DEDICATION AND EXCELLENCE EQUALS RECOGNITION

Being in Imperial Polk County, when one of our own is honoured it usually doesn't get the type of attention that one would receive if they were in the Hillsborough/Pinellas or Orlando/Orange County areas. So it's up to us home grown folk to say "Congratulations" for their accomplishments.

It was great to hear --- and pass along to you --- earlier this week that Winter Haven's own Olympic gold medalist swimmer Rowdy Gaines will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame December 8.

Now I see that Dana Kelly, a teacher of gifted students in grades K-5 at Lakeland's Southwest Elementary, has been named to USA Today's eighth annual Teacher Team. She is one of 20 winners --- 19 individuals and one team of four --- nationwide selected for the honour, and will receive $2,000 awards for their schools ($500 of that is for the teacher directly). Ms. Kelly and the other winners will also be fetted at a ceremony in Chicago later this year.

According to the USA Today bio, Ms. Kelly was selected for:

Helps students to develop leadership skills through hundreds of service learning projects with local agencies to teach "real world" skills and compassion. During a canned-food drive, for example, students practiced thinking and math skills by collecting, sorting and boxing the food; Expanded the school's gifted program to serve 20% more students who don't qualify by state rules but who consistently perform in a superior academic range; Creates individual programs based on students' test data, interest surveys and educational plans so that students can learn in their own way and at their own pace; Makes academics meaningful with real-world problem-solving skills such as charting hurricanes, time-dating fossils and researching ocean depths; Formed a Japanese club, established county's first elementary chess team and provides an opportunity for students to certify in adult CPR each year; Facilitated a student council that has dispensed more than $45,000 in grants for service projects; "She teaches the "alpha" group and doesn't just enrich them in terms of their academics," says principal Ellen Anderson. "The child is learning academic skills while helping others."

She was one of two teachers from Florida selected to the Teacher Team. Joseph Underwood, who teaches TV Production/Moviemaking/Entertainment Law at Miami High School, was honoured for:

Started at Miami High in 1984 as an athletic trainer teaching three science classes; his passion for theater and for students led him to teach drama and then TV production, to develop a moviemaking course and last year, write a curriculum for an entertainment law class; Understands more Spanish than he speaks but gets the real language that matters to hardworking immigrant parents: opportunity for their children. "Every time I tried to do something in my life, there was someone behind me who said, 'You can do this. You will do this. I will get you what you need to succeed.' I want to be that person for my students," Underwood says; Reeled in more than $350,000 in grants to equip studios, enable students to film or videotape school activities. Most popular first assignment: make a family history home video as a holiday gift to parents; Uses scriptwriting, interviewing, computer graphics, film and video editing skills to teach reading and writing, helping boost standardized test scores; Arranges scores of internships in film, TV, graphics, public relations and communications for students, leading many graduates to college scholarships and jobs in media. "His attitude is to show us what professionals will expect of us. And he always knows we can do it," says Araceli Hernandez, 16. "We are his pride."

Being a country boy from Mississippi, when I moved to Texas (suburban Houston) enterting high school in the early 70s, I couldn't believe it to see high schools teaching cosmotology, computer science (remember, this was BEFORE many technologicial advances we take for granted today), and TV Repair. But Entertainment Law? WOW!