Artists Get a Date With Calendar

Five San Fernando Valley students will have their artwork published as part of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s 2001 calendar. The work of Michael Nalbandian, a seventh-grader at John Muir Middle School in Burbank, will grace the cover of the agency’s calendar next year showing the importance of water for animals.

Tiffany Colon, a recent graduate of Luther Burbank Middle School and incoming ninth-grader at John Burroughs High School, both in Burbank, will take the November slot with her watercolor and tempura paint depiction of a water drop holding all of God’s creatures.

“I wanted to do something a little different,” said Tiffany, “something with an under-the-surface meaning.”

Other area winners were Kelsey Finn, a fifth-grader at Bay Laurel Elementary School in Calabasas; Nicholas Haney, a first-grader at St. Jude the Apostle in Westlake Village, and Kevin Kawakami, a sixth-grader at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills.

Twenty thousand calendars will be printed and distributed to various schools and water districts throughout the Southern California starting in October.

PROGRAM NOTES

Rockin’ Teacher: Jennelle Sabillo, a second-year math and computer science teacher at Valley Alternative Magnet School in Van Nuys, spent two weeks this summer attending a NASA educational workshop at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base.

Sabillo, of Winnetka, was one of 25 teachers selected to attend the workshop from a national competition among math, science and technology teachers. Students in Sabillo’s classes this year will learn how to design and build their own aircraft, based on Sabillo’s summer learning experience.

“So many kids are used to books and work sheets,” Sabillo said, “but now I’ll have these [types of] activities . . . and that’s the kind of learning they can really get immersed in.”

Sabillo and the group of teachers representing 16 states visited NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and Lockheed Martin and Boeing in Palmdale, where they got a close-up look at the Space Shuttle Columbia and a new breed of space shuttle, Sabillo said.

NASA education workshops are open to kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers to enhance classroom study.

Teachers meet with pilots, scientists, engineers and other professionals.

For information on the NASA Educational Workshop program, visit https://education.nasa.gov/NEW.

Applications for next summer’s program will be due in February.

KUDOS

Emmy Winner: Alan Sacks, assistant professor of broadcasting at Valley College, has won an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program for a film titled “The Color of Friendship.”

The film, which took Sacks 11 years to make, is based on a true story of black retired Rep. Ron Dellums’ (D-Berkeley) experience hosting a white South African exchange student in his home.

Sacks, who was the film’s executive producer, accepted the award Aug. 26 in a preliminary awards ceremony.

No. 1 Teacher: Paul Kass, a fifth-year math teacher at Placerita Junior High School in Santa Clarita, has been named 2001 William S. Hart Union High School District teacher of the year.

Among Kass’ teaching duties, the 29-year-old is responsible for “Placerita Challenge,” a weekly student-produced cable television program testing students on curriculum.

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.