Education
Fifteen pairs of eyes in Muslimah Mohammed’s class at Santa Fe Elementary School were fixed on the television screen this morning, watching President Obama address the nation’s students. “I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school,” the President began, drawing cautious nods from the attentive third-graders, who had actually started school eight days earlier. “Some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer…
Michelle Mapp and Rachel Carroll, of Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, took their 8-year-old daughter Lauren to Labor Day lunch yesterday, taking their seats at a white-cloth-covered table in the middle of Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Civic Center Park. The menu, on their plates, at least, was enchiladas, red grapes, and freshly squeezed lemonade. It was a community potluck–with a purpose. The three gathered at the end of one of five long tables lined with bright red apples. As Lauren alternated between…
When students arrived back at Chabot Elementary School last week, the great construction demonstration in their own old play yard had grown to two stories high and was covered in scaffolding. “It’s a great experience for kids to see their school being built,” said Chabot second grade teacher Marybeth Tullis, who’s worked at the school for eleven years. “Last week the kids were able to interview a construction worker about his job.” Chabot’s new multi-purpose building and library are expected…
As tens of thousands of children in North Oakland returned to school this week, local health officials and school districts were already bracing for the upcoming flu season, said Alameda County Public Health Department spokesperson Sherri Willis. “For the first time ever, we have two strains of flu and two vaccines to deal with. That would be a tall order even if one of those wasn’t a pandemic,” Willis said, referring to the swine flu virus, which since the school…
Five years ago, Oakland Technical High School teacher Deirdre Snyder wrote some notes at a teacher meeting where the teachers were imagining a new kind of academy within Tech–a program that might help teach students how to make careers out of protecting the environment. At the kickoff celebration last night for Tech’s new Green Technology Academy, Snyder–who teaches Spanish and Environmental Studies, and who will now help head the new Tech program–said, “We need to do this, because without it…
Seventh grade life sciences teacher Pauline Filippou is not a morning person. But this does not keep her from getting up at 6 am every morning in order to arrive at James Madison Middle School an hour before the kids show up.
Non-profit organizations were ready to hand out pay-checks to underprivileged youth in Oakland this summer but were unprepared for the reality checks that went with them. President Barack Obama’s stimulus package last February made it possible for Oakland to hire 1,000 youth this summer, but some agencies said the stringent qualifications narrowed the applicant pool to much. Applicants had to be at risk, which meant being a school dropout, homeless, an offender, pregnant or someone who “requires additional assistance to…
Each country has missing pieces in its history. Japan, my country, for example, never admits that the Nanking Massacre happened, or that residents in Okinawa, near the end of World War II, were forced to kill themselves rather than being taken POWs by U.S. forces. The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present, the current exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California, helps illuminate a missing piece in Mexico’s Afro-Mexican history. The exhibit concentrates on the history of…
After six years of state control, the Oakland Unified School District resumed local control last week and new Superintendent Tony Smith, an Oakland native, was inducted into office. But what exactly does this mean for Oakland residents in terms of change? Not much, apparently. While the OUSD Board will now be in a position to make independent decisions – versus advising a state administrator – the looming budget crisis seems to be tying everyone’s hands. One reason why school officials…