Students Get Exciting New Options For After School

Some elementary students these days have few choices after school. It’s TV and the refrigerator. Nintendo and the microwave. Or worse.

So, Central Valley schools are starting new programs calculated to help kids make smart choices. Collectively, they’re SMART, and they run the gamut from basketball to chess to printmaking.

SMART stands for Student Motivating Activities and Recreation Time.

These programs are seeing light largely due to David Kaplan, 28, a third-grade teacher.

Last year, Kaplan student taught at Broadway Elementary School. He was earning his teaching credential through Whitworth’s 15-month masters in teaching program. He dreamed of coaching, too. Then-principal Karen Toreson encouraged him, and he developed after-school sessions for fifth- and sixth-graders in football, basketball and volleyball. Toreson decided to add Spanish classes, and the Broadway Activity Time program was born.

BAT was a big hit.

The Spanish class filled up so quickly, a second class was added. That overflowed, too.

Matthew Dirsteine signed up, mostly because his mother, Cathy, has family in Puerto Rico.

“I thought this would be great. If he could speak Spanish just a little, he could talk with them,” Cathy Dirsteine said.

Brian Jennings was hungry for the chance to try football and the other sports, said his mother, Debbie.

What worked best was “just being able to interact with other kids after school, without being in an organized sports activity that takes up every weekend,” she said.

This year, with the blessing of University Elementary Principal Phyllis Betts, Kaplan started planning again. Although he was hired to teach third grade, he kept his after-school focus on the older kids.

“Fifth and sixth graders are right at the threshold. You can lose ‘em or you can guide ‘em, kind of like a switch on the railroad tracks,” he said.

Participation in SMART is free. But it can’t be taken for granted. Kids who fail to follow the rules - play safe, no name calling, no fighting or arguing - are out.

Central Valley’s decision to take the program district-wide stems in part from teacher negotiations last spring. Teachers wanted the district to find more opportunities for older elementary students’ after-school hours. They convinced the district to budget for such programs. Now, $60,000 has been allocated for two years’ worth of SMART at all 13 elementary schools.

Each school is making its own decisions about how to tailor its SMART program. Cheerleading workshops might work in one school, karate classes in another.

“Once you invent this pipeline called SMART, it’s easy,” Kaplan said.

Africa, from all angles

The Masai long house didn’t really have any cow dung in its walls, Jakob Trescott admitted. And few of the Barbie dolls modeling clothes had the right color skin.

But 100 or so Evergreen Junior High School seventh-graders filled their cafeteria last week with displays on various African nations. They amassed an impressive store of knowledge. The month-long project organized by involved English, science and social studies. Organizers were teachers Allen Kohler, Eileen Garcia, Rob Paukert and Mike Gharst.

Each display stood out in a different way.

Jason Brady and Jeff Skierka turned out a nicely detailed map of Gabon, a country with borders as frilly as lace.

Jodi Thompson and Audra Frederickson used markers and what looked like modeling clay to create a map of the Nile on a length of 1-by6 board.

Janie Danelo and Summer Nemri included a clear-eyed assessment of Morocco’s future. Poverty will worsen; education will not improve much; and conflicts will break out over religion. They also documented student and teacher reaction to baklava, a honeyed middle-eastern treat. The only thing missing was a tray of samples.

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