8th Grade English/Language Arts: Dear PTA, Thank you so much for funding professional development training, specifically the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy, over the summer and for funding the purchase of educational materials. Through these avenues, I have been able to work and learn from leading voices in the educational field. It is through these partnerships that I am able to incorporate and go beyond our standard curriculum to incorporate students’ identities and voices, making their learning more meaningful. The teachers appreciate all of your efforts to fund-raise and support the teachers on our campus. Thank you for your dedication to education. 

– Ashley Valdez, Teacher

8th Grade Social Studies: Thank you, PTA, for approving our grant to purchase 180 copies of the book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. My students and I read this book during the first semester and it opened up lots of conversations around the origins of racist ideas and how people have fought against racism in our country’s history. After reading the book, students worked in teams to create an antiracist timeline to show how people resisted racist ideas and fought against them. The students also applied this knowledge to how racism appears in our country today by making connections between the past and present. Again, thank you so much for supporting this work and our students. Please see these links that showcase some of the students’ work: AntiRacist-Timeline (on Google site, use student account), AntiRacist-Timeline (on TikiToki site), Timeline Project (on Google shared drive, use student account). 

– Ami Byrne, Teacher

8th Grade Science: “Thank you for the teacher grant that I used to attend the USDA’s Forestry Institute for Teachers to learn environmental issues!” 

– Susan Hansen, Teacher

Speech & Language Therapy: “These subscriptions have given me countless activities and online interactive materials that have made remote speech and language therapy sessions so much more interesting, engaging, and enriching. Here I am looking at content for two of the services that the PTA made possible. :)” 

– Rebecca Tzarnotzky, Teacher

6th Grade Language Arts: “Thank you for the PTA support of the Global Read Aloud program." 

– Hannah Sun, Teacher

Applied Arts/Culinary Arts: The PTA granted me funds to buy a tripod for virtual cooking labs. I demonstrated holiday butter cookies! The culinary arts students have been cooking virtually from their kitchens and they have been having lots of fun. The tripod has been a lifesaver for me to be able to demonstrate cooking skills and labs. 

– Beth Hawthorne, Teacher