Thousand Oaks Elementary School
Julianna Sikes, Principal
Sylvia Riddick, School Secretary
840 Colusa Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
Phone: (510) 644-6368
Gabe Getchell, Coordinator
Berkeley LEARNS After School Program
Phone: (510) 883-6145
- School Website
- School Accountability Report Card - Spanish version is available.
- School Accountability Report Card 2006-07
- API Report
- STAR Results
- Facilities
- Library
- Science Blog
- Garden and Nutrition Newsletter
School Information
Thousand Oaks' beautiful new building on Colusa Avenue was designed to complement the many unique features of the gentle hillside, encompassing a large playyard, extensive garden, and beyond that a park with a creek running through it and large spaces for soccer and other physical activity. About 440 students attend Thousand Oaks, which moved into its new building in 2000.
A unified community supports all students at Thousand Oaks. At Thousand Oaks, we strive for a unified and supportive community. To do this, we encourage students from different age groups to work together by participating in activities such as "buddy reading." This program allows children at higher levels to read to those at lower levels in an effort to allow students to contribute to the learning process of one another. Principal Ramos notes that this spirit of cooperation can be seen throughout the school.
"All the children get along well together. Parents send their children to Thousand Oaks knowing that they will be well cared for, both by the staff and by their schoolmates."
Art provides the foundation for a strong grasp of all subjects at Thousand Oaks. A visit to any classroom demonstrates dazzling evidence of the visual arts program, developed in collaboration with the Oakland-based Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA). The entire staff has been trained to integrate the arts across the curriculum.
"We all know that there is color all around us, but have we really looked at the significance of different colors, or lines or shapes?" explains one teacher. As the children move through the program, they acquire building blocks that will create the foundation for complete artistic comprehension." Individual compositions and group work fill portfolios and classroom walls. In addition to the work with MOCHA, weÕve established an important partnership with the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts (JMCA), enabling us to bring the arts to all aspects of the curriculum.
Our reading program is designed to challenge each Thousand Oaks student to move forward. To do this, teachers are dedicated to making sure each child has a firm foundation on which to rely. Beginning readers gain skills in "guided reading groups," then go on to join in "literary circles," where students read to each other and discuss what they have read. "Learning to read takes practice," Principal Ramos explains. "Like any good learning process, it's a question of mastering one skill before you build the next. Striking a balance between comfort and challenge is what we're working to do. "To achieve this end, staff members have reviewed the school's entire literature collection and classified books by reading level so that students at every stage can choose from a rich assortment of materials.
At Thousand Oaks, students learn to appreciate cultural, ethnic, linguistic diversity. Many of our staff members have certifications qualifying them to provide primary language instruction for both English and Spanish-speakers, and the school offers a bilingual language. "We are fortunate to have this program at our school," Principal Ramos says. "Children's early experiences build bridges that will allow them to span cultural barriers that divide our society."
In recent years the entire staff has participated in Guided Language Acquisition by Design (GLAD) training. The training provides teachers with research, theory, and practical effective strategies that promote academic language, literacy, academic achievement and cross cultural skills. The model trains teachers in providing instruction in multilingual classrooms by aligning the curriculum to English Language Arts and English Language Development standards. The main tenet of GLAD is to provide differentiated instruction that teaches to the highest ability and reviews for the lowest. Our stunning building provides the ideal learning environment. Come and visit Thousand Oaks and be part of this innovative school community.