Geri Grocki, Boynton Beach High School Health teacher, has been selected High School Health Teacher of the Year by the Florida Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.  Ms. Grocki came to Florida after teaching Health and coaching for 20 years in Connecticut.   She is in her 7th year at Boynton Beach High School where she teaches Health, Teen Leadership.  In keeping with her philosophy, Ms. Grocki has created numerous activities at Boynton Beach High School to assure students are given healthy choices that make a difference in the students' lives while they are helping others.   An example of activities developed by Ms. Grocki includes "Commit To Change". This afterschool group focuses on educating students and staff on a variety of issues affecting people and their sense of peace and well-being.  The goal of "Commit to Change" is to create positive peace opportunities on campus and in the community.   

"Education Rocks", is a program where a student in America raises $1 a day for a year to sponsor a student in a developing country to be able to go to school. This leadership and empowerment program has students communicating monthly to teach each other about their countries and cultures. Currently Boynton Beach High students are sponsoring 53 students in Bali, Indonesia and 11 students in Ethiopia.  In order to assist in strengthening the "bully proof" environment at school, Ms. Grocki and her leadership students held a "No Name Calling Week", where students commit to being conscious of the words they use with each other to create a positive school environment.  Another program started by Ms. Grocki is "High School/Elementary School Stop the Bullying Campaign", where students from Boynton Beach High School get trained in anti-bullying strategies and teach a four day curriculum to 4th and 5th graders at a local elementary school.   Teen Trendsetters Reading Mentoring program, where students visit a local elementary school to assist 2nd and 3rd graders in reading strategies is another popular program started by Ms. Grocki.

Ann Killets
akillets@palmbeach.k12.fl.us

Nat Harrington

Vickie Middlebrooks