Andrea Yocum - Kindergarten and First Grade
Andrea Yocum earned both her state teaching credential and a master’s degree in education from UC Davis. Having spent a year working on an organic farm in Grass Valley, YESCA’s environmental connection has a special meaning for her. Even before the YESCA garden beds were constructed, Andrea’s students could be seen working in two 3’x10’ raised beds in the children’s play yard raising tomatoes, chard, cucumbers, sunflowers, and zinnias. The little garden became part of the K-1 science curriculum.
“It’s a complete and utter joy to be with kids. You see them gain skills for life. To help kids solve problems and grow, every day, brings a deep satisfaction.”
Andrea appreciates the flexibility of charter school status. She says she “loved the first year’s spontaneity” and finds life at YESCA “challenging, inspiring, and meaningful. We’re trailblazing.”
Constance Murtaugh - Second Grade and Third Grade
Known far and wide as “Ms. M,” Constance Murtaugh has been teaching for 27 years, the last 18 in the lower primary grades. Raised in Salem, Massachusetts, she earned her credential at Salem State College and this past summer received her M.A. degree in “Instructional Strategies” at the University of New England.
Ms. M has strong philosophical convictions about the environmental emphasis at YESCA: “To see that everything has its place and belonging is a foundation for respecting the planet we live on and the communities we live in. We’re all in the same galaxy and the same solar system and the same planet.” Well before YESCA began its school garden, Ms. M’s students were digging in the dirt in two raised beds just outside her classroom door, raising herbs and vegetables. Almost daily, she and her students are out for nature walks on YESCA’s ten-acre campus.
Ms. M likes the diversity of faculty at the charter school. She notes that along with a wide range of knowledge and skills, faculty members have an overall exuberance for teaching and the ability to “think outside the box.” She says, “Bringing these varied focuses together, they become a cohesive outlook for our teaching, like a circle.”
Tara Taber - Fourth Grade and Fifth Grade
Tara Taber earned her “Liberal Studies” degree and teaching credential at California State University, Chico. She was originally employed as a “swing teacher” for YESCA’s lower primary grades, but was forced into action as the fourth and fifth grade teacher when a family emergency called the original teacher away. “I was a brand new teacher at a brand new school,” she says. “It was tough—I had to give it all or nothing.” Now in her second year, she loves her teaching assignment: “Who could complain about hanging out with kids all day? Even on our toughest days, they’re still fun.”
Tara appreciates the flexibility of a charter school: “We’re able to teach kids who have trouble keeping up with curriculum schedules. We can make some choices even though we follow the district’s curriculum.” Enthusiastic about the school’s emphasis on the environment, Tara is well known for her insistence on recycling, including even the paper her students use for homework assignments. “Environment means ‘our world.’ My focus is to get the environment into the curriculum—I’m always showing students how what we study relates to the environment.”
Asked for a closing thought on her first two years of teaching, she said: “I love working with children—all day long they’re in a safe place where they can learn. I love watching my students learn.”
Stephen Tassone - Sixth Grade, Seventh Grade, and Eighth Grade
YESCA’s specialist in math and science is a veteran teacher with thirty-three years of experience. Until joining the YESCA staff, he had spent his entire career at St. Mary’s Academy in Grass Valley where declining enrollment and severe salary cuts finally caused him to seek a new position.
Known to everyone as “Mr. T,” Stephen finds teaching junior high school level “exciting and challenging.” He likes the stimulation of older children: “I like the searching; they need input and guidance—they want independence but need structure. I like making a difference in kids’ lives.”
Since Mr. T teaches science, his subject matter is closely tied to the school’s emphasis on the environment. Along with the required state curriculum in science, his students have worked on the school’s garden project, studied weather issues, and learned the uses of earth material. He is developing a project on pond life and the use of the school’s ten rural acres to study local plants.
Mr. T. says the school’s strengths include “openness to new ideas, our committed faculty, and our ten acres that give us room to roam.”
Nancy Northrup - Sixth Grade, Seventh Grade, and Eighth Grade
Not content with a B.A. in Political Science from U.C. Davis and a teaching credential from California State University, Sacramento, Nancy Northrup also completed a law degree at Northwestern University.
Her passion is teaching middle school: “I’ve always felt that middle school students are the most feared by teachers. But if you can get their energies focused and working with you, you can climb mountains. You have to help them feel like they can make their own decisions. You need a good sense of humor, and students need to feel that you’re in it because you want to be there.”
Nancy says that she learned the importance of environmental science in the school curriculum while administering a grant for “biodiesel” fuel development at American River College: “Teachers need to learn about the power of knowledge generated by integrating environmental science into the curriculum.” Her students read Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath this year, and learned about the farming methods that created the “dust bowl” of the 1930’s. Every school day begins with a discussion and an assigned summary of an article on the environment.
She is excited about working at YESCA: “I love being in a small school, with intimate concern for each student by the entire faculty. Our faculty is like a family. We pitch in and help each other throughout the day. We face challenges as a group—we’re all there to help deal with problems.”
Margaret Campbell - Special Assistant
Margaret Campbell earned a B.A. in Social Science and a vocational teaching credential at California State University, Chico. At this writing, she is completing work for her M.S. degree in Education Media Design and Technology. As YESCA’s “special assistant,” she wears numerous hats, presently including coordinator for the school technology program, supervisor of the after school program, and member of the school grant writing and promotion team.
Margaret believes the future of education is tied to the use of education technology. “It’s the future of education for rural areas because it creates more time for engagement in nature—a lesson on line can be accomplished in a half hour instead of ninety minutes. It creates a totally individualized way of studying.”
Regarding student life at YESCA, she says, “The children are great. They feel safe to be themselves—they don’t have to be cool. We make an extra effort to let them have a genuine experience. You reward mature behavior. We’re focused on the individual.” She calls the faculty “life-experienced” and says, “We respect each other.”
Asked about YESCA’s emphasis on the environment, Margaret says, “We’re sitting in the middle of a nature preserve. Lots of people never notice woodpecker holes, worm castings, butterfly cocoons or the deer skeleton students discovered the other day. The environment teaches kids the love of discovery.”
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