Sonoma State University education professors will work closely with their colleagues from Humboldt State University to lead a nearly $1 million effort to enhance the science, mathematics and history training of more than 12,000 high school students in 16 school districts throughout six northwestern California counties.
Called the Redwood Area Academic Literacy Initiative, the project teams the two universities with Konocti Unified School District to promote and develop specific content and teaching approaches in the three disciplines by working with 120 teachers in the region. The RAALI project will bring teams of teachers together for summer institutes, educational development efforts and research activities.
According to SSU Education Professor Karen Grady, RAALI, though focused on teachers, seeks ultimately to strengthen students' academic achievement in science, mathematics and history.
The four-year project has received $994,032 in federal funds through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It is one of eight initiatives chosen this year by the California Postsecondary Education Commission for the act's Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Program.
Grady said RAALI will offer professional mentoring, new teacher training, innovative collaborations and online communications. Results of research on the program's effectiveness will be shared locally and, through conferences and in publications, more widely.
Co-directing the RAALI project with Grady are project director Jeffrey White and Lower Lake Union High School mathematics teacher Dan Simard in the Konocti Unified School District.
Assisting White and Grady in developing the grant proposal were HSU Associate Dean of Professional Studies Chris Hopper, Assistant Professor of English Nikola Hobbel, and Julie Van Sickle and Andreana Ososki of the HSU-based Redwood Science Project.
In early 2004, CPEC awarded more than $900,000 to support the Northcoast Mathematics and Science Initiative, a similar project designed by White, Hopper and Phyllis Chinn, an HSU mathematics professor.
Through NMSI, a team of educators from HSU, College of the Redwoods, the Sonoma County North Coast Beginning Teacher Project and local schools is boosting the recruitment and training of new teachers to help alleviate a statewide shortage of teachers in mathematics and science.
For further information, visit http://www.humboldt.edu/~rsp.
Sonoma State University music professor Lynne Morrow's work as a chorus master with conductor Kent Nagano in the dramatic recording of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" has been nominated for a Grammy award. The nomination is for Best Choral Performance.
An accomplished mezzo-soprano who began work with the Pacific Mozart Ensemble in 1989 and is now its music director, Morrow was a featured soloist in 2003 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester under Nagano when PME traveled to Berlin to perform and record Bernstein's "Mass" on the Harmonia Mundi label.
A well-known champion of contemporary opera and a student of Leonard Bernstein, Nagano directed the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester with Rundfunkchor Berlin and soloists of the Pacific Mozart Ensemble in this live recording. It was the only second complete recording of the piece ever put to disc. Morrow was also an assistant conductor for the Oakland East Bay Symphony's production of the "Mass" performed in May 2005.
Morrow directs the vocal and opera/music theatre programs at Sonoma State University and lives in Rohnert Park.
She recently returned from a sold-out concert with Meredith Monk at Carnegie Hall in New York with PME. PME was invited to participate in a 40-year retrospective of American contemporary composer Meredith Monk and performed selections from Monk's Opera "Atlas" in the sold-out Zankel Hall show. Sharing the stage for this star-studded occasion was international pop icon Bjork, Bang on a Can All-Stars and many others.
PME has often been the chorus for the Berkeley Symphony during the past ten years, making it possible for Nagano to program important symphonic/choral works that otherwise might have gone unheard in the Bay Area.
Morrow also prepared a small chorus for Nagano and Berkeley Symphony's December premiere of "Bitter Harvest," an oratorio that was workshopped with her Quantum Opera Theatre at Sonoma State.
The recording industry's most prestigious award, the Grammys(R) are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and are awarded by the Recording Academy's voting membership to honor excellence in recordings.
The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006 in Los Angeles.
NOTE: A digital photo of Lynne Morrow is available upon request.
KAFFEESTUNDE - Weekly informal German conversation for those who enjoy the German language, want to brush up on their German skills or would like to learn more about the language. Noon, Tuesday, Dec. 13, Charlie Brown's Cafe, (707) 664-2637.
CAUSERIE - Weekly French conversation hour in the "Salon bleu" of the SSU Student Union. All are invited to attend. Noon, Tuesday, Dec. 13, SSU Student Union, (707) 664-4177.
ARTS AND HUMANITIES FORUM - Professor Leny Strobel of SSU's American Multi-Cultural Studies Department presents "A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan," and Tim Wandling of the SSU English Department presents his lecture "Thomas Cooper and Nineteenth-Century Radical Working Class Poetry." Noon, Thursday, Dec. 15, Schulz 1121, (707) 664-2146.
THE RED PRIEST OF VENICE: THE SACRED MUSIC OF ANTONIO VIVALDI - Concert of Vivaldi music featuring the Santa Rosa Symphony Honor Choir, the Sonoma Baroque Orchestra, Carol Menke, soprano and Christopher Fritzsche, countertenor. Directed by Robert Worth. $12 general admission; $10 faculty, alumni and staff; $8 seniors and students; SSU students admitted free. 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 8400 Old Redwood Hwy, Windsor and 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, Holy Family Episcopal Church, 1500 E. Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park. (707) 664-2353, http://www.sonomachoral.org
THE CAMPUS IS CLOSED DEC. 18 - JAN. 1 FOR WINTER BREAK
KAFFEESTUNDE - Weekly informal German conversation for those who enjoy the German language, want to brush up on their German skills or would like to learn more about the language. Noon, Tuesday, Dec. 6, Charlie Brown's Cafe, (707) 664-2637.
CAUSERIE - French conversation hour in the "Salon bleu" of the Student Union, right next to the first-floor copy center. All are welcome to attend. Noon, Tuesday, Dec. 6, Student Union Blue Room, (707) 664-4177.
MAKING PEACE IN A POST 9/11 WORLD - Lecture by Jason Mark of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Berkeley. War and Peace Lecture Series. 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, Ives 101, (707) 664-2543.
CINEFORUM - The film "Belle Epoque," a story of love, sex, friendship, and the loss of humor at the verge of the Spanish Civil War, will be screened. In Spanish with English subtitles. 7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 7, Stevenson 3082, (707) 664-2351.
BIOLOGY COLLOQUIUM - Lecture by Josh Hull and Dr. Holly Ernest of the Wildlife and Ecology Unit of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis. The topic of this lecture will be "West Nile Virus in Populations of California Hawks and Owls." Noon, Thursday, Dec. 8, Stevenson 1002, (707) 664-2189.
GEOLOGY LECTURE SERIES - Lecture presented by Rolfe C. Erikson, Professor of Geology, SSU (retired). The topic of this lecture will be "A Traveler's Observations on the Volcanoes and Lost Cities of the Central Mexico Highlands." Noon, Thursday, Dec. 8, Stevenson 3065, (707) 664-2334.
FRENCH FILM SERIES - This film "Les Choristes" ("The Chorus") will be screened. In French with English subtitles. 7 p.m.. Thursday, Dec. 8, Stevenson 3030, (707) 664-4177.
THE MORE THE MERRIER - A story about the housing shortage in wartime Washington that prompts a government worker (Jean Arthur) to share her apartment with two men (Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn). Sonoma Film Institute. 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, Warren Auditorium, (707) 664-2606.
