THE CHALKBOARD: Waugh University students set court side for Cal game

What’s happening in local schools.|

The first outing of the year for Waugh University, a program offered at Corona Creek and Meadow Elementary Schools, kicked off 2018 courtside during the Cal Berkeley basketball team warmups when the Bears took on the UCLA Bruins on Jan. 6. Students and families enjoyed regulation play in special seats reserved just for their group. The night was full of great fun and good memories for these local students who participate in the district’s program that offers the children opportunities to visit local college campuses for sports games, community events, special presentations and educational activities.

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LumaCon is coming! The fourth annual event coordinated by local librarians and students from Petaluma High, Casa Grande High along with the Sonoma County Library/Petaluma Regional Library takes place on Jan. 27 at Lucchesi Park. The event, which focuses on celebrating creativity of comics and pop culture art publications combines fun activities, crafts and contests that are sure to “ill-lum-inate your imagination,” according to the event website (LumaCon.net). Author and illustrator appearances, special exhibitors, Artist’s Alley and more will make up the creative program open to the community. For more information on the contest deadlines, visit the event website.

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Students in Kenilworth Junior High School’s KTV Broadcast Media classes taught by Isaac Raya and Laura Bradley are looking forward to Facetiming next week with ABC’s Channel 7 veteran news anchor Cheryl Jennings. To prepare for this event, students are reading articles about Jennings and watching videos of her work, according to Bradley. Students were surprised to discover that Jennings was the first news anchor to go live on the air when the Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted the SF Giants vs. Oakland A’s World Series game in 1989. Since these KTV students are very familiar with what it’s like to work in a live TV studio, they recognized the difficulties Jennings faced as she delivered the news as it was happening to a frightened post-earthquake Bay Area, explained Bradley. They also learned that Jennings is committed to helping young journalists, as she seeks to pass on the valuable mentoring she received as a young reporter trying to break into the business. After reading articles about Jennings’ personal life and career, Kenilworth KTV students prepared questions to ask her when they Facetime with her next week. “Kenilworth is so grateful for Jennings’ generosity with her time, and we all look forward to learning more about broadcast journalism and her experiences next week,” shared the campus’ digital media teachers.

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Also happening at KJHS is the eighth-grade English classes magazine project. Students are choosing topics they would like to investigate and write about for their magazine projects for this semester-long endeavor. The students will write articles, produce ads, create covers and design layouts for magazines published entirely on their own. In addition to valuable writing skills, this project builds a variety of other academic and career skills: online research, digital layouts, graphic design, advertising, target audiences and long-term project time management. Students will spend the whole semester on this project, and their final, published magazines will be on display at Kenilworth’s Open House on May 24, from 6-8 p.m.

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Music to our ears! Harvest Christian School held its annual Christmas program, entitled A Festival of Lessons and Carols, at Calvary Chapel before the two-week winter break. During the program, Harvest debuted its new musical Choir, which is now an elective at the school. The audience sang along with any of the carols with the entire school. It was a wonderful way to share the students’ love of music with their school community.

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Harvest Christian School also reports that Mr. Jason Villa will be the new grammar school Vice-Principal. Mr. Villa will work closely alongside current VP Mr. Jake Aharonian and Principal Mr. Jonathan Wraith to facilitate faculty development, curricula oversight, and day-to-day operations. Mr. Villa has a long history of experience with Harvest. He taught as the fourth-grade teacher for several years, and through his family’s involvement has had a strong presence on campus.

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Girls on the Run is a program offered at several Petaluma area elementary schools. The organization focuses on inspiring girls to be healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum, which creatively integrates running. In early December, many local Petaluma students joined others from all over Sonoma County at a 5K Saturday event. Cinnabar Elementary reports they had a total of 18 students, staff and parents participate in the day. The race began at 9 a.m. at SOMA and was filled with hundreds of supporters cheering on the runners.

(Maureen Highland is a Petaluma mother and executive director for the Petaluma Educational Foundation. She can be reached at schools@arguscourier.com)

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