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

Intervention: What? Why? How?

What is intervention? Intervention is designed to help students who need help learning to read. The students can range from Kindergarten students to 5th graders who are English language learners. There are a variety of types of intervention that have been used at Alvarado including intervention by the classroom teacher, during class and after school; Reading Recovery; and group before or after school reading classes. Intervention does not take the place of the regular classroom instruction. Intervention is in addition to classroom instruction.

Alvarado has started a new program this year (2010-11) called Leveled Literacy Intervention. It is a supplementary intervention program designed to provide powerful, daily, small-group instruction for the children in the early grades. There can be no more than three students in each group. There are comprehensive lesson plans for three levels from beginning reading in Kindergarten or Grade 1 to beginning reading for Grade 3. Leveled Literacy Intervention is designed to be used with young children who need intensive support to achieve grade-level competency.

This system uses both sight words (memorized words) and phonics. There are hundreds of leveled fiction and non fiction books provided for the students. Students read one book the first day, work on phonics, sight words, and take the book home to read. The second day they reread a previous book, write about the story, and again take home a book.

Mrs. Desandies and Students

Mrs. Desandies a former 3rd grade teacher with many years of experience has been selected to teach these daily 40 minute classes. According to Mrs. Desandies these are the strengths of the system:

1. The books are excellent: interesting, attractive, well-designed on many levels.

2. The literature covers a wide variety of genres (very strong on non-fiction).

3. The program is comprehensive: reading (word work, comprehension, fluency), and writing (letter formation, spelling, conventions, content).

4. The skills are introduced in a very systematic and sequential way, in small increments, and consistently reviewed.

5. Excellent follow-through and spiraling.

6. The daily lesson plan supports extensive reading, discussion, review, and writing in a fast-paced, engaging manner.

7. The small group format maximizes individual growth.

8. The consistency of 5 lessons a week over a long period of time promotes accelerated progress.

9. Early intensive intervention prevents emerging literacy difficulties rather than corrects long-term failures.

10. Continuous assessment pinpoints precise and on-time teaching points for each individual student.

Mrs. Desandies also uses one of her favorite tools to motivate students. Students learn to form letters of the alphabet and build words with the moveable alphabet with her personal ipad.

Music and Performing Arts

Music in the Library

Laurie Taner

Music involved the preps but also all the after school music programs. For many years all schools were involved in Marching On. Marching On was a performance art program of all schools at James Logan High School to showcase the musical talents of students. The music teachers were required to teach after school choir, but they were paid extra for it. However a tremendous amount of time went into arranging the performances and getting the students ready to perform. Every school was assigned to perform. The bands and recorders played and all the choirs sang. Students who were not in choir or recorders still had music every day and often performed at assemblies at school. Laurie Taner was the Music teacher in the 90's, then came Ivan DeSousa, La Verne Shue Chen, then David Martell in 2008.

La Verne Shue Chen

Ivan DeSousa

Dave Martell

39 Years at Alvarado Come to a Close

Third Grade Teachers Say Goodbye
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It was a happy time and sad time for the tightknit group of third grade teachers as they bid farewell to a very dear friend and colleague. After thirty nine years on the Alvarado faculty, Chris Moriuchi leaves to retire to a life of ease and tennis. At her retirement party she shared pictures of her classes for the entire 39 years. She also had a binder of staff pictures for the entire 39 years. It was an impressive collection of memories. It's amazing to think of all the students who have learned from Chris including Derek McNamara, Assistant Superintendent of Personnel for New Haven Unified School district. Mr. McNamara was a student in Chris's fourth grade class.

Congratulations on your retirement. Thanks for all years of sharing your extensive knowledge with the staff and the students.

Alvarado Wildcat Song

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This is a copy of the Alvarado Wildcat Song which was revised in 2008. It is sung to the tune of California, Here I come.

Zumba FUNdraising by the PTC

Alvarado Staff Enjoys Zumba

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The Alvarado Parents Teacher Club hosted a Zumba fundraiser for the school. For the fee of $10 teachers and parents enjoyed an awesome evening getting a healthy and fun workout. Mimi provided the instructions and a parent was the DJ.

Photos provided by Maureen Tecson

PE............Physical Education

Students have two periods of Physical Education every week in their prep period. Teachers are supposed to provide one class period a week of physical education besides the prep PE. Mark Simmons was the long term PE coach from the early 1980's to 2004 when he moved to Alvarado Middle School. In 2004 Joe Fitzgerald became the coach with the assistance of Coach Zapata. Students must bring a note from their parents if they are required to skip physical activities for a health reason. All students are required to participate in warmup exercises for about 10 minutes at the beginning of every class. Students have instruction on how to play a variety of sports including basketball, volleyball, and tetherball. Before playing they had to learn the rules of each sport. Students also had a month of square dancing. In PE students develop their listening skills, learned to follow directions, and bond with other students while developing good sportmanship skills.

Mark Simmons

Joe Fitzgerald

Chris Zapata

Cuts in Education Funding

Cuts in education funding in the year 2010-1011 have affected classroom supplies for students. Teachers are now going out into the community to procure supples for their students. Second grade teacher, Maureen Tecson, has been a help to many of the Alvarado teachers. Maureen has made it part of her job to find out where to get donated materials teachers and students need. Much of the materials have come from online sources. She enlists the help of her friends and family to vote for her classroom to get books for the class library from Cash for Classrooms and even fruit donated by Del Monte Fresh Produce®. She has also used AdoptAClassroom.org to get classroom supplies.

Cathy Hampton received confirmation of a donation of approximately 100 fiction books geared specifically to boy readers! Thanks to Maureen and the donors @ donorschoose! Vince Lindain received individual listening centers--cd players with headphones to differentiate reading levels for listening to books for his first graders. A reading carpet to help students focus and have their own personal space on the carpet was funded for Suhky Gill's third grade class. Thanks to a tip from Maureen, Letty Muñoz Gonzalez received a new listening center donated to the class from Chevron. The media specialist, Alisha Valine, received $800 for DVDS for the library from the Donors Choose website. Anita Schumann first grade project was also funded. Maureen's reminder emails has helped Alvarado receive about $3000 of donated supplies.

Teachers have always applied for grants to support special programs. New Haven Unified School District has a mini grant program and many teachers apply for these. Teachers have always applied for big grants but not for regular classroom materials. Kim Pratt wrote a grant to fund the B-Wet science program at Alvarado and now it's also at Pioneer. The B-Wet grant is a huge grant. However, it's a sign of the tough financial times when teachers have to go the extra mile to get ordinary classroom supplies.

Science

Science prep is once a week, but teachers are required to also teach science in their classroom. However, students are not tested on the California State Tests until the 5th grade. Originally the science classes were held by the science teachers going around from classroom to classroom with a cart for their supplies. After a couple of years, a new wing was built that included a science classroom.

Below are photographs of children's science projects for the science fair. The science fair was a yearly event. Usually the 4th and 5th graders were required to complete a science project for the science fair. Liz Marotta Jordan, Holly Scroggins, and Angela Usher are former science teachers. Bernadette Muhlestein was the long time science teacher from the early 1980's to 2006 when she retired. In 2008 Kimberly Pratt became the science teacher. Ms. Pratt brought the B-Wet grant to Alvarado.

Science Fair

Kim Pratt on the boat in 2010 with the B-Wet Grant.

Balanced Literacy: Learning to Read at AE

According to Carmen Jorgenson, Balanced Literacy is a complex concept. Just as the octopus, it has many parts. If you ask 10 people what Balanced Literacy is, you might get 10 different definitions and understanding. The ultimate goal of balanced literacy is to develop proficient, independent readers and writers. It is all based on a premise called "Gradual Release of Responsibility."

Through read aloud's, shared reading, modeled writing, and interactive or edited writing, teachers model strategies that good readers and writers use. Teachers do a lot of the work during these lessons to share their own thinking, and to get children to understand the strategies and how to apply them. Teachers provide direct explanations about the strategies, think aloud to foster metacognition, and facilitate peer learning through shared texts and partner talk about those texts.

During the school day, students are given the opportunity to practice these strategies during small group teacher-directed guided reading or writing. This setting provides the appropriate amount of support each student needs to be able to apply the 'focus' strategy.

Then during times when the child is reading or writing alone, (s)he practices the taught strategies independently. Teachers monitor this independent practice time by conferring with the students to see how they are applying the strategies. During the conferring, teachers can evaluate a child's progress, reteach a strategy, and/or validate what a student is using and why to help develop more metacognition.

It's like teaching a child how to ride a bike. The child watches someone ride a bike as the first step. Then with the support of someone literally holding up the bike and the child peddling, the child attempts to ride a bike. The adult is still doing a lot of the work. Pretty soon the child can ride almost by himself with an adult just holding onto the seat, or there as moral support. The child is doing most of the work. Pretty soon he can ride the bike by himself.

Yes, comprehension (meaning) is the focus of all reading and writing instruction. All proficient readers read for meaning. Writers write to express their thoughts - creating meaning. Yes, there are separate skills that can/must be taught to assist students as they learn to read and write for meaning. Teaching students how to comprehend what they are reading is a heavy task. It includes everything from reading to learn information, to reading to understand the plot of an author's story, to understand the inferences and opinions in a text. It's a very complicated, higher-level thinking process.

Another aspect is teaching students how reading and writing are so closely connected. Literate people use what they know about reading and writing interchangeably.

Carmen Jorgenson is a former classroom teacher, reading specialist, and principal. She is an active member of the Alameda County Reading Association. Semi-retired from New Haven, she continues to work as a reading support teacher. Mrs. Jorgenson has worked with Dr. Adria Klein who has trained Alvarado teachers in Balanced Literacy. Dr. Klein was a force at the very beginning of the California Early Literacy Learning project (CELL) in 1994 and later ExLL (Extended Literacy Learning) both which were teachings training tools.

Alvarado API Scores Continue to Climb

The annual API, Academic Performance Index, results, released on September 15th 2010, by the California Department of Education, are scores of between 200 and 1,000 assigned to all schools and districts in the state, based on the results of standardized tests taken each spring. A minimum score of 680 is required to meet federal accountability guidelines, and the state’s goal is 800. Alvarado made a 9 point gain with a score of 835 over last years 826.

However Alvarado will be in Program Improvement due to the scores of one subgroup who did not met the required minimum score. All schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) that do not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are identified for Program Improvement (PI) under the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA is also known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act which was signed in 2001. This act required states to come up with their own performance testing, thus the API. The Federal part is AYP to make sure that disadvantaged students namely Title I students received an ever improving education. In California, PI is the formal designation for Title I-funded schools and districts that fail to make AYP for two consecutive years. At Alvarado the subgroup that failed this year is not the same subgroup that failed last year, but it still puts Alvarado in Program Improvement. Alvarado will be required to institute programs and policies to improve their scores.

The ESEA (NCLB) requires all states to implement statewide accountability systems based on challenging state standards in reading and mathematics, annual testing for all students in grades three through eight, and annual statewide progress objectives ensuring that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years. Assessment results are disaggregated by socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, disability, and limited English proficiency to ensure that no group is left behind (NCLB). Districts and schools that fail to make AYP toward statewide proficiency goals are subject to improvement and corrective action measures. Keep in mind that only schools which receive federal funding, Title I schools, are subject to Program Improvement. Public schools and charter schools who do not receive federal funding are not in danger of going into Program Improvement even if they do not make their required AYP.

The Speech/Language Program at AES

The Speech/Language Intervention program has been working with qualified students since the early years of Alvarado Elementary. Once a child meets specific criteria, it becomes a federally mandated service. The service model and specific goals will vary for each child. The teacher, parent, and school specialists (Resource Specialist, School Psychologist, Speech/Language Specialist) all have a part in developing the Individual Education Plan (IEP) for each student. This IEP is a living document that grows, and is modified and/or enhanced based on the individual child’s needs. All of this is only done with the parents prior written permission.

How does a child qualify for such help? A child is evaluated by a credentialed and certified Speech/Language Specialist, to determine if the child meets the state educational code criteria. The child’s scores need to fall at or below the seventh percentile compared to other children their own age. The areas the Speech/Language Specialist evaluates are: Articulation (how sounds/words are pronounced); Voice (the sound quality of the child’s voice: harsh, breathy), Fluency (the fluidity and smoothness to the speech without stopping and starting: pppplease pppass the sssalt), and Language. Language is complex and covers many areas. It can include: difficulty labeling thing; difficulty understanding what was just heard; processing information; following directions; understanding and using vocabulary correctly; defining, comparing and contrasting ideas; and expressing ones self effectively, these are just a few things that the Speech/Language Specialist addresses. For those students that are not able to communicate orally, the child will be taught sign language, use pictures or low-high tech communication devises. These are designed and implemented by the Speech /Language Specialists.

Once the evaluation is completed, the Speech/Language Specialist, with the input from the team mentioned above, write goals and objectives for the upcoming calendar year on the IEP. The specialist will give progress updates 3 times a year and a review every year. On the 3rd year, the evaluation is redone, to determine if the child still qualifies for services.

The children are seen anywhere from 2 times per month, for a child who is working on carry-over of his skills into the classroom setting, to 3 days a week. Again, this depends on the child’s developmental levels and the team’s decision on how to best to serve the individual child. The therapy sessions are typically a pull-out model within a small group of similarly aged students.

This post was written by Kathy Jones Mabie. Ms. Mabie is a long time and well respected Alvarado Speech and Language Specialist. She is a contributing force in all of the Alvarado school community activities as shown here in one of her Halloween costumes.

Kathy Mabie

Alvarado Conquers Mission Peak

Staff 2010 Summer Fun

Photo Courtesy of Vince Lindain

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Congratulations

Cheri Benafield

Congratulations to Cheri Benafield AE's Assistant Principal. Cheri will be the new principal at New Haven Unified's Pioneer Elementary for the year 2010-2011. Cheri has been at AE for about ten years. She came to AE as a Reading Specialist and quickly moved up to Assistant Principal. In 2009 she was awarded administrator of the year for the district. Everyone will miss the warmth and skill Cheri has shown with students, staff, and parents, but all wish her happiness in her new position.

Anita Schumann reading on the lawn to her students for Read Across America.

Congratulations to Anita Schumann Alvarado's 2010 Teacher of the Year. Anita Started as an teacher's aide with Alvarado. She went back to school, received her credential, and began her career as a teacher at Alvarado. She is knowledgeable, skilled, consistent, and a leader of her fellow teachers.

Anita on Halloween

ManYee Desandies: Teacher of the year 2009
Congratulations on your retirement in June, 2010.





Ruth Houseworth: Congratulations on your retirement in June 2010. Thanks for sharing your creativity and skills with AE staff and students.

Joe Sefcheck: Congratulations on your retirement in June 2010. Thanks for all the years of service in New Haven Unified School District.

Death and Life of the Great American School System

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch is a look at many attempts to make the public school system work for all students. She is a former Assistant Secretary of Education and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. This is a scholarly work with statistics to back up her change of heart from Choice to support for the neighborhood public school. "With so much money and power aligned against the neighborhood school and against education as a profession, public education itself is placed at risk." She makes the point that community schools allow the public to engage in discussions with their neighbors which is the very basis of our democracy. She defines how charter schools, testing, and the business of education has become a cottage industry in the United States. Often it's about making money, not about what is best for children and their schools. The history of Alvarado Elementary, as shown on this blog, clearly shows it is a long standing community school.

After retiring from 25 years of teaching, I am well aware there were many programs developed to improve students academic success. Here are some of the programs, often thought of as "silver bullets", designed to lead to superior student success that I have seen, personally used, or participated in developing. Some of these were in other districts and I am sure there are many more programs. Some are a renamed combination of strategies. Some of these address the big picture such as Strategic Planning; some address what happens in the classroom, basic teaching strategies; and some address both, such as No Child Left Behind.

*Split reading
*Phonics only
*Clusters
*Open Court
*Sullivan reading
*Plan, Do, Review
*KWLH charts
*Whole Language
*Sheltered English
*Interactive Writing
*Terry Johnson Strategies
*CELL California Early Literacy Learning
*California Literature Project *S.T.A.R.S.S. Successful Teaching of Academic Reading to Struggling Students*Just in Time Teaching
*Rebecca Sitton Spelling
*ExLL Extended Literacy Learning
*IBM Writing to Read - Technology Based
*Reciprocal Teaching
*Word Wall - Glad, Clad, Cell
*GLAD
*Non Fiction Matters
*Read Naturally
*Grouping, Non Grouping,
*Tracking, Non Tracking
*Differentiated Instruction
*Buddy Systems-student and teacher
*Conflict Resolution
*Best Practices
*Power Standards
*Strategies That Work
*Technology Based (Road Ahead Grant)
*Literacy Coaching
*Scaffolding
*Learning Walks
*Writers Workshop
*Character Education
*Reading Recovery
*Balanced Literacy
*Intervention: Before, After, and During School (pull-out)
*Strategic Planning
*Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Collaboration
*Data Driven Instruction, testing
*No Child Left Behind (NCLB)- testing, testing, testing
*Critical Literacy
*Human System Dynamics
*Targeted Instruction
*Race to the Top (Grant)

Some of these ideas are from for profit companies who have sold a bill of goods to superintendents, and they in turn have sold the bill of goods to their school boards. Many of these ideas are about making money for a company. Some work exceedingly well, but they are often limited by the number of children with access to the program or even the materials. Teachers pay a high price in time spent exploring these options after school, in the evening, or even in the summer. Often in the next few years they are dumped for new strategies. Then teachers are off learning new techniques spending more hours and hours in training or in meetings at the district office. The good part is experienced teachers have an arsenal of strategies to pull out when needed. The bad part is good teachers get frustrated with the system and leave teaching. There is only one thing certain about schools and that is "constant change".

Probably the most useful to teachers and students is intervention, which could be in the classroom or Read Naturally or Reading Recovery, and voluntary PLC's. Required PLC's often do not work unless there is a very cohesive staff in most grade levels. If all these worked all the time on all the students, we wouldn't have to have NCLB. The principal's eye needs to be always on the prize. The prize being all children reading on or above grade level. The best people need to be hand picked to do the best job whether it's classroom teaching or some type of intervention. I have seen very experienced and well trained aides successfully teach intervention outside of the classroom. Those aides were very disciplined, allowed no excuses for work not done or lack of effort expended by the students, and worked well as a team. Since little effort is spent training aides this is rare. Usually it is the classroom teacher who has the skill and the discipline, and that skill is not easily replicated. Districts are always trying to replicate good teaching. Can it be done effectively? Each teacher is so unique. It is only each teacher's skill at that time, in that place, with a particular child that makes a child successful. It's what the teacher knows and how they use it to spin it to each child's best advantage. It's one child and one teacher, one on one.Charter schools, poverty, and disenfranchisement, which includes drug use, are premier issues facing the public school system. Diane Ravitch's book is an attempt to look at what has happened in the past and what should happen in future to save the American public school system. Ravitch does not support President Obama's education agenda for merit pay plans. According to her, "test-based accountability removes all responsibility from students and their families for students academic performance". She is not against private schools or even Charter schools. She is against taking parental support, motivated students, and funding away from public schools. She also examines the success rate of the business or army model used by foundations, such as the Gates foundation, and adapted by some charter schools.

Her last chapter is titled, "Lessons Learned" where she explores options for public schools. This chapter relates how generations of immigrants have adjusted to the American way of life through participation in the free public school system. Teachers and staff have seen this on a daily basis at Alvarado. She believes we should establish a general national curriculum which includes the liberal arts, sciences, physical education, and the social behaviors and skills that make learning possible. When schools are in trouble, then whatever needs to be done to correct the problem needs to be done and it might be different from school to school from community to community.

The author's challenges parents, teachers, and students to go to their law makers. On National Public Radio she recommended these groups go to their congressmen, even naming George Miller, a powerful voice on the education committee from Contra Costa County, as one who knows little about what really goes on in public schools. Her final conclusion is that it's all about good teachers and good principals. Teachers and principals with experience, knowledge, and empathy. That's the magic.

District Librarian's Photo 1990 to 2011

New Haven Unified School District's Proud Librarians

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Composite of District Librarians 1990 to 2011

Missing
Carla Colburn, James Logan High School
Martha Utley, Conley Carrabello
Jan Dietrich