10 Centerspread
www.thesmokesignal.org
Friday, September 27, 2013
The Smoke Signal
Stephanie Randazzo joins the MSJ physical education staff this year teaching four periods of freshmen and one of sophomores. Born and raised in Fremont, Randazzo loves fitness and has been a runner since kindergarten. Randazzo taught for five years in Campbell before coming to MSJ; one of her greatest goals as a teacher is helping kids learn how to relieve stress through fitness and set individual fitness goals for themselves. What she loves most about teaching is learning how to adapt to everyone’s individual personalities and abilities and getting to know all her students. She will also be coaching track and cross country at Washington. Randazzo loves to shop as well as run, is excited about just having gotten a dog, and looks forward to hopefully many more years at MSJ.
Ryan Taylor
Daniris Smith has been teaching Spanish for 13 years. Seven of these years were in Colombia teaching elementary to high school, and the other six were in Redwood City, where she worked to improve bilingual classes and prepared students to reach ELD standards. She will be teaching Spanish 1 and 2 this year, and her main goal is to help students use Spanish freely and communicate their thoughts with Spanish as well. Among her interests are Caribbean music and novels by the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Herveline Sartori
Sujata Singh
Sujata Singh has been a special education teacher for many years, first in India at a free school she founded in a low-income area, and then in America when she moved here. Active in the Indian community, she has been working as a correspondent for The India Post since 2006. She loves spending time outdoors and working in special education, implementing what she learned in India and America to provide the best of both worlds to her students.
Herveline Sartori currently teaches three levels of French: 1, 2, and AP. She was born in France and used to be a public accountant before moving to the United States in order to be a French teacher. Sartori has taught students in elementary school, middle school, and adults before, but her favorite group to teach is high school students. One interesting fact about Sartori is that she actively participates in outdoor activities such as rock climbing and marathons. She also used to play, and now coaches, rugby.
The Smoke Signal
www.thesmokesignal.org
Taylor is a new special education teacher at MSJ. Before he found himself at MSJ, Taylor was a long-term substitute special education teacher at Centerville Jr. High for two years and a paraeducator for two years before that. Having coached for all divisions of MSJ football from 2005 to 2011, he isn’t completely new to the school. This time around, he wants to help his students reach their goals. Taylor enjoys learning about history and is interested in the card game, Magic the Gathering. He owns two decks, one red and one blue-red. Although his blue-red deck has never won, he once placed fourth in a tournament with his red deck.
Calculus Teacher Yunor Peralta, previously from Kennedy High School, is no stranger to math. Having previously taught all honors and non-honors math courses from Algebra 1 to Calculus AB/ BC, he has extensive knowledge in mathematics and loves to teach the subject because it’s not only fun, but rewarding. However, his pet peeve is students talking during his lectures. Peralta also enjoys the study of language; he is fluent in Spanish and Italian and is currently studying Arabic and German. His main goal is for all of his students to pass his class, and he looks forward to making a difference in the math department at MSJ.
Yung Feng Chiu
This year, Yung Feng Chiu joins the MSJ community as a new Chinese teacher. She has six years of teaching experience, having taught at Bellarmine College Prep, Junipero Serra High School, among others. When she isn’t sleeping, dancing, swimming, or hiking with her younger son, she inspires students in N3 to make learning the Chinese language a lifelong experience. She loves thinking of creative strategies to engage students, helping them appreciate the Chinese language and actively dig into the culture.
Jeffery Alves
Jeanne DiPaola is a special education teacher subbing in for Lynda Hounshell for the first six weeks at school. Before she came to MSJ, DiPaola was a math teacher for a number of years before moving into special ed. She taught that subject at Irvington High School for three years and consequently decided to stop teaching for a while to have a family. She came back later on as a sub, bringing her right to MSJ. In her free time, she loves to coach ice hockey and baton twirling.
Tyler Robinson Tyler Robinson is an Honors Algebra II /Trig and Geometry teacher, longboarder, and gamer. He comes to MSJ after five years of teaching Algebra and Pre-Algebra at Bret Harte Middle School in Hayward. With the lofty goal of making rocket scientists out of his students, Robinson is ready to take off at MSJ. In his spare time, Robinson enjoys a wide variety of activities. At home, he enjoys gaming, especially role-playing and strategy games. Snowboarding, paintballing, and biking are also big on the list. Last summer, Robinson biked from Vancouver, Canada to San Francisco over the course of 26 days.
By Laura Chen, Genevieve Huang, Peter Qiu, Aamir Rasheed, Sanjay Sreekumar, Tammy Tseng, Peter Xu, & Shirby Wang Web Editor, Staff Writers, Opinion Editor, Arts and Entertainment Editors, and Graphics Editor
Loren Chuse
Jeffery Alves comes to MSJ with seven years of teaching history to seventh and eighth graders in Newarkso transitioning to teaching freshmen Geography/Reference Skills here at MSJ is a smooth step. Alves hopes to work to establish a 1:1 student to computer ratio in Geography as well as other classes so that students have more chances for online learning experiences in class. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, running, and hanging out with friends and family. He loves that as a teacher, every day is different and there’s never a dull moment--and there’s always opportunity for student and teacher advancement.
Jeanne DiPaola
Centerspread 11
Yunor Peralta
Daniris Smith Stephanie Randazzo
Friday, September 27, 2013
Qian Zhang
Kim Mathis
Lane Melcic
World History Teacher Kim Mathis is currently in her 13th year of teaching but has taught math throughout her career. She has a BA in History and a supplement Math credential; this year, however, she is teaching World History due to changing needs in departments. Ms. Mathis plans on approaching World History from multiple angles to engage every student in the class. She enjoys playing soccer and supports Gonzaga University, where she graduated. Go Zags!
Lane Melcic currently teaches five sections of Honors Biology. He received his master’s degree in teaching from the University of Southern California and has taught biology at American High before arriving at MSJ. Melcic has been trained to teach the Common Core Curriculum, (a policy that will be implemented at MSJ in the next year). Outside of school, Melcic is known for the numerous pairs of shoes he owns and for his love of snowboarding and traveling.
Qian Zhang is no newcomer to MSJ; for the 2012-13 school year she was a student teacher and helped teach Band alongside Monica Kraft. A music composition major who fell in love with Chinese culture, she continues to help with band and also teaches Chinese in N1 in hopes that her students will be able to gain a level of mastery that will help them practice Chinese effectively wherever their future takes them. On the side, she loves to play the piano, listen to music, and hopes to find time to travel someday.
Christine Gharibian
After relocating to Fremont and MSJ from teaching at Salinas High School, English Teacher Christine Gharibian is excited to bring her past experiences to a new school. She wants to teach freshmen and sophomores how to think critically and communicate through writing. In addition to her enthusiasm for teaching, Gharibian enjoys cooking, dehydrating foods, and blending smoothies in her spare time. Her hopes are high for the new year: “I’m looking to just grow as an educator, to be able to work with a student population that’s high-performing, and just to get to know the culture here,” said Gharibian.
With her experience studying in France and Spain and teaching at other schools in the Bay Area, new French Teacher Loren Chuse is looking forward to a creative first year at MSJ. Although she loves to interact and share her love of language with her students, Chuse also enjoys traveling, gardening, and playing music. In anticipation of the new year, Chuse said, “I’m looking forward to my classes going really well, getting to know my students and my colleagues on the faculty, and having a really wonderful, creative year.”
Yumi Konishi Born and raised in Japan, Japanese Teacher Yumi Konishi hopes her students can enjoy learning the Japanese language and culture. She has substituted for Japanese Teacher Julia Madsen and Japanese Teacher Mariko Okamura before, and taught English in Japan before coming to America. Konishi loves spending time with her family, such as watching a silent movie with live music together. She recently began running 5K races with her son and husband after her husband gave her a pair of running shoes for her birthday. Konishi looks forward to meeting new students, teachers and staff of MSJ.
photos taken by web editor laura chen, staff writer genevieve huang, feature editor vivian jair, staff wrtiers hairol ma, peter qiu, aamir rasheed, opinion editor sanjay sreekumar, graphics editor shirby wang, arts and entertainment editor peter xu, & graphics editor anna zeng. graphics from designmeetscomfort.com, fanpop.com, ashmoreconsulting.com, wholesafetypins.com, sourcingmap.com.