Date: Sun. July 24, 2005

Prior to my journey as a parent, I was employed as both senior-level technician, then chemist in two different Fortune 500 companies’ Research and Development Analytical Chemistry labs.  The work was gratifying, but not nearly so much as working with young children.  While my credentials lie in the sciences, I have undergraduate level course work in Elementary Education, as well as practical experience working with Pre-K aged children.

In 1999, our family joined the South Austin Children’s Cooperative (formerly housed in Faith Presbyterian Church, then Prince of Peace Lutheran),  a long-standing secular Co-Op when my daughter was 18 month of age.  I eventually accepted the additional Co-Op duty as designated Substitute, honored that my fellow parents thought enough to entrust me with that job.  Thus began my second career working with young children.

In 2002, I co-founded SAPC, a pre-K Level Co-Op also located in South Austin, to provide non-traditional afternoon care for 4 and 5 year olds.  Low-ratios and flexibility among the parents allowed me, as a teacher, to experiment with a variety of the best of various educational philosophies, primarily Montessori, Reggio Emilia and Waldorf.

During this year I was invited by to teach the pre-K class at Starbright, a Waldorf-oriented preschool.  I have recently completed my 2nd year as Lead Teacher for 3-5 year olds class.  I have been fortunate in that my former employer, Jean Dordek MEd., graciously gave me a free hand in combining the best of Steiner with my other strengths and educational philosophies, to unique blend of child-led exploration of the natural world through seasonal art and observation.  Recently, she has also nominated me for the 8th Annual Scholastic Early Childhood Professional Award, despite receiving my resignation a month earlier.

I am privileged to work at the First Unitarian Universalist Church’s Religious Education program for 1st and 2nd graders.  I have been asked by their director to take special training for middle and high school age classes, which I plan to do in the future.  In addition, this autumn bring the possibility of tutoring high school age children in biology and chemistry, my original fields of study.

I hope to be able to create a positive and fun learning environment in my CLAP classroom.  I look forward to knowing these children, to channeling and encouraging their natural enthusiasms and curiosities, to sharing discoveries and guiding inquiry.  I believe in teaching to multiple intelligences and will always try to be open to the children and their individual needs.  I am excited to build community within the classroom and within CLAP with these children and their families.  I wholly believe in the potential of cooperative learning, and look forward to this adventure with you all.

Dee Cardenas 
Homeschooling mother of co-op members

Date: Sun May 1, 2005 

Dee Cardenas and I will be working collaboratively in the organization and teaching of our classes in the fall. 

As a side note, I realize that many of you are not aware of my own interest & background in early childhood education.  It has been somewhat awkward for me, as the current coordinator, to hire myself for the K-1 class.  I have shared my credentials and expressed my educational philosophy to individual parents, but in all fairness, I have to put myself to the same open-scrutiny that other teachers must experience during a hire.  However, I don't want to "toot my own horn" either.  I'll briefly share my experience below & invite those with further questions to inquire.

I started working in education in 1986, when my mom ran a preschool and after-school program at our church.  I began teaching dance to elementary-aged children at this time.  As a young college student, I worked at another church-based preschool/after-school & summer program in Port Aransas, Texas, while also teaching dance at the Creative Arts Center in Corpus Christi.  At that time, my students ranged in age from two to twelve years.  I majored in psychology, studying child development,  and graduated with highest honors.  I enrolled in a doctoral program in the Educational Psychology Dept. at UT in 1994, where my focus of study was child development and education.  I quit the program with a Masters degree and 24 additional credit hours in 1997 with the birth of my second child.  A year later, I opened The Imagination School, a preschool & after-school program for children ages 2-6.  I worked as a full-time teacher, director and owner for two years.  The program focused on creativity and individualized instruction.  We approached content with a unit studies curriculum and the pedagogy was largely child-directed, informed by Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia philosophies.  When I started homeschooling my eldest child, I closed the school, and began my involvement in AAH, Friday Coop and other homeschool cooperatives  I still work as a parent consultant and have taught at Austin Community College since 1996.  My classes include both Human and Child Development, along with other content courses and one applied learning course.  I teach nursing & teaching students, along with a variety of other majors.  I have continued to teach dance since 1986 in various studios, most recently Dance Discovery and at other rented studio spaces. 

My work with both adults and children is intended to fuel a love of learning.  This cooperative is an extension of that vision, as it engages the learner in a collaborative academic setting, with supportive instructors who are encouraged to promote self-directed learning through open-ended assignments. (So that the individuality of each child is expressed through their work).

Please let me know if you have further questions about my background, philosophy or teaching methods.

Illysa Foster
Homeschooling mother of co-op members

Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 
Subject: Sign Language Classes

Hi Illyssa and members of CLAP,

I homeschooled my son from 3rd through 6th grades, and I am a member of AAH.

Based on the information that Engela imparted to me, you have a group of 12 students aged 7 to 9 years old and one hour a week to introduce these precious young minds to the beauty and depth of a visual gestural language.

Now, I must admit: my lesson plans or curriculum would be tailor made to suit the needs and the experience of these future signers. If I were working with an older group or in a pubic school or University setting, my goals would be quite different.

ASL itself is a language which has a strict grammatical structure and a use of syntax that is quite different from English. It is not a written language, but can be "glossed" or written out in English although it is not actually English. There are as many sign language systems as there are cultures, for example: BSL, British Sign Language or FSL, French Sign language and so on. They are all  completely different. 

My idea for these youngsters is  for them to be comfortable using  a kind of physicality that combines motor and lingual aspects of this language.

My goal would be to teach the children enough basic vocabulary to converse with a Deaf child, their own age.  Like any language, it is as much about learning about a culture and a context as it is learning about a language per se. 

I propose that we combine ASL, the indigenous language of American Deaf, with some transliteration, which is  a system using ASL signs with English word order, a respected sign system. Most ASL interpreters are skilled in both transliterating  and ASL. A lot of what is interpreted in educational settings is transliteration. An obvious example of transliteration is a signed song choir; the children are singing and signing at the same time. That is not possible to do in ASL.

At first we will learn each other's names, become comfortable together working as  a group. We will do group and individual exercises involving, pantomime, body language, facial expressions, hand shapes, signing  space , question-response dialogues, conversation, story telling, giving and taking directions and fingerspelling.

I will provide the children with illustrations of the manual alphabet and numbers on the first day of class.I will ask the students to practice the manual alphabet as much as possible, until it becomes second nature. From there, the sky is the limit. 

I will also provide illustrations of new vocabulary, but only after learning the actual sign itself.
I would also like to include an age appropriate smattering  of  Deaf Culture and Deaf History.

Marla Kanoff, Educational  Interpreter
Employment History form 1987-2002

Austin Community College, Austin Texas
Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, Ohio
Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, Ohio
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
Lakeland Community College, Mentor, Ohio
Mentor High School, Mentor, Ohio
Wickliffe Elementary School, Wickliffe, Ohio
Wickliffe Middle School
Beachwood High School, Beachwood, Ohio
Coventry Library, Cleveland, Ohio
The Cleveland Play House ( Interpreting stage plays)
Cleveland East Vocational Educational Consortium

Interpreting for Social Services
The Cleveland Clinic
University Hospital of Cleveland
Cleveland Interpreting Services for the Deaf
Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center
Deaf Services of Cleveland
Services for Independent Living
Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Cleveland, Ohio

Education

The University of Akron, A.A.S. Interpreter Training Program 
New York Society for The Deaf, Total Immersion
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, B.F.A.  Dance, Choreography and Theatre

Thank you for your consideration.
Marla Kanoff
Homeschooling parent

Hello everyone,

Ilyssa had suggessted that I submit a proposal for and art class for the 7-10 year olds. So here it is... I would like to do a class that focuses on art techniques and the creative process but in the context of a multi-cultural perspective. So in a way it
would be a anthropology/ geography class as well. 

I was thinking that we could study a few areas of the globe, discuss his/herstory, food, and music in addition to art. Then we would do an art project based on what we have learned and utilize a style from that area.

The other thing that I would hope to do in that class is a larger scale, collaborative project that other parents could be involved in such as a tiling project or mural. I would use a variety of media for them to experiment with as well. 

I am a potter and musician, classically trained but I most often perform middle eastern or african based music. Anthropology and ethnomusicology have been a big focus in my academic life as well as my personal interest. I have a minor in studio art. I work mainly in clay and more recently in chalk. I do chalkboards for all the yoga yoga centers. I am facilitating the mural project in the nursery at First UU as well. I love creating things and feel that I could create a fun and interesting environment for the kids to create and learn.

Thanks, Cindy Haws
Homeschooling mother of a co-op member

Victoria Honeycutt holds a BA in Chemistry/Biology and a law degree. 

A variety of safe, yet fun experiments will  introduce students to the basics of chemistry including laws of matter, forces, gases, solutions, pH, chemical reactions and phase changes.  Students will be introduced to various pieces of equipment and units of  measurement commonly used in chemistry laboratory work.  There will be opportunities for research of lives of well known chemists in history.  A field trip to a chemistry lab will be scheduled, if possible.  A professional chemist will speak to the class about her career and opportunities in the field of chemistry. 

Homeschooling mother of a co-op member

Again this semester I’m volunteering to lead team-building workshops for 15 minutes after lunch as long as I feel the workshops are needed.  I feel that the children and other classes benefited from the workshops last semester. 

These workshops include games which illuminate ensemble, focus, creativity, and trust.  The ideas explored relate to self-awareness, setting and achieving goals, teamwork, and creating in a positive environment.  Each session adapts to the participants.

The reason I do this is to facilitate the new students entering the class who might find it difficult to break into an already established group, for returning class members who benefit from additional team building skills, and because it is fun.

I’ve taught these enjoyable workshops and many other class to both children and adults.  I am the founding Artistic Director of EASY Theatre, and my resume can be found here:  http://EASYtheatre.com/engela.html

Sincerely,
Engela Edwards

Homeschooling mother of a co-op member

Date: Mon Jul 11, 2005 
Subject: Proposal for teaching Middle School Writing 

Although I have taught general college composition courses, my Masters is specifically in Children's Literature and my thesis was published in article from a few years back (my goodness, I guess SIX years back!). After Graduation and a stint in Chicago as a technical writer, my husband, Steven, and I moved to Austin. Once here, I learned computer programming, which has been wonderful; I've worked from home since Gavin was born.

This writing class will focus on essay writing since there was a creative writing  course last year. With that focus we will discuss voice and audience as we practice different writing forms (some possibilities are: expository, persuasive, comparison & contrast, and descriptive). If parents and students are already covering these distinctions at home, we could use a framework of less classroom-like writing forms such as letters, editorials, promotional/marketing copy, interviews, movie/book reviews, cereal box jargon, resumes, website copy, etc. 

In my previous classroom experiences I found that voice, audience awareness, confidence in personal opinion, confidence in research, and a sense of style and form were the most important aspects of writing. I would expect to avoid too much talk of grammar and instead speak more on broader issues of form, but we'll gauge student and parent interest in grammar as the semester unfolds.

Vanessa Lee
mom to Gavin (member of 4-5 year old co-op classroom)
and Miles (2.5)

Homeschooling mother of a co-op member

Professional artist and Professor of Fine Art and Art History at Austin Community College, has been teaching children's art classes since 1980.  She will offer an applied-art history class that focuses on classical art and techniques. 

Homeschooling mother of a co-op member

Ecological Science with Jacqui Ainsworth, B.S.

From: Jacqui Ainsworth 
Date: Thu Mar 24, 2005 
Subject: class offering 

I want to offer an ecology class for the 10-12 year olds next semester.

I would like to cover biomes, local species of plants and animals, populations (involves math and graphing), nutrient and energy cycling, and conservation. I would also like to cover research methods. Labs might be harder to do with this subject but I plan on having an activity with almost every class. I would love to plan a field trip as well.

To review my qualifications, I have a BS in Zoology and Biology, Biodiversity with some graduate level coursework. The second major is essentially ecology, and I would love to share it with the kids. From what I have seen from the students this semester, I think they would have an interest in this subject and would do well.

Jacqui Ainsworth
Homeschooling mother of co-op member

Taught CLAP Biology Spring 2005