2019-2020 Award Winners
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Comstock Middle School is proud to nominate science and maker teacher, John Lundblad, as its CLMS Nominee for 2019. Comstock had long aspired to be a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) school and John helped us usher in this new era. Through his efforts, we were able to hold the first “Maker Camp” in Santa Rosa in 2011, sponsored by Make Magazine. John jumped on the concept: he and the founder of Make were so mentally aligned that one could almost literally see sparks flying between them, and conduits of inventive and creative thought meshing together. This collaboration helped us add an “A” for Arts in STEM and move forward as a STEAM school. He helped us create the curriculum for an actual elective that we launched that year and that he continues to teach today. This has now become an official elective course in our district at both the middle school and high school level. His elective has won the California School Board Associations Golden Bell Award and Sonoma State University’s Jack London Award.
2019-2020 Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce Teachers of the Year Nominees
Kelan Bradley, Science Teacher Angela Ghigliazza, Math & Culinary
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2018-2019 California League of Middle School Winner: Steve Murphy, History Teacher
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Steve Murphy began teaching World and U.S. history at Comstock Middle School eleven years ago. If you talk to any student who has been lucky enough to have him as a teacher, they have to tell you how much they love him and his class. This is because he makes sure his students have fun while learning, firmly believing that this is the recipe for developing and maintaining a lifelong love of learning. His philosophy since he began teaching is to have fun, while at same time teaching the importance of Safety, Respect, and Responsibility as he develops the culture of his classroom. At the middle school level students are dealing with many personal and social changes. They are not exactly still little kids, but also not yet young adults. Mr. Murphy recognizes that middle school students need extra patience as they continue their almost daily changes.
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2018-2019
Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce Teachers of the Year Nominees
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Eveta Jackson, English Teacher
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Andy Weber, Physical Education Teacher
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PAST YEARS AWARD RECIPIENTS:
PAST YEARS AWARD RECIPIENTS:
2017-2018
Julie Grange: Special Education Teacher & Department Chair
Bobbi Chock, Special Education Teacher and STEM Specialist
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2016-2017
Kasia King, Social Studies Teacher and Department Chair
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Alexis Siniscalco, Counselor
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2015-2016
Alie Dido, English & Leadership Teacher,
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Katheryne Stoural, Science Teacher
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2014-2015
California League of Middle Schools |
Mary Ann Simon
Math Teacher, Department Chair and Instructional Coach For Mary Ann, teaching is a calling. She has had great success teaching math to students who have struggled in the subject. Mary Ann says that she can relate to these students, as she grew up similarly as a child of Italian immigrants. Just like the students she teaches, her parents loved her, but did not have the financial or educational means to provide the support she needed to be academically successful. It was the teachers and school staff that reached out to help her excel and reach her professional goals.
On average, over 90% of Mary Ann’s Algebra students have scored in the proficient range consistently. In many years, her students have led the district in this measurement, beating out schools that have traditionally higher demographics and scores. This has enabled those students to move on to high school with confidence and the skills necessary to excel. As a department chair, and recently as an instructional coach, Mary Ann was faced with the challenge of replicating her success among her math colleagues. She joined the initial Project Lead cohort in Sonoma County which was established four years ago. With this group, she learned techniques that support the eight standards for mathematical practice and gained confidence in collaborative instruction and blended learning. Mary Ann brought these techniques back to Comstock and gathered our team of general education and special education math teachers. They are now working collaboratively in our computer lab and learning center team-teaching and providing blended learning opportunities. Everyone loves mixing up classes and teachers. It makes for a more interesting and varied daily experience. The teachers learn from each other in a natural way; they learn how to support each other and see each other’s successful practices. Mary Ann meets with colleagues weekly to run data reports, set goals and provide incentives for student achievement. Students are now commenting that they love math, that math is fun and that they can understand how to think more like mathematicians! The blended learning program uses online tools to differentiate instruction. These tools are available to students at school as well as on the go via home computers, tablets and smart phones. Working on math skills is now at their fingertips all day long! Mary Ann is immersed in our school community. She coordinates after-school math tutoring and events like monthly achievement awards. She also coordinates the Algebra Academy, a summer institute for students hosted by a local company. This past summer, 48 Comstock students participated in a program. Our school historically has at least half of the slots filled. Mary Ann and her department frequently attend our evening parent group meets to connect with our community. The goal is to meet the parents and encourage them to feel free to work, to talk and support our work in educating their children. Mary Ann has consistently worked with the volunteer center to bring retirees that are well versed in math to Comstock to assist our students. One volunteer has been with us for three years now, supporting our students three days a week. Mary Ann is also a teacher that has wonderful rapport with students. She rarely has behavior problems in her class because the students love her! She is demanding of them, but also very warm. Students frequently comment to me that they now really understand math because of Ms. Simon! It is rare to find an individual with as many talents as Mary Ann has. Comstock has become a leader in 21st century learning in Sonoma County and we owe part of that to Mary Ann. It is with great appreciation that we nominate Mary Ann Simon as the 2014 CLMS Teacher of the Year nominee for Comstock Middle School. |
SR Chamber of Commerce Nominees for 2014-2015
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Sue Cleek, English Teacher, Department Chair & Instructional Coach
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Carolyn Hamill, Math Teacher, Teen Living, Electives Dept Chair
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2013-2014
John Lundblad
SR Chamber Teacher of the Year WINNER OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL CATEGORY Science Teacher |
Steve Murphy
SR Chamber Teacher of the Year Social Studies |
Sasha Oster
California League of Middle School's Teacher of the Year
Twenty-first century skills... Media Literacy… Digital revolution... Common Core standards – this is all new terminology for a new millennium. After years of No Child Left Behind, test taking, and draconian budget cuts, how is a school to cope and create the change? For the Comstock Crusaders, our knight on a white horse came in the form of Sasha Oster. In one year, Sasha
transformed our school.
Let’s step back. Sasha has been teaching at Comstock for seven years as an English and ELD teacher. She is a natural language development teacher and uses up-to-date best practices to help our English learners become more proficient in their 2nd language. Prior to teaching, she studied film directing at NYU Graduate Film School where she made several award-winning short films. She also spent over fifteen years in business, as a management consultant, sales executive, and as an arts programming director. This entrepreneurial spirit has served us well at a time where innovators are truly needed in the educational realm. Two years ago, Sasha established the Digital Storytelling class, where students shoot, produce, and edit short films such as stop-motion films, documentaries, and music videos. Her digital media skills expanded with her creating English, Digital Storytelling, and Maker Camp websites for Comstock teachers to integrate digital media into lessons, catalogue those lessons, and collaborate within and across departments.
Continuing to ride the horse across this great divide, Sasha then introduced Google Apps for Education to our site. She received a grant for one Chromebook and began to explore this cost-effective, exciting new technology for use in our classrooms. We were then able to secure funds for one cart of Chromebooks. Sasha used her English support students as our pilot students and began teaching them exciting and engaging ways to write– with blogs, to present – with Prezis, to read – with Kindle Cloud reader, and so much more. We are just beginning to tap the number of engaging and useful apps available. Students are entranced.
Over the summer, Sasha spent over hundreds of hours of her own time setting up a Google Apps management system so that all students at Comstockwould be able to access apps in the Google Chrome environment. Every student has an account with over 100 free books from Kindle Cloud reader. They also have access to Google apps here at school, at home and on their mobile devices. She began to informally teach other teachers at our site about the potential of Google Apps. A few of
us accompanied her to the Google Apps for Education Summit this summer and helped launch lead teachers at a number of other school sites in Santa Rosa. At SCOE’s 21stcentury learning institute this past June, Sasha started the Sonoma County Google Apps Edmodo group which now has over 50 teachers and administrators connecting and learning from each other. The informal teaching sessions have become “Tech Thursdays” at Comstock: now an official, paid professional development opportunity in Santa Rosa City Schools. Many teachers attend each week to learn Google basics. I have to emphasize
that Sasha had been doing all this on her own time in addition to teaching five classes a day. Just recently, she was asked to become an official district trainer in Google, giving her some compensation for her work. Each week we marvel at her professional, clear and informative tutorials. Each day, I visit her classes and see students smiling as they innovate, create, and learn in a truly 21st century environment.
On top of all this, Sasha gave us another beautiful gift. Two years ago, after the death of her beloved black lab, Sam, I asked her to consider training a social therapy dog for the school. She found Maya, a two-month old Pomeranian- Chihuahua mix at the pound. The next day, Maya was at our school and has literally grown up here. Sasha had her insured, trained and
certified to work with students. Maya delights staff and students alike and works with our counselor to comfort students in times of need. She also frequently helps the principal de-stress!
It is rare to find an individual with as many talents as Sasha has. Everyone at the school is so grateful for her time and her generous spirit. This nomination was unanimously supported by the entire staff. Comstock has become a leader in
21st century learning in Sonoma County and we literally owe it to her. It is with great appreciation that we nominate Sasha Oster as the California League of Middle Schools, Region 1, teacher of the year.
California League of Middle School's Teacher of the Year
Twenty-first century skills... Media Literacy… Digital revolution... Common Core standards – this is all new terminology for a new millennium. After years of No Child Left Behind, test taking, and draconian budget cuts, how is a school to cope and create the change? For the Comstock Crusaders, our knight on a white horse came in the form of Sasha Oster. In one year, Sasha
transformed our school.
Let’s step back. Sasha has been teaching at Comstock for seven years as an English and ELD teacher. She is a natural language development teacher and uses up-to-date best practices to help our English learners become more proficient in their 2nd language. Prior to teaching, she studied film directing at NYU Graduate Film School where she made several award-winning short films. She also spent over fifteen years in business, as a management consultant, sales executive, and as an arts programming director. This entrepreneurial spirit has served us well at a time where innovators are truly needed in the educational realm. Two years ago, Sasha established the Digital Storytelling class, where students shoot, produce, and edit short films such as stop-motion films, documentaries, and music videos. Her digital media skills expanded with her creating English, Digital Storytelling, and Maker Camp websites for Comstock teachers to integrate digital media into lessons, catalogue those lessons, and collaborate within and across departments.
Continuing to ride the horse across this great divide, Sasha then introduced Google Apps for Education to our site. She received a grant for one Chromebook and began to explore this cost-effective, exciting new technology for use in our classrooms. We were then able to secure funds for one cart of Chromebooks. Sasha used her English support students as our pilot students and began teaching them exciting and engaging ways to write– with blogs, to present – with Prezis, to read – with Kindle Cloud reader, and so much more. We are just beginning to tap the number of engaging and useful apps available. Students are entranced.
Over the summer, Sasha spent over hundreds of hours of her own time setting up a Google Apps management system so that all students at Comstockwould be able to access apps in the Google Chrome environment. Every student has an account with over 100 free books from Kindle Cloud reader. They also have access to Google apps here at school, at home and on their mobile devices. She began to informally teach other teachers at our site about the potential of Google Apps. A few of
us accompanied her to the Google Apps for Education Summit this summer and helped launch lead teachers at a number of other school sites in Santa Rosa. At SCOE’s 21stcentury learning institute this past June, Sasha started the Sonoma County Google Apps Edmodo group which now has over 50 teachers and administrators connecting and learning from each other. The informal teaching sessions have become “Tech Thursdays” at Comstock: now an official, paid professional development opportunity in Santa Rosa City Schools. Many teachers attend each week to learn Google basics. I have to emphasize
that Sasha had been doing all this on her own time in addition to teaching five classes a day. Just recently, she was asked to become an official district trainer in Google, giving her some compensation for her work. Each week we marvel at her professional, clear and informative tutorials. Each day, I visit her classes and see students smiling as they innovate, create, and learn in a truly 21st century environment.
On top of all this, Sasha gave us another beautiful gift. Two years ago, after the death of her beloved black lab, Sam, I asked her to consider training a social therapy dog for the school. She found Maya, a two-month old Pomeranian- Chihuahua mix at the pound. The next day, Maya was at our school and has literally grown up here. Sasha had her insured, trained and
certified to work with students. Maya delights staff and students alike and works with our counselor to comfort students in times of need. She also frequently helps the principal de-stress!
It is rare to find an individual with as many talents as Sasha has. Everyone at the school is so grateful for her time and her generous spirit. This nomination was unanimously supported by the entire staff. Comstock has become a leader in
21st century learning in Sonoma County and we literally owe it to her. It is with great appreciation that we nominate Sasha Oster as the California League of Middle Schools, Region 1, teacher of the year.