TAMPA –

The Hillsborough County school district wants to get students hooked on books with Nooks.

At Gaither High School in North Tampa, the idea already is working.

District officials are trying to figure out how to expand the use of portable electronic reading devices, commonly referred to as e-readers, and determining how to offset the costs.

The school board had a workshop Thursday on the topic.

“We can’t just think of the cost of the devices and the cost of the books,” said David Steele, chief information and technology officer with the district. “You also have to take into account the cost of the infrastructure.”

The devices can cost as little as $99. But it can cost as much as $80,000 to set up a wireless network for an entire elementary school, Steele said. The estimated cost to outfit all schools with wireless is $24 million.

Gaither High School purchased 52 Nooks from Barnes & Noble using a grant from Bealls Department Stores.

“They are just fabulous,” said Patricia Albrecht, the school’s reading coach. “The students stay engaged the entire time they are reading, which is not always the case with a book.”

There is a different feel with an e-reader compared to an old-fashioned textbook.

Students think reading is cool now, Albrecht said. That helps them read more, which helps their reading ability and vocabulary usage.

Gaither students who have used the Nooks say they don’t have to worry about ripping pages with an e-reader and that they aren’t as apt to fall asleep with one like they would a book. Others like it because if they don’t know the meaning of a word or how to pronounce it, they can use the dictionary function of the Nook.

Teachers wish they had even more, said Principal Marie Whelan.

“They’re fighting over them,” Whelan said. “They all want them. They are all more comfortable using them.”

Board members wanted to know the district’s plan for buying more e-readers for schools and equipping the schools with the necessary infrastructure.

“It’s not like we have this all planned out,” Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said.

After all, there are more than 100 different versions of e-readers on the market, school officials said.

“One of the real difficulties with the whole e-reader is the changing landscape,” Steele said.

“They’re out there and they are changing frequently right now because they are in great demand. We have to tread carefully as far as how much we commit in one direction knowing tomorrow there could be better items.”

By 2015, state law requires that districts start moving toward having more textbooks available electronically.

Hillsborough school board member Doretha Edgecomb said she hopes e-readers don’t take over the landscape.

“Textbooks will always have a place,” she said. “I don’t want us to ever believe we will get rid of textbooks as a resource for teachers.”

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CLEARWATER, Florida — Students at Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf are getting in the spirit of Valentines Day. They’re not just exchanging candy and valentines. They’re also dressing the part.

A sea of crimson shirts, shoes, even monkeys pass through the hallways as the children compete in what could be known as the American Idol of Valentine’s Day fashion. Their best outfit and dancing go before four judges from local organizations, as they score each one to determine the “Reddest Child.”

“American Idol kind of caught the eyes of the kids and they liked the idea of having a panel,” says school director Julie Rutenberg.

A day like this helps kids build up the confidence to shine at Blossom Montessori. Many of the students are deaf or hard of hearing. Others have parents who are.

The contests just let them be kids.

“You can’t tell who’s deaf and who’s hearing,” Rutenberg says. “They’re just normal kids and they’re proud and having fun.”

Meanwhile, they’re also learning lessons in love and to be happy for each other, no matter who wins the contest.

“I don’t honestly think they care if they win or not,” Rutenberg says. “They just like to stand up and be proud.”

There’s also a “Reddest Lunch” competition at Blossom Montessori. But some advice from the kids: peanut butter and jelly doesn’t taste as good covered in red food coloring.

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http://video.tbo.com/v/23204172/summer-camping-with-a-dolphin.htm

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Mariah Potter is a spokeswoman of sorts for Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf.

The 14-year-old student government president has written and delivered speeches at Habitat for Humanity dedication ceremonies since 2005, the year her school began donating bookshelves and children’s books to new homeowners. Remarkable for a child once labeled severely learning disabled and ineducable.

Potter, who is hard of hearing, will graduate from eighth grade at Blossom on June 4, and enter North Side Christian School as a freshman.

“She came to us with her big brown eyes and said, ‘Teach me,’ ” said Carol Downing, 49, associate director of Blossom Montessori. “And we did.”

Blossom Montessori is one of only two schools in the country with a Montessori curriculum for deaf children and the only one in Florida.

The school, at 14088 Icot Blvd. in Largo, has 22 students, ranging in age from 2.5 to 15.

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Ericka Cook, 13, of Palm Harbor interrupted her free time on the playground to sign that she enjoyed reading and learning about language. She added that she wanted to teach reading to deaf kids one day so they would really understand language. Then she smiled and ran off to swing.

Her dad, Erik Cook, 41, of Palm Harbor has three children enrolled in Blossom and embraces the program.

“Blossom gives a child a chance at a much-needed education without feeling different,” said Cook, whose other children are Christina, 12, and Tyler, 14. “They have community involvement, participating in Habitat for Humanity. It’s more than a school. It’s a building block for life.”

School life will soon resemble life in the general community more than ever.

Until recently, enrollment at Blossom was restricted to the deaf, hard of hearing, children of deaf adults and those with hard-of-hearing or deaf siblings. And though deaf children remain the school’s focus, Blossom has opened its doors to all students.

“This is the future,” said Downing, who lives in St. Petersburg. “Putting kids together to learn from each other and with each other.”

In order to learn, play and enjoy each other, the children must be able to communicate. So all students, both deaf and hearing, learn American Sign Language from day one.

At Blossom, signing is considered a second language after English. Teachers communicate with students both ways.

“When it comes to teaching, we are willing to try whatever it takes,” Downing said. “If a child’s not learning, we teach a different way. Customization is one benefit of a smaller school.”

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Julie Rutenberg, 32, of Belleair Shore founded the school in 2003 and is the school’s director.

She is proud of creating a learning environment where children thrive. She believes the staff’s commitment is a big part of why her school has flourished.

“They understand the level of dedication it takes to give students undivided attention,” she said, pointing to a recent weekend. “We took 10 students, all Girl Scouts, to Disney for the day. My staff willingly gives up nights and weekends to work with the children.”

Those teachers say they have high expectations of their students, but students have even higher expectation of themselves.

Staff members credit their success with the deaf population to an understanding of the challenges a deaf child has with hearing parents and a hearing child has with deaf parents when they return home.

Whether a student is hard of hearing or has full hearing capabilities, Blossom teachers give one-on-one time to each child.

From preschoolers to middle school, the education is hands-on.

Classrooms look similar to those of a traditional school, but there are no desks and the way children learn is much different.

While there are computers, pencils, paper, bulletin boards and a library, there are more enticing learning tools.

Colorful blocks as a system to learn math, soft sand for little fingers to write letters of the alphabet, and geometric shapes symbolize grammar.

“To follow the Montessori curriculum is to follow the child,” Downing said. “There are no barriers at this school. The kids know we’re behind them academically, morally and socially.

“We’re here to give a child a chance and give parents a choice. We want to be one of the schools parents consider when they want to place their child.”

Cassandra Brown, 29, of Largo thought carefully before enrolling her two sons, Edward, 13, and Elon, 8.

“Blossom has been the best educational decision that I could have chosen for Edward, my hard-of-hearing son, as well as his hearing brother,” Brown said. “Enrolling my children at Blossom allowed them to be educated together despite the difference in their degree of hearing. ?

“I have seen them bloom academically and with confidence.”

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IF YOU GO What’s next?

What: Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf’s Stepping Up Ceremony. The ceremony, which honors all students graduating or stepping up to the next grade, is open to the public.

When: June 4, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: St. Petersburg College, Clearwater campus.For information, call (727) 539-7879 or e-mail mkadau@blossomschool.org.

Grant received Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf is one of only four recipients of a Glazer Family Foundation grant. The school received the grant for $3,648, which was used to build a playground for 3- to 6-year-olds and to purchase sports equipment.

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CLEARWATER – Ivy Richardson came to Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf in Clearwater when she was 7. She could not spell her last name and was years behind her age group in school.

Ivy is deaf and had a hard time communicating and learning in a traditional classroom at Cross Bayou Elementary School in Pinellas Park. Now, as a seventh-grader, Ivy excels in math and loves to learn, said her mother, Stacy, of Largo.

Ivy was one of the school’s first students, and she attributes her academic success to the school. She grew up at Blossom, she signed.

Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf is one of two Montessori schools for deaf people in the United States and the only one in Florida, said Carol Downing, associate director of the school. The school is for kids ages 2 1/2 through 15 who are deaf, hard of hearing, those with cochlear implants or hearing kids who have a parent or sibling who is deaf.

‘A lot of deaf schools have deaf students with hearing parents, which most of them have, but we bring in the CODAs (children of deaf adults,) the hard of hearing students, and we have kids with the cochlear implants because we know if it breaks, they’re deaf,’ Downing said. ‘And the panic that can set in for a child who is not ready to be deaf, everyone here is sensitive to that instead of being plunked down into a public school where no one understands the trauma of that child all of a sudden losing everything they’re dependent on, whether it’s a dead battery or a broken gizmo.’

Stacy first discovered her daughter was deaf when Ivy was about 2 years old, Stacy said. When she began public school, Stacy said Ivy felt extreme frustration because she couldn’t communicate or understand the lessons very well. Then she transferred to Blossom.

‘I immediately noticed improvements in her academic progress, for here was a school that was equipped to handle her needs,’ Stacy said. ‘Her needs include the use of effective communication, which for her is American Sign Language. I also firmly believe in the Montessori approach to teaching. Ivy’s language skills have improved immensely.’

The school was founded in 2003 by Julie Rutenberg, now director of the school. She had taken an American Sign Language interpretive language course from Downing at St. Petersburg College and saw the need for a school when she did her contact hours with deaf kids in the public school system.

According to the Blossom literature, the Tampa Bay area is home of the fourth largest deaf concentration in the United States and 37 percent of children with minimal hearing fail at least one grade.

The teachers at Blossom all speak in both American Sign Language and spoken English. As a Montessori kid herself, Rutenberg realized the benefits deaf kids would get from the hands-on, tactile learning of the Montessori method.

In the Montessori classroom, words and concepts have physical objects that students can pick up and hold. Math is learned with beads – loose beads for 1 to 10, groups of 10 beads strung on a wire, 10 groups of 10 beads strung into a square, and 1,000 beads strung into a cube.

‘If you’re deaf, then everything you learn is with your eyes,’ said Maria Kadau, director of development at the school. ‘It’s very visual, so it’s good to enhance their visual senses with what they’re learning.’

The children up to age 6 are all in one classroom, then they go the 6- to 9-year-old classroom, then onto the 9- to 12-year-old classroom, and finally to the 12- to 15-year-old classroom. This way the younger students can learn from the older ones and the older students can help teach the younger students, Downing said. Sometimes kid speak or kid signing helps explain a difficult concept to a peer that finally makes it stick.

‘We have the chance to let kids in the classroom feel empowered by teaching,’ Downing said. ‘Instead of ‘Stop talking and turn around,’ I’ll give you 20 minutes with him to explain what you think that means and I’ll be back to check on you. And Ivy is really good in math, and she’s been instrumental in re-explaining something to her classmates. I’ve watched her in action and she comes up with some really funny examples and other students kind of go ‘Oh’ and the teachers will go, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

Classes have six to eight students in them, and there is lots of one-on-one time with teachers. Each day the children get a contract of what they must cover that day and then they decide when they want to learn that subject. This approach is used because kids’ brains learn different subjects better at different times of the day, Downing said, so the lessons are more effective when they are excited and ready to study that subject instead of being forced to do particular subjects at particular times.

‘They make things interesting here,’ Ivy signed. ‘Like math? you have to figure it out. And when you get frustrated, you don’t get upset. The teacher works with you one-on-one and makes you feel better about learning. I feel smarter all the time.’

Ivy said her teacher keeps her challenged and she feels a camaraderie with him because he is deaf, too. It’s wonderful that all the teachers teach in sign language so they do not have to rely on interpreters, she said. The teachers at Blossom make concepts stick, she said, and she is grateful she attends the school.

‘I would be so bored (in public school)’ Ivy said, ‘because they don’t really have high expectations (of deaf kids) and things would be just baby easy. But at Blossom, it’s so much more challenging. I know it. And they just tell me I can be smarter and smarter and smarter.’

The hardest part of being deaf is just not being able to hear, Ivy said, and it is very hard to learn a language she has never heard. That is why it helps to learn with the Montessori method in which every word and concept has a tangible object, she said.

‘When you write things down, it’s there (on the page,) but when you move things, you understand what they mean,’ Ivy signed. ‘They have names and they’e objects and it’s related to the names, and then when you take the test and you have something you can remember. It sticks. You can pick it up and use it and put it back down and remember the name of it. And sometimes, if you think you’ve forgotten something, you can go back and remember the name of something because it is in your head. You’ve learned it with your hands, so it’s in your head.’

Ivy is full of ambition and wants to attend high school at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine and then go on to becoming either a veterinarian, nurse, scientist or an artist.

Ivy said the school has helped her family, too. There are monthly adult classes, and because of that, Ivy’s mom, grandmother and aunt have learned excellent sign language, which helps Ivy communicate with her family.

‘I think this helps with respect,’ Downing said. ‘Like Ivy’s mom, yeah, she has to learn sign language to talk to her daughter, but guess what? Her daughter has to learn English to talk to her. And as she said, it’s so hard when you can’t hear the language.’

The school also teaches social responsibility. For instance, starting in preschool, the kids decide when they want their snack, so they tell the teacher and then get their food themselves, take out a paper plate and napkin and then clean up after themselves. If they spill, they clean it up, and the students clean their own lunch room as well.

Children may enroll in the school at any age between 2 1/2 and 15 and at any time of the year, Downing said. Cost is $5,500 a year for preschool and $7,000 a year for the older students, although the actual cost is about $25,000 per year per child. As a nonprofit organization, the school relies on charitable contributions to fund the difference and other costs.

The school is for children ages 3 through 15 who are deaf, hard of hearing or have siblings or parents who are deaf. Founded in 2003, its enrollment has tripled, according to a press release, and needs help with the following: Classroom materials and library books; marketing and advertising, printing and mailing; musical instruments, sheet music and special guests to talk to them about music; science materials and technology; event sponsorships; tickets to area cultural attractions and theater productions; field trips to businesses to learn about careers; adult volunteers; professional development scholarships for teachers; financial support.

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Julie Rutenberg was a volunteer at the Deaf Service Center working as its liaison with the Pinellas public school system when she noticed some of the deaf children were falling behind their classmates.

There were first-graders who didn’t know the alphabet and fifth- graders who didn’t know the days of the week.

Rutenberg, a graduate of Clearwater Central Catholic High School and the University of South Florida, where she received a degree in educational interpreting for the deaf, decided to try to rectify that.

She had attended a Montessori school growing up and thought that environment could benefit deaf children and their families. So, in 2003, she opened Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf with 10 students, sharing space with Annsworth Montessori School on 142nd Avenue N in Clearwater.

Individualized course study, small classroom size, emphasis on lessons that are visual and tactile, as well as active parental involvement, have all contributed to the school’s unique experience, as well as its student body, which mixes deaf children with their hearing siblings, who can also attend Blossom.

“As far as I know, we’re the only school in the U.S. that accepts hearing and nonhearing siblings and uses the Montessori method,” said Rutenberg, 28.

The name for the school was suggested by Rutenberg’s father, Florida home builder Arthur Rutenberg. It’s an appropriate image for a place that nurtures young children, Rutenberg said.

“We want the kids to blossom, to develop under our care,” she said.

The school now has 25 students between the ages of 3 and 15. Some of them are hearing-impaired, ranging from mild hearing loss to profoundly deaf. The children are placed in three-year age groups where they learn at their own pace. Most classes are taught using American Sign Language. Curricula comply with the Sunshine State Standards and Montessori Scope and Sequence guidelines.

Cassandra Scott of Largo placed her sons Edward Fountain, 9, and Elan Fountain, 4, at Blossom. Edward was diagnosed with progressive hearing loss at age 4. Elan hears, but Scott wants him to learn how to sign and communicate with his brother.

“Elan has picked up so much just in his first month at Blossom,” Scott said.

The school is housed temporarily in an unremarkable one-story beige strip mall on Starkey Road in Largo, while its permanent location, a former telemarketing office at 14088 Icot Blvd., Clearwater, is being renovated.

“We just signed a five-year lease on a building we hope to move into at the end of this year,” Rutenberg said. She expects to begin classes there Jan. 2 after winter break.

The new building will allow Blossom to accept more students in January, but on a limited basis.

“We’re committed to keeping our 4-1 ratio of students to teachers,” said Kristi Kauffman, Blossom’s associate director.

Monthly tuition is $700 for grades K-8 and $550 for preschool. Financial help is available through the John McKay Scholarship Program, Coordinated Child Care of Pinellas and the Blossom Scholarship Fund.

The school has five teachers and two assistants. A speech language pathologist and behavioral and occupational therapists visit the school daily. Classes are from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with extended afterschool care offered until 6 p.m.

Parents are responsible for transportation and must attend monthly meetings.

“There’s very much of a family feeling here,” Kauffman said. “When parents drop off their kids, it gives us a chance to interact every day.”

Lisa and Erik Cook of Palm Harbor have three children who have attended Blossom since its inception. Tyler, 11, and Erika, 9, were born profoundly deaf. Christina, 8, is “our hearing child, although she often doesn’t listen,” said Erik Cook, an executive for Walgreens.

Cook said his family has had a good experience with the school.

“It’s been awesome for us and our kids,” he said. “True to the name of the school, they’ve all blossomed.”

Tomy Rush, 3, Elan Fountain, 4, Logan Booth, 4, Brittany Perez, 3, Brianna Perez, 3, and Justyce Booth, 4, play a memory game with speech language pathologist Natalie Donihi at the Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf. The school opened in 2003 with 10 students. It now has 25 students from preschool to Grade 8 and will move to a new building at the end of the year. The school mixes deaf children and their hearing siblings.

Tiffany Davis, 13, is learning about pilgrims in Carol Downing’s classroom at Blossom. The school maintains a 4-1 ratio of students to teachers.

LARGO – For two years, Julie Rutenburg maintained her “dream come true” within a complex of office centers in Clearwater.

She had opened the Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf in summer 2003.

Eight children enrolled.

The concept of such a school had never been tried before, Rutenburg said: The parents “just had trust.”

Today, the school’s enrollment has grown to 25 children — ranging from the deaf to the hearing impaired. The school has moved from the building it had shared with another Montessori school to a temporary site in Largo, where Rutenburg and her staff of eight await renovations to Blossom’s first dedicated school building.

Rutenburg said her school is only the second one in Florida to serve exclusively deaf and hearing-impaired children. The other is the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, a public boarding school in St. Augustine.

She says she knows of no other school in the nation that uses the Montessori method to teach deaf children.

Montessori stresses hands-on learning through all five senses and allows children to learn at their own pace by choosing activities in which they want to participate. Lessons are done on the floor.

Rutenburg said the curriculum at Blossom is tailored to each child. Teachers and pupils communicate through American Sign Language. Instead of grade levels, children are grouped by age: 3- to 6-year-olds; 6- to 9-year-olds; 9- to 12-year-olds; and 12- to 15-year-olds.

That model is ideal for deaf children, Rutenburg said. However, she and her staff concede they have no other model to work from.

“There’s a lot of learning as we go,” said Kristi Kauffman, the school’s associate director.

Rutenburg got the idea for the school after she worked with deaf children as an intern in the Pinellas County school district.

The school system was too large for those children, she said, and teachers were too focused on testing.

“They just had their hands full,” Rutenburg said. “Kids were falling through the cracks.”

Rutenburg’s first classrooms opened in the Annsworth Montessori School at 5990 142nd Ave. N. in Clearwater. With enrollment increasing steadily, the school starting enrolling preschool-age children this year.”We were bursting at the seams,” she said.

In August, classes opened in a suite of offices at 12505 Starkey Road in Largo. The staff is renovating a building adjacent to Annsworth, and students should be moving there in January, Rutenburg said.

Tuition is $700 a month, or $7,000 a year. The school participates in the McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program. If parents have trouble meeting the cost, “we will work with them,” Rutenburg said.

The school’s oldest enrolled student is still a couple of years away from entering high school, Rutenburg said.

Because Blossom is a private school, students do not have to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. However, middle-school age students may soon begin taking the FCAT to better prepare them for high school, she said.

“There comes a time when they have to leave us and go into the hearing world,” she said.