For the second straight semester, teachers at El Cerrito High School have hosted a party to honor the writer coaches who worked with their students. After school in the ECHS library on June 7, Principal David Luongo, English Dept. Chairperson Curt Douglas, and teachers Godhuli Bose, Jennifer Dreyfus, Kym Kuzmik, and Molly McGrath stood to offer heartfelt comments about what having the coaches meant to them and to their students this year. Other ECHS teacher colleagues looked on, bathed in the glow of a slideshow that displayed photos of the coaches in action and written expressions of appreciation from the teachers. Meantime, the coaches seated in the midst of the teachers glowed from within.
Below, teacher Jennifer Dreyfus (standing, center) is making this memorable comment: "Students that don't turn anything else in will turn in their writer-coach assignments."
Here is Principal David Luongo, expressing the hope that WCC returns to ECHS next year, as CAFL Board Chairperson Kathy Kahn (center) looks on with the same thought:
Below, English Dept. Chairperson Curt Douglas leads off the celebration, saying, "At the end of the year when we think about the challenges in the classroom, it's so uplifting to see the data of my students who worked with writer coaches, compared to my students last year who didn't have coaching."
Added Mr. Douglas, "This year, students handed in the largest, most ambitious and complex narrative essays I've ever seen. I got some 20-page submissions, and one 30-page paper. It was because they had three writer-coach sessions on this assignment."
We often hear heartfelt expressions of appreciation from teachers, but the two parties hosted for our coaches by teachers at El Cerrito High this year were a first. Needless to say, the thanks we heard from them were returned in kind!
Bob Menzimer