Reader’s Workshop and Raising a Reader programs


San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee named Ms. Washington a recipient of the “2011 Mayor’s Principal of the Year Award”! This recognition is a collaborative effort with the Mayor’s Office, SFUSD, & the United Administrators of San Francisco. She was selected for her dedication and the work she has done on behalf of The City’s youth.
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The students got a chance to honor Ms. Washington by presenting her with flowers and PAWS awards, which are usually given out to helpful students. Congratulations to OUR hero, JoLynn Washington!
The Jose Ortega Greening Committee has a vision for our school. One part of this vision is to transform some of the uninviting and unused spaces into places that children can play and learn. For our latest effort, parent Tharon Kelly organized an all-volunteer group of parents, friends, and relatives to reclaim an empty patch in the corner of the play yard, known mainly for collecting trash and weeds…

They terraced it, brought in retaining wall blocks, built a deck, and installed a fence.

The project required many truckloads of gravel.

At the ribbon cutting, Tharon and principal JoLynn Washington presented the finished result to the school.

The children put it to great use, starting on the very first day.

And it’s good for more than just play. Here are the fifth graders having a science class in the fresh air!

For the fourth time Jose Ortega participated in the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade. The students performed a dance with umbrellas that they had decorated with Chinese characters representing the attributes traditionally associated with the year of the hare (明 – bright, 柔 – gentle, 慈 – kind, 静 – quiet, 善 – charitable, 精 – soul, 文 – culture).
Marchers carried rabbit banners created by each classroom. We added a new mascot to our Chinese zodiac collection, the golden rabbit. Our blue fuzzy JOES bear mascot also made a parade debut.
Our principal, JoLynn Washington, has received the honor of being named a Local Hero for Black History Month by KQED and Union Bank. A KQED broadcast will feature each of the recipients of the award.
Sun Feb 20 at 6:00pm KQED 9 | Black History Month Celebration
KQED proudly celebrates individuals whose work has helped to create a better Bay Area for all. Nominated by the community, these local heroes’ accomplishments are the centerpiece of our annual Black History Month Celebration.
Ms. Washington’s video feature:
To listen to Ms. Washington’s acceptance speech, fast-forward to 20:00 on the video below:
The California Masonic Lodge #1, which provided us with a new computer lab last year, has given us $3,000 for new ELMO machines. We are very grateful to the Masons for their generous gift!
ELMO (Electricity Light Machine Organization) machines are the modern version of overhead projectors. They combine a digital video camera with a digital projector. Instead of creating transparencies, the teachers are able to place books or manipulatives directly under the digital camera and have them projected onto the wall. It can be used for students to present their work to the class, to turn any book into an oversize read-along, or to give everyone a close up view of how the teacher is counting coins for a math lesson.
The PTA and Principal Washington are working to raise funds to provide ELMOs for every classroom by the end of the year.

Using an ELMO machine for a kindergarten math lesson
Our playstructure received an $85,000 makeover during the summer, and the kids are having fun trying out the new elements. The swinging monkey bar rings are especially popular.
The classroom gardening projects have already begun sprouting with new planters outside many of the classrooms. The students have been learning about soils and fertilizers, planting fall vegetables, and releasing ladybugs this week.

On Friday September 10, our students energetically participated in a football field day. Our PE teacher trained fifth graders as coaches, and they led K-5th grade classes in football competitions. The activities included “Partner Toss Step-back”, “40 Yard Touchdown Dash”, “How Far Can You Throw?”, and a “Football Obstacle Course”. The students relished the chance to compete for the fastest course and the farthest throw and practiced teamwork with passing and relay racing.
We go outside to walk, run, and play daily, complemented by at least one hundred minutes of physical education weekly and ongoing classes on nutrition, health, and the importance of lifelong wellness.
Our nutritionist also introduced the school to a delicious fall vegetable, butternut squash, by providing butternut squash soup samples at lunch.
On April 30, 2010, Jose Ortega held its annual Walk-a-thon and Health and Wellness Fair. The health fair had stations for learning about blood pressure, nutrition, making healthy snack wraps, and touring an ambulance.
During the walk-a-thon students walked or ran laps around the play yard to earn money for the school. The kids had fun listening to music and winning beads for every mile walked. The event raised over $6000 in one day! Way to go kids!!

On April 22, 2010, the Jose Ortega students began their Earth Day celebration with a recycling drive sponsored by the student council. An environmental grant acquired by one of our parents brought us a new greenhouse, as well as a take-home bag of books on the environment for every child. The classrooms took turns visiting the greenhouse to deliver seedlings they had planted as class projects. They learned about how greenhouses work and checked out the different plants being grown by each class. The students will be taking care of the seedlings until May 22, when they will be sold at the Umoja Carnival.


On April 13, 2010, the Exploratorium came to Jose Ortega to lead our annual Family Science Night. This year the topic was the science of sound. The students learned about sound waves, vibration, pitch, and amplification. We talked through balloons, listened to giant tuning forks (bicycle forks), made straws whistle at different pitches by making them different lengths, made sound sandwiches and sound spinners with vibrating rubber bands, created cuícas out of plastic cups and string, and built saxophone style membraneophones. It was a fun and musical science night!

