James Peralta

The Ultimate Team Player

This year, as he seems to do regularly, James Peralta stepped up to help us when there was a real need at Woodglen. Mr. Rubright received no applicants for 8th grade science position left open by Mrs. Friedel's leave of absence. This posed a huge problem, because we can't just say, “Well, sorry, no science this year!" Mr. Rubright asked James if he would be willing to help us out and do the maternity leave position, which ran from September through March. As always, James is the ultimate team player and agreed to do it.

James had to learn a curriculum in very little (no) time. In addition to mastering the content, he also needed to master the technology associated with our Discovery Science Program. While doing both of these, he also needed to meet the challenges of teaching a typically very cooperative hands-on class during a pandemic where hands-on and cooperative learning was not available. Add to this that he was meeting the challenges, like everyone else, of teaching students who were in-person and remote at the same time. Through it all, James never complained. We know his stress level was very high because James never does anything half-way. He worked incredibly hard to ensure that students had the best possible instruction given all pandemic restrictions.

Once Mrs. Friedel returned from maternity leave, Mr. Peralta immediately began to explore and plan how he could offer students the cooperative hands-on experiences he offers the technology cycle he usually teaches. While some restrictions in place early in the year were eased, there were still many obstacles in place. Mr. Peralta began working with his colleagues to offer activities to individual classes for several days at a time. He met with both regular and special education classrooms in his technology room and was able to get kids off computers so that they could work cooperatively, move around somewhat, and complete hands-on learning tasks.

Mr. Peralta has been at Woodglen for more than 30 years and neither his enthusiasm nor his love of students has waned. His energy in the technology room is contagious. Many students who struggle with traditional learning, as well as those who thrive with it, are able to have a place in Mr. Peralta’s classroom where creativity, problem solving, and kinesthetic learning are fully on stage.

While all of our staff have stepped up this year, the Board of Education would like to officially commend James Peralta for going “Above and Beyond” in spectacular fashion. Next time you run into Mr. Peralta, please give him the thanks and recognition he truly deserves from our school community.