Teachers

Teacher Suzanne Savage had assembled her three-part overhead projector and plugged in the necessary cords, parts and accessories. To her right, she projected a blue screen along a wall of the library at La Crescenta Elementary School, where she works. She began to project lesson plans, instruction manuals and messed around with the zoom and auto-focus feature on her new ELMO image mate, an elaborate overhead projector for classroom instruction. And then, anticipating student reaction, she began to wave her hands in front of the device's camera lens.

Dear Mr. New (“Don't take from us to pay for them,” May 26): Did you have a public education? Did you have a teacher that you remember as having contributed to your intellectual growth or enlightened you in any way? Did your children, or do you know anyone with children, who attend public schools? Do you agree that public education is essential to an informed electorate and contributes to a civilized society and strong economy? Teachers (and other “government employees” who provide essential services)

Palm Crest Elementary School's 30 teachers were cruising on the "sea of eternal summers" on Friday when a storm blew in and their ship started to sink. As their ship started to sink, they had to decide what items they could take onto a lifeboat to survive. It seemed like a desperate situation until they learned how to come together to save themselves. Teachers were participating in a team-building exercise organized by their new principal, Anais Wenn. "Our goal is not just to survive but to thrive," Wenn kept telling her all-female faculty.

Gov. Brown signed a bill last Thursday that requires California schools to use history textbooks and lessons that mention positive contributions from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. No other state has such a requirement. While I have no problem including in a history textbook anybody who is important in human history, I do have a problem when it is mandated by elected officials just because it is politically expedient to do so. No other group of highly educated professionals has so much of their work environment controlled as do teachers.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Wilson Middle School students Wednesday named types of quadrilaterals and proved Pythagorean’s theorem in some of the lessons in Paula Jackson’s seventh-grade math class, one of 12 stops for teachers from Toll, Rosemont and Roosevelt middle schools. Every year for almost a decade, teachers have observed, inspected, recorded and shared everything they see in their peers’ classrooms as part of an instruction and curriculum improvement program.

Tim Willert DOWNTOWN -- Raysa Puig will do whatever it takes to make learning English easier, including singing, chanting and rhyming. "When you sing silly songs, it's a good way for them to get used to new words and phrases," said Puig, who teaches Limited English Proficient second-graders at Cerritos Elementary. Toll Middle School English Language Development teacher Darise Kiesendahl prefers relaxation as a teaching technique. "You want to lower their level of stress and make them feel comfortable," Kiesendahl said.

Six Glendale teachers were among 220 Southern California teachers honored Thursday at a special beach party hosted by Gladstone's Malibu. Sam Levering, Jim Smiley and Scott Sund from Crescenta Valley High School and Carol Driffill, Mary Hazlett and Cathi Lander from Glendale High School were all honored at the eighth annual party hosted by Gladstone's Malibu. Students nominate teachers they think should be honored, said Christine Lloyd, a spokeswoman for Gladstone's.

Alecia Foster NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- For those in the school district's human resources department, hiring teachers is a year-round project. "This is the crunch time right now," said Dreda Lutz, assistant director of human resources for Glendale Unified. District officials will continue their search this summer -- traditionally the busiest time for hiring teachers -- alongside thousands of others throughout the country. Glendale officials say most of their hiring needs for the year have been met -- about 101 teachers have been hired so far. A dozen more still need to be hired by the fall.

Red ribbons weren?t the only thing dotting school campuses recently. Teachers at Mountain Avenue Elementary had red faces as they huffed and puffed their way into better shape with West Coast Boot Camp. For the second year, the teachers took park in the fitness camp that conducted classes after school in support of Red Ribbon week. ?The teachers want to become healthier and make better choices,? said principal Rebecca Witt, who said that the exercise regime is in line with the values that are the basis of Red Ribbon Week.

Glendale Unified and its teachers union appear headed for battle over furlough days scheduled for 2012-13, just months after they eliminated similar dates from the current school year. District officials announced this week they had reached an agreement with classified and management staff to defer four furlough days on the books for 2012-13 to the following year. It restores a full schedule, and full pay, for those employees for the coming school year. “While the districts needs the flexibility of having the furlough days in multi-year budget projections while state budgets are so unpredictable, our intention is to keep them far enough in the future that they may never have to be used,” Assistant Supt.

Flanked by her family and colleagues, President Obama today called Burbank Unified teacher Rebecca Mieliwocki -- the 2012 national Teacher of the Year -- “the definition of 'above and beyond.'” Mieliwocki, a Glendale resident who teaches English at Luther Middle School in Burbank, was given the national prize Monday by the Council of Chief State School Officers. Known for an unconventional teaching style that emphasizes critical thinking, Mieliwocki beat out more than 50 other nominees.

Flanked by her family and colleagues, President Obama today called Burbank Unified teacher Rebecca Mieliwocki - the 2012 national Teacher of the Year - “the definition of 'above and beyond.'” Mieliwocki, a Glendale resident who teaches English at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank, was given the national prize Monday by the Council of Chief State School Officers. Known for an unconventional teaching style that emphasizes critical thinking, Mieliwocki beat out more than 50 other nominees.

Glendale can now call itself home to the top educator in the country. Long-time Glendale resident and Burbank Unified teacher Rebecca Mieliwocki was named Monday as the 2012 National Teacher of the Year, capping an extraordinary seven months during which she advanced to the county and state levels of the competition before being named one of four finalists for the top prize. Mieliwocki, accompanied by family members and several top Burbank Unified officials, will join educators from across the country Tuesday in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden where President Obama will formally confer the award.

An embattled La Cañada High School math teacher will leave the district at the end of the school year, bringing to a close a tense six-month chapter in which La Cañada Unified officials were criticized for mishandling concerns about her classroom conduct. Briefly addressing the subject during a meeting Tuesday, School board President Scott Tracy announced that the board had unanimously approved a settlement with Gabrielle Leko that includes her departure on June 15. In a statement released several hours later, district officials said that the agreement protects students while also shielding the financial interests of the district.

Nearly one year after Glendale voters approved a $270-million technology-focused school bond, they can now see evidence of the investment in classrooms. On Monday, Glendale Unified kicked off a second consecutive week of technology training for its teachers, handing out dozens of new Mac laptops during a professional development session that officials say will directly impact classroom instruction. “It is a tool, and if we don't know how to use a tool effectively, it doesn't do us any good,” Deputy Supt.

Teachers in Burbank and Glendale school districts will not face layoff notices this month, even as some of their colleagues in nearby La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena learn they may not be retained for the 2012-13 school year. State law mandates that districts give notice by March 15 to full-time teachers who might be let go come summer break, making it a stressful time for those low on the seniority list, since the so-called “pink slips” are issued based the number of years of employment.

The president of the California Teachers Assn. visited Dunsmore Elementary School on Tuesday to read to a group of second-grade students as part of Read Across America, a national literacy effort. Dean Vogel started his education career as an elementary school counselor with the Vacaville Unified School District in Solano County before rising through the ranks to head one of California's most powerful unions. He visited with students at the La Crescenta school, and later with Glendale teachers at Toll Middle School in South Glendale, at the invitation of union's local chapter.

For years, Chris and Jennifer Davis have given their students the task of interviewing senior family members as part of an oral history project for the couple's humanities class at Clark Magnet High School. But the cheap recorders used to collect the audio data were increasingly insufficient. So earlier this month, Chris Davis turned to the nonprofit website donorschoose.org , where he posted a request for eight, high-quality digital recorders and a description of how they would be used.