Mrs. Paluso

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About The Teacher Label:


About The Teacher
Mrs. Paluso is a native Californian, and San Diego resident since college. She received her BA in chemistry from UCSD's Revelle College, with a minor in art. She attended San Diego State University for her teaching credential. Afterwards, she worked at Scripps Institute of Oceanography for the Deep Sea Drilling Project, as a micropaleontology technician and curatorial assistant. She was one of few women aboard the research vessel, the Glomar Challenger. The ship traveled around the world, drilling for geological and sedimentological samples of the ocean floor. They made the news as they proved the theory of sea floor spreading and plate tectonics. Currently, Mrs. Paluso creates curriculum & teaches at the San Diego Natural History Museum, including the Archaeology, Science behind the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Crazy for Chocolate! Mrs. Paluso participates in a NSF grant from UCSD with the Jacobs School of Engineering to foster the involvement of students in science, technology, engineering and math careers. As part of that, she taught at the UCSD TechTrek for high school students during the summer of 2007 and Expand Your Horizons at USD in the spring of 2008. In addition, she will participate in a county-wide collection using probes of environmental data. In addition, she has been trained with the ASTRO Project and will bring an astronomer to work with our Saint James Academy students. She led Chabad Hebrew Academy in the use of EdLine and GradeQuick, and was Technology Director 06-07. She has trained as a E2K (Excellence 2000) Science and Math Teacher in Jerusalem and New York, and taught E2K classes for motivated students at Chabad. Pat has had students participate in and win ribbons at the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fairs. She has created a web page for science fair instruction and to share the many science sites she found for kids. Pat won semifinalist status as top science teacher at the 54th California Science Fair Awards held in May 2005 in Los Angeles. She was also nominated for the 2006 Disney Awards which honor creativity in teaching that has had an impact on the school community. Disney seeks to honor teachers who find creative ways to stimulate curiosity, engage the imagination and pass the joy of learning on to each and everyone of their students. The past years found her also teaching science and substituting at St. Charles School in Imperial Beach and at Harborside, downtown, teaching science from preschool through eighth grade. She was the teacher representative on the parent group, HPO, in 2002-2003. She taught K-8 science at Chabad Hebrew Academy for 4 years and was one of the "Featured Faculty". She was also a member of the Chabad Long Range Planning Committee and served as a WASC team member for St. Columba during that time. In the past, Pat became a parent activist in the San Diego City Schools District and her children's schools and PTAs for 20 years. She served on numerous committees (science standards, material adoptions, USI-Science reform) and in leadership roles. She founded & chaired 'Team 8', a community school task force implementing technology for her neighborhood K-12 school cluster. Twenty years ago, she was instrumental in establishing & teaching at the Science Lab at her children's elementary school, which was featured on the district 'A Spotlight on Success'. For eight years Pat was on the state board of CAG (California Association for the Gifted), first as the elected San Diego / Imperial County representative and then as the appointed Affiliate Chair. For 13 years, Pat was the Girl Scout Leader of Brownies to Seniors. She helped five girls receive the Gold Award and was an Older Girl Leaders' Consultant. Pat loves to travel, go to the theater, cook, sew, read, and play with her dog when not visiting her new grandson and granddaughter, daughter, or son.

Mission Label:


Mission
We want to produce engaged citizens, the future's innovators, and tomorrow's leaders. My classroom uses technology to help my students explore the world, challenge themselves, improve their learning and have fun! Our hands-on, minds-on child centered science lab typically focuses on developing a few ideas by making connections between ideas and evidence through an inquiry-oriented, inductive approach in which data is collected and interpreted to build up to a main idea or conclusion. Emphasis is placed on building scientific literacy and using a scientific method to write/communicate ideas in our 6-8th grade classrooms.