Tag Archives: Denair Middle School

A Class Act! 10 Questions for Valorie Periera

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Valorie Pereira

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Name: Valorie Periera

Family:  Daughter, Angela; son, Cole; mom, Helen; sister Sandi

School: Denair Middle School

Subject taught:  Currently, physical education (I also am the athletic director). I also have taught math, English, science and health science.

Experience and education:  Modesto Junior College, San Jose State University (bachelor’s degree), CSU Stanislaus (teaching credential), San Diego International University (master’s degree). Following college, I had a few long-term teaching assignments. I have coached swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, softball and track. I began teaching at Denair in 1978.

What most inspires you about teaching? I enjoy the individual relationships I have with each unique student.  Physical education provides an opportunity for each student to develop and perform at his/her own individual level.  Students develop at different rates and when students realize what their body can accomplish through movement and exercise – that is the reward!

What are your biggest challenges as a teacher?  I would say my biggest challenge is for students to understand that exercise and movement should be a daily part of life and to understand that what they feed their body affects them in so many ways.  Also, as educators we have to deal with the impact the media plays in our students’ lives. I’m not saying it is all negative, but it can have a direct effect on the decisions they make.

What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? Using music in all activities; music is such a motivator.  I emphasize individual activities – it’s OK to be competitive at times, but movement, exercise and activities do not always have to be competitive.

How has Common Core affected your classroom strategy? Common Core has opened conversations between students having to explain to each other basic concepts of fitness. Continue reading “A Class Act! 10 Questions for Valorie Periera” »

DMS Team Ready for Annual Math Blast

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Front row(l to r): Ayla Monte, Isabella Libby, Jocelyn Gauthier, Brielle Prock, Allison Neal, Amy Schmit, Back row: Anthony Tullio, Eric Aguilar, Jadyn LoBue, Madison Ainslie, Dena Gabriel, Linda Richardson (coach)

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

A team from Denair Middle School will compete in the annual Sixth Grade Math Blast on Saturday at Modesto Junior College.

The competition pits students representing about a dozen schools from districts throughout Stanislaus County. There are categories for individuals as well as two-member teams.

Denair’s team – coached by Linda Richardson – was chosen in January and has been practicing during the students’ lunch period.

“I like the practice because it helps make me better in class,” said Jocelyn Gauthier.

“I like to solve problems that are hard, like three-digit exponents,” added Dena Gabriel.

“It’s fun,” said Brielle Prock.

Other members of the Denair team are Madison Ainslie, Ayla Monte, Allison Neal, Amy Schmit, Isabella Libby, Eric Aguilar and Anthony Tullio.

The Math Blast tests students in division, multiplication, geometry, fractions and basic algebra. The top three individuals and top three teams are recognized.

The competition is 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Science Community Center on the MJC West Campus, 2201 Blue Gum Ave. The event is sponsored by the Stanislaus Math Council.

DMS Students Share Science With Elementary Classes

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Cell "Farm"

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Denair Middle School science students became the teachers for a few minutes Friday morning, explaining the concepts of cellular structure to their elementary counterparts.

Seventh-graders from two of Barry Cole’s biology classes built elaborate replicas of farms, military bases, an Old West town and even a futuristic community to help with their 15-minute presentations.

A farmhouse became the cell’s “nucleus,” a silo was the “cell wall,” cattle and pigs were “ribosomes” and “lysosomes,” farmland became “cytoplasm” and the barn substituted as a “vacuole.”

The point, Cole explained, was to find “real-life applications for what these students are expected to know” as part of their life sciences instruction.

“On the very first day of class, I told them science is part of their everyday lives,” Cole said. “What we did today is part of Common Core. They are expected to not just understand what an organelle is, but what an organelle does.”

The seventh-graders spent most of the past month working on their projects and constructing their models. Friday morning, 12 teams of four or five students carried their work across the street to the elementary campus, ready to impart all they have learned in classes of first- to fifth-graders.

The older students already had made oral presentations in front of each other in their own classes, but Cole required them to come up with a different way of explaining cell structure to their younger peers.

“If forces them to be more serious,” he said. “This helps them show me that they understand the subject matter.” Continue reading “DMS Students Share Science With Elementary Classes” »

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” »

A Class Act! 10 Questions for Rosanne Cantwell

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RCantwell

Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Name: Rosanne Cantwell

Family: I have a spectacular husband of 16 years, Mike, who not only teaches AP biology and chemistry at Gregori High School in Modesto, but coaches wrestling there as well. I am also blessed to have two beautiful, active daughters: Riley is 14 years old and a freshman in high school and Sidney just turned 12 and is a seventh-grader.

School: Denair Middle School

Subjects Taught: Seventh- and eighth-grade math as well as a leadership class

Experience and Education: I worked hard and earned my bachelor’s degree and teaching credential from CSU Stanislaus. I am currently in my 18th year of teaching (all at DMS!!). I started teaching seventh-grade language arts and social studies before moving to sixth grade to partner teach with a dynamic teacher (Mrs. Bush) before taking two years off to stay at home with my girls. I returned to teaching in 2004 and have been teaching algebra/math ever since.

What inspires you about teaching? I think the connections that I get to make with these young adults that I teach inspires me the most. I remember when I was in sixth grade and had to have emergency surgery. My sixth-grade teacher (Ms. Willett) took time to come and visit me while I was recovering in the hospital. I knew then that I wanted to teach and connect with students the way that I felt connected to her. That she would take her personal time to visit me made me feel special. It gives me joy to have former students come back to visit my classroom to tell me they miss my class or that they are doing well in high school math.

After 17 years of teaching in Denair, I have great pride in seeing how successful some former students have become. Some are even parents now to my current students. I currently work alongside a particularly amazing former student (Mrs. Hilton) who carries the same enthusiasm and work ethic now as when she attends the middle school as a sixth-grader! Continue reading “A Class Act! 10 Questions for Rosanne Cantwell” »