Pierce College News

Central Washington University’s Theatre Ensemble will make a special appearance at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom with an all-ages performance of “The Adventures of Don Quixote” by Steven Fogell, based on the classic novel by Cervantes.

The free performance will be at 3:30 p.m. May 13 in the Health Education Center, Room 302, at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, 9401 Farwest Drive SW, Lakewood.

The show is funny, perfect for children of all ages, and lasts about an hour. This adaptation of the Cervantes novel emphasizes the message that love, courage, and creativity are the only tools necessary to finding our own destiny.

The Central Washington troupe is performing as part of a statewide tour through the end of the spring quarter.

The Pierce College District will showcase its efforts to promote environmental stewardship and education at the Livable Communities Fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 17 at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall.

Parking and admission are free, but organizers are requesting fair attendees each bring canned food items to donate. All food will be donated to the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

The Pierce College booth will highlight the work of college faculty and staff in developing academic and worker training programs that promote greater environmental responsibility.

For example, representatives from the construction management program will be sharing information on their shift towards responsible green building, while highlighting the college’s own first example of this new trend in building, the Health Education Center that opened last fall at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom.

In addition, representatives from the early childhood education program will be demonstrating how environmental awareness is being taught to very young children.

Joining Pierce College at the Livable Communities Fair will be more than 150 interactive booths, workshops, and speakers that provide resources and information aimed at improving the community’s overall quality of life. This year’s theme is “Changing the World One Fair at a Time” and incorporates such efforts as recycling, low impact development, affordable housing, roads and transit, emergency preparedness, public safety, the environment, recreation, and more.

For more information on the fair, visit www.livablepiercecounty.org.

TACOMA —Pierce College’s Student Literary Arts Magazine (SLAM) has celebrated the many and varied voices of student writers for the last decade. On May 7, Pierce’s theater department will make those voices ring from the rafters with a one-night performance of “SLAM Slam: Pierce College Theater Acts Up SLAM’s First Decade.”

The free performance will be at 7 p.m. May 7 at Pour at Four, 3814 N. 26th St., Tacoma. The show lasts about an hour and a half. The public is encouraged to attend.

About 30 performers, a mix of student actors, faculty and staff, will perform live readings from each of SLAM’s 10 years in print. The readings are an all-encompassing mix of student poetry, short stories and nonfiction, said Patrick Daugherty, director and theater instructor.

“We really wanted to do something creative and a little different for our spring production,” he said. “Working with SLAM and being able to celebrate the written word in this way is such a unique experience. SLAM pretty much hits all areas of emotion. There’s humor, there’s drama, there’s tragedy. We have everything in this show.”

With its warm, intimate atmosphere, Pour at Four in Tacoma’s Proctor District provides the perfect setting for this celebration of the original writings that have made the annual SLAM publication an enormous success for Pierce College.

For more information on Wednesday’s performance or on Pierce College’s theater department, call (253) 964-6683 or visit the college Web site at www.pierce.ctc.edu.

With their small class sizes, vast networks of parent support, and skilled instructors, Pierce College’s six cooperative preschools can make the tough job of parenting a whole lot easier.

The preschools are now enrolling for fall classes at all locations. Because the classes are capped at 16 students each (the ratio of children per adult is 4:1), interested parents are encouraged to reserve their child’s spot immediately. Orientation sessions typically begin after Labor Day in September, with classes starting in mid-September.

The six parent-run schools are operated by a parent board and overseen by Pierce College, which provides each school a highly-skilled instructor to advise the board, oversee the curriculum and school environment, and teach monthly parenting classes. These classes cover a wide range of important topics, such as nutrition, guidance, and child development.

Since parents are such a critical part of the education provided, they learn firsthand how best to teach and care for their child, while building a large support network of other parents facing the same joys and struggles.

“The parent education instructor and other parents in the school provide parents a network of resources and support,” explained Michelle Barnes, Pierce College’s parent education coordinator. “At the same time, children are working in a developmentally appropriate preschool, exploring their world and developing emotionally, socially, cognitively and physically. Each environment is designed to capture the child’s interest and help the development in each domain.”

Pierce College’s parent co-op preschools have been operating for about 35 years and have provided critical support and care to thousands of families in Pierce County.

Schools are located in Puyallup, Sumner, Lakewood, Orting and Eatonville. Hours, ages and costs vary per school. See the list below for more detailed information on each school, its location and hours.

• Eatonville Cooperative Preschool, 210 Fir Ave. N., Eatonville. Morning sessions are available for 4- and 5-year-olds from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Afternoon sessions for 4- and 5-year-olds are available from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Classes for 3-year-olds are from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information, call (360) 832-4966.

• Fort Steilacoom Parent Education Cooperative, Pierce College Fort Steilacoom, 9401 Farwest Drive S.W., Lakewood. Children ages 18 months to 3 years have classes from 9 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday mornings. Children ages 3 to 5 have classes from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information, call (253) 964-6691.

• Midland Parent Education Preschool, St. John of the Woods Catholic Church, 9903 24th Ave. E., Puyallup. Children ages 2 and 3 years have class either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Children ages 1 to 2 years have class either Thursday or Friday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. For more information, call (253) 840-8445.

• Orting Cooperative Preschool, Orting Methodist Church, 113 Varner Ave. S.E., Orting. Children ages 3 to 5 years have classes from 9:15 to 11:15 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. For more information, call (360) 893-3441.

• South Hill Cooperative Preschool, Living Hope Church, 11618 E. 122nd St., Puyallup. Children ages 4 and 5 years can attend morning classes from 9:30 to 11:30 or afternoon classes from 12:30 to 2:30 Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Three-year-olds can attend morning classes from 9:30 to 11:30 or afternoon classes from 12:30 to 2:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information, call (253) 435-1740.

• Sumner Cooperative Preschool, Christ the King Lutheran Church, 245 Valley Ave., Sumner. Children ages 4 and 5 have classes from 9:45 to 11:45 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Three-year-olds have classes from 9:45 to 11:45 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information, call (253) 862-2174.

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As with any tough decision, choosing a career is easier when we know all of the options. Luckily, Pierce College is helping lay out all of the possibilities at its two Employment and Education Fairs next month.

Pierce College Puyallup will host its Employment and Education Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m May 7 in the College Center building, 1601 39th Ave. SE.

Pierce College Fort Steilacoom will host its Employment and Education Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 14 in the Health Education Center gymnasium, 9401 Farwest Drive SW, Lakewood.

The fairs are open and free to the public. They provide a great opportunity to break into a new career, advance in your current field, or learn about exciting professional and technical training programs that can help you realize your own possibilities.

“Most people treat a job search like throwing out a net to see what comes back, just hoping they will find any job,” explained Danny Marshall, Job Connections manager for the Pierce College District. “In reality, a job search is a two-way street, with both the employer and the employee reaching out to locate the best answer to meet their mutual needs. At the Employment and Education Fairs, we create an intersection to bring the employer and the employee together at the same place and time. So, when the net goes out, chances are it will come back full of potential.”

More than 40 employers are expected to attend the fairs. These include: Absher Construction, Adecco, Advanced Health Care, Army National Guard, CampusPoint, Costco, DaVita Inc, Express Employment Professionals, Fed Ex, Franciscan Health System, Fred Meyer, Gensco, Goodwill Industries, Harborstone Credit Union, Lakewood Fire District No. 2, Madigan Army Medical Center, Maxim Healthcare Services, Multicare Health System, Nordstrom, Northwest Leadership Foundation, PACE Staffing Network, Phoenix Protective Corporation, Rainier School, Safeway, Site Crafting Inc, Social Security Administration, Sound Options Inc, Sound Family Medicine, Tacoma Police Department, Target, United States Army and Navy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration, Volt Workforce Solutions, Washington State Department of Personnel, Department of Corrections and Department of Information Systems, and Washington Air National Guard.

“We will have real employers who represent real jobs they want real people to fill,” added Marshall, noting that attendees of the fair are strongly encouraged to bring copies of their resumes and to dress in interview-appropriate attire.

Also, from 10 a.m. to noon, employers representing eight areas of business and industry will participate in the Expert Employer Roundtables to provide potential employees inside information on how to increase their odds for getting hired and promoted, and build long-term career satisfaction in high-demand fields locally and across the nation.

For more information on the fairs or any of Pierce College’s many career training options, call (253) 964-6265. Or, visit the college Web site at www.pierce.ctc.edu.

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English instructor Denise Hartley will spend the next year exploring a part of human society that crosses all boundaries of time and culture: storytelling.

Hartley is one of two Pierce faculty members selected to take a year-long sabbatical from 2008-09. She has been teaching English at Pierce College for 11 years. This will be her first sabbatical in her career and she plans to make the most of it.

Hartley will spend her time deepening her connections to local and specific global storytelling communities over the course of the next year. Her major trip will be to Ghana (located on the underside of the hump on the top west side of Africa) in December.

“Ghana is an English speaking country and it’s very important if I’m going to be hearing and telling stories that we speak the same language,” Hartley explained with a laugh. “Ghana is also the oldest democracy in Africa and the government is very stable.”

Hartley will spend a month in Ghana living with residents and getting close to the people and culture. It will be her first trip to Africa, she said.

“Storytelling is such a big part of the culture,” she added. “The traditional African storyteller tells the moral at the end, which is different from a lot of other countries where the moral is at the front or not in the story at all.”

She expects her experiences in Africa and at several American storytelling and film festivals over the course of the next year will enrich her ability to connect with and educate her students at Pierce. After all, she knows firsthand how a storyteller can impact a young life. It’s a lesson she learned at age 12 when her favorite junior high English teacher formed a Storytelling Club. While the club consisted solely of Hartley and one other student, she was able to travel to local elementary schools (Hartley was raised around Berkely, Calif.) and share stories with other children.

Though she was engaged in other interests as a teenager, Hartley said she rediscovered storytelling in college as a creative writing student. She was fascinated by the relationship between written and verbal stories.

“There’s an immediate audience reaction when you’re working in the oral tradition,” she said. “It’s something you don’t get when you’re writing. It’s interesting.”

Hartley believes the universal human interest in storytelling is biological. We all love and remember stories because of how our minds are organized and structured.

“No matter what you teach students, what they really remember are the stories,” she said. “I think it’s the way our brains work. There’s a beginning and an end, and it says something in a very organic way. I think our minds are structured that way.”

Though she admits she will miss teaching next year, Hartley said it’s a good time for her to take a sabbatical.

“I want to come back with more stories and with better ways to incorporate those stories into the classroom,” she said.

Though she will be officially gone for 2008-09, those at the Fort Steilacoom campus should still expect to see Hartley’s face from time to time. She will still be coordinating the English department during her sabbatical.

Sharon Camner has been teaching math to teenagers and adults for more than 20 years (the last 10 at Pierce College), but for the 2008-09 academic year, Sharon will devote herself full-time to improving the math-teaching skills of preschool teachers.

Camner was one of two faculty members offered a sabbatical for the 2008-09 academic year. This will be Camner’s first sabbatical in her long teaching career.

For nearly a year, Camner has been working with the Early Childhood Education program to develop a math course for Pierce students training to become preschool teachers. Prior to winter quarter, students in this program were required to take a business math course to meet their computational requirements. While the course was helpful for students who might someday open their own preschool, it did nothing to help the future teachers more effectively educate their young students.

So, last fall, Camner and others set about designing a math curriculum catered to future preschool teachers. The project was part of the Early Childhood Education department’s work on a state grant to improve the math and science preparation of ECE students. She searched for textbooks and teaching materials, but found nothing for teachers of preschool-age children.

“There is nothing appropriate for preschool teachers. Elementary education texts are available, but they don’t work well for students who plan to teach younger children,” she explained. “It’s a continuum. Preschool sets the foundation and works with different developmental levels.”

For example, before a child can learn to count, they must learn the names and order of the numbers, and to recognize that numbers have a one to one correspondence with objects.

“There are a lot of basic concepts that underlie math,” Camner said. “These are very subtle, but they’re concepts that are started in preschool.”

The course is special, she said, in that it’s very hands-on, which is unlike traditional computational courses. It must also be accessible to students who may have struggled with math in the past.

“The course is very activity-oriented. At least half of each class is group work,” Camner explained. “Another goal of the course is to create an environment where students can appreciate math and feel more comfortable. We want to help them get rid of their math anxiety, which many of these students have.”

Over the next year, Camner will build upon the teaching materials she’s already developed for the new preschool educators’ math course (ECE 161) and write a textbook on the subject, one she anticipates will be critical not only in helping improve Pierce’s course, but will be used in other similar programs.

“This is a new idea everywhere,” she said. “It gives Pierce College a chance to help others and to lead the way.”

Her work developing this new curriculum will include numerous site visits to different styles of preschools, including private and Montessori centers, Head Start programs, and to Pierce’s own child development centers for research. Already, Camner is extremely excited to start her work, she said.

“I can be passionate about this,” she said, noting that she always planned to become a preschool teacher when she retired in eight to 10 years. “Then, this came up last summer and it all came together very clearly. I’m very grateful for the support I’ve had for this sabbatical.”