Parents take charge

A common complaint from teachers and administrators is that not enough parents get involved with their children's education. Well, that's not the category where parents from the Kamman Elementary School fall.
For the first time, Kamman Elementary School provided a two-month training to Spanish-speaking parents whose children are enrolled in school. Parents who participated in “LifeSkills” program graduated last week and got a certificate.
"LifeSkills" is training to give parents the tools to prevent their children from getting into drugs and alcohol. Kamman School collaborated with Sun Street Centers to offer the program.

Shifting gears from parents to their kids, summer time is here, the time to learn something fun rather than being stuck in just any old classroom. Learn animation from local artist, animator and surfer, Andrew Dolan. Free! Dolan will first teach fun and interesting facts about the ocean. Then he’ll teach how to use video and stop motion animation to tell stories about the ocean. Students will learn the entire animation process from start to finish. Fourth-grade through college-level students can then enter their completed animated short videos into the Blue Ocean Film
Festival Student Video Contest! Space is limited. For information or to sign up, contact information@SoMoCoCAT.org, 831.869.6055 / www.SoMoCoCAT.org. The classes are free and will take place June 15-18, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Center for Employment Training, 930 Los Coches Road, Soledad.

Colors of the Rainbow

Dancing Classrooms of Monterey ended its second year with an all-county final where Laurel Wood Elementary students became the dancing champions.
But the real champions here are Dancing Classrooms. In their short life, they've raised the profile of arts in the classroom as not only fun, but essential. Those children are transformed by the dance and become the embodiment of self-confidence and poise, qualities that I'm sure carry over to the classrooms.
Here's to the Laurel Wood kids -- who are quite the dancers, indeed -- to Ingrid Tower, for her idea to bring this fantastic program to Monterey county, and to Scott Moore for letting me use his photos for my blog.

Everyone looks forward to Memorial Weekend for the hot dogs and lazy days on the beach, but there's actually two groups who will spend the day doing scholarly stuff. One is the Soledad High School, which is organizing a conference on Sunday to inform parents and high schoolers about the path to college. The event begins at 1:30 at the high school. For more information, click here or call Eliza Gonzales at 521-5035.

The second group is the he MECHA-LULAC club of North Monterey County High School, which will host a safety awareness fair for teens from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Castro Plaza Family Resource Center. Young people will have a chance to learn what their rights are at the workplace, and also advice on safety. For more information, contact Omar Mercado at 233-8696.

Oh, the places they will go!

Michelle Donohue-Mendoza, daughter of Hartnell trustee Pat Donohue and sister of the Mayor of All of Salinas Dennis Donohue, was one of the 10 students graduating from the Ed.D. program in educational leadership at San Francisco State University. Donohue is a native of Salinas and now works as an administrator at West Valley Community College. Mmmm, this community college thing appears to run in the family.

First graduates from stem cell master's program

Another Salinas native also graduating from SF State is Marisa Leal, who will be among the first group to complete the university's stem cell training program. Marisa had no idea where a science degree could take her until she came to SF State. As part of the master's program in stem cell science, Leal quickly learned how to grow stem cells in the lab and has investigated how to turn stem cells into skeletal muscle cells during a year-long internship at University of California, San Francisco.

Speaking of graduates, this weeks marks the beginning of graduation for all high and middle schools in Monterey County -- that's a lot of young people, many of them going into the "real world." It's an exciting time for them and their families, and I wish each and every one of them all the luck in the world. Felicidades!!!!