THE STUFF TEACHERS OF YEAR ARE MADE OF IN CLASS, KIDS FIRST, DISABILITIES SECOND.Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer LANCASTER -- Colleagues say Antelope Valley High School Antelope Valley High School is located in Lancaster, California and is part of the Antelope Valley Union High School District. It was founded in 1912[1]. It is located in the Mojave Desert. special education teacher Kathleen Astourian has a passion for teaching, motivates her students to learn, and serves as a mentor for fellow teachers and staff. Astourian has developed specialized programs for her students, works on their weaknesses and encourages their strengths, and sets their goals high enough so they are adequately challenged while remaining cognizant of their abilities. Astourian, who has worked five years in the Antelope Valley Union High School District The Antelope Valley Union High School District (A.V.U.H.S.D.) is located in the Antelope Valley area of California, in northern Los Angeles County. The district includes eight public high schools, one trade school, and two continuation high schools in the cities of Palmdale and teaches students with moderate to severe disabilities, was named the district's 2006 Teacher of the Year on Monday at the district's employee recognition ceremony at the Essex House Essex House can refer to:
1. . ``I think what I enjoy most are my students and them seeing their achievement,'' said Astourian, 28. ``I love them and knowing they will be members of society like everyone else.'' A graduate of Quartz Hill High School Quartz Hill High School is a public, co-educational high school located in Lancaster, California. Founded in 1964, it is the third oldest comprehensive high school in the Antelope Valley High School District (AVHSD). , Astourian is the daughter of a Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. aeronautical engineer Noun 1. aeronautical engineer - an engineer concerned with the design and construction of aircraft applied scientist, engineer, technologist - a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and a mother who worked in accounting and then stayed home when she entered high school. Astourian obtained her bachelor's degree in liberal arts liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. studies with emphasis on special education from San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU), founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area (generally the City and County of San Diego), and is part of the California State University system. . She received a master's degree in special education from California State University, Bakersfield As of fall 2002, some 7,700 undergraduate and graduate students attended CSUB, at either the main campus in Bakersfield or the satellite campus, Antelope Valley Center in Lancaster, California of Los Angeles County. . Astourian said she had intended to become an elementary school teacher but changed her mind after working as an aide at a private special education school while in college. ``That's where I found my love for special education students. My heart went, `This is where I want to be,''' Astourian said. ``A small stride for them, what we would equate to a degree, to them is monumental. That was exciting to me that I had a part in achieving that.'' At the employee ceremony, Astourian was described as abiding by the special education adage of ``students first, disability second'' and balancing fun with learning. ``She's just fabulous,'' said Mary Allen, one of Astourian's instructional aides. ``She's very calm. Everything that happens in the classroom she relates to life. She transitions kids to college. We take them out to work.'' Allen added, ``Her room is the first room where I heard a kid say, `inappropriate.' They knew what it meant.'' Another aide, Karla Smallwood, said, ``She raises that bar, and they come up to it.'' Astourian lives in Littlerock with her husband, Eric, and their two children, a 7-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com (661) 267-5744 CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) Colleagues say Antelope Valley High School special education teacher Kathleen Astourian -- the district's Teacher of the Year -- is a mentor to others and has a passion for the job. (3) ``I think what I enjoy most are my students and them seeing their achievement,'' says teacher Kathleen Astourian. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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