Welcome! Let's get acquainted...

It was great to meet everyone Saturday. I'm Kyle Kulish, I teach Honors English and AP Lit at Golden Valley High School, in the Hart district. With the honors classes approaching world literature this seemed an appropriate and valuable asset to have.
It was also great to see other Hart teachers and to hear from everyone else. I look forward to getting to know you all better.

Hi everyone,
I am John T. Bakody, a Special Education RSP teacher at Madison Middle School in North Hollywood. I teach a learning center for English and math. I also collaborate with general education teachers, working with students with mild to moderate learning disabilities in grades 6, 7, and 8. I am interested in learning all I can about China, which may be the fastest growing economy in the world. I look forward to our classes together and hope to get to know the many members of our class.

Hello,
My name is Vafa Bakody. I am a Special Ed. teacher at Mount Gleason MS. I teach history and Language Arts to 6th grade Special Ed. As you know, 6th grade history is about Ancient Civilizations. It is great to teach and to learn about rich history and backgrounds of other countries. Although Ancient Civilizations are all very interesting, for some reason some get less credit than others. History of Asia, as rich as it is, has been getting less attention than it deserves. Maybe because there hasn't been enough information and publicity about these wonderful places. Every year when I meet my new students, I realize my students don't even know the difference between China and Japan. Some of the history teachers share some materials between each other. But there are not as many resources for Asia as there are for Egyptian, Roman, or Greek information, lessons, movies, myths, or stories to keep student's interests. I was very excited to come to the first class. But I have to admit, after the pleasant experience I had last Saturday, I am really looking forward to the next session, even though it is on Tuesday after school.

Hello. My name is Dottie Goldstein and I teach Special Education at Grant High School in Van Nuys. This seminar was highly recommended to me by a colleague from Fulton Middle School who enjoyed it tremendously.
I have not met any of you because I took the first seesion at UTLA due to a time conflict, but I am looking forward to meeting each of you at Millikan on Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

Hi, my name is Jamie Alarcon. I teach at Canyon High School in Santa Clarita. I run the ELD program for Canyon and teach two sections of ELA I and ELA III as well as an English 10 lab class. I am taking this seminar to learn new innovative ideas to teach in my classroom. I also wanted to learn more about the culture and resources that I could use that pertain to East Asia. I also would like to know about modern East Asia and about how students are taught their so I can understand my students learning style.

Hi -
I am Kathleen Flanagan and I teach at Mt. Gleason Middle School where I am a Resource Teacher. I go from English to Math classes to try and make sure students with special needs get accommodations...and pay attention to what is being taught. I have taught in a self-contained Special Day Class (6,7, and 8) where we had to try to cover all curriculum areas. To be honest, I am interested in all cultures. I love seeing not only our similarities, but how interesting our differences are how they affect our world view. I collaborate with other teachers and think I will be able to bring information into my English classes.

It is also fun to be intellectually challenged and that has happened.

Hello. My name is Adelina D'Ambra. I teach at LeConte Middle School in Hollywood (Sunset & Bronson). I teach 6th grade English and History classes. When I got the information about this class, I knew it was going to be exciting to be a student again! Teaching about the Ancient Civilizations of China and India has always been lacking in fruitful material. I was and am ecstatic about this course. I look forward to all the information my brain can hold!