Classroom

An autopsy Tuesday determined that an Irvine teacher who collapsed and died in his classroom suffered from cardiovascular disease, authorities said. Students at Woodbridge High School found the teacher, Kent Bentley, during lunchtime Monday and alerted staff members, said Ian Hanigan, spokesman for the Irvine Unified School District. "A staff member administered CPR," he said. "But despite their best efforts, he couldn't be revived. " Bentley, 46, taught English and coached wrestling at Woodbridge for 12 years.

"Nobody look at the camera," Joe Robinson reminded his actors as they prepared for the first take of the afternoon. It was natural to steal a glance ? most of the cast members had never been filmed before ? but "The Perils of Penelope" had just an hour and a half to finish shooting, and the director wanted the scene to be as natural as possible. In a packed classroom at Newport Harbor High School, a dozen young cast members got in position for the opening scene of their movie. Six cowboys sat playing cards around a barroom table, cap pistols ready in their pockets; a group of women gossiped at the tables behind them; the tavern owner stood mopping the counter.

Danette Goulet IN THE CLASSROOM is a new weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education reporter Danette Goulet will visit a school within the Newport-Mesa district and write about her experience. Little arms stretch skyward, waving frantically as students strain in their seats in an effort to be seen, heard and called upon. The sights, smells and sounds haven't changed all that much. The walls of a fourth-grade classroom are still covered from floor to ceiling with every imaginable color of construction paper, showcasing students' artwork.

Starting this year at Eastbluff Elementary School, it's finally going to be easy to make water wet. Up until now, the school's students mostly read about the elements of H2O and did not have ready access to the wet stuff in the classroom. That's because Eastbluff — like other elementary campuses in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District — lacked a state-of-the-art science classroom, meaning that most scientific learning had to be done out of books. Last week, though, the school opened a new facility containing sinks, microscopes, laptop outlets and other modern equipment.

Jack Maurer sits at his laptop and pounds out an invoice. He has to keep track of his budget, as well as his own cash flow, before he turns to other business, such as writing a letter to Apple and going over a response from Nike. Later, he has a meeting during recess with some peers on the blacktop. In Marc Africano’s sixth-grade classroom at Newport Heights Elementary School, the children aren’t just learning math, English and science — they’re learning job skills for the future.

Deirdre Newman Paul Lawson hasn't eaten fast food in about 10 years. But Thursday, he devoured a barbecue-chicken sandwich from Carl's Jr. in granddaughter Caitlin's fifth-grade classroom. The lunchtime bonding experience took place at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Newport Beach as part of its annual Special Persons Day. The event enables students to invite someone with special significance in their life -- usually a family member -- to spend the morning with them.

COSTA MESA — She was born in Santa Cruz, she's been to Harvard University and back, and now she's a Costa Mesa resident who's just put the finishing touches on her latest piece of art. It's a 45-pound fiberglass heart that will hopefully fetch thousands of dollars to help fund art instruction in the public elementary schools in Fullerton, where professional artists mentor teachers in the classroom at a time when such programs are under-funded...

Marisa O'Neil Fourteen of 16 special education students in a Corona del Mar High School class stayed home Monday as part of a walkout parents staged to protest what one called the "controlled chaos" of too few teacher aides and a classroom infested with rodents and cockroaches. The parents told school and district officials that they would not send their children to the seventh- and eighth-grade class until they see improvements. They said they had notified the district of problems but have not yet seen any action.

The answer to Steve Smith's query about the difference between a teacher and an educator ("When teachers get bullied too," Saturday) could be either of the following: Either an educator is a teacher who feels that the word "teacher" doesn't carry enough societal weight, or an educator is a former teacher who opted out of the classroom to become an administrator, but still considers him or herself an educator. To the first-case scenario I can only say, "grow up."

Young Chang The dizzying smell of fresh paint at Coastline Community College's new classroom foreshadows what's to come. Though still empty this week, with ladders, paint buckets and cement chunks everywhere, dean of instruction Edward Decker hopes the art classroom will be ready for a grand opening by next week. A friendly woman named Olga, owner of the Village Farmer restaurant next door, apparently can't wait for a new entourage of student clientele.

COSTA MESA — There were cheers of delight Thursday when about a dozen high school boys walked into a fourth-grade classroom after school towing a wagon stacked with pink, purple and blue pencil boxes and other school supplies. "Yes!" yelled Edgar Castillo, 10, as the supplies came into view. The excitement continued as the boxes were passed out. Michelle Villa, 9, opened hers with a little gasp — her mouth making a perfect O — as she pulled out pencils, a sharpener, pencil eraser toppers, crayons, scissors and colored pencils.

COSTA MESA — California Elementary School recognized three students Friday for selling the most raffle tickets, in an effort to raise enough money for every student to go to sixth-grade science camp. Sixth-graders Lexi Osso, Lelani Acuna and Matthew Sullivan were given gift bags and honored in front of the whole school in the multi-purpose room for a rainy day flag deck. "These kids went over and above," said parent Maureen Sullivan, who organized the raffle with her husband, Bob Sullivan.

COSTA MESA — Anyone walking around Sonora Elementary School this year would notice the changes. University flags hang outside classrooms. Teachers and students wear different college T-shirts. Words like graduate, dormitory and dean's list have entered the student lexicon. College is everywhere. Sonora was recently accepted into the No Excuses University, a network of elementary, middle and high schools across the U.S. dedicated to exposing students to collegiate symbolism and preparing them for college.

COSTA MESA — The Waldorf School of Orange County plans to dedicate environmentally friendly classrooms crafted from recycled shipping containers Friday evening. Waldorf, a nonprofit private school that includes environmental consciousness in its curriculum, used the containers to expand its 2350 Canyon Drive campus near Fairview Park. The additional space, according to a news release, will allow the school to serve pupils from pre-K to 12th grade. "We may have to remind people that these classrooms were once shipping containers," Denise Ogawa, development director for the school, said in a news release.

COSTA MESA — Standing before the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, Ellen Kawata thanked the city and the Waldorf School of Orange County for helping her business. As owner of S3 Advisors LLC, a sustainable housing technology company, Kawata was looking for customers to recycle shipping containers into space for people to work. Along came the Waldorf School, which received the commission's approval last year to expand its campus with more than 30 of the containers. "If not for the Waldorf School and their system of developing entire beings and instilling social and environmental responsibility in those beings, we wouldn't have this chance," Kawata told the commissioners at Tuesday's meeting.

NEWPORT BEACH — Friday will be Bob Kelly's final day of school after 41 years of teaching at Newport Heights Elementary School. "That term 'surreal' is overused, but it feels a little bit like that, you know," he said during a visit to his classroom. "It's like, jeez, this is really the end? It doesn't really feel like it. " Kelly, who has educated second-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students, started and ran Newport Heights' first computer lab in the 1980s and served as the district's science coordinator, is retiring at 66. The long-time Costa Mesa resident and Chicago-area native started at Newport Heights fresh out of college in 1970.

When Spencer Haly arrived at Corona del Mar High four years ago, he planned to play three sports. His parents got involved with athletics during their high school years and he followed their footsteps. Haly's father, Gregg, was a three-sport athlete at Foothill. His mom, Mary Ann, played volleyball at CdM. It made sense for Haly to participate in two of dad's sports, football and basketball, and mom's favorite. The one sport Gregg competed in high school that Haly did not have an interest in at CdM was baseball.

COSTA MESA — The school board on Tuesday night recognized the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Teachers of the Year. Costa Mesa High School's Dana Kahawai, 30, and Newport Elementary School's Terri Clarke, 31, were given flowers and congratulations for being honored and representing the district at the county level. "We have so many great teachers in this district," said Trustee Dana Black. "This is the best of the best. " The two were chosen for the distinction by their peers for being effective teachers, being involved outside the classroom and being teacher leaders, said John Caldecott, the district's executive director of human resources.

COSTA MESA — In just two second-period English classes at TeWinkle Intermediate School, students reading performance ranged from "at grade level" to first grade and English-language learners. "That's a big gap for our teachers to cover," said Principal Rich Rodriguez. Educators at the 7-8 campus at 3224 California St. have been looking past the traditional one-teacher, one-class model to a "targeted-intervention model" that identifies students' missing or deficient skills in math and reading.

Editor's note: This corrects the grade level of the students who received netbooks at Davis, Sonora, Paularino and Killybrook elementary schools. COSTA MESA — Gathered in the multipurpose room at the end of a recent school day, students in Liz Sawyer's fourth- and fifth-grade combo class awaited the red-carpet premiere of book trailers they had spent the last three months putting together. When the time was right, the students exited the room and came back in on a red paper "carpet" as their books were announced to cheers from a handful of parents and other students.