SANTA ANA : Top <i> Gato</i> Helps Out on Day of Teacher

With a Spanish language reading book on his lap, Rudy M. Castruita, superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District, quizzed kindergartners on how to say estrella , gato and luna in English.

“Star!” yelled one student. “Cat!”

“Moon,” said another.

“Good. Now you can all speak English,” Castruita told them during class on Wednesday.

The superintendent’s visit, during which he acted as a bilingual teacher’s assistant, was part of the district’s recognition of the Day of the Teacher.

For the event, district officials and others took the places of teachers’ aides at 43 schools as a show of appreciation for the work teachers do. Board of Education members Robert W. Balen and Richard C. Hernandez were among the 60 volunteers, which also included district administrators and school business partners. They tutored children, took attendance and helped teach classes throughout the day.

Castruita joined a class of 28 kindergarten and first-grade students at Glenn L. Martin Elementary School and helped their teacher Joan Monterisi conduct reading lessons.

“You need to work hard, to learn,” Castruita, a former high school teacher and coach, told the students as the class began. With a picture book filled with photos of brown bears, he quizzed students in English and in Spanish on words relating to animals, sizes and colors.

During a break, Castruita said the work was more fun than his normal routine, adding, “I love it. I wish I could do this full time.”

Still, he said, teachers have a tough job and helping them out in the classroom “is important because we want to show teachers how much we appreciate them.”

Monterisi said the additional help in the classroom would aid the students as well, offering an important role model who stresses the value of an education.

“Children realize that he was a student at one time and that he learned English and that they can learn English and aspire to be whatever they want to be,” she said.