Click here to visit Ms. Peres-Peña’s class page.

Ms. Peres-Peña was born in Cartagena, Columbia, where she says, “I grew up in a house full of poetry…my uncle would stand on the table after holiday dinners and recite for hours.”  She herself performed and recited poems as well, notably in the Teatro Colón in Bogota.

After moving to the US, she received her Bachelors of Science from Loyola Marymount and her Masters in Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

Ms. Peres-Peña began her career at LAUSD as a district intern; she is now a multi-credentialed teacher, and has taught grades K through 4th.

She says, “I grew up with the arts and theatre” and seeks to integrate the arts with all academic subjects as she teaches.  ”Being creative is the highest intellectual endeavor, and it takes a lot of creativity to teach children.”  A career goal of hers is to write a book on education.

When not teaching, she is busy being an art director and production designer for theatre and film.  She is also a real estate agent with Rodeo Realty.  Ms. Peres-Peña volunteers for the Red Cross and Greenpeace and homeless projects, and with what is left of her free time, she enjoys swimming and biking.

Children learn about Pablo Picasso and take a stab at cubism.

Ms. Peres-Peña's eco-minded class' holiday mural.

April 11, 2011

Miss Peres Peña’s class has been a big fan of the garden since it’s inception.  The kids love visiting the compost and worm bins, and Miss Peña used the opportunity to teach them about composting, organic matter, decomposition; the kids follow week by week the process of green and brown leaves, kitchen castoffs and coffee grounds (from local restaurants) becoming rich soil and worm fertilizer.

Back at the classroom each kid keeps a Garden Diary where they record what they’ve learned.

The beautiful covers of some of the “OUR GARDEN” diaries.

The COMPOSTING entry in one of the diaries.