He won the grand prize by entering Honeywell and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s fourth annual Got 2B Safe! Awards Program, which recognizes teachers committed to keeping children safer from abduction and sexual exploitation.
Norvell created a five-day curriculum on the Got2b Safety rules: Check first; It’s my body; Go with a friend; and Tell a trusted adult. His weeklong program incorporates a different safety activity on each day, he said.
Activities include puppet shows that introduce the Got 2B Safe! Four Rules of Safety, inviting fifth grade students and police officers to come in and perform skits and chants to reinforce the rules, and conducting a Got 2B Safe! assembly during report card pickup night.
During the classroom’s unveiling, Honeywell spokesman Mark Kane presented Norvell with a golden apple “Got 2B Safe” award in front of his new students and school officials, including Superintendent Tim McGonegal.
“This is one further step in further empowering students ... to teach them life-saving lessons,” Kane said.
Manatee County Commissioner Donna Hayes also was in attendance to congratulate Norvell and present him with a proclamation.
As a result of his win and as a way to address the increasing importance of energy-efficiency, part of the classroom makeover included replacing the room’s light bulbs with energy-efficient lighting.
The walls are painted green as part of a jungle theme. Leftover prize money bought classroom items, including a smartboard, digital cameras and books.
At the day’s end, McGonegal said there were no major glitches.
Foreign exchange student David Mauboussin, who spent his first day as an American student at Braden River High School, said something similar Monday evening.
“Today at school was a nice day and I understood everything that the teacher said, so I am very proud of myself,” said the 17-year-old student from France. “I am very tired too. It was a good ending.”
— Tiffany Tompkins-Condie contributed to this report.
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