Tag Archives: Denair Middle School

Class Act! 10 questions for Tanya Rock

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tanya-rock

Submitted by Denair Middle School

Name: Tanya Rock

Family: Husband, Nick; son, Sean (9); daughter, Brianna (7)

School: Denair Middle School

Subject taught: Math

Experience and education: After earning my degree and teaching credential at CSU Stanislaus, I began teaching math at Prescott Junior High.  After four years of teaching, I made the decision to be a stay-at-home mom for a while.  When both of my children were old enough to be in school, I began working part time as a substitute teacher at their school.  This is my first year back to teaching full time.

Why most inspires you about teaching? The students.

What are your biggest challenges as a teacher? I’d have to say that my biggest challenge is meeting the students’ needs on the various levels that they are on in the time constraint of 50 minutes per day.

What is your favorite teaching tool or activity?  I find whiteboards to be especially helpful in math.  They allow students to practice problems and work out ideas while allowing me to quickly assess how each student is doing.

How has Common Core affected your classroom strategy? I’ve found it to be more effective to guide the students to discoveries in learning rather than to just tell them things directly at times.

What do you want your students to remember? Math may not always seem easy at first, but everyone has his own way of learning, and with patience and perseverance everyone can be successful.

How can parents support what you do? I would say that the greatest support that parents can give is to spend time with their child and to communicate with both their child and with me.

What will it take to improve academic success in DUSD schools? I am new to the district, so I am unsure of this answer! Continue reading “Class Act! 10 questions for Tanya Rock” »

Denair Students Can Reap the Rewards of Positive Behavior

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PAWS - Obed Gonzalez

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Most students appreciate it when teachers and others compliment their behavior, whether that’s quietly completing an assignment in class, showing respect for others or even helping to clean up the campus by picking up litter at lunchtime.

But back up those positive verbal strokes with a tangible reward and watch those many of those same students ramp up their good behavior.

That’s the thrust behind a new effort launched this year at two campuses in the Denair Unified School District. It’s called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and it’s intended to enhance student success and reduce discipline problems by proactively focusing schoolwide attention on what children are doing right.

Teachers and staff at Denair Middle School and Denair Elementary Charter Academy spent much of the 2015-16 school year identifying the standards that would be expected of every student on their campuses. Employees went through extensive training, in part to ensure consistency in what behaviors would be recognized and rewarded.

“Each school will be different because each builds their program from the ground up,” said DMS Principal Kelly Beard.

At DMS, that evolved into what is called PAWS – an acronym that reflects youngsters who have a “positive” attitude, “act” responsibly, make “wise” decisions and “show respect.” PAWS print coupons are handed out by all staff members when they see students displaying those traits. When students collect at least five PAWS prints, they can redeem them for a range of prizes of different values – pencils, notebooks, extensions on homework assignments, passes on PE warmup laps, lunch with teachers. The big reward – worth 35 PAWS prints — is a half-hour with a friend in the “VIP room” playing video games, ping pong, foosball, indoor basketball and other games. Continue reading “Denair Students Can Reap the Rewards of Positive Behavior” »

A Class Act! 10 Questions for Gina Michael

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Gina Michael

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Name:  Gina Michael

Family: Husband, 2 sons, 5 dogs, 4 horses

School: Denair Middle School

Subject taught: World history in the Middle Ages for seventh-graders; U.S. history through industrialism & intro to civics for eighth-graders

Experience and education: Third year here at Denair Middle School. Five years at Hickman Charter School as seventh- and eighth-grade history teacher and education coordinator for families; administrative Assistant prior to that. B.A. in social science with a concentration in history and political science, Chapman University.

What most inspires you about teaching? I love it when I see students start to make connections about events happening currently in the world and realize that some conflicts and issues are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.  I really believe I get to teach the best subject because I get to introduce students to the story of our history as a nation and also the stories and cultures of people around the world.

What are your biggest challenges as a teacher? My biggest challenge is trying to connect things that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago to the daily lives of a middle schooler in 2016. At ages 12 and 13, kids often don’t see any relevance of historical events to their lives.  So many times, an understanding (and sometimes even love!) of history doesn’t come until we’re older and have been out in the world a little bit.  My goal is to spark some curiosity and lay a foundation so that when they get older they’ll say, “Hey! I remember when we learned about that in Mrs. Michael’s class!”

What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? I love using a variety of tools and techniques in the classroom.  I enjoy designing lessons in which the students use computers as an integral research tool and engage in self-directed learning activities so they are able to discover information on their own. I also enjoy adapting games like Jeopardy, Would You Rather, Guess Who? and others in order to have fun while we’re learning.  That’s one of the things I love about teaching – it can be different every day! Continue reading “A Class Act! 10 Questions for Gina Michael” »

School Begins Thursday, August 11, at all Denair Campuses

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Back to School 2016

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

School resumes Thursday, Aug. 11 in the Denair Unified School District with more than 1,200 students expected for classes across four campuses. School begins at 8 a.m. Class is over at 2:20 p.m. for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students, 2:40 p.m. for children in grades 1 to 5, and 2:45 p.m. for all other students.

Four new principals will be in place in the district – Kara Backman at Denair High School, Kelly Beard at Denair Middle School, Lucy Zamora at Denair Elementary Charter Academy and Brian LaFountain at Denair Charter Academy.

Parents are invited to read the district’s handbook, then sign and return the acknowledgement form to the office at their child’s campus. The handbook contains district policies and outlines the rights and responsibilities of parents.

All community members are reminded to be especially cautious of children walking or riding their bicycles to and from campus beginning this week. Parents driving their children to school are advised to give themselves plenty of time because traffic is predictably heavy before and after school.

Parents with questions about busing should call 632-7514, ext. 1230 or 1218.

Breakfast and lunch are served at all school food service sites between 7:30 and 7:55 a.m. Parents with questions should call 632-9920, ext. 1243.

New Principals Announced for Denair High School, Middle School and Elementary Campus

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DUSD Logo

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

A Denair resident with a diverse and successful education background, an innovative elementary school teacher already in the district and an experienced bilingual instructor from Patterson were announced this week as the three new principals in the Denair Unified School District.

Kara Backman will take over at Denair High School, Kelly Beard will become the new leader at Denair Middle School and Lucy Zamora will take the reins at Denair Elementary Charter Academy.

The selections were revealed to teachers and other staff by Superintendent Aaron Rosander, who led a team that interviewed what he called six “outstanding” candidates last week.

Backman emerged as the choice to become the third principal in three years at the high school. She previously has served as principal at University Charter School in Modesto, Summit Charter Academy campuses in Porterville and Ceres, and Vanguard College Preparatory Academy in Empire.

Since 2011, she has been a managing associate at CT3 Education, traveling across the country to train other teaching coaches, school-based culture planning and leadership support based on No-Nonsense Nurturer Model and Real Time Teacher Coaching.

Her CT3 profile describes her as a “turnaround principal, a national transformational coach and a research-based, data-driven teacher.”

Denair High has battled with declining enrollment for the past few years. Backman says there are no easy answers, but that there is “a ton of opportunity” to add programs and improve academic performance.

“We have to figure out what our purpose,” she said. “What is going to be the identifier for Denair? What’s going to be the thing that draws children here?

“There have been changes in leadership at the high school the past couple of years and that can be a challenge. What I told them was this: ‘I’m not leaving. All three of my children will graduate from Denair High. I’m here for the long haul.’ ”

Backman and her husband, James, operate Small Town Genetics on property homesteaded decades ago by his grandfather. They have three young children – the oldest of whom will be in kindergarten at DECA next fall.

Her husband and many in his family graduated from the high school Backman now will lead. “It is very near and dear to my family. … We have some deep roots here.”

She called the decision to live in Denair “simple,” saying they were drawn by “a small, but rigorous community atmosphere embedded with high-quality education, rich agriculture and community trust.”

Backman has a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University in agriculture education and animal science, and a master’s from San Jose State in educational leadership. She also was a member of Stanford University Principal Fellows Program in 2010. Continue reading “New Principals Announced for Denair High School, Middle School and Elementary Campus” »