This Is How We Celebrated Adult Education Week 2015

Teacher Shirley with her 2013 class

Adult Education Week 2015 was March 23 - 27th.  Adult Schools across California celebrated in many ways. 

San Mateo Adult School celebrated with essay contests for both day and evening ESL students, a story quilt project, a spelling bee, a dance, and award ceremonies. 

The week started with hanging the banner made by Teacher Shirley's class in 2013 on the Poplar fence. 


The ESL Student Council Presidents invited the press to visit our school.






Teacher Cynthia reading the words in the Spelling Bee

Evening ESL Student Council President Maricruz Leyva organized something new this year:  a spelling bee. On Monday evening, four classes participated.  

Do you know what a Spelling Bee is?  Students try to spell a word correctly.  Everyone tries until there is only one winner left.  At our Spelling Bee, there were two winners (1st place) and a "runner-up" (2nd place). 


Spelling Bee winners at the Evening Award Ceremony.

Tuesday, March 24th was CCAE Leg Day.  ESL Morning Student Council President Daniel Pec, Vice President Kitty Szakaly, and Student Advocate Marina Kravtsova, Assistant Directors Tim Doyle and Eric Saavedra, and Teacher Cynthia went to Sacramento to tell Legislators and Adult Schools matter.  They explained to the Legislators that Adult Schools need stable, direct funding. 

Teacher Cynthia, Advocate Marina,
Vice-President Kitty, President Daniel
Asst. Director Eric Saavedra, Asst. Director Tim Doyle





Toshio led the students in a reel


Wednesday got exciting with a special dance led by Toshio.  The dance was a Virginia reel, a traditional American folk dance.  Student dance leaders got the dance started.  Then other students joined in.  Students really kicked up their heels in celebration of our school.





Students hopped to it







Toshio explained how to do-si-do

Lower level ESL students contributed to the Story Quilt Project.  Each student told their story in words and pictures on a piece of paper.  All the stories were patched or sewn together to make beautiful paper quilts.  Every patch on a quilt matters just like every person in the community matters.  Every student has a story and together our stories tell the bigger story of Adult Education.

On Thursday at breaktime, classes brought their story quilts out to display.  Tom Jung took photos and everyone admired the quilts.  They were hung up in the SMART Center.  The San Mateo Union School District School Board and everyone who came to the Board meeting could see and admire them.  One of the quilts will be hung in Senator Jerry Hill's office.   The others will go on display in classrooms, the SMART Center, and the Student Lounge.

 

SMAS students and some of the beautiful Story Quilts.

Evening Essay Contest Award Winners
Alejandra Montes Martinez
Guadalupe Quintero
Manuel Valencia

Day higher level ESL students and many of the evening ESL students participated in an Essay Contest.  The topic for the essay contest was, "I am an Adult School Student and this is my story." The judges were Michele Costello, Gloria Gonzalez, Tia Marlowe, and Carlota Zuniga.  The day essay contest was for high intermediate classes and above.  There was a first, second, and third prize.  The evening essay winners were chosen by level.  Each level had one winner.  The Foster City ESL class had a special honorable mention winner.  Prizes were supplied by the ESL Student Council.   Additional prizes were supplied by a community donor. 

There were Award Ceremony events  in the morning and the evening the Spelling Bee and the Essay Contests winners.  The essay winners read their essays or had a teacher read their essays for them.   Everyone was very inspired by their stories and gave them a big round of applause. 

Teachers and Student Winners Together
Elizabeth, Cristina, Mary Peros, Xiao Yu, Katherine, Anna, Alesha

All in all, it was a wonderful week.  Adult Education Week gave us a chance to see and think about our community and all we accomplish.  We can truly see, hear, and feel why
                                                             Adult Education Matters!

You can read some of the essays here:

Day Winners:

First Prize:  Anna Yeng

Second Prize: Cristina Munoz Ulrich

Third Prize:  Xiao Yu Miao


Evening Winners:

Alejandra Montez Martinez

Guadalupe Quintero

Manuel Valencia

Essay Writers:

Erick Romero:  This Is My Story

Helen Wang:  My Story at San Mateo Adult School

Ismael Gonzalez:  This Is My Story

Maria Tinoco:  This Is My Story

Noemy:  In Search of New Horizons

Priscila Santiago - Growing and Learning

Subhashini Jain - The Value of Adult School in My Life

Veronica Heredia - Adapting to a New Culture

Yoriko Watanabe - A Precious Place to Learn

Yvan Bigaud - Writing A New Chapter

Anonymous - Adult Education is Important to the Community

Anonymous - Coming Back to School

Anonymous - Education Changed My Life

Anonymous - My Wonderful Story

Anonymous - Reaching Goals and Giving Back

Anonymous - What Adult School Means To Me



Skills and Talents:

Maria's Paintings

Community Contributions:

Teacher Lisa Sparks' Class


Big Picture Overview:

High Quality Education Within the Adult School System - Poling Tang