John I. Smith Assistant Principal Mayra B. Falcon was recently named Miami Springs Pattern AP of the year and subsequently Region III AP of the Year. It is quite an honor for Falcon--there are roughly 20 AP's in her feeder pattern alone, and there are four feeder patterns in the region.

Mayra B. Falcon

"It's really a tremendous honor when your peers recognize your accomplishments--I'm so grateful," Falcon said.

Falcon has been at John I. Smith since day one, literally--she was a part of the original team, along with Principal Marie Harrison, that wrote the proposal for the school's curriculum.

"Marie and I were at South Hialeah Elementary together and we said, 'let's do it, let's write the proposal and see what happens," Falcon said.

Sure enough, their team was awarded the new school, and Falcon and her team got to implement their "City Within a School" curriculum.

The innovative program features a different theme for each grade level, for each month, and there is a full-time teacher that oversees the projects without classroom responsibilities to undermine her ability to do so.

"For example," Falcon explained, "the second grade them right now is 'Travel, Near and Far'. We've recruited through Darlene Epstein, our 'Lead Teacher', the help of Carnival Cruise Lines, American Express Travel, and other groups to teach our students about not just travel in general, but specifically about occupations related to travel."

And as if implementing such a program under normal circumstances weren't difficult enough, overcrowding at Jon I. Smith has only exacerbated those problems.

Falcon said, "We started with 800 students with a capacity of 852. At this moment however, we have nearly 1500 students here. Luckily there will be more schools built in the near future to help relieve some of the pressure."

But despite those problems John I. Smith has developed an outstanding reputation amongst not just Falcon's peers in the school system (their fourth grade students received a 3.9 in the Florida Writes! Assessment, the highest in the district), but also amongst John I. Smith's parents. The Elementary School's PTSA is extremely supportive, and Falcon is clearly grateful for their assistance.

"Our PTSA group works very hard to make sure our students have everything they need," Falcon said excitedly, "They raised $16,000 last year for books and a computer program we needed very badly, and will raise $20,000 this year for teacher and staff development. There isn't a day that goes by without me seeing a parent somewhere in the school selling something to raise money, or helping the school in any other way they can."

Perhaps the best proof of the confidence has in her school is the fact that both of Falcon's daughters attend the school, Kathryn, a second grader, and Kaitlyn, a kindergartner.

And Falcon loves the Doral community (her husband Andy may be moving his business to Doral) and is thrilled with the response the school has received from them as a whole.

"I enjoy working with the parents, and obviously we have fabulous students, but the community involvement in general and their support has been tremendous," Falcon said gratefully, "The support we get for the students from the community is unbelievable--it's like a family, they've welcomed us with open arms."