April Educator of the Month – Melanie Pope

Why are you a teacher?

When I was young, I LOVED school.  I loved learning, and I loved sharing what I learned each day with my family.  I want to help kids develop that same excitement for school and for learning each and every day.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

I’m sure I’m like every teacher—that moment when you see the “light bulb” go on–that moment when a student makes a connection to something from a previous lesson, or better yet, from something they learned about in another class!  That gets me really excited and even more motivated to keep pushing the students to find those moments for themselves.

Years teaching?

I have been a classroom teacher for 5 years, and I spent about 5 years teaching environment education before that.

What do you do in your spare/free time?

I’m a nature nut.  I enjoy spending time with my family walking, checking out wildlife, birdwatching, and just being outdoors.

Fun fact – about you

I held a forklift driver certification for a previous job at biotechnology company.  Stand-up, pallet jack, sit down, electric, gas–you name it!  I’ve driven them all!

What does being a member of the Vacaville Teachers Association mean to you?

Being a member of VTA means that I am part of a group full of resources! Being part of VTA helps me connect with others that share similar passions about making the work environment the best possible place for both students and staff.  The VTA leaders and other members continually provide information on how to make that happen!

Rep Council Meeting Agenda for April 25th

April 25 Rep Council Agenda

Please share your thoughts on bilingual education – the survey closes this weekend!

In case you missed it, you still have time to give us your thoughts on implementing language immersion programs in California and the bilingual teacher shortage.

The California Teachers Association and Californians Together created a surveyto collect information from educators in response to the passage of Proposition 58, otherwise known as the LEARN – or Language Education, Acquisition and Readiness Now – initiative, which recognized the importance of providing students the opportunity to become bilingual, biliterate, and multilingual.

One of the challenges to expanding language programs is the bilingual teacher shortage in many languages. CTA and Californians Together are working together to lead a policy agenda to address the existing shortage of bilingual teachers in the state. As part of this effort, we are conducting an educator survey to collect data to better understand the extent of the bilingual teacher shortage and to inventory the existing assets and resources of the current teaching workforce.

The survey will close this weekend! Your participation is important.

If you have already taken the survey, thank you. Please share this email and encourage other educators to take the survey as well.

Here’s some pictures from our mixer at STARS yesterday!

We had a great time!  If you missed it, we look forward to seeing you on….

Monday, April 24th

Browns Valley Round Table ClubHouse

140 Browns Valley Parkway

4:00pm – 6:00pm

 

Pennies for Patients and the Leukemia Society Fundraiser at Country High

VTA members Sue Hoover and Greg Lyon and Judith Arguin, do a couple of fundraisers each year and, for this fundraiser, they selected Pennies for Patients and the Leukemia Society.

For this fundraiser, students paid a dollar to throw a whipped cream pie at any of the 3 teachers that volunteered. Students love it! Of course…. Who wouldn’t want to throw something at a teacher?????? – Judith Arguin


 

 

 

 

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