March 10, 2016
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VOLUME 92 | ISSUE 30
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LakewoodSentinel.com J E F F E R S O N C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
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Future Farmers, future leaders Students in Green Mountain High School’s Future Farmers of America chapter work on putting together the organization’s motto. The chapter held its second meeting on Feb. 24. Photo by Clarke Reader
Green Mountain ag program teaches leadership, teamwork By Clarke Reader creader@coloradocommunitymedia.com
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ince the creation of Green Mountain High School’s agriculture program this school year, Future Farmers of America work has been an integral part. Now, students are taking that Future Farmers work outside the classroom, with the start of monthly meetings on the last Wednesday of the month. “You can’t have an agriculture program without doing Future Farmers work,” said Courtney Mayo, Green Mountain’s agricultural instructor and Future Farmers adviser. “The students participate in all kinds of activities to practice teamwork skills and learn about leadership.” The class’ second meeting was on Feb. 24, coinciding with National Future Farmers of America week. Every day of the week students in the group hosted a different activity during lunch — line dancing one day, steer roping another and even stick horse barrel racing. Future continues on Page 13
Elementary kids learn to be bilingual IN THEIR WORDS “I can do things I haven’t done before, like write an SCR (short constructive response) in Spanish and understand it.” — Mateo Acosta “You can learn both English and Spanish and you can make friends in religion, in Spanish and in English a lot more. I’ve learned more English and I now understand more English, especially in time, weather and other things.” — Arody Rodriguez “It’s hard to collaborate at first, but then we make friends. So in the future, if you were talking to a Mexican person, and you need to speak Spanish, you can because you know both languages.” — America Gonzalez “Being in an English class and a Spanish class I can make more friends and learn more in my future. In the future you may need to talk Spanish, and now you can.” — Madi Hiester
Jeffco dual-language programs are showing results By Crystal Anderson canderson@coloradocommunitymedia.com Ask Foster Elementary School’s second-grade students about their charity projects, and the response can be surprising. “Do you want us to answer in English or Spanish?” said Madi Hiester. Her three classmates, Mateo Acosta, America Gonzales and Arody Rodriguez, seconded the question. Six weeks ago, Hiester and her 54 duallanguage classmates split into groups of native Spanish and English speakers to research area nonprofits, learning how economic factors — scarcity, opportunity costs, and goods versus services — affect business. The groups were tasked with researching and writing their projects in English, then presenting to the class and Students continues on Page 5
“See, you know English really well,” Annie Bryson, second-grade dual language teacher told, from left, Cristobal Nara-Rios, Damian Ontiveros Gutierrez and Christian Rodriguez. The Foster Elementary students were learning about the use of the silent ‘e’ in English grammar while playing checkers. Photo by Crystal Anderson
CAUCUS COMPLETE
ISLAM IN FOCUS
TIGERS PUT TO THE TEST
Jeffco voters joined the rest of the state in caucusing last week. Read about it on PAGE 8
Local mosques serve community and education roles as well. Check out PAGE 12
Lakewood met ThunderRidge in the state tournament. Get the results on PAGE 20