Welcome to Mr. Velarde's Class Website

Hi Everyone, I'm Kevin Velarde and this is my 20th year teaching social sciences in the Yreka Union High School District. This year, I have also acquired 9th through 12th grade English as part of my instructional assignment.  By now, some of you as parents remember once having been my students when I first started my career here; that makes it seem like a school family that keeps growing.  

One of the biggest attractions for teaching and learning at a place like Yreka Options is that we are a small school;  therefore, we have the time to get to know our students well.  Please call with any questions relating to student academic progress, behavior, and general growth.  Working together is the way to best move forward. 

Each scheduled block period is divided into students working independently, or in small groups, towards credit goals each week.   There is no such thing as failure on any assignment.  We are looking for a standard demonstration of competency.  Any assignments not yet up to credit earning requirements will be reviewed and revised for final grading.  No positive effort is ever wasted.

When I’m not at school, I enjoy being in the great outdoors with my family, or working on our Exieri Asierberi Borda (farm).  I also coach youth sports.  I have served as a founding board member of Yreka Splash, and currently, I am the president for Yreka Little League.   These community activities offer a wonderful opportunity to meet many of you away from the school environment.  They also help me to better contribute to our wonderful Siskiyou County culture.

• Birthplace:  Orange, CA
• High School Graduate:  Rim of the World High School, Lake Arrowhead, CA
• AA French:  San Bernardino Valley College
• BA Geography:  California State University San Bernardino
• Secondary Teaching Credential/Social Science: California State University Chico
• Teacher Training Internship:  Dublin, Ireland
• Creative Writing Program Certificate:  Stanford University
• Past Job Titles:  Plumber, Nurseryman, Ski Tech, Environmental/Wilderness Educator
• Work and travel:  Europe, South America, Oceania, Antarctica, North America

 Thanks for stopping in for a visit.

A few good quotes from history:

• "The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." --Leonardo da Vinci
• "To reflect on history is also, inextricably, to reflect on power." --Guy Debord
• "If the present criticizes the past, there is not much hope for the future." --Winston Churchill
• "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed."--Declaration of Independence
• "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free."--William Seward
• "These are my principles; if you don't like them, I've got others."--Groucho Marx
• "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty."--Edward Murrows
• "Americans like history as long as it's over fast enough."--Anna Quindlen
• "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government."--Thomas Jefferson 
• "It is not who votes that counts, it is who counts the votes."--Joseph Stalin
• "Falsification of history has done more to impede human development than any one thing known to man."--Jean Jacques Rousseau    
• "Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."--Le Petit Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• "A good laugh with friends is always better than a goat-headed thorn under foot."--Me
• "A country is never as poor as when it seems filled with riches." --Laozi (lao=old and zi="master)" Daoism