermath of January's earthquake near Port-au-Prince. More than 200,000 people were killed, 300,000 injured and another 100,000 left homeless, according to recent reports.

Preval will visit the warehouse site in Corporex Park late this afternoon along with the Consulate General of Antigua and Barbuda, Ian Sweeney, whose daughter attends kindergarten at St. John's Episcopal Parish Day School in Tampa.

Sweeney got the call to help which resulted in a service project for St. John's Dads Club, said Cindy Fenlon, the school's director of institutional advancement.

The school is collecting other items, including baby formula and diapers, sleeping bags, tents, canned food and water now through March 12.

In addition, a member of the foundation's Teaching Tools committee joined the effort to collect school supplies, Dale said.

"It's an incredible opportunity for us," she said. "We're always happy to provide supplies to children in need."

Teaching Tools provides at-risk students in Hillsborough with basic school supplies. The store also allows teachers from county schools with special programs for low-income families to visit once a month and pick out $250 worth of free items for their classrooms.

Locally, the program reaches about 1,800 teachers and more than 50,000 students a year. Now, it's helping children worldwide, Dale said.

The Hillsborough Education Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to garner public and private support for Hillsborough County Public Schools.

Preval's trip to the United States included a visit with President Obama in Washington on Wednesday, where Obama pledged to continue providing financial assistance and humanitarian. With spring rains ahead, he added, "the challenge is now to prevent a second disaster."

Preval expressed thanks to the United States for its "massive, spontaneous, generous help." The disaster is a signal, he said, that world relief efforts "must be improved."