I hope you are having a nice weekend!

I hope you are having a nice weekend!

I wanted to give you more information about your upcoming internship.

Host Family:

We have many families who want to host the scholars and we are sorting
through which family will take which scholar for which semesters. Once we
have that all finalized, we will send you all the details about them. Our
goal is to have you as close as possible to the school so that you can
easily walk or ride a bike to campus each day.

Supervising Teacher:

Melissa Moriarty will be your supervising teacher. She teaches 5th grade at
Hatch and has been a teacher there for many years. She is very experienced
and she is a pleasure to work with. She will meet you on your first day and
give you a tour of the campus and introduce you to the other teachers. She
will help you to establish a schedule for your days and she will give you
feedback on your teaching. She will be your main point of contact while at
school each day.

School Day:

The school hours are from 7:50 am to about 2:30 pm depending on the age
group (the kindergarten students get out earlier). There is a morning recess
where the children play games in the yard. Lunch is from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
and your host family will provide you with lunch which you can bring to
school. We have a teachers' lounge and you can join all the staff as well as
the other amity scholars to eat and talk. From about 2:30 onward, you are
completely free. This is a great time to walk down to the beack or into town
and to simply relax! We will have about 5 amity scholars this year, many
from Spain, so there will be a nice social group for you. Many of the
amities this year got together on the weekends to explore. There is a school
schedule posted to: http://www.cabrillo.k12.ca.us/hatch/faq.htm. Throughout
each day, you will be interacting with many different students, discussing
many different subjects. The teachers will give you guidance on the areas
where they need your help. For example, a teacher might be teaching a
session on writing one morning and after giving the lesson to the class, she
may ask that you sit with students who are struggling to understand the
assignment and help them to work through it.

School Overview:

We have about 580 students from Kinder to 5th grade. Our principal is named
Mark Loos and our office administrator is Josefina Infanzon. As you know, we
have two programs at the school. In Spanish Immersion, the students are
taught in Spanish for the majority of the day with a small amount of English
instruction. We will have 3-4 amity scholars for the Spanish program. In
English, the students are taught in English all day with one 30 minute
Spanish lesson. Yet many of the students are fluent in Spanish as they are
originally from Mexico and they speak Spanish at home with their families.
Those students get an extra English lesson daily instead. For the English
program, we will have two amity scholars. The amity program is new for the
English department and this past year, we've had our first scholar. Mayte
Garcia of Spain is just wrapping up her internship with us and she has been
so wonderful to have! The teachers are so thankful for her efforts. I will
send a separate email to her, introducing you so that you may ask her any
questions you might have about her experiences with us.

Teachers at Hatch:

We have very talented and experienced teachers in our school and we are so
lucky that way! Many of our teachers have been at Hatch for years and some
actually attended Hatch when they were kids! They work very hard and are
very creative in the ways they help the children to learn. Many of our kids
need extra help in the classroom with learning the more complex concepts and
with establishing good habits of completing their homework on time, etc. The
teachers work tirelessly to ensure that the students meet their goals. As a
parent at the school, I have been very impressed with the skills, talent,
and dedication of our teaching staff. The overall teaching philosophy at
Hatch is to really engage the children, to make learning fun, and to
encourage them to share their own ideas. Another important aspect of the
teaching philosophy here is to ensure that the children treat each other
with respect and kindness. Hatch has no tolerance of bullying (name calling,
pushing, hitting, etc.) and this is something that the principal speaks
about often.

Facilities:

Hatch is located close to the downtown in a rather old building! Our middle
school in town (grades 6-8) has recently completed a complete remodel and
looks amazing. But Hatch has not had a remodel and so it does look a bit
tired ;-) But the staff do their best to keep the facilities neat and clean
and thankfully, the school yard is large and the children enjoy the play
equipment out there. Honestly, the kids don't seem to care that the building
is older and in need of some improvements. What's most important to them is
that the teachers are caring and motivating.

Half Moon Bay:

Half Moon Bay is a very diverse town from a cultural and economic
standpoint. We have many families who have come to California from Mexico,
seeking a better life for their families. These families often do not have a
high income but they have a rich cultural life with traditional foods,
music, and church activities. They speak Spanish to their children at home.
They want their children to do well in school and to become fluent in
English. We also have many families who come to this area from other parts
of the US to pursue work opportunities in technology (we are close to
Silicon Valley where companies like Apple are). These families are highly
educated with high incomes. They want their kids to do well academically and
often want their children to learn a second language. Many send their kids
to our Spanish Immersion program to achieve that goal.

Half Moon Bay is a tourist destination with golf courses, beautiful beaches,

Summary:

As the coordinator for the amity scholars in the English program, my job is

We will be in contact throughout the summer, as your arrival date approaches

Don't hestitate to let me know if you have any questions at all! We are

Katja Rimmi