Acalanes High School - Aklan Yearbook (Lafayette, CA)

Page 207 text:

overflowing with involved, in- terested people. Dana Fillinger remarked, It ' s an incredible class because it ' s thirty diverse people who know what ' s go- ing on; they ' re able to stimulate student awareness and hype up school spirit. Leadership students geared themselves for a productive year. Meeting once a day proved to be an effective way to put new ideas to work. It was a place where communica- tion and ideas flowed and well thought-out solutions were channeled into the administra- tion. It was the first class of its kind at Acalanes and it flourished. Dana concluded, It works because everyone is so school-oriented. It ' s no longer considered uncool to be involved. Material spirit. Class time was spent in a variety of ways. Before the western football rally, Leadership students ventured to the sewing room to make bandanas for the teachers so the faculty could display their spirit at the rally, lennifer Jacobs uses the pattern to cut out a red bandana for a senior class sponsor. t 1 1 ' KT ' . Kiss me. In September, Leadership students and other officers attended a workshop conducted by Bill Ames. The conference was scheduled during the school week and gave student leaders a chance to get acquainted with each other and learn to work together effectively. In keeping with the friendly atmosphere, Dave Cox gives chocolate kisses to )anet Carminati during the lunch break. MR. JAMES GARVEY German; Spanish MRS. DONNA GRANT (NOT PICTURED) Secretary MISS GAIL GRAY Art; Art Club Advisor; Photography MR. JOHN H. GUZZO Social Studies MR. RICHARD HANSEN Principal MISS TERRY HAUGEN Physical Education; Junior Varsity Softball Coach MR. STEVE HEASTON Mathematics; Physical Education; Water Polo; Swimming MR. ANGELO HERNANDEZ Spanish; Spanish Honorary Advisor MS. HOLLY HOLMES English; Quest; AFS Advisor MRS. NANCY HOLTON English; AKLAN 203 FACULTY

Page 206 text:

Leading roll. Mr. Dessler finds that taking attendance can be an amusing task. During seventh period even the most commonplace activities inspired bizarre reactions from the leaders in room 105. In the Lead It was a meeting of the minds. Some affectionate- ly referred to it as the think tank, while others thought of it as the backbone of student gov- ernment. I think it ' s great to see students working in such a productive atmosphere, com- mented Norm Dessler, who directed the class. It was seventh period Leadership, and each day students con- verged on room 106 to hash out the problems facing the stu- dent body. The dilemmas ranged from how to sell more Don ' s t-shirts to how to devise rules for Homecoming that would be ac- ceptable to both the administra- tion and the students. Although they struggled with very real and relevant prob- lems, it wasn ' t all work and no play in room 106. The usually tense atmosphere of the struc- tured classroom gave way to a more relaxed mood. Libby Dalcamo exclaimed, I didn ' t realize how much fun the class was going to be. I love the openness of it and the way peo- ple always listen to your idea. Class time wasn ' t complete- ly devoted to student body business, though. Three days a week, Mr. Dessler related lead- ership techniques to the class. Learning how to communi- cate your ideas makes it so much easier to work together, remarked Micheline Causing. Libby explained, Since it was my first year as an officer, Leadership was just what I needed to get me started. It opened my eyes to what being a leader means and what stu- dent government is all about. Leadership strayed from the conventional class format. It wasn ' t unusual to see Student Body President Mark Navone teaching the class or a group of Leadership students spending class time in the sewing room cutting bandanas for an up- coming rally. The class was MRS. HELEN DYGERT Special Education MR. TOM EGGERTSEN Drama; Spanish MR. RALEIGH ELLISEN Science; Freshman Football Coach; Senior Class Sponsor MRS. SANDY FALAHATI (NOT PICTURED) Secretary MRS.ANITA FARNHOLTZ Physical Education MR. WAYNE FARNHOLTZ Head Counselor MR. DUANE C. FEE Mathematics MR. GORDON FINN Physical Education; Junior Class Sponsor; Varsity Football Coach; Boys ' Athletic Director MRS. KARLYN FORD Librarian; Freshman Class Sponsor MR. LARRY FREEMAN English; Social Studies; Speech Club Advisor 202 FACULTY

Page 208 text:

New and Improved Locker library. Along with Spanish IV workbooks and English II anthologies, 425 new government books were a major addition to departmental supplies. The new textbooks combined cartoon drawings and graphic charts to present their information effectively. After a summer of sun tan oil and bare feet, it was awfully hard to slump back into the routine of binder paper and locker combinations. Class- rooms looked just like they did last year and the math textbook you were handed looked like it spent the day on the BART tracks. Return to normalcy, same old thing, nothing ever changes. Right? Well not ex- actly. Look more closely. On entering room 404, maybe you noticed what ap- peared to be three private T.V. viewing centers. They were in fact, micro computers. Pur- chased with MGM funds, these computers allowed four people to punch in data at once. As more students became familiar with the main computer, ex- plained Mr. DeMartini, we decided we needed to expand our computer system. Besides, we had the money, and the mi- cro-computers were a good buy. We paid $19,000 for the main unit three years ago, but the three new computers cost only $6800 total. Students faced other changes in September, includ- ing new textbooks. Mrs. Meek commented, We ordered one hundred anthologies for En- glish III classes, and I ' ve also gotten new books to complete certain sets for World Lit. We ' re even hoping to order tape cassettes with lectures about literature. Workbooks for the Spanish IV class were well received. Said Junior Jenny Miller, The new books explain grammar really well and have enough exercises to make sure you understand. Government classes also noticed a certain crispness to their textbook pages. We or- dered 425 new books, re- ported Mr. Dobbins, But we ' ve been very limited by Prop. 13. Occasionally we do receive free materials. I even got a free box of pamphlets from the New York Stock Ex- change. Not only were classroom supplies updated for the school year — a number of teachers took courses outside of class to update their own skills. Mr. Fee enrolled in a re- fresher calculus course at UCLA over the summer, and Mrs. Meek participated in the UC Santa Cruz Writers ' Con- ference, in which Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo ' s Nest was a main speaker. Even if the classroom did look the same, you couldn ' t au- tomatically assume nothing else had changed. Maybe you didn ' t have new textbooks or computers in your classes, but you weren ' t fed an unrevised version of last year. As Mr. King put it, As the composi- tion of a class changes, the teaching philosophy must change. A teacher must ad- just this technique to suit his class. 1 ' 2Sfos k M Program print out. Complicated formulas flash across the screen as Tim Wickens types in his calculus program. Students in Mr. DeMartini ' s first period computer programming class spent much of their time punching data into the micro computers at the back of the room. MR. HARRY INNOCENTI Mathematics; Science MR. BOB JENSEN English; Varsity Basketball Coach MRS. MARIE KAHN English 204 FACULTY