Alhambra Teacher Missed Top Award but Savors the Honors

Norma Mota-Altman, a sixth-grade teacher at Emery Park Elementary School in Alhambra, was one of eight semifinalists for the 1990 California Teacher of the Year Awards.

Although Mota-Altman, 37, lost out to the winner, Janice T. Gabay of Junipero Serra High School in San Diego, she said she felt honored. She was the only semifinalist among San Gabriel Valley teachers.

Mota-Altman says she strives to instill critical thinking and self-esteem in her students. She also encourages students “to appreciate our differences and learn from them, rather than fear each other.”

Mota-Altman, who grew up in East Los Angeles, came to teaching accidentally. She had wanted to be a United Nations interpreter, and earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from UC Irvine. She then went to Mexico, where she supported herself by teaching English.

But Mota-Altman was so touched by her students that she decided to go into teaching. So she went back to school and earned a master’s degree in education from San Francisco State.

Mota-Altman encourages her students to relate classroom lessons to real-life issues. “They’re encouraged to offer opinions about what’s presented in class and the world, and to come up with solutions,” she said.

While teaching science, for instance, Mota-Altman explained the word ecosystem. Then, when the Alaskan oil spill occurred, she asked her students what they thought of the disaster.

“The students told me it was a bad thing, because the spill was destroying the food chain and ruining it for all of us,” Mota-Altman said. “It was great; they were taking what we had learned in class and relating it to the real world.”

Hands-On Learning Program in S. Pasadena Wins Applause

The South Pasadena Unified School District has won a statewide award for a science program that specializes in hands-on learning.

“Hands-On Science,” a program at all three elementary schools in South Pasadena, received first place in the Golden Bell Awards competition of the California School Boards Foundation.

Students in the program use fiber-optics to guide light, change variables in solar panels to attain maximum solar energy, and experiment with gears and pulleys.

The Hands-On program provides experience to 1,380 students, and is funded by the South Pasadena Educational Foundation and local PTAs.

South Pasadena was one of 25 first-place winners chosen from nearly 325 entries in the competition. The awards will be presented at the California School Boards Foundation annual conference Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. at the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose.

CSBA is a nonprofit association representing more than 5,000 elected school board members in California.