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Education around Sonoma Valley

Education Update

Welcome to my inaugural “Education Round-Up” column. We’ve been hearing around town that there is a hunger for more news from all of our schools, pre-K through 12. Every week, this will be the place to read about new initiatives, programs, teachers, noteworthy students, fundraisers, speakers … whatever is happening. Please send your news to me at ourschools@sonomanews.com and we’ll do everything we can to fit it all in. For some stories, we’ll have room to include a photo, in other cases, check online to see because we might have featured it there instead.

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Did you know that studying abroad is an option for high school students as well as college students? SVHS junior (and tennis star) Sean Hall has made his own arrangements through AFS (the most well-established high school study abroad program) to study abroad this year in France. While this is a very unusual choice in Sonoma, study abroad programs in high school are popular and well regarded at private schools and top public school across the nation. I’ll keep you posted on how it is going for him.

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Students in classrooms around the district will arrive in school next week to dozens of new musical instruments, thanks to last spring’s $7,000 donation to the Sonoma Jazz Plus In-School Music Program by Union Bank. Instruments will come from local retailer, Sonoma Valley Music.

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$12 an hour tutoring in Sonoma! Parents of school-age children should be aware that SVHS provides a list of juniors and seniors available for tutoring in almost every subject. You can stop by the College & Career Center to pick up the list of names and their subject specialties. Last year’s list is available now, this year’s will be ready in a few weeks. High school tutors are a bargain compared to professional tutors who charge $45 to $125 an hour. There are also a number of terrific free educational web sites cropping up that might be helpful. One of the best is nonprofit www.kahnacademy.com which features educational videos that can help with specific subject areas. Looking for something in particular? Let me know.

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While I hate to urge anyone to spend more time staring at their phones, there is an amazing array of free SAT prep options now available, for free or for a few dollars, for your smart phone. I’m a fan of the SAT question of the day, which comes by email from www.collegeboard.org, but check for others by searching for the word SAT. Students who start prepping for these tests freshman year will be way ahead of the game.

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For more formal test prep, the next session of Revolution Prep’s on-campus SAT class at SVHS starts on Aug. 20, but registration is still open. The class meets Monday nights and Saturday mornings and while the cost, at $499, is not cheap, the results can be dramatic (I frequently hear stories of students scores going up by as much as 250 points). Scholarships are available for students who qualify for free/reduced lunch if they apply early. Registration forms are at the College & Career Center.

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Speaking of college, SVHS grads have headed off to some very exciting campuses this fall including Emma McGee ’11, who chose New York University in Abu Dhabi. Emma is heading perhaps the furthest afield and we hope she’ll send us periodic updates … If your son or daughter was recently accepted into the college of their dreams, send us a note and let us know.

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I hear from Lynn Ross, head of the Teacher Support Network, that she’ll have between 40 to 60 volunteers helping out at SVHS per semester again this year, plus 350 in spring for Senior Project judging. TSN averages more than 1,500 volunteer hours a semester with about 100 positions placed. To get involved, you can email Lynn at lynn@svtsn.org. Lynn also put a call out recently for used, non-digital SLR cameras for Andy Mitchell’s photography program at SVHS, and within days received offers from 25 people eager to donate their cameras.
I’m very interested in Teach for America but don’t think any teachers have ever been assigned to this immediate area. If any Sonoma locals have participated in the program as teachers, I’d love to hear from them. I was surprised to learn that spots with TFA are now very hard to come by – this year TFA only accepted 11 percent of its applicants.

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What do you think about teachers texting or checking their smart phones during class time? This is an issue that just didn’t exist a decade ago. Teachers never would have made calls during class time but some think a quick text or two is OK. Is it disrespectful to their students, or are students so used to it all around them that they are unfazed by it?

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Is it hard to convince your son or daughter to pick up a book on the weekend and read? My son loves good stories but frankly hates to read. We signed up for audible.com and now he downloads the top teen titles onto his iPod and listens for hours while he shoots baskets outside or is falling asleep. Worth a try. Experts seem to agree that listening to books is almost as good as reading them (learning proper spelling is one drawback) but the upside is he sometimes listens for five-plus hours at a time and he could/would never read for that long.

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Did you get a chance to read “Memoir of a Tiger Mother” over the summer?

Opinions on the author – parenting role model or crazy mom – are being debated in pick-up lines around town. Did you hear that her oldest daughter was accepted to Harvard? Hmmmm …

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Almost every school in town offers K-8 after-school enrichment programs (chess, creative writing), but what you may not know is that almost all of these classes are open to students from all schools. I’ll be listing as many of them as possible here in the weeks ahead so you know what is out there. As parents, I think it’s our job to help our kids find their passion. There is nothing sadder than someone in his or her mid-20s who still doesn’t know.

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I have noticed dramatic improvements in the content of the Daily Announcement produced by SVHS over the past year or so. Hopefully all of you with students there receive it daily or look at it on SVHS’s great website, but if you are the parent of an eighth grader, you might want to ask to be added to the distribution list as well. There is great information about every enrichment option available at the school: workshops, college visits, special programs, etc.
I’ll be listing all the area speakers that might be of interest.

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Stanford will be hosting a terrific program called “One Size Does Not Fit All” on Sept. 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. Hosted by Challenge Success (a project of Stanford’s School of Education), the program features Ken Ginsburg, M.D. and Challenge Success co-founders Denise Pope, Ph.D., Madeline Levine, Ph.D., and Jim Lobdell, M.A., who will lead a discussion about the meaning of success and how families and educators can help youth thrive in the fast-paced world in which we live. For more info: www.challengesuccess.org.

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Student reporters: Does your son or daughter have some interesting opinions about their education … or a story to tell about interesting initiatives going on at their school? Would your son or daughter like to be a published author (and get paid $15 an article)? Have them email me a story idea and we’ll help them make it happen.

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Send me your news, ideas, comments and questions …