Career-Oriented Classes Big Hit With Students

Dan VanHoose’s class is a “Star Trek” flashback.

Students in bell bottoms huddle over VCR-sized computer control boards dotted with raised red lights. Refrigerator-sized machines emit loud sucking noises. A robot arm whirs in the corner.

All that’s missing is the hokey whooshing noises every time a door opens.

“We’re trying to get it so you only have to push one button,” said 14-year-old Sam Jacobs, glaring at the robot arm she and Jeremy Burnham have been programming. “It’s frustrating, but I love the challenge.”

Dozens of other Spokane School District youths could soon be joining VanHoose’s Garry Middle School students in a place no one has gone before.

School administrators are considering setting up each Spokane middle school with a similar lab, which includes the latest in robotics, computer, aerodynamics, TV and radio broadcasting technology.

“We are very interested in having all the middle schools involved,” said Clyde Rasmussen, vocational director for the school district.

Money for the labs has not been budgeted, but Rasmussen and other administrators are meeting in April to talk about the program.

A Missouri company, Questech, gave the school district a cut-rate deal on the Garry equipment, which costs about $120,000 per class. The school district paid $45,000.

“My kids have an hour (a day) with the latest technology,” said VanHoose, a vocational and technology teacher. “By the time they get done with the robotics program, they are doing senior high school, first-year college level work.”

The class - taken mostly by eighth-graders - has sixteen stations for students to explore. A computer flight simulator puts students behind the stick; desktop publishing software turns students into little Steve Forbes and a radio broadcasting station makes little blowhards; an Internet port opens the cyber world.

“This is the best station so far,” said Dallas Kasey, 13, opening an Internet page on the Seattle Mariners.

The school district is excited about the program, in part, because of an increasing emphasis on vocational education. By the year 2000, the junior and senior years of high school will be spent entirely in career-oriented classes.

The Garry technology class gives eighth-graders an early push. More than half of the students who took the class said the class helped them develop career goals.

“It might sound young, but Japan starts them this early,” said VanHoose.

Students don’t seem to mind. Burnham and Jacobs said they have picked the same career path - robotics - because of the class.

“It shows us different ways to learn and other things that are out there besides things kids think about - like working at McDonalds,” said Bevann Lane, 12.

Dramatizing Ann Frank’s life

For Mead elementary school students, Ann Frank is now more than just a girl from a far-off time and place.

A Seattle educational entertainment company visited each of the seven Mead elementary schools in March to perform “Through the Eyes of a Friend,” a skit which dramatizes the author and Holocaust victim’s life.

Living Voices actress Ariadne Schaffer also performed skits on immigration - of both an Irish-American and a Scandinavian girl.

“This kind of brings history alive for kids,” said Nancy Spencer, an educator who organized the assemblies.

Mead organizing PTSA

Mead High School parents anxious to know more about their children’s school are organizing a Parent Teacher Student Association.

A meeting last week drew about 100 parents, 91 of whom signed up and paid $6 dues. A second meeting is planned for 7 p.m., March 28 in the MHS library. Call Linda Griego at 466-5285 for more information.

‘Bodacious bovine ride’

Arcadia Elementary principal Bonnie Bantas sees herself in headlines: “Bantas Rides Bodacious Bovine.”

The Deer Park principal - and recent transplant from San Diego got her ego hog-tied when she promised she would ride a bovine in a chicken suit if her 412 students read 2,000 books.

The students read 2,290, and were so excited last Friday - Bantas’ date with the cow - that they mooo-ed her in lunch line.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Write: Jonathan Martin, Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. E-mail: jonathanm@spokesman.com. Call: 459-5484. Fax: 459-5482.