Top diver, math whiz is teacher of year Top diver, math whiz is teacher of year (June 10, 2005)

by by Jeb Bing

J ana Halle, one of Pleasanton's best known and most versatile teachers, has been named Teacher of the Year by the city's school district, and with good reason. An early bird who often opens up Harvest Park Middle School where she teaches math, algebra, Exploring Technology and media, Halle is utilizing her skills in computer science, communications and photojournalism. It's also an easy walk to turn the key in the schoolhouse gate since she lives right across the street with her husband Brett, who works at Apple Computer in Cupertino, and their two sons, Trevor, 17, a junior at Amador, and Travis, almost 11, who is in fifth grade at Walnut Grove. Theirs is one of only two homes that still fronts on Valley Avenue, a home built by the Casterson family in 1912 and moved to its current location in 1920, long before Birdland was developed behind the houses on the farmland the family owned.

Even if you don't know Jana Halle, you've probably seen her. An accomplished photographer, she regularly shoots digital and videotape images of Amador football and Pleasanton lacrosse games as well as for the baseball, basketball and soccer teams and games she coaches. Then there are her media classes of seventh and eighth graders who produce a daily news show that is broadcast to every Harvest Park classroom. I've been privileged to appear on these first-rate productions that look much like the morning network news shows. After school and six days each week, you can find Halle at Kicks USA on Ray Street, where she's just 18 months away from earning her Black Belt.

An accomplished diver, Halle's goal was to win high school and college championships and then dive with the U.S. swim team in the Olympics. But at Amador Valley High, where she graduated in 1972, there was no girls swim team. The men's team coach recognized her ambition and offered her a diving spot, but that would have meant the two boys team divers could not compete in regional and state meets. She declined the offer much to the joy of the two boys, who went on to finished first and second in state finals.

At Cal State Hayward, where she majored in Computer Science, her main interest was still diving. She was able to join the men's team without a problem, taking the lead in competition and then leading the first girls swim team in diving championships during her senior year when the state funded girls sports. With her degree in hand and still eyeing a place on the U.S. Olympics team, Halle moved south to train at Irvine Aquatics and later at Long Beach Diving, both recognized for their Olympics preparation programs. Not yet ready and with Olympic tryouts coming, she turned back to her college major. In one week's time, she and Brett, to whom she was engaged, married, moved back to Pleasanton and started their Bay Area jobs, with Jana Halle becoming a computer programming at Hills Brothers Coffee in San Francisco.

Later, in 1993, after Trevor was born and with Travis on the way, they bought the old Casterson house. Eyeing the school across the street, she decided to end her long commute and signed on with an emergency credential to teach math at Harvest Park while also returning to Cal State to earn her teaching certificate, which she completed the following year. Even with schools closing next week for the summer break, Halle will spend about three hours each day preparing curriculum for the three grades she will teach again starting in August. Besides her many other activities, she'll also work on scripts and movements for puppets Halle created for her eighth graders to use promoting the school district's Character Education programs.

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