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Pamela Leestma, a second grade teacher at Valley Christian Elementary School in Bellflower, was among those honored in Washington last week for her innovative teaching methods and success in boosting academic performance.
Leestma, who has taught for 33 years, was named one of five American Stars of Teaching honored by a committee of former teachers at the U.S. Department of Education who considered 5,000 nominations.
She was the only elementary teacher to receive the honor. Leestma stood out for her success in incorporating science into the second grade curriculum. In May, Leestma’s Valley Christian class partnered with an after-school program at One Stop Richmond Hill Community Center in New York City for NASA’s first coast-to-coast live video conference with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Leestma also organizes an annual star gazing night for students and their families and conducts professional development and training nationally and for the Assn. of Christian Schools International conferences in Southern California.
At Valley Christian Elementary, she is known for her passionate love of science and igniting in her students the same feeling, principal Ann Samuelson said.
"She brings innovative technology and integrates that into the classroom, which is especially unusual for second grade," Samuelson said.
Leestma came by her fascination of space gazing at the rings of Saturn through a telescope in the second grade. Growing up in Tampa Bay, Fla., her family would race outside during NASA launches to see rockets lifting toward the stars. She met X-15 test pilot and astronaut Joseph Albert Walker only weeks before his June 1966 death in an air collision. Her cousin, David C. Leestma, is a shuttle astronaut and veteran of three space flights, the last being a 1992 Atlantis mission.
Leestma hopes recognition of her work will inspire other teachers, "because they’re ones that need to inspire next the generation."
Her next goal is to obtain video conferencing equipment for her classroom.
"It's a small world out there, and I want to reach across borders," she said.
Downtown Long Beach becomes Sunday school this weekend for University by the Sea.
Restaurants double as classrooms for classes in food, and there are courses in culture, history and sustainability. Urban foresting, crepe-making, comedy, yoga, meditation, and "Why I Want to Move to Canada but I love Long Beach" are some of the classes available. Prices vary from free to $30 for each class.
-- Mary MacVean
In another sign of the nation's economic woes, fall 2009 freshman are being urged to apply early to California State University.
The application window opens this Wednesday. Because of state budget shortfalls, the system will not be able to absorb as much growth in enrollment as usual, officials said Monday, so laggards risk losing out on the campuses of their choice.
Six of the most popular campuses -- Fullerton, Long Beach, Pomona, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Sonoma -- plan to quit taking applications on Nov. 30. The remaining 17 campuses will accept applications through March 1, but may close down certain programs or majors. A CSU website tracks which campuses are accepting applications and which majors are open or closed.
This is the second year in a row with tight deadlines; many CSU campuses previously took applications until September. Cal State is the largest four-year higher education institution in the country, with 450,000 students.
-- Gale Holland
It's Banned Book Week, and the American Library Assn. has all sorts of historical information about efforts to keep books from readers. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "1984," "Gone with the Wind," "Hamlet" all were once banned by libraries or governments in the United States.
Schools, libraries and bookstores across the country are marking the week with events such as one in Encino at the Valley Beth Shalom Day School Sheila Sporn Library. There, students will sign their names to a "Freedom to Read" poster, adding the name the banned book they read. Challenged books will be on display and available for borrowing.
Read about other events in The Guide, and a column on the topic in Calendar.
No surprise to this: Children's books have been banned more than other genres, and one of the most frequently banned authors is the enormously popular children's author Judy Blume.
More than 400 books were challenged in 2007, according to the American Library Assn.
Idalia had a knife; Amancia had an issue with a gun. But that was then.
Each of the 100 students at Johnson Community Day School in South Los Angeles has had serious problems at their middle or high schools--run-ins that include truancy, drug use or brushes with the law.
That’s why they ended up at Johnson.
(Amancia Westby, 16, looks over her assignment at Johnson.)
Now, they face an additional challenge, getting to a new campus in another part of town. Their current school is being torn down to make way for a new 2,000-student high school.
But their presence at Johnson means they’re still trying. Read on for the stories of Idalia and Amancia.
Continue reading Meet two Johnson students trying to get it right »
The chancellor of the 450,000-student Cal State system, Charles B. Reed, has been given one of three 2008 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prizes in Education.
The awards were anounced this week by Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the McGraw-Hill Cos.
“In the 20th century, the United States set the standard in education, and as a nation we took pride in having the strongest and most accessible education system in the world. Sadly, this is no longer true,” McGraw said. “The three educators we honor this year have demonstrated a commitment toward bridging gaps to higher education and breaking down barriers faced by too many of today’s young students.”
The McGraw prize annually recognizes people who have dedicated themselves to enhancing learning in this country and whose accomplishments are making a difference today. Each winner receives $25,000.
As chancellor of the Cal State system, Reed launched an initiative to recruit and retain more minority students.
The other winners were Richard Blais and Judith Berry Griffin.
Blais is vice president and co-founder of Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the number of students who are prepared to study engineering in college.
Griffin is the president and founder of the nonprofit organization Pathways to College, which identifies talented children of color in low-performing high schools. The students attend an after-school program that offers coaching in study skills, writing and critical thinking.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo by Karen Tapia / Los Angeles Times
When the Southern Poverty Law Center premieres its newest documentary, "Viva la Causa," at the Wilshire Theater on Sunday, 17-year-old River Marcano will be paying special attention.
The film depicts the California grape boycott led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the late 1960s, which served to expose the poverty-stricken plight of migrant farm workers and boosted formation of the United Farmworkers Union.
"Viva la Causa" places the struggles of farmworkers within the larger context of civil rights movements, and highlights the common goals of human rights and social change.
Part of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program, the 40-minute documentary will be distributed free with teaching resources to an estimated 50,000 educators over the next two years. The SPLC, based in Montgomery, Ala., is a nonprofit group that combats hate and discrimination.
Hundreds of high school students and farmworkers will be bused in to Sunday’s screening, which is scheduled to include an appearance by Huerta and SPLC founder Morris Dees.
Marcano is Huerta’s adopted granddaughter and is an example, she said, of how the seeds of social activism are passed down through generations.
“I have been inspired to be an activist because of the courage and influence of my grandmother and have been involved in a number of protests with her," said Marcano, a junior at New Roads, a private school in Santa Monica. “My grandmother means the world to me. She is so positive about an individual’s ability to create change for the better.”
Continue reading Farmworker struggle depicted in film »
In recent times, no individual has been more important in shaping reforms at the Los Angeles Unified School District than Roy Romer, the three-term Colorado governer who accepted a late-in-career job as district superintendent. Romer headed the nation's second-largest school system from July 2000 till late in 2006.
In recognition of his efforts, Romer had a new school named after him Thursday.
The 1,809-seat middle school in North Hollywood has relieved overcrowding at Reed and Sun Valley middle schools, allowing them to return to a traditional two-semester calendar this fall.
Romer was a driving force behind the nation's largest school construction program. He also pushed programs that have driven up academic achievement in many elementary schools.
Romer currently is the public face of a foundation-funded effort to bring education issues to the fore in the presidential campaign.
Roy Romer and school board member Tamar Galatzan cut the ribbon Thursday on Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood. Also pictured, from left to right: L.A. Unified Superintendent David L. Brewer; Assemblyman Paul Krekorian; school board member Julie Korenstein; state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell; and Jim Morris, chief of staff to Brewer.
Read on for the release from L.A. Unified about the school christening event.
--Howard Blume
Photo provided by Los Angeles Unified School District.
Continue reading School named for former Supt. Roy Romer »
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