Our First BLOG

Saying Goodbye & End of a Blog

2008-06-09T11:43:00.001-07:00

I guess it's fitting that at the end of the year we all have to say good bye. Before I deleted this picture I decided to stick it up here because it sort of sums up how I feel today. We had lots of fun posting on this blog and taking pictures this year. I will miss you guys!

~Mrs. Woodward

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

2008-05-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Play the game and find out.

It took Mrs. Woodward 8 tries and some help from Arlene and Adolfo, but we did it! YEAH. Mr. Leong however is still trying. Poor thing.

Graffiti?

2008-05-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

So where do we draw the line between graffiti and art? What makes it art? What makes it Graffiti? These are questions modern artists are always trying to figure out. I for one, consider this far from Graffiti, but rather "Urban Art." Either way you look at it though, it's pretty cool!

The "Cans" Festival

Take a peek- what do you think? Is it art? Keep in mind it's all done with Spray Paint.

Ms. Neely's Favorite Pastime!

2008-04-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the Falcons!

(click on the arrow to play, it may take a moment to load.)

According to Ms. Neely, who is up on ALL THE LATEST GOSSIP. . .

Clara has a new man, Carlos (Jose dissappeared last summer) , and new babies!!

Here is the "Official" report.

In mid-spring 2006, employees working at San Jose City Hall first alerted us to the presence of a pair of peregrine falcons that were regularly observed in the downtown area. The tiercel was clearly an adult in 2006, but the female was still in juvenile plumage. As such this pair did not appear to be nesting in the area at the time.

In early spring 2007, Jose and Clara were again regularly observed together in the area. In 2006 SCPBRG had placed a nest box on the building, lined with gravel, similar in style to the box that was placed at Oracle in 2000. The camera was positioned near the nest box. By mid-February the birds were observed engaging in typical courtship behavior, and by late March Jose and Clara had laid a total of three eggs in the nest box. The three fledged in June.

Why We Teach

2008-04-12T19:40:00.001-07:00

Our New Wall!

LOOK! I caught EDGAR working!!!!!!

How can you not just love them?

It *WAS* funny!

Mrs. Woodward Changes her Mind

2008-03-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

I always thought that what set man apart from the rest of the animal kingdom was the fact that we made art. That in 25,000 B.C. cavemen crawled deep down into the pitch black earth to create masterpieces not because they were trying to make any money, not for anyone to see, not for a hunting ritual, but simply art for arts sake.
Whenever I spoke to anyone about why art was important, I always liked to throw in the fact (or what I thought was fact up until today) that we are the only species in the animal kingdom that makes art, and that is what set man apart in the hierarchy of the animal kingdom. I stand corrected. I was simply floored by this video.

Spring Break has come and gone. . .

2008-03-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome back!!! It's time to RAISE THOSE GRADES!

5th Period Digital Photography Class

2008-03-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

We learned how to do photoshop editing today!!! YAY!

We're back!

2008-03-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

Digital photography class is back! We've started working in the computer lab again. Keep checking back for new artwork!

VERY COOL ART ENTRIES

2008-01-24T10:09:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Jo Sullivan for passing this along to us-
Check out the Hirshorn's ART CONTEST. The rules were the artist could only use one sheet of paper.

What's going on in Mr. Lucca's Room?

2008-01-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

Check out what the science classes are doing!

2007-12-17T10:21:00.000-08:00

OH NO!

2007-12-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

Edgar and Jose were cited by Ms. Neely today for using IMPROPER GRAMMAR in her class. These poor guys have to bring in restitution for the offenses.

2007-12-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

In AVID we Humberto G., Maria V., Juliana A., and Becky A. interviewed Coach Erik Wagle for a project on Costa’s Cornels of Questions. Coach Wagle is a coach at South Valley Middle School and also teaches Life Skill to 6th graders. Here are the results of our interviews:

Q: What is your full name?
A: Erik Olaf Wagle
Q: Who influenced you to go to college?
A: My dad and coach influenced me to go to college.
Q: Do you have any family members that are coaches or teachers?
A: No but my dad was my main coach.
Q: What college did you attend? Why was that your choice?
A: I attend to Sanoma Sate and Saint Marys. I went to those colleges so I could play baseball.
Q: Would you go back to college?
A: Yes I would go back to get a sports management degree.
Q: Name two ways your life would change if you were to go back to college?
A: First I wouldn’t have as much money, next reason is I wouldn’t have time to coach.
Q: Did you struggle in college? What was your strongest and weakest subject?
A: No I didn’t struggle in college. College was easy for me. My strongest subject was social Science, and my weakest was Art.
Q: What are your plans towards retiring?
A: My plan is to have a lot of money, I just set up a retiring account.
Q: The first time you came to South Valley what did you think working here would be like?
A: When I first got here I thought that it will be a lot different from the school I came from because it had a lot of rich kids.(Live Oak) Morgan Hill
Q: Do you think you will work at South Valley for the rest of your coaching career? Why or why not?
A: No because I want to be a college coach.
Q: As for the winnings and championships in the past do you think the wrestling team will keep the tradition alive?
A: I would have too look and hive a good coach.
Q: Which do you like best coaching or teaching?
A: Coaching because it builds a stronger relationship with my team.
Q: If you choose another job, what career would you choose?
A: I will pick on being a lawyer or a professional baseball coach.
Q: Do you think your future family members will choose the same path you did as far as your career choice?
A: maybe, they might see that I have passion form it.
Q: Will you be the head coach of the wrestling team?
Will you be able to coach?
A: If it’s the best choice I’ll hire my self. Yes I will be able to coach.

AVID classes Interview Mrs. Popa

2007-12-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

In our avid class we had a project to interview a teacher Mrs Popa. She is a core teacher here at South Valley Middle School. The group members in the group were RYAN N.,Jeannette C.,Yuri H., and Javier M. Our project was to ask her questions using level 1,2,and 3 questions.

Q:what is your full name?
A:Julia Popa
Q:is this the type of career you wanted when you were a young child if not what was it?
A:no,i wanted to be a vetenarian when i was small child becuase i love animals.
Q:what is it in your job that you dislike about people or students?
A:i dislike people who i have to deal with who dont care to accomplish things.
Q:would you ever want to have a more high standard suffisticate d job something better than a teacher for example a princeiple if yes why?
A:no,i would never want to become a principle,i would get lost in the purpose of school.
Q:if you had to move states and leave Sough Valley Middle School would you s till have your career and have the same job?
A:i would still teachbecause i love teaching.
Q:would you ever give up teaching?A:not now but later on i will retire.
Q:what other types of job would you want to work with?
A:a lawy er.
Q:have you ever had any bad hurtful experience by working here as a teacher?
A:yes one time one of her classes made her cry because they didnt care.The second thing was that 2 of her students brought a knife to school and last was that a student and last was that a student broke her computer.
Q:what is your goal in life that you want to accomplish?
A:i would like to save the world ,for example make a difference in the world or to leave an inprit for people to remember me for something.
Q:what are the colleges youve gone to and what did you earn?
A:ucla.Then straight to santa cuez.There i got my masters degree and 4 years for bachlers.
Q:what other types of subjecys would you teach instead of core?
A:i would teach algebra because i love math and im good at it.
Q:are your family and friends proud of your job if yes why?
A:yes my family and friends are really proud of me and also because someone in my family was a teacher and theirhapp y im following theit foot steps
Q:would you ever want your kids to have the same education you had if yes why?
A:yes i would because i do want my kids to follow my steps and would be happy if they have my career.
Q:did you ever wanted to go to college when you were young?
A:actually it wasnt an option for me it has like you have to go.no,i dont want to go /or i am not going it was always like you have to go to college.

AVID classes Interview Coach Mar

2007-12-11T11:07:00.000-08:00

Interviewing Coach Mar
Jesus M., Vieney C., Herman E., Jose G., and we interviewed Coach Mar on Wednesday November 14th. He told us that he has been working as a teacher for thirty years. We learned about some opinions about his salary and what he is doing after he retires. Here are some other questions and answers from the interview:

1. Q: What is your full name?
A: Francisco Bert Mar.
2. Q: Why did your parents choose that name?
A: Francisco was his dad’s name.
3. Q: Where are you from?
A: San Angelo, Texas.
4. Q: Why are you retiring?
A: It’s time; he wants to take some time with his wife.
5. Q: What are you planning to do after you retire?
A: He is planning to go fishing, relax, and do things that people that are retired do.
6. Q: Is this the career that you always wanted?
A: Yes this is the career that he always wanted, and he is also a Probation Officer.
7. Q: What did you wanted to be when you were a child?
A: He didn’t know, because in his time they didn’t think that far, they did not have that many opportunities.
8. Q: Do you think that your salary is worth what you do?
A: No, it’s not worth it, because “We have the future of America in our hands (students) we go to college for five years to become teachers and then we still take courses for the rest of our life to teach, and yet other people in other fields with less education get paid more.”
9. Q: Why did you choose to be a P.E. teacher?
A: He was good in sports and figured that he can work with kids through sports.
10. Q: How long have you been working as a teacher?
A: He has been working as teacher for 30 years.
11. Q: What sport do you like the most?
A: He loves Tennis, but he played Football, Baseball, Track, Soccer, and he was a state wrestler.
12. Q: How many County titles did you win when you were a child?
A: He won two County titles when he was in Brownell in 1961 and 1962.
13. Q: What Football team do you like the most?
A: He likes the 49ers, but he is a Jeff Garcia fan, so right now he is going for Tampa Bay.
14. Q: What Soccer team do you like the most?
A: He likes Chivas and he used to like the Earthquakes.
15. Q: How many kids do you have?
A: He has two sons; they are 34 and 38 years old.
16. Q: Have you ever worked in the fields?
A: He has been working in the fields since he was seven years old. He picked cotton, prunes, strawberries, apricots, walnuts, tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, and thin sugar beets.

Hey Mrs. Faulkner!

2007-12-11T11:06:00.001-08:00

Did you know we have a POOL at South Valley?

2007-12-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

How cool is that? How many middle schools in California have a swimming pool? We are so lucky here at South Valley and we know it!

Who are those SNAZZY Dressed Teachers?

2007-12-11T10:56:00.001-08:00

Pinhole Pictures we took with OUR OWN CAMERAS!

2007-11-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

Leo's Pictures. Do you see our SV Tiger?

Cesar's Pictures Do you see the face?

All other pictures show by Kelsey, Jackie, Destiny and Desiree 4th period digital Photo. Can you figure out what they took a picture of?

So we made cameras, pinhole cameras. It was a lot of fun. We used 110 film, that Mrs. Woodward bought on ebay. Once we made them, we walked around campus and took various pictures. Some came out, some didn't but all of them were super cool and abstract. See if you can tell what these are. We actually MADE THE CAMERAS we took these with- the body, the aperature, and the shutter, all hand made. Pretty cool huh?

2007-11-13T10:55:00.003-08:00

Conferences!

We had a record turn out for our Conferences this past week!

We had 521 parents attend our conferences; that’s 70 % of our parents!

Thanks SV Parents! You are the best!

Fog in Gilroy This Morning!

2007-11-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

So I couldn't resist taking a few pictures before work this morning. The fog was so cool. It doesn't take much to make a photography happy does it?

Taken over by the old Wal-Mart in Gilroy about 7:30 am this morning 11/05/07. Enjoy :)

The Thriller Dancers

2007-11-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Woodward (below)

Mrs. Weiss, Mrs. Feci, Miss Bowlby and Mrs. Moore. Make sure you are good in class today or you may see one of us like this again. :)

More Teachers Spotted at SV

2007-11-02T11:06:00.001-07:00

Teachers spotted at SV!

2007-11-02T11:01:00.001-07:00

2007-11-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Students in Ms. woodwards class (digital photography) will be making digital works of art with a teacher selected from south valley middle school. There is an example of one to the right.

Cheryl you are SILLY!

2007-10-31T11:24:00.001-07:00

Teachers Having Fun!

2007-10-31T11:22:00.001-07:00

Mrs. Harris, Miss Bowlby and Mrs. Woodward had lots of fun seeing John Mayer!

What were you doing???

2007-10-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

EARTHQUAKE! Oct 30th, 8:04pm

WE ALL FELT IT! 5.6

Mrs. Woodward Loves Teaching!

2007-10-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

Peek into Painting Class II

2007-10-26T11:23:00.001-07:00

A Peek into Painting Class

2007-10-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Painting Class- we are working on landscape pictures. Lots of fun!

2007-10-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to SV for the 2007-2008 School Year! We have lots of fun pictures and stories to share with you!

The first has to be Mr. Perales and Mr. Kapaku getting ready to have pies thrown at them! We have such cool Principals! It was lots of fun.

2007-06-04T11:05:00.002-07:00

this is Jordy he has changed this image

2007-06-04T11:05:00.001-07:00

2007-05-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

The sudents have to add color to a black and white image and talk about Japaneses americans in WW2 this is miguel's image

2007-05-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

This is the Asnel Adams project. the student's have to add color to the image and make it look not like Asnel Adams.

Friends in ninth period

2007-04-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

Jasmine and davina did an extra-credit assignment out of Mrs.Wooward's class assignment.

2007-04-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

Aime has also made 4 of her with a cool background.

2007-04-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Arturo has made four of him in a freaky background. Students had to take a self portrait and make them into works of art. Each student had to make 4 of him or herself! This was a fun project for everyone.

2007-04-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is what the stundent's flowers should look like.

2007-04-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

This is Jessica's work does it look like Mrs. Woodward's ?

2007-04-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Students are working on brushing up skills in Digital Image 10 software.

Mrs. Woodward's students need to change the flower to Mrs. Woodward's flower. lets see if they follow directions.

2007-04-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Alexa is putting stuff that she likes and she has made four of herself. That is freaky!!

What we've been up to!

2007-04-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

Meet the new Ms. Faulkner and Ms. Cameron

Students had to pick a teacher and redesign hairstyles and outfits. We had lots of fun.

Students got to select who they wanted, and change basic features such as hair color, attire and in some cases added a few little tid-bits.

Here are our "New" Staff, Ms. Neely and Mr. K.

We had tons of fun doing this assignment!

Second Semester

2007-01-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

We started second semester with a smooth beginning. Despite loosing a few good students to being a TA's, so far, both digital photography classes seem to be excited about learning photography.

We had homework due today. 1/25. Students were supposed to bring in 5 magazine's (for our elements and principles assignment), and a shoebox. We are going to attempt to make Camera Obscura's.

I've never made them before with shoe boxes, but we are going to give it a try! We'll hopefully then be moving on to making our own cameras! I am in need of 110 film though, and it's beginning to be a bit hard to find. Without a darkroom, it's hard to make a camera with any other film besides the old 110 film. I bought a whole bunch on ebay last year, but this semester it's a little rare. Maybe we'll do partners?

Anyway, I seem to have some great students, and I'm looking forward to a great semester! On a sad note, we'll miss Tanya who moved to San Martin. Good luck Tanya at your new school! Welcome Rocio who moved here from Los Banos! I want to also give a special thank you to my Digital Photography TA's, Devin, Edith and Rose, who have already helped me get the class set up! Thanks you guys for helping everyone type passwords, collect lab fees, set up student folders, and calm frantic "computerly challenged" students down (ha ha).

Oh and if you are reading this and you should be doing your work GET BACK TO WORK.

Until the next time I have a chance to sit and think. . .
~Mrs. Woodward

2007-01-07T16:34:00.001-08:00

This blog has been set up for students to run. The students will have access to this page when they are finished with classwork. Content will be monitored and must relate to current digital photography assignments, ideas, and themes. This gives students a place to publish work, discuss projects and basically just to have fun.