Morality Class Reaches Across the Disciplines

Teaching morality to high school students isn’t easy. So Jack London High School teacher Teryne Dorret jumped at the opportunity to honor her students’ request to create an interdisciplinary study on the subject, featuring poetry, music and other creative approaches.

Social studies students will offer a video and discussion about World War II, and science students have developed a lesson about sharing the world’s natural resources through changes in food consumption habits.

Poetry readings and rap music lyrics will also be fodder for discussion at the Van Nuys school, where presentations will conclude Friday.

TECHNOLOGY

Caught Up in the Web: Darby Elementary School students jumped into the 21st century recently with the implementation of a computer program called Net Meeting, which allows the young Internet users to send and receive voice and video images worldwide.

Former Darby parent Robert Steel, who helped establish the computer lab nearly two years ago, is a frequent volunteer at the Northridge school, where he supervises the students’ progress on the 34 computers that were purchased through PTA funds and family donations.

“The kids go wild for this,” Steel said. “They get to do interactive graphics and learn about geography at the same time.”

Dedication: What better way to remember a fellow student than by expanding knowledge in his name? That’s what the parents, students and staff at Chatsworth Hills Academy decided when they recently installed 22 new computers in the school’s lab, which in January will be rededicated to the memory of 10-year-old Matthew Brandon Kaiser, who died of cancer a year ago.

Donations totaling $60,000 from families, the parent-teacher organization and the general fund paid for the new state-of-the-art computers, with Internet capability.

“We’re proud that we were able to remember Matthew in this way,” said headmaster Michael Silver.

KUDOS

Caps Off: Soka University of America will confer master of arts degrees in second- and foreign-language education to its third graduating class at 3 p.m. today. Many of Soka’s graduates are moving on to teaching posts overseas, including positions in Japan, Russia and China.

END NOTES

Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School families will help feed the hungry by distributing cans of food that are brought to the AMC Theatres in the Promenade at Woodland Hills through Jan. 4. Theater guests receive a free bag of popcorn for every can donated. . . . Deaf and hard-of-hearing students will perform in the second annual American Sign Language Holiday program at 10 a.m. Thursday at Granada Hills High School, 10535 Zelzah Ave.

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Class Notes appears every Wednesday. Send news about schools to the Valley Edition, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to diane.wedner@latimes.com