Crescenta Valley High School - Yearbook (La Crescenta, CA)

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J. . ,- ,, nl.. A, ere's something Pd like to tell you about. Learning to speak before a group, junior Brandon Vacarro delivers a How-To speech in the Oral Communication class. brains for a little imagination senior Travis Neale tries to Crea te a good opening line for he night was sultry . . . Racking his his Wednesday Writing. 8 English 'W gm. fffi 5, ' it 4 v .i-nl if gf e,t.i im W.,-w-OH ' ,

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,i5'i ii':5'pil1-Tp' .,.iil1.1ii4iWMi1fi W' :ii-.. ravi , iiifiiiiiiizi'wiWihlH' mt ,W JP - il, . 9 5 ' tt-'itWiiltffiiiivvifliltiiiiiip WW i'iJ,i'.'i . ' i PASSING THE GRADE hat event this year was very important to the future of the Y A school? The answer was Accreditation and the Process -. zu. ,,: ' began last October. Accreditation was a program conducted by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in an effort to evaluate the school's relationship with the students. To begin the process, a committee was selected, with Jimmy Lee and Jennie Jensen as co-chairpersons. This committee was responsible for evaluating philosophies and goals of the school, relationships between students and administration and the effectiveness of student government, clubs, school newspaper and yearbook in the lives of students. The committee attempted to hear every voice of the school by surveying students and also accepting any input from students not on the committee. We will try to include everyone, and keep the report as complete and honest as we possibly can, explained Jennie Jensen. The faculty became part of the process as well, by submitting their own opinions on the alliance between the students and the school. Led by Mrs. Linda Evans, the teach- ers got involved and were not afraid to rec- ognize areas where the school needed work. We do find areas that we need to improve upon and in trying to find and alleviate these spots it takes a tremendous amount of energy and time from everybody, em- phasized Mrs. Evans. lt is very time con- suming. Faculty members also formed committees and were responsible for writ- ing a report on their findings. They played a vital role in this process. tilt :: U I: :I ua :' n '1 2 I XS :s rn. :- 5 o c lo :- N. :- fb -, E o :- C : Q 'Q fb Q ,p ..- 1? g' ,sf pages Mrs Roberts silently and valiantly re- - types the accreditation report. The project finally ended in April when the Accreditation Committee came to evaluate the findings of the school's committees. The visitors reviewed the data that had been collected and were able to witness the school first hand. Finally, the accreditation team sent the school the final report of their own observa- tions and suggestions of how CV might be- come better. Though a lot of people put in many hours of work, in the end, it was all worth it. lt's amazing all the little things we learned while accrediting. l didn't realize all the interesting things we learned from CV, the little gold mines throughout the school that we didn't know or see until we looked, commented Mrs. Evans. by Shwan Kim and Jennie von Speierman Accreditation 127

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MAKI G SENSE CUT GF f course, everyone had to take W English in one form or another 1 because it was required. But A T were there other classes available for people who wanted to earn their credits without having to take a whole semester of grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary? The answer was yes. There were many courses like Modern Poetry, Science Fiction, or Short Story that focused on specific parts of the English language and avoided some of the more humdrum aspects of regular English classes. Three of the most popular of these classes were Creative Writing, English as a Second Language, and Oral Communication. Creative Writing, taught by Mrs. De Ann Morris, involved the skills of writing stories that help enhance a persons's creativity. Junior Scott Gleason commented, The Creative Writing class has taught me things that a normal English class could not. The class has always been popular for spawning stories that were printed in Journeys, an annually student produced literary journal. For those who needed to start from scratch, Mrs. Gloria Staudenmeir's English as a Second Language class was available. This class consisted of five levels of learning how to speak English, starting with a level for those who spoke little or none, to a level for those who were able to function in a regular English class. Mrs. Staudenmeir remarked, They're taking English so they can learn to survive in an English speaking environment. This class helped the foreign students fit in. For those who wanted to improve their speaking abilities, Mr. Joe Jensen offered an Oral Communication class. Students in Q3 this class learned how to speak articulately and overcome the fear of speaking before a group. This class spent time doing how-to presentations, memorizing and reciting poems, and doing impromptu speeches. Junior Melanie Haase remarked, For me, the class makes public speaking much easier. Mr. Jensen enjoyed teaching what he called a thought-sharing class. English elective classes added variety to the lives of students who wanted more than just the typical literature and composition classes. l think that elective English classes in school give me a better chance to express myself than regular English classes, stated senior Genevieve Doyle, especially on a personalized basis. by Tim Gharib his class is so interesting! Paying attention in class makes it easier for ' sophomore David Alvarez to improve his English speaking skills in the ESL class. English I9