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Look What I Made! Behind the Teacher’s Desk January 2020
Look What I Made! Academic Achievement and the Creative Process in Preschool and Kindergarten Behind the Teacher’s Desk: January 2020 By Hema Walker …As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life – John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life The joyful sights and sounds of children creating their own masterpieces and engaging in the creative process reveal more than just a playful diversion from the important work of academics. The process of creating with one’s own hands, and as a group, is rich with essential skills that enrich and support academic pursuits and give rise to meaningful connections between the student and the academic material. A wealth of research…
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Will New Law Gut Charter Schools?
Will New Law Gut Charter Schools? By Suki Wessling The updated charter school law signed by Governor Newsom last fall, AB 1505, was hailed as a compromise between districts that wanted more control and charter school advocates who wanted to maintain independence. “For the most part, whatever side you’re on, people see this as an improvement, as a reform that’s going to make the chartering process more effective,” says Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Faris Sabbah. Santa Cruz County has 15 charter schools that could be affected by the new laws that started this month. The mood at some of our fifteen local charter schools, however, could be…
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How Fast is Too Fast? Behind the Teacher’s Desk December 2019
How Fast is Too Fast? Behind the Teacher’s Desk: December 2019 By Lisa Catterall When children create for the world they make it good. When children create for their teacher they make it good enough. — Rushton Hurley Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of tears and upset in my students when it comes to the idea of grades and competition. Teaching at a college preparatory school, I’ve always had a great deal of competition and a fair share of perfectionists in my class. Perhaps I’m just noticing it more. This year I have a lot of what teachers refer to as “early finishers.” Many teaching resources for…
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Linking Play to Future Careers: Career Pathways December 2019
Linking Play to Future Careers Career Pathways: December 2019 By Mary Gaukel Forster The holiday season provides opportunities to give career exploration gifts and to reflect with our children about what toys and games teach us about ourselves. Traditionally, we may think of trucks, dolls, kitchen sets, erector sets or video games. Here are some conversation starters for all ages, that link play to future careers, and suggestions for toys and games that entertain and teach. Younger Children Parents can help younger children connect their toys and play with skills, interests, and possible careers through questions and conversation. With practice and observation, a parent can encourage career awareness from a…
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Medical Technician Students Tour Santa Cruz County 911 Center: Career Pathways November 2019
Medical Technician Students Tour Santa Cruz County 911 Center Career Pathways: November 2019 By Mary Gaukel Forster Workplace tours can be powerful early career awareness activities for students, helping them learn not only about specific careers but about their own preferences and values. Nowadays tours can be virtual or in-person, increasing the opportunities to get an inside look at careers and workplaces. We are fortunate to have many local and digital opportunities in Santa Cruz County and I am sharing a sampling to get you started. Parents can help provide these experiences and enrich them by asking open-ended questions. When asking these questions you are helping your child to…
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Students Create Inventions to Save the World
Students Create Inventions to Save the World By Suki Wessling “It looks like some good work has been done here,” announces Spring Hill School Principal Casey Ryan. He’s just walked into a large classroom that resembles a bombed-out craft store. “You can always tell the successful classroom when there’s a bit of a mess to clean up,” he says. Students at Spring Hill had just spent the morning making prototypes—working alone, in pairs, or groups. Photo by Jules Holdsworth. Teacher T. Jesse Riley, in charge of the Design Lab, is a huge influence on getting kids from concept to finished project. It was Launch Day for their Invention Convention, a…
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Natural Learners: Behind the Desk November 2019
Natural Learners Behind the Desk: November 2019 By Lisa Catterall Children are naturally well-wired and driven to learn. The moment we try to teach them, we have already failed. – Bhanu Potta We are makers. I have been lucky enough to spend 32 of my 46 years around some of the most imaginative influencers in education, learning by osmosis and doing all the math they need to show off their research. Instead of babysitting, I made money by creating spreadsheets of STAR test scores comparing classrooms with new innovative techniques to more old fashioned ones. When there wasn’t childcare, which was often, my young professor father dragged me into meetings…
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Building Baby’s Library
Building Baby’s Library By Jan Pierce Books Matter Educators tell us that every child needs to hear five hundred books read aloud to them before entering Kindergarten. Hearing all those stories prepares boys and girls for learning to read. They’ll pick up important “book knowledge” such as concepts of words and sentences, left to right orientation, top and bottom, the beginning, middle and end of a book and much more. Here’s a place Kindle and tablets haven’t penetrated—books for babies and kids. Nothing beats nightly reading and educators say kids need to hear 500 books before kindergarten. They’ll learn to enjoy book language which is different from everyday speaking. They’ll…
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Lighting the Fire: Behind the Teacher’s Desk October 2019
Lighting the Fire Behind the Teacher’s Desk: October 2019 By Lisa Catterall “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel” —Socrates. “I have to do what? Talk about how a living thing is different than this candle flame? Why?” Good point. Why would I have you do that? Well, there are years of research showing that for many kids, thinking and talking about something cause that concept to fall into your memory in a more useful way than passively reading about it or listening to a teacher give you the answer. “Can you just give me the answer?” I would like to offer all of…
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These Online Helpers Help Teens Find Careers: October 2019
These Online Helpers Help Teens Find Careers Career Pathways: October 2019 By Mary Gaukel Forster Schools today are focusing on programs to help guide students on their career paths. Districts in Santa Cruz have adopted the on-line program called NAVIANCE, a comprehensive college and career readiness solution that helps districts and schools align student strengths and interests to postsecondary goals. Naviance improves student outcomes by helping them connect their strengths and interests to long-term goals today. There are important tools teens can find to help get them started on career paths. They can do them in school or at home on computers. This program serves middle school through high school…
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How to Reduce Student Stress
How to Reduce Student Stress By Emily Listmann Many of us feel that children today are especially stressed out: some have even deemed the present the “age of anxiety” for youth. We blame technology, SATs, homework, and social media. We lament this widespread problem, yet most of us feel powerless to act. This was the case for me as a middle- and high-school social studies teacher in fast-paced Silicon Valley. Other than doing my best to reduce the homework load, I wasn’t sure how to meaningfully help my students. It took my own personal challenges with stress to uncover perhaps the most powerful tool for helping kids combat pressure: their…
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Catch the Career Train While Still in School: Career Pathways September 2019
Catch the Career Train While Still in School Mentorships, Internships and Shadowing Career Pathways: September 2019 By Mary Gaukel Forster Summer is almost over and I hope that your young people have had many opportunities to explore careers. As we begin the new school year, I will be highlighting the opportunities for exploration that are provided by our local schools in partnership with the non-profit Your Future Is Our Business. Work Based Learning is an educational approach that links learning in the classroom to careers, providing greater exposure and access to future educational and career opportunities. In the first step, teachers bring representatives from many occupations to demonstrate and speak…
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The Answer to “I’m Bored” Part 2
The Answer to “I’m Bored” Part 2 By Mary Gaukel Forester Read “I’m Bored” Part 1 HERE. In this month’s article I will continue to share summer and on-going opportunities for career exploration. Many summer experiences, courses, clubs, events can help a young person learn more about their own interests, skills, talents, and values. Adults in their lives can help youth see the connection between their interests, skills, talents, values, and potential career pathways. Bike Tech Teacher and Student/Santa Cruz County Office of Education EV3 Robotics: programming, engineering, construction Create Advanced mechanical devices and program motors with EV3 Lego Mindstorms. Ages 10-17 building, programming and commanding your own LEGO…
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Brain Building: Research Supports a “Playful” Approach to Preschool/Kindergarten Learning
Brain Building: Research Supports a “Playful” Approach to Preschool/Kindergarten Learning By Hema Walker Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. – Albert Einstein Everyone knows that young children love to play, but the latest in brain research clearly shows that children need to play in order to develop the skills that are required for success in academics and into adulthood. This knowledge guides the heart of high quality programs for young children by providing an engaging, creative, hands-on curriculum in a rich environment with…
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Happy and Successful Kids Lifeskill 4: Making Connections
Happy and Successful Kids Lifeskill 4: Making Connections By Jan Pierce, M.Ed. Have you ever wondered why some people are artists, writers or inventors? How is it that some people quickly understand the way a story works or the heart of a poem? At least part of the answer is that those persons are able to make connections between bits of information to build a broader understanding. School teachers understand the importance of making connections. Those students able to find the connections between various pieces of information arrive at correct conclusions faster and also come up with unique understandings. They’re good thinkers and often creative thinkers. Very young children develop…
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Career Technical Education: It’s Not Your Father’s Vocational School
Career Technical Education: It’s Not Your Father’s Vocational School By Suki Wessling Soquel High School’s woodshop is a large, airy, and loud space. Soquel’s Industrial Arts and Woodshop teacher, Hal Rovick, has to raise his voice al- most to a shout as he points out the equipment, the students, and their projects. These students in his advanced class are focused and independent. One young woman shows off the shelving unit she is making with half-circles of hand-polished tree trunk. A small group confers about a project in another corner. Rovick raves about the jobs some of his former students hold. “They went straight from my classes to industry,” he says,…
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Trying College on for Size
Trying College on for Size By Suki Wessling This is the second in our three-part series on helping teens prepare for life after high school. Our first, “What Do You Want To Do With Your Life? Teens Face Life Decisions Earlier Than Ever” was published in November. In this installment, we investigate the idea of “college fit” and question the assumption that students should aim for the most prestigious college possible. Frank Bruni’s book “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be” is full of stories of failure. Students fail to get the grades they need to apply to the “elite” college their friends are applying to. Students fail to…
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Is Your Teen Graduation from High School Soon? What’s Next?
Is Your Teen Graduation from High School Soon? What’s Next? By Hayley Mears As your teenager nears graduation, knowing what kind of work or career is the right fit and supports their interest and goals isn’t easy. As students enter their senior year, they spend a lot of time thinking about what they really want to do in life and what colleges and schools have the programs that best support their goals. That’s why Monterey Bay Economic Partnership and Bright Futures Educational Partnership have joined forces to bring free career resources through the Monterey Bay Career Connect (mbcareerconnect.org) website. A one-stop shop for college and career readiness, the website provides…
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Cabrillo Game Designers Get a 10 out of 10
Cabrillo Game Designers Get a 10 out of 10 By Ricky Chavez Most gamers are satisfied beating bosses or winning multiplayer matches, but for many this isn’t enough. Every semester, a class of students enroll into Intro to Programming/Games, a games programming class at Cabrillo College. Future video game developers get the satisfaction of making their own game and after a tough semester they showed off their games in December. GAMERS ON GAMES students testing JAVA’s game Project Jumpman. The class got together the week before finals to play and test each others games. I was able to sit in and personally test out every game that was made. Ed…
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Career Pathways: February 2019
Career Pathways: February 2019 By Mary Gaukel Forster How often were you asked, or did you ask a young person, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” From the time he was 2 1⁄2 my own grandson, answered, “a firefighter”. How did he come to that decision at that young age? Curious, I began to think that choosing a career is like choosing a travel destination and finding the path there. How did I decide that I wanted to climb Half Dome? Was it pictures, a friend’s story, a documentary, seeing the massive granite hump on a family visit to Yosemite? Photo by Brad Kava HAMMERIN’ Ponderosa…
