Washington Irving Middle School (Los Angeles)

see also|Washington Irving Middle School (Springfield) "in Virginia".Infobox_School
name =Washington Irving Middle School


imagesize =230px
motto =
established =1937
type =Public
affiliation =
district =Los Angeles Unified School District
grades =6-8
president =
principal =Kimberly B. Noble
head of school =
SLC =6th Grade House, 7th Grade House, 8th Grade House
faculty =
staff =200
students =1500
enrollment =
track =A
athletics =Washington Irving Middle School Bears
conference =
colors =Blue and Gold
mascot =Bears
yearbook =Knickerbocker
no. of tracks =1
free_text =
free_label2 =
free_text2 =
location =3010 Estara Avenue
Los Angeles, California
phone number =[phone]
fax =[phone]
website = [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Irving_MS/index.html Official website]

Washington Irving Middle School is a junior high school in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Irving, which serves grades 6 through 8, is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Irving is named after American author Washington Irving.

The school is located at 3010 Estara Avenue in the Glassell Park district of the city. Students at Irving come from Atwater Avenue Elementary School, Glassell Park Elementary, Glen Feliz Elementary, Doris Place Elementary, Fletcher Drive Elementary, Allesandro Elementary, and more schools all over the Atwater, Eagle Rock, Frogtown, and Glassell Park, areas. Most students that graduate from Irving go to John Marshall High School.

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was one of the first American authors to win recognition in Europe as well as the United States. He became famous for his humorous stories and for his satirical essays, which poked fun at New York City's fashionable society. At various times, Washington Irving also was a lawyer, a businessman, and a United States diplomat to England and Spain.

Irving is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip van Winkle". Both are published as individual books or together, and are encouraged reading at this school as part of its theme. The stories appear originally in Irving's collective larger volume "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon". Irving was also a prolific essayist, biographer and historian. In Rip Van Winkle, the title character falls asleep for 20 years and awakens to find everything different. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells about Ichabod Crane, a poor schoolmaster, and his encounter with a headless horseman.

Helen Chrostowki Memorial Library

In October, 1997, the school's library was dedicated in memory of Helen Chrostowski, a well-loved and long time English teacher at Irving.

Mrs. Chrostowski began teaching during the second semester of 1936, which was the second semester of the school's existence. Excluding the ten years (1946-56) of a leave of absence to rear her two children (who attended Irving), she was at Irving until 1980. During her tenure, Ms. Chrostowski served as English Department Chair, Gifted Coordinator, and was the founder of the Young Authors Conference. Known for her wit and love of words, guests were made to play Scrabble at parties she hosted. After her passing, school staff suggested that the Irving Library be dedicated in her name to reflect the true spirit of Mrs. Chrostowski's dedication to all associated with the school.

Previous name

Prior to being named a middle school, Irving was known as Washington Irving Junior High School.

External links

[http://irvingms.org/ Official website]