LAKEPORT — At the Thursday meeting, the Lakeport Unified School District board heard a presentation from elementary school teacher Ana Goff on a bi-national teacher program that launched a discussion between attendees and board members about the differences between education in the U.S. and Mexico, and how knowledge and understanding of those differences could aid teachers in Lakeport help their English learners and students from migrant working families better adjust to a new form of learning.
“You have definitely helped to open our eyes,” said board president Dennis Darling, as he addressed Goff and one parent who said she struggles to tutor her daughter math when the methods she learned growing up in Mexico were drastically different from those being taught to her middle school child.
The school is taking measures to help English as a second language learners with after school homework help, ESL classes, and through the district English language advisory committee (DELAC)?a group of parents and educators that meets to set learning goals for each school. But still the school struggles to find bi-lingual tutors, the main request of two parents at the meeting. A position for a bi-lingual tutor at Clear Lake High School has remained vacant because the district cannot find anyone to fill it.
A presentation followed Goff”s on the California Instructional School Gardens Program Grant the school district won in May and heard about last month. Lynn Andre presented to the board and said the goal is to incorporate the grant and program into another after school program that started last January.
“The grant is $2,500 each for the Elementary school and fourth through eight grades for the preparation, care, and harvest of gardens. It will be available to students to learn about the cultivation of produce, and in the after-school program we will give instruction on healthy eating, cooking, and preparing the foods to share with family and the community,” Andre said.
She said the after school program has been a success since they implemented the first grant last winter, and she has “kept it quiet” during the first year to see how it developed. Already she has had to cap enrollment on the 67 participating students. The program has involved volunteer visitors from the Lake County Arts Council to teach students art, as well as visitors who taught line dancing and flower arranging. The program is planning a visit to a farm in two weeks where students will go through a corn maze, pick up a pumpkin and learn about farm life.
“There has been a lot of community support. We”re working on their homework skills and reinforcing their math skills with other methods than just ear to paper, doing bean bag tosses for math problems?some children are kinesthetic and visual learners so we”re trying to meet their needs,” Andre said.
The board was curious whether there were any bi-lingual aides available to students during the after school program. “Not at the moment, but we”re hoping we will have some in AmeriCorps tutors I am hiring. I”m especially looking for that as I do the interviews,” Andre said. She said currently the student teacher ratio is one teacher per 14 students, which will also be improved after the new AmeriCorps tutors are hired. She said a goal for the programs is to offer academies that focus on a single subject, such as math, rather than strictly offering homework help, which she said is vital because “some children do not even have a place where they can do homework comfortably?with proper lighting and warmth.”
Board president Dennis Darling said the board appreciated the input from parents, which included requests for a counselor to help students from Mexico or English-learners to adjust to their culture shock. “We want to provide the resources for them?It seems California is headed in that direction, I think this will change over time?but it is a big, slow system,” Darling said.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
