Posts Tagged ‘Oakland Technical High School’
Anger and sadness over Tyre Nichols’ death prompts students to walk out and protest at Oakland Tech
Hundreds of Oakland Technical High School students skipped classes, cordoned off 45th Street and Broadway, played music with themes of anti-police brutality, and painted murals Monday to honor Tyre Nichols, who died Jan. 10 after being beaten by Memphis police officers. “Hey hey! Ho ho! White supremacy has got to go!” they chanted, outside the…
Read MoreOakland students demand climate change curriculum
A new Oakland Unified School District policy will ensure students graduate with an understanding of climate change–including how they can be advocates the environment. But there’s still a lot to do before climate change gets taught in all Oakland schools.
Read MoreMen’s volleyball surges into Oakland high school programs
The Oakland Athletic League established men’s volleyball as a California Interscholastic Federation sport three years ago. Oakland High School, Oakland Technical High School, and Skyline High School are the first schools within the league to compete. Oakland High School has dominated the league ever since its debut back in 2015 and has been league’s only…
Read MoreOakland Technical High students form group to advocate for library access
Oakland Technical High School has had a library with no librarian for years. Recently, a group of students turned a class assignment about social justice into a new group, which they called Students for Library Improvement.
Read MoreOakland Unified School District hosts college fair
It was a busy afternoon at Oakland Technical High School as students from all over Oakland gathered in the school’s cafeteria to meet with college admissions counselors from all over the country. Students walked around with smiles on their faces after speaking to different college admissions counselors about possibilities for their futures. Admissions counselors greeted…
Read MoreOakland students debate proposed tax on sugary beverages
Two weeks before November’s national election, two Bay Area Urban Debate League members debated a hot local ballot measure in downtown Oakland. Megan Ma and Aiden Koontz, both Oakland Tech High School students, took the podium to present and argue opposing sides of Measure HH, a proposed tax on soda. Measure HH has become one…
Read MoreOakland schools make LGBTQ representation a priority in history curriculums
California’s FAIR Act is an attempt to diversify history curriculum—specifically, to represent in history lessons people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and people with disabilities. The FAIR Education Act, or SB 48, went into effect on January 1, 2012. The law requires elementary, middle and high schools to represent these groups in history curriculum in a way that is “fair, accurate, inclusive and respectful”—or FAIR.
Read MoreHigh school students gain computer science skills at Oakland Hacks
Oakland Hacks, or OHacks for short, is the first hackathon run by high school students in Oakland. A hackathon is an event at which people come together to create something through computer programming, from apps to websites. Sometimes they have a theme, a specific topic like music or sports, or participants will create something to be used for their community or to help the environment. OHacks does not have a theme like this, but its workshop format, with many mentors supporting students, focuses on getting beginners interested in computer science. OHacks is scheduled from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., but other hackathons can last for 24 or 36 hours, or even a whole weekend.
Read MoreOakland school district approves new kitchen to create fresher meals
The school district’s recently-approved Central Kitchen, Instructional Farm and Education Center Project is an effort to improve the quality of school meals in Oakland by creating a modern facility equipped to prepare thousands of nutritious meals every day. It will be located at the Marcus Foster school site in West Oakland, which formerly housed the Marcus Foster Middle School and later offices for the Programs for Exceptional Children. In addition to being better-equipped to serve fresher and healthier foods for students, the new site will offer educational programs and even a farm for students to help grow the food that may one day end up on their plates.
Read MoreOakland Tech celebrates centennial
This year, Oakland Tech turned 100, and its alums have planned a celebration lasting an entire year.
The Centennial Celebration, organized by staff, students and alumni, included a gala over Memorial Day weekend, a talent show for students and alumni in February, and the creation of a book, video and website commemorating the anniversary. “This centennial was kind of a fun opportunity to show off the school and how well it’s doing, especially to its alumni, who might have become disengaged over the course of the years,” said Dan Williams, a parent of three Oakland Tech alums and a key player in the planning process for the celebration. Williams said his children “were very different, and did different things, academically were in very different places, but all had a great time,” he said. “And as I quickly found out, Tech’s an amazing school with an amazing history.”
Oakland high school test scores lag behind state
Oakland’s high school test scores lag behind statewide averages in English language arts and math, despite a broad push toward better preparation. Join the discussion on how to interpret standardized test results.
Read MoreOne Oakland teacher’s lesson on discipline
Price has a special vantage point on the Resolution Plan, given the fact that he was once a disobedient student, and now sometimes works with students with behavioral issues. He’s a little ambivalent, he said—because he understands how tough classroom teaching can really be.
On the one hand, he said, monitoring their own disciplinary actions more closely will push teachers to find resolutions to kids’ problematic classroom behaviors, without kicking them out so readily. “It will cause teachers to deal with students,” Price said.
On the other hand, it will leave some students with the opportunity to “steal the education” from their classmates, Price said, referring to students who are disruptive to the point that it disturbs the class and ruins the lesson.
Price grew up in East Oakland, graduated from Montera Middle School and Skyline High – and was a self-admitted troublemaker throughout his teens.
Read MoreAfter school camp shut-down, Lakeview supporters march to superintendent’s house
On Wednesday evening, a crowd of nearly 150 people, many of them parents, kids, and Occupy Oakland protesters, gathered on the concrete steps of Lakeview Elementary School hours after their two-week-old tent city was raided by Oakland Unified School District police and other law enforcement officers. The encampment was an effort to protest the district’s decision to close five elementary schools —Lakeview, Lazear, Marshall, Maxwell and Sante Fe—and keep all neighborhood schools open.
Read MoreOUSD school closures vote Wed follows years of creating small schools, then having to pay for them
The Oakland Unified School District’s controversial proposal to close five elementary schools this fall, and more in coming years, follows a multi-year program of encouraging small small schools–subdividing bigger facilities into multiple smaller ones, each with fewer students and a more intimate climate. But funding and enrollment changes have pushed the district to what promises to be an emotional meeting and vote Wednesday night.
Read MoreOakland East Bay Symphony violinist and comedian Dawn Harms performs for elementary school kids
With a wag of her tail feather, Oakland East Bay Symphony violinist and stand-up comedian Dawn Harms wooed the crowd of elementary school students at Oakland Technical High School on October 20th as part of The Musical Time Machine performance by the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s annual Young People’s Concerts series, which is designed to engage children and teach them about music. The symphony offered six free shows at Oakland Tech and Allen Temple Baptist Church from October 20th – October 22nd.
Read MoreNew breakfast program at Oakland Tech gets kids fed as they get to class
An energetic employee, a mobile food cart, and a group of hungry students running late for class–all these can now be found Oakland Tech’s main entrance every morning, as students “Grab and Go.” The Bechtel Foundation-sponsored program, now in its fist year at Tech, offers a free quickie breakfast to students who don’t have time to eat in the school’s cafeteria–or just don’t want to.
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