GIFTED/ HIGHLY GIFTED MAGNET
Magnet Schools of America 2018 Merit Award School of Excellence
Brian Jacobs grew up in Southern California and has been teaching GATE English and Humanities for twenty-seven years in both K-12 and college settings. Along with teaching English, he has been a Gifted and Talented Coordinator. He is 49, lives in Pasadena and has been married for 13 years to Thye, a Professor of Nursing and a Nurse Practitioner. After graduating with his BA in English Brian began teaching and ventured into studying towards a Master’s degree in Women Studies & a Master of Fine Arts in Writing & Poetics (where he was the assistant to the Poet Allen Ginsberg) while also earning his Teaching Credential in English. During this time he walked half way around the world (No! Really?) while on a peace pilgrimage with Buddhist monks commemorating WWII visiting Europe, the Middle East, India and South East Asia. He returned a few years later to walk though India with the same monks to commemorate the anniversary of Gandhi’s famous Salt March. He went back to India in the summer of 2017. Brian is also a three time Fulbright Scholar, which has allowed him to study in Brazil, where he studied its water issues; China, where he studied its vast 10,000 year history; and Japan, spending time to participate in a case study in one of its small towns near the Japanese Alps. He had also earned a National Endowment of Humanities grant to China, studying its philosophies and histories while living in Xi’an. He subsequently participated in a grant from Fund For Teachers visiting South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho, plus earning other various grants that have taken him to places all over in the United States. He teaches teachers at a university in Fuzhou, China every summer under a grant from SABEH for the last five years. Last summer marked his 22nd trip to China and where he also visited Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, India, Nepal and Malaysia. He also earned an Earth Watch grant to the rainforest of Ecuador, to study climate change and caterpillars. He continues to love travel and has taken students all over the world to places like The South Pacific, China and all over Europe where he will JUST returned with his students this last June 2018! He has been to over 100 countries and had visited all 50 states. He will take the Model United Nations students to New York this November. He loves to visit New York City, London, Paris and Amsterdam the most, but has a soft spot for Machu Picchu, Iceland and Easter Island. His current hobbies include practicing Yoga, taking Ballet, vegan cooking, travel, politics, activism for many causes, reading, concerts/shows/plays, watching reality TV, as well as fostering his “addictions” collecting music from Radiohead (Wow! He got to meet them last summer for they were on his plane home from abroad) to anything 80’s, to championing his obsession with Ai Wei Wei & Keith Haring’s artworks. His favorite films are Get Out, Forks Over Knives, Evil Dead II, Wings of Desire, Dancer in the Dark, Tarnation and Pedro Almodovar's, High Heels. He loves to read authors of health, philosophy, education and fiction like Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, Jonathan Kosol, Dr. Michael Gregor, Kurt Vonnegut, Lao Tzu, Albert Camus, Leo Tolstoy, DH Lawrence, Oscar Wilde, Michele Foucault and Jean Rhys. He STILL believes his students are all~WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL HUMANS!!! He wants you to have a fabulous 2018-2019 school year and soak up the intense growth.
Sites about his pilgrimage around the world:
http://teeksaphoto.org/Archive/Exhibits/95PilgrF/AshesLightPDFs/00Cover_Contents_Foreword.pdf
http://fqa.quaker.org/types/t02-endwar.html
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Ms. Faraone: I was born on a small island called Guam where my dad was a Navy officer. After Guam, we moved to Maryland, then Hawaii, then California. I grew up in Agoura Hills, California. In high school, I became very dedicated to being a soccer player! I received my bachelor’s degree from UC, Irvine and my teaching credential from CSUN. I began teaching with Los Angeles Unified School district in 1994. I started as an elementary school teacher. I went back to school in the evenings and on the weekends and earned a Masters of Science in Math Education. I became very interested in teaching math when I learned that students who do not do well in math, especially algebra, often give up on school. I thought maybe I could help students understand math better so that courses like algebra would not be an obstacle for them. So I went back to school again and earned another credential in Secondary Mathematics and became a National Board Teacher in Mathematics. I believe all students can learn any subject to the highest levels! It just takes a lot of hard work!
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Jeffrey Fluekiger Born and grew up in Wisconsin. Enjoyed night-time campfires during the fall season with friends and a warm house during -32 degrees below zero during the winter months. Actually did have to walk over a mile to school in over a foot of snow, carrying his own books, and unless the snow was coming down side-ways, you were in class.
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Has one older brother, four older sisters, four nephews, four nieces, and a few great-nephews and nieces.
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Earned a B. A. Degree in History and Masters Degree in Education with an emphasis in elementary and middle level education from the University of Wisconsin.
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Came to work in California 15 years ago because it was his first job offered to him right out of graduate school...Still here.
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Enjoys California's blue ocean, majestic mountains, and diverse culture.
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Tends to be a "news junkie"
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Likes to explore many different places in California and the United States.
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Favorite vacation: Hawaii
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Favorite food: a good steak that melts in the mouth
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Enjoys history, movies, home improvement projects, travel, new resturaunts, the gym. and meeting new friends.
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Likes to keep his professional and personal life separate.JEFFREY
Mrs. Deborah Halper, M.S., NBCT English teacher -Grade 6 Gifted Magnet Classes This is Mrs. Halper's first year at Ernest Lawrence Middle School, and she is thrilled to be here. Prior to this, she spent many years teaching Honors English to SAS students at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, California. Although Mrs. Halper has also had experience teaching high school and college, middle school is absolutely her favorite level to teach. (If you ask her why, she will tell you that, " Teaching Middle School is an adventure, not a job!") Mrs. Deborah Halper grew up in Dayton Ohio, as the oldest daughter in a family of eight. Having grown up in the Midwest, her first teaching job was in the rural town of Beavercreek, Ohio. (If you ask her, she will probably tell you what it was like to have her students arriving to school on horseback! In 2009, Mrs. Halper earned a Master's Degree with Distinction in the field of educational leadership from CSUN. She was chosen for Phi Beta Kappa, and was appointed to the CSUN Golden Key Honor Society in 2009 for her stellar academic record. Prior to 2009, Mrs. Halper had earned her B.S. in Education from The Ohio State University, where she majored in Theatre Arts and English, consistently maintaining Dean’s list status for high academic achievement. Mrs. Halper is best known for her broad experience in the field of education. She considers herself to be a life-long learner, and continues to take many courses in a variety of subject areas, in order to bring more depth to her teaching abilities. She is well-travelled, having been to most of the states in the US, and a number of countries such as India, Canada, and several countries on the European continent. In addition to these experiences, Mrs. Halper also founded and ran her own successful private school, “The Tutoring School,” in La Crescenta, California, until July of 2000. The Tutoring school was a private school with a tutoring approach. Mrs. Halper was awarded National Board Certification in 2012, in the field of English Language Arts for Early Adolescence (ages 11-15.) After this, in 2013, she was appointed as an official Teacher Coach/ Mentor by the Los Angeles Unified School District. An experienced teacher -mentor, Deborah Halper is proud to be able to help her fellow colleagues. She has been a guest presenter at several National Board Certified Teacher conferences, and has also presented teacher workshops on a school -wide level, coaching standards-based planning, classroom management skills, and strategies for teaching. Some areas of expertise include: teaching vocabulary, test-taking skills, the writing process, and strategies for raising adolescent literacy.
She has two grown children, a son in computer website design, and a married daughter who works in the field of video production. Mrs. Halper has another exciting new life development to announce. She was newly married in Maui, Hawaii this past summer. She and her husband live in Santa Clarita, in a cute little house, with a calico cat named Chloe, (who thinks she is a person!)
One of Mrs. Halper’s favorite quotes is, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
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Miss Lauritzen has lived in Chatsworth her entire life. She attended Chatsworth Park Elementary School, Lawrence Junior High, and Chatsworth High School. She left Chatsworth briefly to attend UC Irvine where she earned a BS degree in Biological Science. While there she participated in a summer exchange program, spending 3 ½ weeks living with a family in Sydney Australia. The group of 40 students from around the US, also spent a week in Fiji and 1 ½ weeks in New Zealand. Highlights included kayaking over the coral reefs in Fiji and bungie jumping, paragliding, sky diving over the snow capped mountains at sunset, and inner tubing in the darkness of eel infested glow worm caves in New Zealand.
After Irvine, she returned home and joined the credential program at CSUN. Upon completion of the program, she started her teaching career at Frost Middle School in Granada Hills. After 4 years there, she was fortunate enough to be able to join the brand new Gifted Magnet at Lawrence Middle School and has been there ever since. While she likes to stay home with her three cats, Goofball, Emmy, and Zelly, she has done quite a bit of traveling. Most of it has actually been related to teaching and biology. She did an Outward Bound expedition that was designed especially for teachers. They called it a sailing expedition, but it mostly involved using heavy, 14 foot wooden oars to move a long boat through Puget Sound. The highlight was actually being able to see the Milky Way while being rocked to sleep by the waves. It is a rarely seen, but amazingly beautiful sight. She also attended a teacher’s institute at Whale Camp on Grand Manan Island. It’s a small Island off the coast of Maine. Getting there and back involved four days of travel by plane, car, and ferry, but it was well worth it. Sadly she only got to see the fin whales and some dolphins. The much anticipated humpbacks were hidden by fog for the entire trip. There were lots of sailing trips, some amazing hikes and a trip to an island with thousands of Puffins on it, and a wonderful kayaking adventure in fog which allowed for only 10 or 20 feet of visibility. Grand Manan is located in the bay of Fundi which features some of the largest daily tidal ranges on earth. The tides can change by more than 40 feet in the course of a single day. This afforded the rare opportunity to actually walk to another island and explore all sorts of interesting tide pools. After that, there was the trip on every biologist’s bucket list, the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. While in Ecuador, Miss Lauritzen was impressed by the people who are native to that country. She was shocked to be able to look over the heads of all the adults in the market place. Usually she can only do that in a third grade or maybe fourth grade classroom. Her journey around the Galapagos was different than most. Rather than a cruise ship, she stayed on a 50 foot catamaran and kayaked around the islands. She snorkeled with Galapagos reef sharks, black tip sharks, white tip sharks, and hammer heads. Fortunately, the hammerheads were about 20 feet below, but even at that depth, it was obvious that they were huge and not to be messed with. She was also able to snorkel with sea lions, marine iguanas, sea turtles, rays, and penguins. She also got to hike on dormant volcanos, visit a seal grotto, and see all sorts of nesting birds including the blue footed boobies and the red footed boobies. A trip to the Darwin Research Institute was particularly educational. Being able to walk of the same ground where Darwin himself may have walked was extraordinary. Until the sea calls to her again as it always seems to do, she’ll enjoy staying home in Chatsworth with her cats and teaching at Lawrence.
Mrs. Jordan has been teaching at Lawrence for 10 years. She has a Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology, a Master's degree in Education, and is Certified by the National Board of Athletic Training. Prior to joining the teaching profession, she worked with both collegiate and professional athletes as a Certified Athletic Trainer. She joined the teaching profession after she decided to follow her true passion, which is teaching young kids the fundamentals of sport and physical activity. It is her mission that each of her students achieve success and have fun in physical education.
MORE BIOS COMING SOON! Stay tuned...
Ms. Vallejo has been the Magnet Coordinator and the GATE Coordinator at Lawrence Gifted/Highly Gifted Magnet for almost twelve years. She holds a BA, an MA, and an administrative credential. Before her current position, Ms. Vallejo taught English Language Arts at Lawrence Gifted Magnet. Prior to that, she taught at the high school level, teaching English, theatre, and dance. Ms. Vallejo is a lifelong learner, guided by the words of her father, “Learn something new every day.”
Mrs. Delacruz’s experience as an assistant coach for a middle school basketball team is what sparked her interest in teaching. She currently teaches Algebra, 6th grade math, and 7th grade math. She was previously an elementary school teacher. She has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies with a mathematics concentration, as well as a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Standards Based Math. Mrs. Delacruz has two teaching credentials, Multiple Subject and Single Subject in Mathematics. She is an Aerospace Education Member of the Civil Air Patrol and a member of the Math for America Los Angeles Master Teacher Fellowship.
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Mr. Zem
