"Every kid is just one caring adult away from being a success story." ~Josh Shipp
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Mary Asgill, Writing Instructional Coach
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I usually introduce Black History Month to my students in August. Then, we research as many other cultural and ethnic history and heritage months as we can throughout the year.
I celebrate Black History Month with my kids and for my kids because I want them use this month to learn about others and about themselves. Black History Month helps students think and learn about differentness so that sameness, and ultimately, oneness becomes more of a probability than possibility.
Brain researcher, Zaretta Hammond’s book,
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
explains the neuroscience behind the fact that the brain seeks to make connections to what is personally relevant and meaningful when it processes information for learning. And she argues that what is relevant and meaningful to individuals is based on their cultural frame of reference. From it, she says they gain perspective that engages attention, and assists in interpreting and inferring meaning.
Her research posits that we learn from surface culture – holidays and music and food, the way we dress, etc., and from shallow culture – unspoken rules that govern the ways we see everyday norms – etiquette for sneezing in public, personal space, types of language we use in public v. private, etc. We also learn from deep culture – what guides our values, ethics, spirituality, and how we view safety vs. threats. She gives an example that in one culture, the color red could mean good luck – but in another, it could mean danger. Hammond says we see and process information based on our own cultures, so if we are learning through our deep culture lens, we are only seeing the world with our value system. So, I ask this question, “If what we know about another group’s culture is limited or just plain wrong, to what extent does this affect how we learn from and about each other and the world?”
Differentness
.
When I began teaching in the Central Valley over 20 years ago, I quickly realized that I didn’t know my kids and they didn’t know me. We knew each other’s most generic cultural and ethnic stereotypes, but we didn’t have an academic understanding of culture and ethnicity that moved too much beyond stereotypes.
In the Bay Area, I taught ELD/SDAIE and Comp. and Lit., (grades 10-12 in the same classroom). My kids were primarily Hispanic, White, Vietnamese, Black, Chinese, Samoan, and Ethiopian – and all with similar socioeconomic backgrounds. But unfortunately, I only saw the White kids as White. I didn’t have a mindset to see their individual cultures and ethnicities, to see beyond the stereotypes.
And whenever I’d ask the White students what their culture and ethnicity was, they’d usually say one of three things: “American.” “…a mixture of __ and __ .” or “I don’t know.” Black History Month helped me change this.
The kids were curious about me – and I them. They had made it through 11 or 12 years of school and had never had an African American teacher. I learned quickly that if I were to garner the respect of my students and gain their trust and interest, I had to figure out who they were – and they needed to do the same.
Black history month was how I introduced the spirit of my culture and ethnicity to them. Their natural curiosity took over. From there the real work began: making studying culture and ethnicity normal rather than monthly.
Sameness
.
As educators, in addition to having knowledge about our content, I believe we would give our students this advice:
- Be good citizens of the world.
- Know yourself. Love and approve of yourselves. Don’t apologize or have any trepidation for and about your culture and ethnicity.
- Don’t judge or criticize yourselves. The world’s already got that covered.
- Don’t fear being trapped by cultural and ethnic stereotypes. Know your history. Understand the shoulders on which you stand and the responsibility you owe. Know your strength.
Helping students heed these pieces of advice as they saw them take form when studying Black history, helped them take pride in discovering their authenticity through discovering their own cultures and ethnicities.
In the twenty one years that my students and I studied the literary coursework, cultural history and social justice movements within the cultures and ethnicities always included meaningful texts. Students began, for example, to see that the immigrant experience through the eyes of Portuguese American author Alfred Lewis in Los Banos looked much the same as it did through the eyes of Mexican American author Gary Soto in Fresno, or Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston in Stockton.
They discovered that many other groups had history or heritage months and that many of the field-trip worthy places to visit were local. In the course of twenty years, my BSU (Black Student Union) students, and students who were in my class took the field-trips below, which I highly recommend.
- Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) – San Francisco
- The African American Historical and Cultural Museum of San Joaquin Valley – Fresno
- African American Museum and Library – Oakland
- California African American Museum – Los Angeles
- Museum of African American Art – Los Angeles
- Marcus Books – San Francisco
- Underground Books – Sacramento
- African American Shakespeare Company – San Francisco
- Dance Theater of Harlem – travels to UC Berkeley annually
- Alvin Ailey Dance Theater – travels to UC Berkeley annually
- Allensworth State Park – Earlimart
- Various speakers at MJC, CSU Stanislaus, Merced College, and UC Merced
Among all the usual reasons to celebrate and teach Black History Month topics, consider that it is also a great way to get students’ brains into the habits of making deep connections that engender learning about the world, and most important, about themselves.
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The Turlock High School BSU visited Julien Elementary School’s Pod last week for a special Black History Month activity. Juniors Catelyn Cummings and Evan Wright as well as seniors Lauren Machado and Ethan Wright read to students from a collection of books celebrating black history and culture. Shout out to BSU Advisors Mary Asgill and Charlotte Burnam—we love this activity!
Book Titles:
- The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem's Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
- Grandma Says Our Hair Has Flair by Sandy Lynne Holman
- Grandpa is Everything Black Bad? by Sandy Lynne Holman
- Mae Among the Stars, Roda Ahmed
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Goodbye SchoolLoop Websites, Hello Blackboard
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TUSD has recently contracted with Blackboard K-12 to revamp some of our communications:
- New site and District websites (SchoolLoop sold)
- New TUSD app integrated with Aeries, Destiny, mySchoolBucks, and more
- New mass communications system (to replace School Messenger)
- New website accessibility tool (to replace SiteImprove)
If you have a SchoolLoop website, please save any content you would like to keep prior to July 1, 2019. TUSD Ed Tech Coach Marshall Beyer will be working to set up Google Sites trainings for teachers interested in transitioning to a new website platform.
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Robert Brogdon, Acting Director of Technology Services
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In an effort to address the increased volume of spam emails being delivered to TUSD mailboxes, we will be implementing an external sender MailTip on Wednesday, February 27
th
. The purpose of this MailTip is to alert staff to external emails with a prepended subject tag and a banner message in the body of the email. These alerts are a visual cue to slow down and carefully inspect the email. Here are examples of what you can expect to see in your inboxes on Wednesday.
Subject tag:
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
HTML Banner:
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Plain text banner:
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of TUSD. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
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Marshall Beyer, Ed Tech Coach
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I am excited to announce that a project I have been working on is finally live and out in the world! I know that this thing called Ed Tech can be very overwhelming so I started a podcast that will hopefully help. Check out
Taking a Byte Out of Ed Tech Podcast
, where we make all things Ed Tech a little easier to digest (see what I did there). It can be heard anywhere you like to listen to podcasts.
I hope you enjoy it and please visit the feedback section on the site so I know how I can improve and share some ideas of what you would like to cover in a future episode.
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The Nordells, Turlock High School
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In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re sharing a Turlock High School love story! Ken Nordell and Bonnie Charters met in 5th grade way back in 1932 and ever since Ken borrowed money from a friend to buy Bonnie binder paper he has been in love! Ken and Bonnie began dating their junior year at THS and both graduated in 1940. While in high school, Bonnie participated in the Glee Club and Sigma Tai Sorority. Both Ken and Bonnie played on the baseball team—unfortunately, Bonnie’s career ended when her wrist was broken when a girl plowed into her while she was playing catcher! Ken and Bonnie were married on July 19, 1941. Ken opened Nordell Jewelry and Watch Repair and Bonnie worked as a Bacteriologist at Patterson Frozen Foods. They raised 4 children—3 boys and 1 girl—and they now have 8 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and their 1st great-great grandchild is due July 4th, 2019. Ken and Bonnie recently celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary. Their secret to their long, happy marriage? Two words: "Yes, dear." Well, and having hobbies that they enjoy doing together as well as hobbies they enjoy doing separately. Happy Valentine’s Day, Bulldogs!
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Student Rep to the School Board Reports
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Henry Wooley, Turlock High School
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- THS recently hosted its first “rewards/incentive” activity. We celebrated 254 9th and 12th graders who earned a GPA of 3.8 or higher an NO discipline for the first semester including tardies and absences. During 5th and 6th period, students watched a movie and ASB supplied snacks. We will be continuing to celebrate accomplishments and achievements big and small going forward.
- We will be hosting our Faculty/Staff vs. Seniors Basketball game Thursday, February 28th at 6pm!
- THS Speech and Debate is once again hosting the State Qualifying Speech Tournament on Friday, February 22-23. THS has already automatically qualified the following students for the State Tournament at CSU, Long Beach, in May based on their performance throughout the year. Abby Kline-Original Prose and Poetry and Original Oratory; Abby Haggstrom-Dramatic Interpretation; Katie Dahlgren-Oratorical Interpretation; Nathaniel Haynam and Matthew Haynam-Public Forum Debate.
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Gabrielle Sotomayor, Pitman High School
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- Love Pitman is currently underway and any group on campus can sign up to spread kindness.
- Boys State, a summer leadership and citizenship program, is approaching and junior boys/ girls are encouraged to apply.
- Prom bids are now being sold. Tickets are $165 per person.
- Senior Grad Night permission slips and bids are due February 28th.
- Students will be attending field trips to UC Davis and Fresno State trip.
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Athletic Director Weekly Wrap-Up
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Mike Brown, Turlock High School
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Girls Basketball
We lost to Cosumnes Oaks in first round of CIFSJS playoffs 54 – 71.
Boys Basketball
We lost to Jesuit in first round of CIFSJS playoffs 63 – 91.
Girls Soccer
We beat Franklin 5-0 in 1st round of CIFSJS playoffs.
We lost to Pleasant grove 0-1 in 2nd round.
Boys Soccer
We beat Franklin 5-1 in 1st round of CIF-SJS playoffs.
We beat Whitney of Rocklin 2-1 in second round.
We lost to Jesuit 0-3 in Section Championship game. Boys soccer plays Bellarmine College prep of San Jose on Tuesday at 3:00 PM for the first round of Nor Cals.
Wrestling
Congratulations to CIF State Heavyweight Champion Michael Jeffus and 3rd place finisher Hailey Ward!
Athlete of the Week:
Beni Mejia Alberto. He was our league MVP for the second year in a row. Coach Sperry said "This is the first time in the 20 years he has been coaching that he has seen that happen.”
Our spring season will kick off this next week and be going in full speed by next week.
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Dave Walls, Pitman High School
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Girls Basketball
The Lady Pride end the year with a 73-38 loss to the #3 seeded St. Mary's Rams. The ladies qualified for the Sac Joaquin Section Playoffs for the 4th time in the last five years. The Pride were led by the Smiths (Jessica and Sydney Smith) and end the year 16-9.
Girls Soccer
The Lady Pride end the year with a 8-0 loss to the #1 seed and eventual Section Champion Davis Sr. High School. In back to back years the ladies advance to the 2nd round of the Section Playoffs. The Pride end the year 15-5-2 and 2nd place in the Central California Athletic League.
Boys Soccer
The Pride end the season with a heart-breaking loss to Jesuit High in the DI Semi Finals 3-0. The Pride advanced with victories over Lincoln of Stockton 6-0 and a heart stopping 1-1 (5-4 PK) win over Oak Ridge in the 2nd rd. Pride Soccer finished the season 19-3 with the second most wins in school history.
Wrestling
Pitman Wrestling continues their fantastic season with a top 25 team finish at the CIF State Wrestling Meet. The Pride sent 6 wrestlers to the State Meet - Lilly Freitas, Izzy Tubera, Sammy Silveria, Kendal LaRosa, Isaiah Ontirveros and Juan Mora. Congratulation to Lilly Freitas (143 lbs) who captured the first ever CIF State Wrestling Championship for Pitman High School. Izzy Tubera finished 3rd in the state at 113. Congrats to the Turlock Bulldogs Mike Jeffus (HW) State Champion and Hailey Ward who finished 3rd. Way to represent the City of Turlock!
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Catching Up with Mayra Aguilar
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Growing up in Turlock, I attended Julien Elementary School, Dutcher Middle School, and graduated from Turlock High School in 2014. I have always loved soccer and played on the JV and Varsity Women's Soccer Team at THS. I enjoy drawing and painting on my free time much like I did in high school. As for academics, there were many people who made an impact on my academic career. I want to thank my AP English Teacher Mr. Huth, AP US History and JSA leader Mr. Kitamura, my Spanish teacher Mr. Alaniz, my mentor Marie Russell, and my high school counselor Mayra Arreola. They all played a fundamental role in writing letters of recommendation, helping me apply to academic programs such as the Ivy League Project, and ultimately getting accepted into the University of California, Santa Cruz.
At UCSC, I double majored in Politics and Latin American Latino Studies and was extremely involved in Hermanas Unidas (HaU) which is a state-wide organization that assists Latinas in social networking, higher education, and community service. For summer and fall quarters of 2016 I studied Politics and Afrikaans at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa. My experience abroad led me to find my specific passion in politics, human rights. I became determined to move to Europe and pursue human rights as my career path. More specifically to work for the United Nations and help refugees and victims of violence receive reconciliation. I am currently volunteer interning for the Anne Frank House, which aims to teach the dangers and patterns of anti-Semitism to youth around the world and how we can learn from our history which is still very prevalent today. I intend to move to the Netherlands and continue interning this summer. The one thing I would advise for high school students is to fight for your space in higher education. When it’s hard, work harder; when you are lost, take a look at the larger goal; when you think all of your motivation is gone remember this is only the beginning of your story. I am always happy to be a resource for you so reach out!
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Meet Aracele Villapudia, Turlock Adult School
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How long have you worked in TUSD?
I am completing my second year with the district.
What is your job title?
I am a counselor with Turlock Adult School.
Where did you work prior to TUSD?
Most recently, I worked at Central Catholic High School for nine years as a counselor, at Argus High School as well as Turlock and Ceres Adult School for one year as an instructor, and California State University Student Support Services Program for ten years as an academic advisor.
Any info you would like to share about your job? Average day?
I love my job as I feel that all my past experiences have prepared me to work with this population. I am humbled by the sacrifices our students make to obtain their high school diploma (or equivalent) and/or to learn English. There is no such thing as an average day at Turlock Adult School because our population is so diverse and every day is different and rewarding.
Things you are most proud of?
I am proud of my parents' sacrifices to ensure my sister and I had a better future, of being the first in my family and extended family to obtain a college degree, and the fact that my husband and I can provide more opportunities and time to our three boys, who are our pride and joy.
Challenges?
There are always challenges in life (i.e. home, work, etc.). I focus on trying to be the best I can be in every situation (i.e. as a counselor, mom, wife, friend etc.).
Favorite memory/story?
I have many great memories in my career as an educator. However, my favorite memory always reminds me of how important educators are in a student's life. I was earning my multiple subject teaching credential and was a student teacher in a kindergarten classroom in this district. There was a student who was in danger of being held back because he had not made the connection between the alphabet and his name. I worked with him and suddenly it finally clicked!! I saw the "light bulb", the look in his eyes and his overall excitement. That little boy, twenty something years ago, came back on Monday morning spelling his name along with a number of words. This experience validated my desire to continue on my path to become an educator! I was hooked and still am!
What are you reading?
I am currently reading the following books,
La Casa de los Secretos
by Maria de Lourdes Victoria and
Edge of Eternity
by Ken Follett.
Any favorite shows you’re watching on TV?
I do not have much spare time to watch TV but when our schedules permit, we watch
America's Got Talent
,
American Ninja Warrior
,
Blackish
and the
Goldberg's
.
Anything surprising we may not know about you?
I almost died of an acute asthma attack as a kid. However, I am healthier now than ever and am an adrenaline junkie. I have sky-dived, love running, and do Spartan races with my husband.
Anything about your personal life you’d like to share?
I am married to Mr. Villapudua, who is a counselor with the district and am a mother to three healthy boys who keep my husband and I busy with their extracurricular activities (i.e. basketball, indoor soccer, Mandarin language classes, piano, and catechism). While the boys keep us pretty busy, I have carved time to train for my first marathon and one of three Spartan races to earn a Trifecta medal after completing all three Spartan races this year. I also enjoy to read, as I consider myself a lifelong learner and absolutely love to cook whether it is for my family or friends.
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Students of TUSD: Dutcher and TJHS
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Last year we introduced you to our schools, this spring we are introducing you to our students—a little feature we’re calling ‘Students of TUSD.’ Thank you to Dutcher Middle School Principal Scott Lucas for letting us visit with Sofia, Peter, and Evan. Go Diamondbacks!
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Thank you to Turlock Junior High School Principal Robert Ruiz for letting us visit with Riley, Martin, and Mia. Go Tigers!
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It's baaack! Pitman and Turlock High School Culinary Arts Programs will once again compete in the annual Iron Chef Competition. The event will be held May 3, 2019, at the Assyrian-American Civic Club and guests will dine on Italian Cuisine while enjoying entertainment as well as an opportunity raffle. Tickets are only $15 and all proceeds benefit the TUSD Culinary Arts Program. We can't wait to see the magic our student chefs, supported by Mohini Singh of PHS and Bobby Sheets of THS, bring to this fun event. Whose cuisine will reign supreme? You'll have to attend to find out!
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Walnut Elementary Education Center
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Congratulations to Walnut's Odyssey of the Mind teams! Primary team tied for first place and got special OMER award for their awesome teamwork. Our Division 2 team won second place and is moving on to the Northern State competition!
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Medeiros Elementary School
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First Annual Family Science Night a success!
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It’s never too early to start planning for college and career! Dutcher Middle School held a College Fair as the culminating event for College Awareness Week. We love seeing reps from UC Merced, Fresno State, CSU, Stanislaus, Modesto Junior College, and more speaking to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders! Shout out to counselors Julie Perino and Derek Alvarado for coordinating this important event.
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It is once again time to let your voice be heard. The purpose of the LCAP survey us to gather input for creating TUSD’s Local Control Accountability Plan. The LCAP will be used to guide decisions regarding how we allocate resources for our programs. We appreciate you taking the time to help us plan for the future needs of our TUSD students—your voice matters!
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Share Your Awesome!
Marie Russell
Chief Communication Coordinator
mrussell@turlock.k12.ca.us
209.648.0968
@tusd_mrussell
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We would love to have ALL staff help share our TUSD story to the world, but if that is not really your thing, just click on link below to download an opt-out form and return to "Marie Russell, D.O." via district mail.
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