Mary Farmar students taking part in kindness challenge all week

Mary Farmar elementary kindergarteners Oscar Caballero, Aspen Harris, Malena Castellanos, Dylan Olech, Kate Fernan, Cameron Bohacek and Roy Bernards and teacher Kellie Barragan take part in the Great Kindness Challenge, which is being celebrated at thousands of schools across the world this week. (Photo courtesy of Tammy Harley)

 Elementary schoolers already have a tendency to be kind, but this week at Mary Farmar Elementary School, students are taking it to a whole new level. 
   For the second year in a row, Farmar is taking part in the Great Kindness Challenge, an international bullying prevention initiative in which students spend the last week of January trying to perform as many acts of kindness as possible. The Great Kindness Challenge is presented by nonprofit group Kids for Peace and has had more than 15,000 students in 91 countries participate.
   The challenge was brought to Farmar last year by Tammy Harley, a Special Day Class teacher with the Solano County Office of Education who instructs special education students at Farmar. In its initial year, Harley said participation was pretty minimal and primarily involved her class. Students would address the school through the intercom with such chants as “When I say Mary, you say Farmar!” or “When I say kindness, you say matters!” Harley’s class also decorated hearts and placed them on the windshields of teachers’ cars, and they distributed “Kindness Matters” fliers to their peers. What started out as a modest event was well-received enough that Harley was able to get the entire school involved this year with even bigger events. 
   One of the biggest features this year is Kindness Stations set up during recess, where students can perform different activities. On Monday, the station had pieces of paper where students could write notes to their teachers.
   “The template said, ‘My teacher makes me feel special when…’ and the students were drawing a picture and writing a sentence to give to their teacher,” Harley said. 
   On Tuesday, students made paper chains which are now hanging in the school’s hallway.
   “I had students write their names and an act of kindness that they have participated in,” Harley said. 
   On Wednesday, students made hearts to give to their friends. Today, kids are designing bookmarks, and the week will all culminate Friday with a schoolwide aerial Living Kindness picture featuring 600 participants. 
   Harley’s class has also taken part in collecting data on each smile, high five and fist bump they receive from students walking in each morning. On Monday, students received between 25 and 45, more than 80 on Tuesday and over 100 on Wednesday. 
   “Once kids got involved with it, parents got involved with it having a lot of people walk by my classroom in the morning,” Harley said. 
   Harley said parents have been a major help, volunteering their time to cut out hearts and bookmarks for the students to build their designs on. 
   “It has really been overwhelmingly amazing,” she said. 
   The primary goal, Harley said, has been to reinforce the notion to students that kindness matters. 
   “Every single act, no matter how small, can build upon and make a difference to people,” she said. 
   Harley is also grateful for what special education students have been able to accomplish.
   “It’s important for me to let everyone know how amazing my students with disabilities are and how kind they are and that they can make a difference too,” she said. “I have already seen this week an increase in the peer interactions between my students with special needs and the general ed population. They are already joining in with them, coming by with our high fives and our fist bumps. Kindness is showing at Mary Farmar this week.”
   SCOE is one of four county offices of education to be designated as Kindness Certified, and Farmar Principal Wendy Smith has registered for the school to receive that title. For more information on the Great Kindness Challenge, go to thegreatkindnesschallenge.com.

Arts Benicia to host After School Art program at Farmar in February

Arts Benicia will host a series of painting and drawing workshops at Mary Farmar Elementary School in February. The classes will be taught by Les Overlock. (File photo)

While a school day is not always enough time to learn the basics of art, Arts Benicia is here to make sure creatively inclined students have additional opportunities to hone their craft. After School sessions will be held at Mary Farmar Elementary School throughout February.
   Arts Benicia’s After School program, sponsored by Benicia Unified School District, aims to give students an opportunity to explore the arts and develop new interests. The classes are inspired by the principles of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math), encourage critical thinking and problem solving and are taught by experienced art instructors.
   The February session will be taught by Les Overlock, a painter who taught in school settings for 37 years, including a long stint as Liberty High School’s art instructor. Overlock paints everything from animals to human faces to planes to automobiles, utilizing different colors and encouraging painting outside the lines. For the past decade, Overlock has contributed “The Buzz” and “The Buzzard” to the Benicia Herald, which provide clear examples of what his work is all about. Overlock’s workshop at Farmar will focus on drawing and painting.
   The workshop will meet from 3 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, Feb. 7, 14 and 21 in Farmar’s Multi-Purpose Room, located at 901 Military West. The class is open to all BUSD elementary schoolers in grades 1 through 5. The cost is $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Space is limited. To reserve a spot, go to artsbenicia.org/arts-benicia-after-school-2 and download the form. 

Three Benicia elementary schools receive Gold Ribbon honors

(Originally published in the 4/14/16 edition. The date for the regional ceremony has been corrected, although no further details on it are known.)

   Yesterday, State Superintendent of Public Schools Tom Torlakson announced that 772 California elementary schools are being honored under the Gold Ribbon Schools Awards Program. Sitting among this prestigious crop are three of Benicia's elementary schools: Mary Farmar Elementary, Joe Henderson Elementary and Robert Semple Elementary.

   The Gold Ribbon Award was created as a way to honor state schools, while the California Distinguished Schools Program is on hiatus as California creates new assessment and accountability systems. Nearly 6,000 elementary schools were eligible to apply, but only 7 percent of them were able to receive this honor.

   Schools applied based on a program or practice schools have adopted that can be replicated by other schools.

   “These schools shine as bright beacons for others, putting forth an exemplary effort to ensure that every student is ready for 21st century college and careers,” Torlakson said in a statement. “California teachers are developing an education model for the nation, training the students of today to be the problem-solvers, inventors and pioneers of tomorrow.”

   Mary Farmar highlighted its use of the Teacher College Reading and Writing Project, which aims for students to become strong readers, writers and thinkers through collaboration and solid instruction.

   Joe Henderson highlighted its efforts to improve literacy by building a reading life. This has been done through the implementation of a new reading room and its use of a web-based program called myON, where students can build their literacy skills through reading stories and poems even when they are at home.

   "We have built a love of reading through choice, stamina and instruction," Joe Henderson Principal Carin Garton said."Everything we've done at Joe Henderson has revolved around a love of reading."

   Robert Semple highlighted its use of Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, its reading intervention program and the positive impact these programs have had on students.

   “Our receiving this award is based on the culmination of hard work done this year and last year,” Robert Semple Principal Christina Moore said. “It validates the specific programs we're working on the positive impact they've had on behavior and academics.”

   “We're so excited,” she said of receiving the award. “I'm overjoyed.”

   Matthew Turner Elementary, the one Benicia school that was not nominated, was recognized as a Distinguished School in 2014.

   All the nominated schools received a visit by a committee, and Superintedent Charles Young felt optimistic afterwards.

   “When visitations ended, they told us 'You guys are great. We're submitting your applications to the Department of Education,'” he said.

   Young also noted that one third of all recommendations from Solano County came from Benicia Unified School District.

   “It's a great achievement and continuing recognition of the hard work put in by staff,” Young said.

   "We're told by our families all the time what an exceptional job we do at educating kids," Garton said. "To have the state and county come in and recognize us for it makes it all the more worthwhile. It's kind of a dream come true."

   A regional ceremony will be held June 1.

Benicia elementary schools nominated for Gold Ribbon status

(Originally published in the 2/21/16 edition)

   Three of Benicia’s four elementary schools have been nominated to become Gold Ribbon California elementary schools.

   Mary Farmar, Joe Henderson and Robert Semple elementary schools are in the running to become Gold Ribbon schools for the year. The Gold Ribbon Schools Award Program was created in 2015 as a replacement for the California Distinguished Schools program, which is on hiatus as the state works to accommodate new assessment and accountability systems, according to Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction. The program honors schools that have made major gains in the implementation of academic material and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education. Schools are invited to apply, and their applications are submitted to the California Department of Education where they undergo review. Schools are later selected by the department for verification review by staff members of their respective county offices of education. 

   Last year, the program honored California’s middle and high schools. This year, the state’s elementary schools will be honored. 

   At Thursday’s school board meeting, Benicia Unified School District Superintendent Charles Young highlighted the same things each school highlighted in their applications. 

   “Joe Henderson highlighted their school's focus on building a reading life, Robert Semple highlighted the impact that Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports has made on their school culture as well as their reading intervention support program and Mary Farmar highlighted the positive impact that classroom-embedded professional development through Teachers College Reading and Writing Project has made on their instructional practice and grade-level collaboration,” Young said. 

   The schools will be reviewed by the Solano County Office of Education. Recipients will be announced by Torlakson in April, and a regional ceremony will be held for the winning schools in May.

   As for Matthew Turner Elementary— the one school that was not selected for Gold Ribbon status— Young noted that the school was recognized as a California Distinguished School in 2014. 

   

Mary Farmar Elementary educator chosen as Teacher of the Month by local radio station

(Originally published in the 1/31/16 edition)

   Lara Ruark, a kindergarten teacher at Mary Farmar Elementary, has been named December’s Teacher of the Month by Walnut Creek adult contemporary station KKDV.

   Ruark began teaching at Mary Farmar in 2006, but she left to teach in rural Alaska for three years before returning to Benicia in 2013.

   “I wanted to come back to the Bay Area and someone was retiring from Mary Farmar, so I got to come back to where I started,” she said.

   She has incorporated anecdotes about her life in Alaska to her students.

   “I like to build a strong community in my classroom, where we get to know each other,” she said. “I think I wore them down with stories about my giant snow dog— an Alaskan Malamute— and my life in an Alaskan village.”

   Ruark has also made her fun-loving personality a big facet of her teaching.

   “I was a drama kid growing up, so I really enjoy acting out stories and doing funny voices when I read books,” she said. “And I make up songs to sing to them when I am giving them directions or getting their attention.” 

   Ruark’s teaching style has gone over very well with students and especially their parents, one of whom nominated her for KKDV’s Teacher of the Month contest.

   A the end of the month, the radio station honors a regional teacher who is nominated by a parent. Beginning this year, the winning teachers are candidates for the Warren W. Eukel Teacher Trust Award, which honors teachers with annual monetary awards for more than 17 years. 

   Ruark learned via email that she was nominated and was pleasantly surprised.

   “I was a bit stunned when I found out because this sort of thing doesn't happen to teachers, much less me,” she said. “I feel very flattered and honored and at the same time, I just want to shout, ‘No way,’ which I think I did shout when I first read the email.”

   Her students were especially elated.

   “They were excited when I told them, and some of them told their parents but most of them didn't know what it meant,” she said. “When (Office Manager Debbie) Warren announced that I was nominated as Teacher Of The Month over the loudspeaker, their faces lit up and one little one started jumping up and down with excitement.”

   Additionally, KKDV stopped by to conduct a live interview with Ruark inside her classroom with coffee and sweet treats provided by the station and Nothing Bundt Cakes in Walnut Creek. 

   “I was only asked three questions but I felt on the spot and surprisingly shy,” she said. “I also felt that I needed to answer the questions in complete sentences because I was representing other teachers and that meant I had to sound smart.”

   “But it was fun, and I can now relate to movie stars and what it must be like when they get interviewed,” she joked. “OK, not really. They have way more questions to answer.”

   Ruark expressed gratitude to the family who nominated her.

   “I knew that my students loved me, but I never expected a family to go out of their way to contact a radio station with me in mind,” she said “Teaching is a hard job and some days, it can feel like you are spinning your wheels. So when this happened, it really showed me that I do make a difference. I wish all teachers could feel as special and valued as I do.”

Lara Ruark (Right) stands with Olivia Marek, the direct marketing coordinator of KKDV. Marek came into Ruark's classroom with treats and interviewed her live on the air. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Warren)