The Little Things That Count. At West Valley Middle School, it all adds up.

From the academics and electives, our students and staff, to our sports and after-school fun, we are a school of great might. Not every school has what we have. Not everyschool provides the opportunity/enviroment to thrive.
They aren't Wildcats, but we are!

Staff

Kristen Jaquet

Kristen Jaquet

Work Experience
Mrs. J started teaching at WVMS in 1998. Over the years, she has taught several different subjects and has spent four years as a teaching principal.  Although Mrs. J recently transitioned to be the full-time principal, her classroom is never far from her heart.  She has spent many years providing educational and entertaining hands-on history lessons for our middle school students.  Students say Mrs. J is compassionate, funny, thoughtful, and a great listener. She plans on using these traits in order to promote her mission beliefs in creating a safe, caring environment where students are encouraged to explore their intellectual curiosity. 


Mission Beliefs

  • All students can learn.
  • Students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process.
  • Curriculum and instructional practices should incorporate a variety of learning activities to accommodate difference in learning styles.
  • Assessments of student learning should provide students with a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their achievements.
  • A safe and physically comfortable environment promotes student learning.
  • Each student is a valued individual with unique physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs.

Goals for the School Year
Mrs. J is dedicated to helping her staff reach a balance between consistency of expectations, freedom of individual expression, and a variety of teaching methods to keep students interested and in a positive state of mind, allowing students to feel comfortable and confident with our staff, their peers, and academics.


Special Interests, Hobbies
Mrs. J spends her spare time hanging out with family and close friends, scrapbooking pictures of her children Xavier and Zander, and cheering for her favorite Chicago sports teams: Go Cubbies!

Alisa Dietz

Alisa Dietz

Ms. Dietz combines her extensive elementary teaching experience with individualized instruction to her fifth grade classroom. She brings a smile and a can-do attitude to each school day. Her warmth, consistency and patience make each day of fifth grade a joy to behold.

Work Experience
Over twelve years teaching experience with K-8 grade children in a self-contained classroom.

Goals for the School Year
High academic expectations in all subject matter, multi-sensory instruction, preparation for middle school experience.

Homework Expectations and Procedures
According to Ms. Dietz, homework is an opportunity to reinforce concepts taught in the classroom and to teach responsibility. She expects students to spend between 30-60 minutes per night on homework, with longer time required for bigger projects.

Field Trips

  • Plays
  • San Jose Art Museum
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • Walden West Science Camp

Special Interests, Hobbies
While on Safari in Kenya, her bus was charged by a rhino! Thankfully, she lived to tell the tale.

Al Grigsby

Al Grigsby

  • Physical Education - 6/7/8th Grade Teacher, Basketball & Football Coach
  • BA in History, Former Professional Basketball Player for the Japanese Basketball League
  • Email: agrigsby@wvmiddleschool.com

After retiring his jersey for Cal Berkeley Bears and playing professionally for the Japanese Basketball League, Coach Al joined the staff at West Valley Middle School to provide daily, high-quality physical education to students from 6th to 8th grade.

Work Experience
Coach Al has been teaching PE at WVMS since 2003.

Goals for the School Year
To ensure every student is in the best physical condition in hopes that this will give them confidence and a positive attitude towards life.

Special Interests, Hobbies
Coach Al loves to watch sports - especially the ones his son and daughter are active in. He loves coaching the sports teams at WVMS as well as his AAU summer basketball travel teams. Al has also never met a dessert he didn't like.

Kam Gordan

Kam Gordon

  • Office Manager
  • Librarian

Work Experience
Miss Kam has volunteered at Reed Elementary for 13 years where she also ran and maintained the Project Cornerstone program.  She has been the volunteer Librarian at WVMS since 2011.

Goals for the School Year
To maintain a text-rich environment which inspires students to read.

Special Interests, Hobbies
Kam enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and loves the Twilight and Percy Jackson series.

Teofilo Gomez

Teofilo Gomez

Mr. Gomez began his career with the Action Day Primary Plus in 1996 where he taught Spanish at our Amber location while completing his undergraduate degree at San Jose State University. Mr. Gomez Returned to our school system in 2009 when he moved back to the bay area from San Diego, CA. Mr. Gomez has over 15 years of professional experience working with families and children, both as a Social Worker and more recently as an educator. He has taught Science and Spanish for us and now teaches 6-8th grade Social Studies. Mr. Gomez brings with him a passion for education and strong teaching pedagogy aligned with West Valley Middle School’s mission of providing meaningful learning experiences and nurturing the whole child. His teaching pedagogy is centered in the Guided Release, Differentiated Instruction, and Cognitive Apprenticeship models of learning and teaching. Mr. Gomez also holds a Masters of Arts in Teaching from the University of San Francisco. In Mr. Gomez’ spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, hosting BBQ’s, Cooking, and going on long road trips.

Homework Expectations and Procedures

Students will typically have about 30 minutes of homework Monday through Thursday evenings. Very rarely students will have a project to work on over the weekend. Homework will be emailed at the beginning of each week. Students are encouraged to use the assignment notebooks given to them on the first day of school. Parents are encouraged to check these assignment notebooks nightly.

Field Trips

  • 6th-Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
  • 7th-Japanese Friendship Garden
  • 8th-DC Field Trip

Darci Gruenberg

Darci Gruenberg

Coach Darci is the Action Day Primary Plus™ Athletic Director. She also heads up the Silicon Valley League. Between coordinating games and events for Fearless Baseball and the Silicon Valley League, she makes time to teach 5th grade PE and coach Volleyball at West Valley Middle School.

Work Experience
Coach Darci has been teaching over 11 years.

Goals for the School Year
To instill in each student a love for sports and fitness that will carry over into their adult life.

Interesting Fact/Hobby
Mrs. Gruenberg became a coach because of the positive influence her coaches had in her life and wanted to give back that inspiration to future generations. She is also blessed with two beautiful daughters, Alyssa and Kayce.

Jessica Dewey Hoffman

Jessica Dewey Hoffman

This is my 5th year teaching Math and my 4th year teaching Lego Robotics at West Valley Middle School. It is my yearly goal to get students interested in Math. Math is universal but still a hard language to learn. I do my best to assist students so that Math can become second nature to them.

Work Experience
Ms. Dewey-Hoffman started teaching at Action Day Primary Plus in 2008.

Goals for the School Year
To get students comfortable and excited about math and physical science.

Field Trips

  • Each grade level in math goes on their own field trip.
  • 6th Grade: Cambrian Bowl
  • 7th Grade: Christmas Tree Farm
  • 8th Grade: Great America's Physics, Science, and Math Day

Homework Expectations and Procedures

  • 6/7/8th Grade Math - All work must be completed in pencil. Students are expected to copy the problem. Partial credit will be given to students who show their work even if the answer is not attained. Nightly, students are given 20-30 minutes of homework.

Special Interests, Hobbies
In her spare time, Ms. Dewey-Hoffman likes to draw, paint, and craft.

Chandler Mikles

Chandler Mikles

  • Earth Science - 6th Grade Teacher
  • Life Science - 7th Grade Teacher
  • Physical Science - 8th Grade Teacher
  • Velocity - 5/6/7/8th Grade Teacher
  • Email:  cmikles@wvmiddleschool.com

Since my first semester in college I have known that I wanted to teach. To that end, I tried to make the best of my time at each school attended to make me the best instructor I could be. I have achieved an AA in communications from West Valley Community College, a BA in biology from the University of California Santa Cruz, and a MA in education from Bethany/Simpson University. All of my undergrad work has been with middle school students and I have come to love their enthusiastic nature especially in science. I personally wish for them to learn material that is surpassing the state standards while learning good critical thinking and group skills. So much of the world after school is dominated by the need for these two skills that I would be failing the students by not providing them with these skills early.

AeJa Mortensen

Aeja Mortenson

  • Musical Theater, Voice and Piano Instructor & Glee Club
  • BA International Relations, Brigham Young University
  • BA Business, Brigham Young University
  • Email: themusicinu@gmail.com

Work Experience
I worked in the business world after graduating from college. When I started my own family however, I became interested in teaching. I taught Kindergarten for five years and fell in love with the gratification that comes from seeing the difference I can make in a child’s life. Since then, I have taught music, piano, vocals and directed musical plays and was heavily involved in singing competitions including the World Championships. I am currently a music teacher at Primary Plus and Director of the Glee club and Musical Theater at both Primary Plus and West Valley Middle School. I love dancing, and dance with a Polynesian Performing Group. Aside from that, I love to ride quads, snow ski and most of all spending time with my family.

Goals
My goal is to help student explore and build a love for all aspects of music and theater. I believe that they can grow a love for music which will last a lifetime. I want to build confidence in my performers and wish to make music a magical thing that can give them passion and joy every day!

Jenny Rivera

Jenny Rivera

When Ms. Jen isn’t working as a DJ, she is teaching students about her love of music. Ms. Jen brings fun to the afterschool program by providing a myriad of new and exciting enrichment opportunities to West Valley Middle School students.

Work Experience
Jenny has over ten years experience working with children ages Pre-K – 8th grade.

Goals for the School Year
To come up with even more interesting projects and activities than last year!

Interesting fact or Hobbies
Ms. Jen loves music and art.

Sally Sanford

Sally Sanford

Work Experience
Mrs. Sanford has taught for Action Day Primary Plus Schools for over 20 years and counting.

5th Grade Core Curriculum Objectives
High academic expectations in all subject matter, multi-sensory instruction, and preparation for middle school experience.

Homework Expectations and Procedures
Students are expected to complete Language Arts homework in handwriting, spelling, phonics or reading comprehension and mathematics, as well as complete any unfinished class work. They also complete ongoing monthly projects such as book reports, science fair projects, or state reports. Homework is not given on weekends.

Field Trips

  • Plays
  • San Jose Art Museum
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • Walden West Science Camp

Special Interests, Hobbies
Mrs. Sanford likes to travel, garden, and read. She also taught first grade for 16 years at Primary Plus Elementary School where her daughter is currently teaching first grade.

Ethyn Segura

Ethyn Segura

  • Language Arts - 6/7/8th Grade Teacher
  • BA in English Literature, Single Subject Credential in English
  • Email: esegura@wvmiddleschool.com

Ms. Segura shares her passion for language and books with students at WVMS. Students say that Ms. Segura is open, encouraging, fair, organized, and fun.

Work Experience
Ms. Segura completed her credential internship at Edison High School in Huntington Beach and has been the Language Arts teacher at West Valley Middle School since 2010.

Goals for the School Year
To build excellent educational relationships with students and encourage a love for reading, writing, and literature.

Homework Expectations and Procedures
Students can expect 30 minutes per night of homework and must complete 1-2 hours of outside reading per week. Students will be responsible for writing down their daily agendas, which include all homework for the week, at the beginning of each class.

Special Interests, Hobbies
Ms. Segura likes to read, travel, watch movies, camp, and spend time with her brother, Coach Zack, and her nephew.

June Seto

June Seto


Work Experience
June Seto joined Action Day Primary Plus in October 1995. She started out working part time with the preschool program on our Moorpark campus while attending college. After graduating from San Jose State in 1998 with a BA in Child Development, she transferred to Amber to teach 1st grade. She’s worked with children as young as 2-years-old through middle school age. Prior to transferring to West Valley Middle School at School Administrator, she was the Preschool Director of Amber Preschool.


Goals

  • Provide clear and effective communication between the school and parents and other outside stakeholders
  • Promote positive interactions among students and staff
  • Increase usage of technology in all its forms

Special Interests
June enjoys spending with her family (she has 4 sons: 3-yo, 5-yo, 10-yo, and 12-yo), as well as cheering her children on at their various sports activities. She also likes to blog about her sons’ antics, read an eclectic collection of novels, and listen to all kinds of music.