My amazing seniors reciting poetry on an outdoor stage! Thanks Mrs. Ayers for bringing her class to listen to them. It was AWESOME to have them listen to my students recite poems. So much fun! 

My last week has shown its staying power. This week began with another amazing incident. Two weeks prior to the CAHSEE testing, my 10th graders and I read Night by Elie Wiesel. Since I had to teach a business letter unit, I decided to have my all of my 10th graders to write a business letter to Dr. Elie Wiesel. I had them "fix" any errors they made in terms of their formatting and taught them how to address the envelope. For some, it was a slowly painful process of writing and rewriting over and over again. I finally sent over 140 letters in a box. 

And yesterday in my mail box at school, this letter appeared! A letter by Elie Wiesel himself! Imagine my delight! So I made copies for every single one of my 10th graders. They were so excited to get the letter. 

This week has been so very exciting. All week long, my students and I enjoyed our "15 minutes of fame" for being on both channel 23 and channel 17. 

Then I just found out that 4 of my seniors were accepted to UCLA. Seeing what people say about who got into UCLA for this year, I am BEYOND excited for them!!!!! 

Needless to say, I feel so fortunate to have these seniors who are so caring and loving beyond description! And my wonderful 10th graders. It is true that some of them are not as mature as my seniors yet, but they are simply the sweetest group of students I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. This has been one of the best years of my teaching career because everything seems to just flow together. I couldn't ask for a better school, better colleagues, and most importantly, a better group of students. But then again, I felt that way about my students at Arvin. I suppose it's because I was meant to be teacher. It sure beats selling shoes for now! :)

Today was such an exciting day! My students were interviewed by two separate TV stations. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here we go! Curtis Valencia with channel 23 / Kaelyn DeLeon and Ethan Cantrell with channel 17. They were discussing how they came to create music videos that received over a thousand hits. Amazing students I have. I am so very proud of them! :)

This year, I have been working with my students to advocate for themselves. This is an example of that. I am so very proud of my students!

Hello,

My name is Kaelyn De Leon and I am a senior at Independence High School. I wanted to share this story about how my AP English Literature class is advocating learning in an unorthodox way. After hearing the song by Bruno Mars and Snoop Dog called "Young, Wild, and Free," which glorifies getting high and drunk to young people, primarily a teenage demographic, my teacher, Mrs. Kip Glazer decided that it would be an interesting idea to rewrite the lyrics to this popular song and create our own music video that promoted learning and studying in schools. It has already become a hit among our peers and faculty at our school and now we would like to share this with the community. We want people to know that we are taking what would be considered an "inappropriate" song and turning it into something with a whole new look on things for students. I hope you can help us get it out there as something fun that our class did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbITQAGfOl4&list=UUgCNLbDb3v3QkqG-BDnjOfg&index=2&feature=plcp

Thank you,

Kaelyn De Leon

As a result of this email, my students are about to be interviewed by a TV station. Yeah!

My students' video made it onto The Bakersfield Californian. I am so proud of them! 

http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/local/bakosphere/x153380005/Independence-has-some-fun-nerd-style?utm_source=widget_64&utm_medium=latest_entries_widget&utm_campaign=synapse 

It's that time of the year. My 10th graders will be taking the CHASEE today. It has been an interesting year, and I hope that my students do well. We have been working hard to be prepared for it, and I feel ready. So here is my game plan. I have already informed them that I will be giving away a bunch of candies in the morning before the test. And we are going to w

Today I was very edgy during 6th period. I know these students are teenagers, and they are not as mature as I want them to be. But sometimes I forget! And the CAHSEE is on next Tuesday. I guess they are acting up, and I don't have as much patience - well, I usually don't have much to begin with - because I am also "stressed" about the test. 

I simply can't wait for the CAHSEE to be over! Crossing my fingers for my wonderful students.

My students have been presenting to class this past year. And when I saw the video that my students made on The Stranger, I realized how much they have improved. It was so satisfying to see how much my students have embraced what we are doing in class. I have always been proud of my students, but this year I have been extra proud of my students. I realized that I have always had great students, but now I can appreciate them more because I am getting older and perhaps wiser. It is wonderful to be reminded of how lucky I am as a teacher. I am blessed to have so many wonderful students in my classes.