Focus on TUSD - September 2007

Awards and Recognition

Habkirk and Monroy to receive state awards
Sue Habkirk, the Comprehensive Health Department director, has been named Administrator of the Year for 2007 by the Arizona Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. And, Lynn Monroy, an adaptive physical education teacher, has been named Adaptive Physical Education Teacher of the Year for 2007 in the state of Arizona.

Habkirk and Monroy will be honored Friday, Sept. 28, at the AzAHPRD Convention Award Luncheon at the Marriott Phoenix Airport Hotel.

"Congratulations to the Tucson Unified School District for having such a great individual working to improve the wellness of their students," the co-chairwomen of the event, Elisa Busby and Leslie DeRuiter-Hudson wrote in a press release making the announcement.

"Congratulations to the Tucson Unified School District for having such a great teacher working with their students," wrote Busby and DeRuiter-Hudson in a press release.

Middle school teachers earn master teacher honors
Three TUSD middle school teachers were recognized by Gov. Janet Napolitano in August for earning their master teacher certification.

Darcy Jack from Wakefield, Deborah Lee from Dodge Magnet and Kathleen Martin from Doolen were honored at an event at the Arizona Capitol. They received certificates signed by Napolitano and the president of the State Board of Education.

The teachers will be teacher mentors at TUSD Title I middle schools this year.

Andersen wins marketing award
Santa Rita High School teacher Linda Andersen has won the Distinguished Service Award from the Arizona Marketing Educators.

Andersen, who has taught at Santa Rita since 1986, has worked extensively with the Arizona Distributive Education Club of America, running state and national events, as well as workshops for marketing teachers.

She is the Southern Area marketing coordinator representative and serves as the high school representative on the Career and Technical Education State Advisory Board. She teaches Introduction to Marketing and Advanced Marketing. She also is the advisor for the Eagle Shoppe school store, the Senior Class, the Student Council and the Scrapbook Club.

Andersen has been teaching since 1971. For 34 of her 35 years in the classroom, she has been a marketing teacher.

She received a plaque at the ACTEAz summer conference held at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.

Catalina teacher stars in Spanish algebra video
Math instructor Jose Fonseca from Catalina Magnet High School starred in a Spanish-language television program about teaching algebra that's running on Conexión 12, a Spanish-language station available through Channel 12, the city of Tucson's government access television station (Cox Cablevision Channel 12; and Comcast Channel 75).

Fonseca, along with Jason Dyer, a math instructor at Pueblo Magnet High School, were two of six instructors chosen for the University of Arizona's Algebra Academy, which was held at Pueblo Magnet High School, as well as Desert View High and Sunnyside High schools, both in Sunnyside Unified School District. Conexión 12 chose to film activities at Desert View, where Fonseca was one of the instructors. The video ran 20 times during August and is still available on line.

Each of the high schools had 20 incoming ninth-graders who spent four weeks learning algebra through hands-on, cooperative problem solving of real-world projects. The UA Early Academic Outreach staff led sessions on the Preparation for High School, College and Career program.

The UA plans to continue the Algebra Academy at the same three high schools and is considering expanding the program to serve eighth-graders who move from middle to high school at Tucson High Magnet and Cholla Magnet High schools next summer. Parents interested in having their children participate should contact Rudy McCormick, associate director, at the UA Early Academic Outreach office at 626-2300.

During the school year, Fonseca is the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) advisor at Catalina. MESA is a college-preparation program that works to increase the number of ethnic, minority, low-income and first-generation college-bound students who are eligible to enter a degree program at a university. In May, Fonseca also won the Joyce House Outstanding MESA advisor Award for Program Excellence.

To play the Spanish video, go to www.tucsonaz.gov, click on Tucson 12 TV on the left side of the page, then click on Conexión 12. Find the August 2007 episode and click on either Real Player or Windows Media Player. The video begins at about four and a half minutes into the program.

Project Astro program honored
Cecilia Chavarin, a fifth-grade Safford Elementary School teacher and Richard Munsterteiger, a Raytheon engineer, won the Suzanne H. Jacoby Award for their work with the Project Astro program on Sept. 15.

Family Astro trains teachers, who are paired with professional or amateur astronomers, to conduct astronomy-based activities that involve parents and children. For example, in one activity, participants determined their weight on Earth and compared it their weight on other planets. In another activity, families arranged pictures of the moon to show its phases. An average of 80 to100 people attend Family Astro events, but as many as 180 people have participated.

Star-Gazing evenings, which are held twice in April and twice in December to look at the stars through a telescope, attracted about 50 people to one event

The Jacoby award honored Chavarin and Munsterteiger for their dedication, commitment and many contributions to the Project Astro Tucson program and for inspiring students to reach for the stars, Chavarin said. She has worked with Munsterteiger for three years.

Project Astro is a partnership among TUSD, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (housed at the University of Arizona) and the business community.