Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1437090
"I grew up in nearby Fresno and have always had a love of reading," says Bustos-Pelayo. "But I didn't read a book by a Latino author until my senior year of high school. A teacher gave us a list of books to choose from, and I saw a Hispanic name — Isabel Allende — author of The House of the Spirits. After that I bought all her books because I connected so much with this eccentric character with curly long hair and a sense of magical surrealism." She attended Merrill College at UC Santa Cruz, and discovered she had a passion for Spanish literature. "I decided that I wanted to become a teacher that students could relate to, and that I wanted my stu- dents to love books as much as I do. I am constantly going to book fairs and even went to a book fair in Spain to find excellent Spanish literature." Reading, she believes, has changed with the Accel- erated Reader and other programs that give students "points" for books rather than fostering a love of read- ing. Book reports and testing students on books can sometimes result in the opposite of engagement and reading for pleasure. Students in her book club are reading for fun, and they have shown a marked improvement in reading. At the end of the academic year in 2019, many had increased their reading ability, and some improved by an entire grade level. "Oh my gosh, I was shocked," she says. "I asked students why their reading levels had jumped, and they said it was the book club. It just shows that finding books that truly engage students makes all the difference." A few students from Bustos-Pelayo's book club. "My job is to make sure our kiddos have the best learning environment and that teachers can concentrate on teaching." LOREN PARCK: Crucial Work Behind the Scenes T E AC H E R S I N R E D L A N D S U N I F I E D S C H O O L D I S T R I C T M AY N OT K N OW I T, B U T LO R E N PA R C K I S M A K I N G S U R E T H E I R C L AS S R O O M S A N D S C H O O L B U I L D I N G S A R E CO M F O R TA B L E A N D W E L L M A I N TA I N E D S O T H E Y CA N T E AC H I N A P L E ASA N T E N V I R O N M E N T. Parck is the maintenance and operations technician for the district's 25 school campuses and works in the district's Service Center with the maintenance depart- ment. She was recognized by her district in 2021 for being an "outstanding school employee who sees the big picture and is an integral agent of change and improvement, who prioritizes a myriad of needs to the right people in the right place at the right time." "My job is to make sure our kiddos have the best learning environment," says Parck, a member of Red- lands Education Support Professionals Association. "It's also to make sure that teachers don't have to even think about things that I take care of, so they can concentrate on teaching." 27 D E C E M B E R 2 0 21 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 2