Garfield Gleanings (September 2015)

Garfield Gleanings:

by Caroline DePiro

Garfield Campus Steward

The semester is fast underway and so far, it seems to have been smooth sailing for most. Those of us at Garfield know that our morning and evening classes are bursting at the seams and that the students are as eager as ever to learn. Most of us have finalized our rosters (more or less). In ESL, we've administered CASAS tests and have begun the process of incorporating EL Civics into our already very full curriculum. Aside from the day-to-day of teaching in noncredit, there have been some interesting happenings behind-the-scenes within your college faculty union, otherwise known as the Guild. For example, negotiations are underway towards a raise, possible office hours for all adjuncts (that would include us), and some sort of a renewed agreement in regards to how many hours noncredit adjuncts can teach, among other things. If you would like more details as to how these negotiations are going, be sure to read the negotiations report email that will be coming soon from our chief negotiator Mike Allen or to attend the upcoming Garfield Guild meeting on our campus on Tuesday, September 29 from 11:50-12:50 p.m. where our union leaders will be in attendance ready to present updates and answer questions. As usual, there will be lunch provided as well as FLEX credit. This will be a great opportunity to ask questions to see how your union is working for you.

On another note, I would like to use this page in the Chaparral as a place where Garfield employees can share their messages, ideas, and happenings. If you have an interesting story in your classroom, a successful grammar or communicative lesson, or any other thing you would like to share, please contact me and let's work together to create a monthly column that highlights things that are important to us at Garfield.

I'll start out this 'messages' section of the page by saying thank you to the wonderful teachers who attended the Garfield faculty end-of-Spring semester party at Marcia Sibony's house. It was during that party that a group of retired elementary school teachers (many of whom now teach in noncredit ESL) sat down with my two daughters and proceeded to enlighten them about the many new things they were to learn in their upcoming school year. Most notably, someone told my daughter Nala about the Missions and geography of California that she would be learning about in 4th grade. To be honest, this was news to my husband and I as we are both not native Californians. I'm from Washington State and my husband is from New York where the 4th grade curriculum is quite different. We were advised by these caring colleagues of mine to take trips all over California, visiting Missions and studying California's geography throughout the summer in preparation for school.

As a result of the valuable input from some of my Garfield friends, I am happy to report that my daughter who is a student in a Japanese immersion program, had a three-page California geography exam replete with fill-in-the-blank questions and an essay question on the last page all in Japanese last week—she was one of the only students in her class that got a hundred percent on her test! She said the Japanese was a bit difficult to read and write, but the content was so easy that she flew through the test. This was completely due to the hands-on experiences she had on our trips. Thank you to my fellow teachers! You really are such a valuable resource and a treasure for our students and fellow faculty. We would never have thought to take our children on California study adventures this summer if it hadn't been for you.

Some pictures from our trips:

California Northern/Central Coast