Chicken Little

By Rebecca Emberly

No the sky is not falling, but there are many challenges for AE due to California school budget cuts. One at Alvarado is class size. Class size in all grades can be up to 34 students. This includes kindergarten. In the last few years kindergarten and 1st grades had been limited to 20 students. This is a huge change for teachers and students. Last year 2nd and 3rd grade were limited to 25 students. This is no more. Because of the size of classes are so large, it means fewer regular teachers are needed. Therefore some familiar faces around AE will be missing. Some teachers received pink slips and were released from New Haven. Some were assigned to other schools in the district. The smile of Rachna Lindstrom will be missed by students and staff. She will be teaching 4th grade in San Leandro School District. Matt Speakman and Junelle Mallari will no longer be at Alvarado at this writing. However, there are no empty classrooms as 6 new classrooms are now occupied by special education students. Some of these students come from the Cabello facility which was closed at the end of the last school year 2012.

 

Clinton Puckett

Clinton Puckett will be the new Assistant Principal. Clinton has been teaching a variety of grades for the last few years. He also taught the after school dance class and the Color Guard. Vince Lindain, a long time 1st grade teacher, will teach 3rd grade this year. Cathy Hampton, a long time 3rd grade teacher, will be teaching a 3/4 class this year.

After much discussion by district personnel about how to handle library cuts, media/library classes will be non existent for grades k, 1, 2, and 3.  Fourth and fifth grades will have somewhat regular media classes. Alisha Valine, the media specialist/librarian will only be at AE on Monday afternoon, Tuesday all day, and Friday afternoon. On Monday mornings she will be a Kitayama and also all day on Thursday. On Wednesday she will be all day at Pioneer and then again in the morning on Friday. She will do her best to maintain services for the teachers and the classes she teaches, but at this time only 4th and 5th grade students will be able to checkout books. This may still be somewhat tenative because often prep schedules need to be adjusted. Keep an eye on Mrs. Valine's website at Miss Media, to see any changes.

Monday - KIT in the AM, AES in the PM

Tuesday - AES all day

 Wednesday - PIO all day

 Thursday - KIT all day

 Friday - PIO in the AM, AES in the PM

It's going to be a challenge for teachers and students to adjust, but Alvarado teachers know they have a job to do and they will do it to the best of their ability.

Library or media

Media

Media is layered to included appropriate literature, technology, internet safety, and library skills . Students check out books and had a skills, literature, or technology lesson every week. The media specialist also ran the media retrevial system known as Synergy during the 1990's. Around 1996 to 1998 students put on a TV school wide show with school news. It was produced by the media specialist but the students did the acting and ran the camera. By 2008 this system was obsolete. When funds were available, author visits were also provided for the students. Patricia Polacco, Caryn Yacowitz, and Marissa Moss were some of the authors. The media specialist also coordinated the yearly Young Author Faire which is no longer in existence in New Haven. The media specialist is a librarian, teacher, and technology mentor for staff, teachers, and students. The media specialists often operated the school wide book fair. The media specialists also trained students from the middle school library to shelve books, do research for new students projects, and help students find information.

As new technology came out it, was often introduced to the students. When Google Earth appeared 4th and 5th graders explored the application for a look at the seven wonders of the world, the oceans, rivers, and countries. Melinda Steffans was the librarian through most of the 1980's. In 1987 Rhonda Neagle became the media specialist. In 1990 through 2008-2009 Sharon Chambers was the media specialist. Alisha Valine became the media specialist in September of 2009.

I-Buddy Internet Safety