May 1998 OCEA Quest
Anna Province Awarded Outstanding Middle School Educator for Northern Nevada by Dianne Hanson
Anna Province, 8th grade math teacher at Eagle Valley Middle School, received the Outstanding Middle School Educator Award for Northern Nevada from the Northern Nevada Math Council. Anna was honored as the only middle school recipient to receive the award at a banquet on Tuesday, May 18, at Bertha Miranda's in Reno. The Northern Nevada Math Council solicits nominations from principals, and in the case of EVMS this process was turned over to the various teams. Team 8B readily accepted the opportunity to nominate someone they felt was most deserving of the award. In their nominations, team 8B and Mrs. Susan Keema, EVMS Principal, lavished praise on Mrs. Province for her many talents and abilities. "Eagle Valley Middle School has a teacher of mathematics who has magical powers! By any standard this woman is a gifted teacher absolutely committed to children. She constantly encourages striving for success and is the most skillful person I know in removing the phobic reaction of children to mathematics," stated Nancy Hayword, counselor for 8B and Carson City Teacher of the Year. "Teaching in her classroom is innovative, as Mrs. Province practices what she learns from the many workshops she attends. She is a gifted teacher as well as a gifted person and she brings every class to life," related Cindy Pennington, Special Education representative for team 8B. "Mrs. Province has designed her math programs to ensure that all students are successful. She is a hard worker, who always remembers to put the students first. She is a wonderful advocate for students," said Barbara Guggia, Core Extension teacher for 8B. "Mrs. Province has a magic touch when it comes to unraveling a student's fear of math in her lower level classes. She is professional towards parents, students and colleagues in every sense of the word," praised Mrs. Keema, EVMS Principal. In addition to her regular assignments of 8th grade math and algebra (taught to eighth graders who are earning high school credit), Anna participates on the district-wide math curriculum committee, helped develop the new math CRT test used this year in CCSD, is the math department chairperson, is earning her certificate as a teacher of the gifted and talented, is the advisor to the MathCounts Team at EVMS, and tutors high school students for free if they come to her and ask for help. Every day at lunch she has between 20-30 students in her room, looking for help in math, fun math games, or just a good place to be. As advisor to the MathCounts team, Mrs. Province led her students to 2nd place in the regionals and 4th in the state competition. EVMS was the only Northern Nevada team to make the top four. The three top teams were two private schools and a magnet school out of Las Vegas. Anna gives 150% every day. Much like Jamie Escalante, the math teacher portrayed in Stand and Deliver, she wants to show students that math can be fun and exciting, as well as being important in their daily lives. Outstanding educator continued Anna has been at EVMS for 5 years, coming from Las Vegas, where she spent 7 years teaching math at the secondary level. She has the support of a wonderful husband and 2 unique and delightful children. Anna has her Bachelor of Science degree in math and a Masters in Computers. Students and faculty are fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated teacher on the staff.
OCEA "Light of Education" Awards by Dianne Hanson
On May 7 OCEA held their annual "Light of Education" awards banquet. Each year, during Teacher Appreciation Week, we honor those educators, chosen by their peers, as outstanding educators in their field. This year the banquet was held at the Carson Nugget. After a wonderful dinner, the awards were presented. Light of Education awards went to the following: Katrina Eckery and Daphne Gammell, Bordewich-Bray; Liz Issacs, Carson High School; Martha Samples, Empire; Karen Collier and Casey Giles, Seeliger; Dee Steele, Fremont; Diane Hale, Fritsch; and Brenda Leaper and Fran McDowell, Eagle Valley Middle School. Congratulations to all of these deserving educators! OCEA Scholarships, given to seniors whose parent(s) are members of the association, were awarded to Terry Thornley (mother, Kathy Bakst, Fritsch); and Jeff Williams, (mother Ann Williams, Speech Therapist-Fremont). Applicants are required to write an essay. Their essays are then judged anonymously by the scholarship committee. Congratulations to these most deserving students! This year the Hall of Fame award was given to Duane Glanzmann, former math teacher at Carson High school. Duane taught for 36 years, and we were fortunate to have him at CHS most of that time. Many teachers and administrators, who either were students or co-workers or both of Mr. Glanzmann, were present to help celebrate his many outstanding achievements over the course of his career. Former students in attendance to honor Mr. Glanzmann spanned his entire teaching career in Carson City from his first year as a 7th grade math teacher to his final year at CHS. Many notable individuals from our community and school district are included in this group. Warren Wish was the presenter and gave us a wonderful retrospective of Duane's career. Recollections of former students on whose lives he had a sometimes profound effect were read. Duane's family watched proudly as he received these well deserved accolades. Carson City School District Teachers of the Year were acknowledged with special recognition of Nancy Haywood, District Teacher of the Year. We had many administrators attend to lend their support to the educators and their evening of praise. In addition, we had the honor of having Elaine Lancaster, NSEA President; Debbie Cahill, coordinator of government relations for NSEA; and Randy Cahill, UNISERV staffer, serving OCEA, attend. Representatives of Silver Sage PTA were also in attendance. Special thanks to Chris Whitcome, who always does a great job putting this event together; to Carol Antilla, who coordinated the awards for the banquet; and Frank Flanagen, who was committee chairperson for the scholarship awards. And once again, Gaylea Manning did a wonderful job steering the ship, not only for the banquet, but all year long.
It's A Smaller World by Carol Tullis
In April I was one of several P. E. teachers from our district who attended the AAHPERD (American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance) National Convention in Reno. Not only were there many great sessions to choose from, it was a chance to renew some friendships from across the
Small world continued country and, yes, around the world. The great guru in physical education at Indiana University when I was there, John Cooper, was in attendance. He was then Chairman of HPER and has since become a respected author in the field. There were also those who flew in from other countries to get some new ideas for teaching and for equipment to use in their schools. Shawna Haney and Mike Larios taught in the Carson City Schools in the early 80's and were at Eagle Valley when I first started teaching there. When Shawna and Mike got married, they pursued their dream of teaching overseas. We kept in touch for most of that time until the last couple of years. When they moved to Peru, I lost track of them. When I was rushing from session to session at the convention, I literally bumped into Shawna. For the next couple of days we spent some time catching up.
First of all, they said to tell those they knew "Hello!" They have loved every minute of their experience overseas. They left Carson in 1985 after signing a two year contract with the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They knew as soon as they got there that they would not be getting back to the States soon. They fell in love with the cultures -Chinese, Malay, and Indian - and the beautiful, friendly people. ISKL as the school is known, was a mixture of 52 nationalities. Most of the graduating students attend universities in the States including Harvard and Stanford. The varsity athletic teams were part of a league which consisted of teams from Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Manila, and Bangkok. Shawna and Mike traveled a lot with the teams as well as exploring Southeast Asia and the islands. Another benefit of teaching in the international schools is that their homes were provided and were quite luxurious with a maid! After 5 years of coaching and globe-trotting, they decided to share the world with a family. They have a daughter named Tiana Dasia, who is now 8 years old and a son, Ian Robert, age 5. Shawna and Mike stayed in Malaysia for 11 years and then made the move to Lima, Peru, where they teach in the American School, Colegio Franklin D. Roosevelt. Their description of Peru is that it is incredibly diverse and beautiful. They plan to stay there a couple more years, then who knows where! Tiana and Ian are both bilingual which will continue to be a benefit. If anyone is interested in teaching in conjunction with travel and experiencing the cultures of the world, this could be for you. They recommend contacting International School Services in Princeton, New Jersey, or Search Associates. Job fairs are held in the States every year in February and March. Yes, it really is a smaller world especially with e-mail going around the world and now to Peru!
The Dog Ate My Homework or Why I Was Late for Work by Marian Clish
I don't know where I find these interesting little books, but I have a hunch they find me. Anyway, my latest selection for literary criticism is A Complete Guide to Effective Excuses. I truly believe that no teacher should be without this 106 page reference book. Here are a few of my favorites:
Excuses For Not Having An Assignment Finished
1. Last night our house ran out of toilet paper. I didn't think anything of it until I woke up this morning and found that some desperate person had used both sides of my paper.
2. My computer went down because of a power surge. When it came back up, all that was left on my disk were messages from aliens about experiments that they were performing on humans in Guatemala. I tried to print the messages, but there was some kind of lock on the printer and the aliens won't allow me to print it.
3. I didn't have my backpack chained to my belt and I was mugged in the parking lot. My Devoured homework continued research paper was in that backpack that was stolen.
4. I was home sick so in order for my paper not to be late, I tried to fax it to you. Well, just before that my brother faxed a steamy letter to his girlfriend and the machine got really hot, and when I tried to send my paper it caught fire and burned.
5. My brother was kidnapped yesterday and we didn't have any paper in the house so my parents used the back of my homework to respond to the ransom demand.
6. My sister and I have identical backpacks and she must have taken mine this morning when she went on a secret mission for the CIA. She will be back in a week. Can I hand it in then?
7. My paper was so good my parents made me send it in to be copyrighted.
These excuses work well with adults too. I plan to use this one: "I couldn't hand in my grades by 8:00 because my grades were in my computer that was not on my desk this morning. I was told that terrorists broke into the school in the middle of the night and stole my computer and the FBI thinks it is somewhere in the Middle East by now. No, I don't have a back up because I hadn't heard of any terrorist activity in the area. I will get them to you as soon as I can but my doctor said I must avoid stress." So, if you ever need a good excuse, this book is loaded. You can borrow it from me when I get it back. My mom borrowed it, and when I asked for it back, she said she was reading it while sitting by the lake, and a big ugly looking fish with razor sharp teeth jumped out of the water and snatched the book right out of her hands. I believed her. It sounds like the same fish that Cameron said took his last Quest article.
CEC Convention A Big Success by James Cazier, President, CEC Chapter 0971
The Council for Exceptional Children Convention held in May at Carson High School was a big success with nearly 300 people attending from all over Nevada. The event featured Dr. Phelan, author of I23 Magic, and other behavioral management techniques for working with ADHD and other students with attention problems. This annual fund raising effort collected nearly $14,000 which will be split among CEC-Chapter #0971, Carson-Tahoe Hospital Life Stress Unit, and Carson High School to continue our efforts to help those in need within the community. The Ron Wood Family Resource Center is one such positive, productive facility in need of funding to continue its efforts.
Web Sites
Steve Fargan has set up some extremely helpful links through the OCEA home page: http://home.pyramid.net/ocea . One such link is with the Discovery Channel School. This site has an index of lesson plans listed alphabetically under Science, Humanities and Social Studies. Under science is a listing for Understanding Ocean. The activities described were written by teachers who use the Discovery programs in their classrooms. The activities include making the "Great Conveyor Belt" by placing an ice cube colored with blue dye into a large bowl or fish tank. Its movement illustrates the currents of the "great Conveyor belt." Chart the flowing blue water and relate it to global ocean circulation. There are directions for building an ALACE, a scientific instrument that uses density differences to control sinking. Another activity includes a short plan for "Making Waves". You can click on Vocabulary for definitions of such words as "upwelling" and "Coriolis effect". If you click on Related Resources, you are introduced to further internet links such as Oceans: A study via Remote Sensing - Introduction to Ocean Color, Ocean Currents, etc.
