A Class Act! 10 Questions for Tina Nunes

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Tina Nunes

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Name: Tina Nunes

Family: Husband, Alfred; children, Morgan, 17, and twins Allison, 13, and Alfred, 13

School: Denair Charter Academy

Subject taught: Independent Study

Experience and education: My background is in agriculture. I earned an Associates of Science Degree from Modesto Junior College, a Bachelors of Science in agriculture education from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and my single subject agriculture teaching credentials from Cal Poly, SLO.

What most inspires you about teaching? As a teacher, we do not always know the impact we have on students; however, when you see the difference you are making in their lives or years later when a student tells you how much you helped them … that makes all the hard work worth it and inspires me to keep working hard to make a difference in their lives.

What are your biggest challenges as a teacher? At times, it feels as if you want the success or achievement more than the student, but I have learned to never give up no matter how challenging a student may be. The rewards are so much greater than the challenge.

What is your favorite teaching tool or activity?   I feel the greatest educational tool is any hands-on activity where students can physically see and touch the subject matter they are working on. When a student can take a formula that they memorized and physically see how it is used is the greatest teaching tool.

How has Common Core affected your classroom strategy? I have always believed in vocational education being from an agriculture background. To me, Common Core has reinforced the necessity of applying what we are teaching to real-life application and students being able to problem solve. I believe that in the long run, Common Core will create adults who are stronger critical thinkers and successful problem solvers.

What do you want your students to remember? I want my students to remember that I believed in them and that with hard work and dedication, they can truly accomplish their goals in education and in life! Continue reading “A Class Act! 10 Questions for Tina Nunes” »

Denair Student Gives Back to Ag Class

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Welding Stand - Marcus Rocha

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Many teens play video games or listen to music to relax. Some join athletic teams or participate in music, speech or drama clubs. Others watch favorite TV shows or hang out with their friends.

Marcus Rocha likes to weld. It’s his unique way to unwind while applying the skills he’s learned from his father, his teachers at Denair High School and his co-workers at a metal fabrication shop in Turlock.

“I just think of it as relaxing and something you can do by yourself,” said Rocha.

Last fall, Rocha recognized a need in Denair High’s welding classroom. Teacher Richard Diaz and his students were using old barrels as welding platforms. They were clunky and not as effective as they might be.

There was much room for improvement.

Diaz, the high school’s first-year ag teacher, mentioned to Rocha that the class needed an upgrade. Rocha, a junior, researched some ideas for basic welding stands. Diaz provided a pencil sketch with his thoughts. Rocha then built a prototype using scrap metal gathered at his part-time job at West Steel & Plastics, Inc.

The stands are about 6½ feet tall, have rounded tables on which to work, space below to position the welding set, and bars above to wind the cord around and to hang welding masks.

Rocha said it took him about 90 minutes to create the first stand and a little less time to make 10 others. Diaz’s stand is “industrial grade” and includes two tables and more space “so students can stand around in a semi-circle and watch me demonstrate,” he said. Continue reading “Denair Student Gives Back to Ag Class” »

“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” Rings True in Denair

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Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Talk about keeping a secret. For nearly a month, Air Force Airman Hannah Pointon, her former teacher Patti Morrissey and Denair Elementary School Principal Sara Michelena had been plotting how to surprise Pointon’s parents, Jody and Roger Jorge.

Pointon grew up in Denair. Her mother is the administrative assistant to the district superintendent. They are as close as mother and daughter can be. “She’s the other half of me,” is how Jody describes their bond.

So when Pointon told her parents before Thanksgiving that she wouldn’t be able to leave her base in San Antonio to come home for Christmas, it was an emotional blow. Jody, especially, was heartbroken. They never had been apart at the holidays. She and her Pointon talked and texted every day, but they didn’t expect to see each other until April.

Then Pointon’s plans changed. Only she didn’t tell her parents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BAsvgMaLFw

Instead, she reached out to Morrissey, whose fourth-grade students at Denair Elementary had “adopted” Pointon at the beginning of the school, just as Pointon, now 24, had done at the same age years ago to a soldier based in Iraq.

“It was all Hannah,” Morrissey said. “She texted me and said she was coming back, and it took off from there.”

Morrissey enlisted the help of Michelena, the school’s first-year principal, and the plans grew. Michelena had never met Pointon, but saw her mom almost every day. She knew how sad Jody Jorge was that her daughter wasn’t going to be home for Christmas. Continue reading ““I’ll Be Home For Christmas” Rings True in Denair” »

DMS Safety Patrol Helps Families in Need

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Gifts for single dad

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Like many good deeds, it started with a small idea.

“What if we do something nice for someone else for Christmas?” campus supervisor Melissa Oei asked her Denair Middle School safety patrol students in October. The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders brainstormed some worthy causes – help out an animal rescue organization, or donate to a church or homeless shelter. Then Oei suggested adopting a family in need.

“The kids just jumped,” she said.

Step one: Goal identified. But what next?

Oei reached out to Sierra Vista Child and Family Services, a respected nonprofit agency that operates the Hughson Family Resource Center. Oei asked the staff in Hughson for families in the Denair area. Her students, she said, specifically wanted to help single-parent households.

Privacy restrictions prevented the agency from identifying the families, but two were quickly selected:

  • Kelly, a mother raising a 4-year-old daughter and 2½-year-old son
  • Mark, a father with an 8-year-old boy and a 5-year-old special needs son

The 28 safety patrol students went to work. They voted to each donate $5, but that quickly morphed into family and teacher involvement as more people became aware of the cause.

Oei said one student received $120 for his birthday and immediately gave $20. A girl baked cookies and sold them to her friends and relatives. A Denair teacher contributed two $50 gift certificates. Families gathered “gently used” clothes for the children. A local church donated wrapping paper. Continue reading “DMS Safety Patrol Helps Families in Need” »