Friday, Apr. 09, 2010
Teacher honored for ag programs at Miano
Family garden gives de Alba Teacher of the Year for county
By Samantha Salas / ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com
Print
E-Mail
AIM
Reprint"I don't do it for the recognition," Sergio de Alba, a fourth-grade teacher at R.M. Miano Elementary School, said. "I love what I do. I enjoy myself every day."
De Alba has implemented nearly 20 different programs at Miano since he started teaching there in 2001. One program, Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Learning Garden, has earned him a title he said he never expected.
The California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom chose de Alba as its 2010 Literacy for Life award recipient for his efforts with Miano's garden program. De Alba was awarded the title in Sacramento on March 25.
De Alba said he was chosen over other teachers statewide implementing ag programs on campus.
"The quality of our program is very high," de Alba said. "A lot of aspects of agriculture are covered. And all students -- from kindergarten to intermediate grades -- are involved.
"I can see how they benefit from it, as well as how much they appreciate it," he said.
Wednesdays are a special day for his fourth-grade students. They visit the garden and help with maintenance or various planting projects each week.
"It's something they will always remember," he said.
De Alba makes sure each class he teaches and implements a new program with gets some recognition, whether it be hand-prints in a new slab of concrete or signing their names on a new planter box.
"They leave their mark. They're always going to be a part of this school," he said.
De Alba said one of his methods of teaching comes from having high expectations of his students. He understands all have different needs and learning capabilities, and his programs revolve around each individual student.
"They learn each others' strengths and weaknesses, learn from each other and teach their strengths to each other," he said. "We also treat each other like family. We wouldn't be able to be successful if we didn't work together to improve everyone."
Being able to connect the different focuses of his programs in with lesson plans in the classroom is what de Alba said is most valuable to his students.
His family garden project is a major tool in that.
"When I got here in 2001, a student told me he missed the gardens at his old school. And I grew up around gardens, so I thought we should have one at Miano," de Alba said.
Before planting and construction began in his first year, de Alba was able to raise more than $30,000 from donations and fundraisers. The garden is 3,800 square feet and something the original fourth- and fifth-grade student-builders and planters come back and visit every year.
"I see all these empty lots and think there are so much we can do with them," de Alba said of his continuing dedication to build ag projects throughout campus.
The family garden is just one. There are pumpkin patch and fern gully projects with Japanese, aloe, agave and paradise gardens set to come within the next year.
"I want to fill these lots to enrich the education of our students," he said. "The students see all these things in their books. Now they can really understand them, be a part of the experience."
Especially for the pumpkin patch, which is for the first-graders, de Alba said he enjoys the students' excitement for learning more about science.
"It does take a lot of energy," he said of the programs. "It takes the support and participation of all the teachers."
De Alba said after substitute teaching at Charleston Elementary School, he was very impressed with the school's own garden facility.
"I'm sure they're very proud of it. It's beautiful," he said, appreciating the common goal both schools share in educating each student in other ways.
De Alba plans to represent California at the Agriculture in the Classroom National Conference in June in Baltimore. Because of his award, De Alba has been honored as California's spokesperson for the federation for 2010.
Enterprise reporter Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com