Teachers

Darleene Barrientos In a role switch, Glenoaks Elementary School teacher Elena Heimerl is spending her summer as an intern at Crescenta Valley High School, where Rosemont Middle School students are taking classes. Heimerl isn't regressing, she is finishing up her master's degree and administrative credentials this year. An administrative internship is one of the requirements of the program. "I love teaching," Heimerl said. "But I just wanted to get this under my belt.

Darleene Barrientos With so many more test scores to keep track of and more databases to enter those scores into, teachers at Cerritos Elementary School took a day off this month to catch up on their own "homework." They scored students' assignments, double-checked those grades, entered the numerical value of those grades into school databases and talked about strategies to help improve students' grades. If teachers have more time to thoroughly grade their students' classwork and talk over teaching strategies with their colleagues, Cerritos Elementary School officials hope to ultimately raise state and federal student test scores.

GLENDALE — While students had the day off Friday, teachers at Marshall Elementary School were getting a lesson on lesson-planning. The session was one of many that occurred at schools throughout the district for Friday’s staff development day, which allows administrators at each school to focus on a specific area of concern to improve classroom performance, Marshall Principal Lynn Marso said. Professor of literacy education Janice Pilgreen, of the University of La Verne, led the workshop at Marshall, which focused on strategies that teachers could use to improve students’ reading-comprehension skills.

Gary Moskowitz Matt Berryman is not worried about the overachieving or low-performing students in his classroom. He is mostly concerned about the students right in the middle. Berryman teaches computer graphics to juniors and seniors in the Antelope Valley Union High School District. He and about 50 other educators from throughout Los Angeles County visited Hoover High School on Wednesday to learn more about Hoover's Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, program.

Robert Chacon Two local teachers are considered among an elite group of educators by the California League of High Schools. Hoover High School music teacher Craig Kupka, and Joyce Yamaguchi, who teaches at Crescenta Valley High School, are among 10 nominees from the league's Region 8 for Educator of the Year. The region's winner will be announced Friday at the Los Angeles Athletic Club and will be in the running for statewide Educator of the Year against winners from each of the group's other 10 regions.

GLENDALE — A Glendale High School teacher and athletic director was honored Monday with the John Delmonte Award for exemplary teaching and his dedication to his students and work. Pat Lancaster was sitting at a desk Monday along with more than 20 teachers who were getting information on staff development when Glendale Unified School District board members and Supt. Michael Escalante interrupted the session to announce the award winner. The winner’s identity was kept a secret from teachers, staff and even district board members.

As a former martial arts instructor, Chris Manning believes in control. The Ensign Intermediate School history teacher describes himself as a free spirit much of the time, but in the early weeks of a new school year, he'll keep smiling and joking to a minimum. "When kids come in, if you present an attitude that's calm and businesslike, they'll learn to respect you," Manning told a classroom full of new secondary school teachers during the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's orientation week.

Computer teacher Anna Martirosyan doesn’t normally work with French fries, but she got behind the counter of a wildly busy McDonald’s on Thursday night to raise money for John Muir Elementary School. As ecstatic children ran back and forth past a line that seemed to continuously stretch out the door, Martirosyan said she loved taking part in Muir’s annual McTeacher’s night fundraiser, in which teachers help to prepare and serve the gamut of McDonald’s favorites, although she joked that it wasn’t always easy.

Instrumental music director Amy Rangel taught Glendale High School students who had never picked up an instrument how to play and fall in love with it. Many educators say starting to learn an instrument as a teenager is just too late, Rangel said. But she has devoted her summers to teaching music to beginners. She also teaches students with advanced music skills how to become the best they can be, she said. “Our main focus is developing student musicianship and leadership skills,” said Rangel, who has taught at Glendale High for eight years.