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SchoolCARE Spotlight - Albany Children's Center Gardening Instruction

2/7/2018

Garden Enrichment instructor Lauren Greis and the young gardeners of ACC getting a head start on spring

Even in January, Albany kids are getting their hands dirty, thanks to SchoolCARE’s funding of garden enrichment. Instructor Lauren Greis works with four preschool classes at Albany Children’s Center and three transitional kindergarten classes between ACC and Ocean View.
On a recent winter day, Lauren led eight bundled-up preschoolers out into the yard to plant broccoli seeds in containers and to transplant onion sprouts into raised garden boxes.

Lauren’s position makes small-group work possible, said Albany Children’s Center Director Anna Mansker. “Instead of all twenty four kids planting seedlings at once, she works with eight kids, while paraeducators work with other children sorting seeds and drawing maps of the garden.

“Children working together in small groups makes for a more meaningful experience,” said Anna. “Early childhood education is very hands-on and play-based. Gardening really supports that.”

For more information or to make a donation, check out our website!

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SchoolCARE Spotlight - A. P. Computer Science at Albany High

2/7/2018

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AHS A.P. Computer Science teacher Sean Morris and a robotics club creation

A.P. Computer Science is a high-demand elective, and thanks to the support of SchoolCARE, Albany High can offer a total of four sections to 120 fledging programmers, like junior Zain Kazi.
“It’s fun and hands-on,” said Zain. “We also spend a lot of time talking about the pros and cons of advancements in technology, like [Artificial Intelligence]. It’s not just a programming class.”
The original A.P. Computer Science class, taught by Sean Morris for the last eight years, was developed by U.C. Berkeley professors. “It’s an awesome program,” said Morris, “all project based.” Students learn Java to manipulate images and sounds, and how to run probability simulations
à la “Let’s make a deal!”

In Morris’s new A.P. Computer Science Principles class, students program visually in Snap! and in Python, a popular programming language.

Come lunchtime, thanks in part to SchoolCARE’s support, Morris’s lab is a hub of digital creation. Morris advises several clubs: one that competes in U.C. Berkeley’s “Pioneers in Engineering” (PIE) Robotics Competition; another assembling a 3D printer; a Cyber Security club; and an Air Quality club that uploads data from an on-campus sensor to Weather Underground. Several of Morris’s students are working with Marin first and second graders to program a robot, and they plan to expand the robotics program to Ocean View and Cornell. “Mr. Morris knows how to relate to us,” said Zain. “We can apply what we learn to the real world.”

Other 2017-18 SchoolCARE supported programs at Albany High School: Two additional elective sections; a portion of the Career and College Coordinator; and the Library Technician

For more information or to make a donation, check out our website!

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SchoolCARE Spotlight - Albany Middle School Counselors

2/7/2018

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AMS counselors Annie Lauriks, Brandon Mohan and Kelly Britton (Karen Friesen not pictured)

This school-year, incoming 6th graders at Albany Middle School will see the same counselor in 6th, 7th and 8th grade, thanks to the support of SchoolCARE, which helps pay for three full-time counselors.

“Essentially, [in the past] kids had different counselors each year,” said Kelly Britton, the 6th grade counselor. Britton, along with Annie Lauriks, 7th grade counselor, Brandon Mohan, 8th grade counselor, and on Fridays Karen Friesen, 7th grade counselor, make up the AMS counseling team.

“It’s amazing,” said Britton. “Now we can loop with the students,” which means more time to build rapport and a lower caseload so the counselors can get to know their kids and how to best support them.

For the new kid, this support might be through Cobra Connectors, counselor-trained students who, in teams of two, welcome a new student, show her the ropes and eat lunch with her that crucial first week at school.

For a shy student, this support might be with Lunch Crew, an informal group that meets in the smaller setting of Annie Lauriks’ office once a week to play cooperative games, work on social skills, and make new friends. “The unstructured time at lunch can be difficult for some kids,” said Lauriks. “If their one friend is absent that day, Lunch Crew is a place to go.”

For a kid dealing with divorce, support might be the “Families in Change” group. “It’s a great opportunity to hear from other kids, not adults, what that process might be like,” said Britton.

When a student harms another, support might come from a restorative circle where the student takes responsibility for her behavior. This approach asserts that behavior is changed through education not punishment or exclusion. “Kids are going to make mistakes,” said Britton. “How to move through that? We make an action plan and work through conflict, instead of just focusing on the consequence. This allows students to build empathy and develop more long-lasting skills.”

Other 2017-18 SchoolCARE supported programs/people at AMS: A portion of the Library Technician allowing for a full-time position

For more information or to make a donation, check out our website!

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SchoolCARE Spotlight - Art Enrichment for Marin Kindergarteners

2/7/2018

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Monica Grycz teaching Marin kindergarteners about line, shape and color as part of Art Enrichment

“Please push your sleeves up,” says Monica Grycz, back at Marin from retirement to teach art skills such as how to blend colors without making a brown blob on the palette, and how to protect the brush bristles: “The brush dances like a ballerina.”

“The children really love this time because it’s not academic,” says Monica, whose position is paid for by SchoolCARE. “It’s using the right brain and everyone can be successful.”
“See the spot between yellow and blue? Get a scoop of blue from the edge and mix together. And what do I get?”
“Green!” calls the chorus of kindergarteners.
“See the place between red and blue? Just at the edge of blue. Mix with red. Purple! Find one spot on your fish to paint purple. It’s kind of more magenta than purple.”
“It’s more beautiful than purple, ‘’ says a student.

Kindergarten teacher Pansy Lou is all smiles as she bustles around the tables with parent volunteers, refreshing the brush water.
“I tend to focus more on crafts,” says Pansy, “and have Monica come in teach more types of art like using paint and pastels. It offers a variety that I love and the children love.”
“I know how to make all the colors in the rainbow now!” sums up a proud young artist.

Other 2017-18 SchoolCARE supported programs/people at Marin: Art for second and third grade; Performing Arts for first grade, Poetry for fourth grade, Berkeley Chess for fifth grade; five iPads per second-grade class; YMCA lunch-time activity coordinators; and the Library Technician

For more information or to make a donation, check out our website!

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SchoolCARE Spotlight - Cornell Persian Dance

2/7/2018

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Persian dance instructor Shahrzad Khorsandi and the young dancers of Cornell

“The shimmy is called an isolation,” says Shahrzad Khorsandi, or Ms. Shazzy to her students, Cornell second graders learning Persian dance. “We’re isolating just the shoulders and hands. Arms up and drop.” The dancers bend at the waist. “And up! Now really release the body down and pop back up. Now jump to right, jump to left and walk around yourself.”

A twenty-year veteran of Persian dance instruction, Shahrzad’s in her second year at Cornell, thanks in part to SchoolCARE, which supports dance in Cornell’s four second-grade classes.
“They get tired for sure. It’s a workout,” says second-grade teacher Anne Alcott, who periodically shimmies from the sidelines. “Moving their bodies in space is a very new skill for them. I really see them thinking about the choreography.”

“Now shake out your arms and your hands,” says Shahrzad. “We’re learning a new step today, the camel walk . . . use your peripheral vision to keep track of how much space you have.”
The young dancers shimmy and undulate like snakes to Bandari – the dance music of Persian Gulf ports, a mix of Arabian and African rhythms, movement and attire. For the parent-performance in March, the kids will dress in scarves and skirts sewn with coins to jingle along with their sinuous moves.
They’ll kel, too, a high-pitched ululation, and attempt the tricky, two-handed Persian snap.
“Now what’s the snap called in Farsi? Anyone remember?” asks Shahrzad. “That’s right—the beshkan.”

Other SchoolCARE supported programs/people at Cornell: Youth in Arts provided hip hop for kindergarten and first grade; poetry, Civil Rights Storytelling and theater for fifth grade; iPads for English Language Development; YMCA lunch-time activity coordinators and the Library Technician.

For more information or to make a donation, check out our website!

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SchoolCARE Spotlight - Ocean View Library Tech

2/7/2018

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Mary Ernst, Library Tech and Ray Pedersen, Librarian

“Having a well-skilled tech is like having two librarians.”

Before SchoolCARE funded a library tech at Ocean View, the teachers were on their own preparing for science and social studies units, said OV Principal Terryl Georgeson.
Now teachers can enrich their lessons, supported by OV Librarian Ray Pedersen, who researches the best science texts for, say, a unit on bats or spiders, or for history lessons on California’s Native Americans, while library tech Mary Ernst checks out books to students. Ernst also helps acquire new books—an important, time-consuming task given the new curricular emphasis on non-fiction analysis.

“This is where SchoolCARE did the most good for OV,” said Georgeson. “Having a well-skilled tech is like having two librarians.”

● Other 2017-18 SchoolCARE-supported people/programs at Ocean View: Gardening enrichment for the Transitional Kindergarten; Lego Engineering for Kindergarten; dance for second graders; Berkeley Chess School instruction, first through fifth grade; iPads for Special Education and English Language Development; YMCA lunch-time activity coordinators; and the Library Technician

For more information or to make a donation, check out the rest of our website!

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SchoolCARE Spotlight - Albany Children's Center Gardening Instruction

SchoolCARE Spotlight - A. P. Computer Science at Albany High

SchoolCARE Spotlight - Albany Middle School Counselors

SchoolCARE Spotlight - Art Enrichment for Marin Kindergarteners

SchoolCARE Spotlight - Cornell Persian Dance

SchoolCARE Spotlight - Ocean View Library Tech

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