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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 2020)
Baker School District 5J Bulldog Pride Current Resident Baker High School, Baker Technical Institute, Eagle Cap Innovative High School, Baker Middle School, South Baker Intermediate, Brooklyn Primary, Haines, Keating www.baker5j.org Calendar February 13: Chili dog fundraiser at South Baker Interme- diate School, 4:30-7 p.m. 17: Presidents Day, no school 20: School board meets, 6 p.m., Baker City Hall 21: School day 28: Brooklyn Primary Taco Feed/Silent Auc- tion/Raffle/Book Fair; 5-7 p.m. at Baker High School March 19: School board meets, 6 p.m., Baker City Hall 23-27: Spring break April 17-19: “Midsummer Night’s Dream” present- ed by BHS drama club Bulldog Pride Baker School District 5J 2090 Fourth St. Baker City, OR 97814 541-524-2260 www.baker5j.org Connect Please “like” Baker School District 5J on Facebook Volume 4, Issue 5 • February 2020 Exploring world history M arco Valerio poured extra-virgin olive oil into the sauce pan, then added a pile of chopped onions, carrots, and garlic. Soon students started blinking their eyes as the pungent aroma of cooking onions fills Valerio’s second-floor classroom at Baker Middle School. He and his mom, Allison Vale- rio, demonstrated the Italian way of making pasta sauce (called salsa rossa) during a period of Cultural Exploration of Italy. “Today we’ll make it from scratch. Tomorrow we’ll eat it,” he said. As his mom prepared fresh herbs, Valerio concocted a dipping sauce of olive oil from his fam- ily’s trees in Italy, plus balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. This dip plus homemade bread- sticks gave students something to munch while the sauce simmered. “When I was little, this was my snack,” Valerio said. This class is one of seven new social studies offerings this year at BMS. The department alternates years for U.S. History and World History, and classes are mixed seventh- and eighth- graders. This year for world history Valerio, fellow teacher Emily Mery, and Principal Skye Flanagan brainstormed new classes focused on specific time periods that met the state standards. In the past, Students in Marco Valerio’s Cultural Exploration of Italy class take a peek at the simmering pasta sauce made from scratch by Valerio, and his mom Allison, far left. teachers had only a few days or a week to cover topics such as World War I. A list of 20 options was whittled down after surveying students. “This has been a four-year pro- cess,” Valerio said. This year’s classes are Ancient Greece and Rome, Military His- tory, World War I and II, Cultural Exploration of France and Italy, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, Medieval Europe, and China and Japan. Valerio and Mery divided the classes. All are semester long, with the exception of Cultural Explora- tion of France and Italy. For that course, the two teachers combine to each teach a quarter — Mery’s section is France, while Valerio teaches about Italy (she spent three weeks in France as a short exchange; his father was born and raised in Verona, Italy). “It’s been great,” Mery said. “I find students are engaged, especially if they got their first choices.” The two teachers combined art, writing, cooking, and experiences while teaching their classes. Valerio, for instance, upturned his desks one day and strung string to simulate trenches. Upon entering the class, students chose a number between 1 and 20. Throughout his lecture that day (swapping between his German and British helmets), Valerio rolled a 20-sided dice to decide which students were casualties of an artillery barrage. Any heads lifted above the trench were in danger of sniper fire. “In the bulletin the next morn- ing, I listed all the casualties,” Valerio said.
