Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show November 15 2012

On Thursday November 14, the Los Altos Rotarians gathered a day before the Club would bid a final farewell to BOO BUE, who left us suddenly last week.  Rotarians gathering for our weekly meeting were greeted by PP SAM PESNER, LINA BROYDO, and late fill-in, GARY BROWN.  President JOHN SYLVESTER chimed the meeting to order promptly at 12:15.
 
President JOHN called on Past President AL TRAFICANTI to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
RON LABETICH, gave the thought for the day, observing that true Thanksgiving comes from the heart, and then offered a prayer that the “pumpkin pies don’t go straight to your thighs.”
 

President Elect JACK KELLY stepped up to the podium to welcome visiting Rotarians, and we met Nash, from India District 3230.  JEFF BAIER and JOHN CARDOZA, each introduced guests.
 
President JOHN announced that the memorial for BOO BUE would be on Friday at 2 pm at the United Methodist Church at Foothill and Magdalena.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
 
PP SAM PESNER announced that this is Rotary Foundation Month, and hoped each member would support the Foundation…  Get your checks in by the meeting of the 29th to be entered into the District Raffle.
 
CAROL GARSTEN announced that she was now in charge of lining up the greeters for the meetings, and was passing around a clipboard for sign-ups.
 
PP MONA ARMISTEAD announced that our club had submitted our nomination for the volunteer of the year, and our nominee had been selected.  The winner will be honored on Friday, December 7 at a ceremony at the Fremont Hills Country Club.
 

PROJECT CORNERSTONE
 
PP MONA ARMISTEAD made a special presentation on Community Values Youth.  Even though MONA’s Powerpoint presentation had mysteriously disappeared into the computer ether, MONA presented an explanation of a new Rotary project aimed at helping disadvantaged youths.  Research has established that there are 41 developmental assets that a young person should look for.  These can include a supportive family, or a sense of purpose in life or a commitment to a sport or artistic endeavor.  Staying away from drugs and “bad influence” friends are other “assets.”  If a young person has less than 21 of the assets, the young person is at risk.  If the person has more than 30, then the person is likely to be successful.   Project Cornerstone is directed at providing multiple support groups, and each would target on a particular area to develop and provide more assets to young persons.  MONA explained that they are seeking individual supporters in our Club.
 
 

FINES by SINES
 
President JOHN then called up one of his favorite fine masters, the sensitive, caring and engaging, JOHN SINES.  After receiving the appropriate level of applause, JOHN let us know that he was going to cover some of the history of fining in our club.  He then called on Past President (1979) Steve Anderson, to recount the history of the finings at that time.   STEVE pointed out that in those prehistoric times, there were no guidelines for finding, and there were no fine masters.  STEVE did all the finding himself.  And he didn’t set aside a particular time for the fines, but just did them randomly as the situations developed.
 
Inspired by STEVE’s historical account, JOHN jumped into fining our current members.  His first victim was JOHN MCALLISTER, the new member of the city Council in Mountain View, who was fined $40.  JOHN then asked a number of members to name their favorite main course for Thanksgiving.  LEW FRASER took the obvious number 1, Turkey, and was fined $20.  RAE HOLT said that his preference is salmon and was fined $20.  LINA BROYDO said her special dish was stuffed cabbage and was fined $20.  JPP ACK HEIDMILLER decided that the tastiest thing on his plate would be tofu turkey, and was fined $40.   KURT HUEG said he’d go with fried chicken and gravy and was fined $20.  ROY LAVE missing his youth when pumpkin pie was the main course decided to suggest pumpkin pie and was fined $20. MARLIS McALLISTER went back to Turkey and was fined $20.  CAREW McFALL echoed Kurt’s fondness for fried chicken was fined $20.  BUD OLIVER suggested halibut and was fined $20.

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: Blended Learning at Los Altos Schools with the Khan Academy.
 
JOHN CARDOZA introduced Red Badger JEFF BAIER, who began the presentation on how the Los Altos schools are using the innovative software and videos of the Khan Academy.  This is an online educational system developed by a former hedge fund manager, Sal Khan, who is devoted to giving a “world class” education to everyone regardless of income levels.  Mr. Khan met with JEFF and others at the Los Altos School district in October 2010 to introduce his system.  The system involves a large number of short videos, which are coordinated through a “knowledge map” to direct the student through the videos.  The primary area that they are currently focusing on is mathematics.
 
JEFF introduced Allysa and Tammy who presented a montage of various videos.  They explained that they have initiated a pilot program using the Khan Academy system for mathematics in the fifth and seventh grades throughout the Los Altos school district.   It has already achieved great results.  Most significantly, they find that learning gaps disappear.  Students who may have either missed or struggled with certain concepts while the class moved on, can return to those concepts, restudy them and fill in the gaps in their knowledge.  The system has already produced increases in proficiency over 7 months.  The percentage of students who are proficient in mathematics has increased from 23% to 41% in just that short time.  

The system has been so successful, that they have been contacted by new shows, such as 60 Minutes.  The pilot program is now expanding to grades 5 through 8, and will include 45 teachers.  Alyssa explained that this is a “blended learning” system which uses a mix of online tools and nontraditional, flexible teaching methods.  The systems allows the children to proceed at different paces, and by looking at how a particular child is doing on the videos, they can identify areas where the child is strong, and where the child is weak, and provide supplemental instruction in the weak areas.  In addition, as the teacher sees where students succeed and struggle, the teacher can tailor the classes to stress the areas that the children need most.
 
Several excited Rotarians chimed in with questions and comments, and President JOHN then stepped in to chime the meeting to a close at 1:30 PM.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:  DARK.  Happy Thanksgiving