Luis Valdez Leadership Academy
Lion Roar
Week of April 13 - April 19, 2020
School Contact Information
Instagram Follow us @sjlvla
Website: www.sjlvla.org
Location: 1855 Lucretia Avenue, San Jose, CA, USA
Phone: 408-384-4015
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sjlvla
TO YOU FROM STAFF
From Your Principal
While there are still many facets of remote learning to explore, it is your curiosity, grit, and resilience that will continue to contribute to a positive experience. Our teachers are 100% invested in your learning and have put a lot of thought into what and how you will learn! Our goal is to make this experience as smooth as possible and ensure you have all that you need to be successful. Part of a that success is maintaining aware of what is happening, so here are a few updates:
- Graduation Ceremony is planned for Friday, June 5, 2020 at 6:00 PM at Bustos Plaza at The Foundation for Hispanic Education
- Spring Break is Monday, April 13 through Friday, April 17, 2020.
- School Campus closure was extended to June 5, 2020 and remote learning will continue through the end of this academic school year.
- We are currently registering for the Class of 2024. Please spread the word to your family and friends!
- AP Exam schedule was released, the schedule. College Board announced that the AP exam will be taken at home. https://apcoronavirusupdates.collegeboard.org/educators/taking-the-exams/ap-exam-schedule
- State of California suspended CAASSP and ELPAC tests for this school year.
- Work Permits can be obtained during school closure. Please contact our front office to obtain a form.
- This is a time to improve your grades and learn a new skill set, take advantage of opportunities for new learning.
I think of you and everyone in our community daily and hope that you are staying safe and healthy. We are limitless. We truly are. So light a match that will fire up the passion that you have inside, whatever that might be. This is a perfect time to explore that might be. Write a book, read to your siblings, try a recipe passed down in your family (un mole, unas enchiladas, un pozole, empanadas, etc.), write your story and share it, sell your crafts on Etsy, explore places you want to volunteer when this pandemic is over, record your families cuentos, talk to your grandparents, take virtual tours, and rest. We know COVID-19 has changed many things in our lives right now, yet continue to be kind to each other, act in love, talk in love, and become love. I miss you.
Your Principal,
Ms.Gonzalez
ACADEMICS
Grading Period 5 closed on Friday, April 10, 2020 and reflects assignments through March 13, 2020. Grades will be posted to PowerSchool after Monday, April 21, 2020. If you have any questions, please reach out to your teachers.
FROM THE DEAN OF STUDENTS
Hi Leones,
Phew! You made it through week one of distance learning. Make sure you reflect and recognize yourself for making it through the first week of a new learning platform! I want to reiterate my thoughts from last week: I hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and doing well. I am thinking of you every day!
Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you or any family member is in need of any type of assistance including, but not limited to: technology, food, wellness, mental, and/or financial support. There are resources and services available, and all you have to do is call the school.
With regard to virtual class meetings, I am including last week’s Dos and Don’ts one more time so that you can use them during distance learning. I won’t include them in next week’s newsletter, but please reach out to me if you need me to share them with you again. Review them, and reach out to me and share how they worked for you:
Avoid Academic Integrity Violations:
Don’t: Do not copy work, plagiarize, cheat, or violate the academic integrity policies of the school handbook in any way*
Do: Do your best, do your own work, and ask for help.
Be Respectful to Everyone:
Don’t: Do not be rude, do not bully or harass, and do not record students and/or teachers at any time with any device*
Do: During virtual class instruction, or any type of class communication, remember to be kind, professional, positive, and supportive.
Stay Engaged:
Don’t: Do not just log on at the start of a virtual class instruction portion, and then go do something else.
Do: Stay engaged during a virtual class instruction portion, participate by listening (speaking when asked by your teacher), and follow your teacher’s directives.
Avoid Unproductive Multitasking:
Don’t: Multitasking is great, but during virtual class introduction do not use your phone to socialize or play games, do not play video games, do not engage in any other unproductive activity that can distract you from instruction.
Do: Pay attention and stay engaged. Active listening is a great way to participate when your teacher is calling on you during class.
Take Breaks:
Don’t: Do not forget to take great care of your physical, mental, and emotional health!
Do: Do something enjoyable, read a book, and stay active (but practice social distancing).
With all the above being said, here is my best practice suggestion for week #2 of distance learning: Communication.
If you need clarification with an assignment, communicate.
If you are experiencing issues logging on to any of the learning platforms, communicate.
If you are still using your own phone hotspot because your home doesn't have WiFi, and your parent/guardian hasn’t contacted the school, communicate.
If you feel anxious about anything or need to speak with someone, please communicate.
If your family is in need of any service or resource like food, financial relief, or mental/emotional support, communicate.
Last, but not least...enjoy the week off and make the best out of your Spring Break! Be sure to spend time with those you love, engage in creative activities, read a book, stay active (but practice social distancing), and DON’T PLAY VIDEO GAMES OR MAKE TIKTOK VIDEOS FOR 8 HOURS A DAY! Sorry...had to get out of my chest. That’s the dad in me talking:)
There are many loving and caring teachers and staff members who are eager to extend their support. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.
Miss you! STAY SAFE and HEALTHY!
Mr. Monroy
RESOURCES
Mondays: Our Lady of Peace (2800 Mission College Blvd Santa Clara, CA 95054)
Tuesdays: Our Lady of Refuge (Closest to LVLA) (2165 Lucretia Ave San Jose, CA 95122) (5PM-7PM)
Wednesdays: St. Martin of Tours (200 O'Connor Dr. San Jose, CA 95128) (9AM-11AM)
Thursdays: St. John Vianney (4600 Hyland Ave San Jose, CA 95127) (9AM-11AM)
Fridays: St. Lucy's Campbell (2350 S Winchester Blvd Campbell, CA 95008) (10AM-12PM)
Saturdays: Santa Teresa Parish (794 Calero Ave San Jose, CA 95123)
ACADEMIC COUNSELING CORNER
Information Technology
Birthdays
The Foundation for Hispanic Education Updates
https://sites.google.com/tfhe.org/socialdistancingmessage/home
https://sites.google.com/tfhe.org/noticetotfhestudentsandfamilie/home
MINDFULNESS
MINDFUL APPRECIATION
In this exercise, all you have to do is notice 5 things in your day that usually go unappreciated.
These things can be objects or people; it’s up to you. Use a notepad to check off 5 by the end of the day.
The point of this exercise is to simply give thanks and appreciate the seemingly insignificant things in life, the things that support our existence but rarely get a second thought amidst our desire for bigger and better things.
For example: electricity powers your iron, the postman delivers your mail, your clothes provide you warmth, your nose lets you smell flowers, your ears let you hear the birds in the tree by the bus stop, but…
- Do you know how these things/processes came to exist, or how they really work?
- Have you ever properly acknowledged how these things benefit your life and the lives of others?
- Have you ever thought about what life might be like without these things?
- Have you ever stopped to notice their finer, more intricate details?
- Have you ever sat down and thought about the relationships between these things and how together they play an interconnected role in the functioning of the earth?
Once you have identified your 5 things, make it your duty to find out everything you can about their creation and purpose to truly appreciate the way in which they support your life.
Class of 2020 College Acceptances
Joshua
San Francisco State University
UC Santa Cruz
UC Davis
Karina
UC Santa Cruz
UC Merced
UC Davis
UC Berkeley
Humboldt State UniversityStanislaus State University
Bakersfield State University
San Francisco State University
Marah
Los Angeles State University
Miah
Los Angeles State University
Samuel
Chico State University
Saint Mary's College
Pomona College
San Jose State University
Class of 2020 UPDATES
Senior Check out date is Friday, May 29, 2020. You will need to complete all items on the check out list in preparation for Graduation.
POETRY CONTEST WINNERS!
LIKE A MAN
Like A Man.
your love is like a drug
Toxic to her body
but she has the need for more.
naive to this feeling of love
She asks
“is this what love is?”
as she starts to feel
a thousand
boulders on her chest
beating down on her with immense force
and power she had no idea even existed
and believes that there’s
nothing
she can do to relieve it.
no one ever taught her any better though
the feeling of denial kept her there
in a place where love isn’t happy
which is where
she began to learn the unfair lesson
that as a woman you just have to
Take it like a Man
Written by Ruby Lopez
Untitled
I wish you didn't love me.
To only find out you did.
Was when I lost you.
Written by Nicole Robinson
ART CONTEST
Guidelines
- Email your art piece to Ms.Gonzalez at ggonzalez@sjlvla.org by Friday, April 17, 2020 midnight, using your LVLA email account. it can be scanned, or take a picture of your art, and e mail it.
- Entry must be an LVLA student.
- Art can be style and any appropriate subject.
- Must be original work.
- Art must be free of vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate images and language..
People That Changed the World
Xiuhtezcatl Martínez
At just 16 years old, Xiuhtezcatl Martínez already had more than a decade of environmental activism under his belt. Martínez – who learned at an early age that as an indigenous person, he’s a descendant of the original caretakers of the land. The self-described “indigenous environmental eco-hip hop artist and activist,” heads up the Earth Guardians activist organization, has spoken at the UN and TED talks, and in 2013 was recognized as a “Youth Changemaker of the Year” by President Obama (he was 13 at the time).
In 2016, Martínez stood out like never before. He and a group of teens sued the United States government for their inaction on climate change in April. The group accused the government, the fossil fuel industry, and other federal agencies of causing irreparable damage to the environment, and therefore, encroaching on their constitutional rights to life and liberty.
On November 10, 2016, he and his fellow environmentalists got one step closer to their goal by winning the right to sue the US government. Just days after their victory, he and his co-plaintiffs called on President Barack Obama to meet with them before his term was over on January 20, 2017. They asked Obama to denounce the fossil fuel industry and to settle the case out of courts. They argued that this is the way for Obama to cement his legacy. “We are defining the future we will pass on to generations to come,” he said. “This is a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. We need President Obama to stand with us.”
Xiutezcatl also won the Children’s Climate Prize . Each year, Swedish company Telge Energi awards a kid between 10 and 16 for their contributions to the environment. The jury commended him for taking on the powerful fossil fuel industry and for mobilizing others.
Martinez was born in Colorado, but moved to Mexico in his infancy. As of 2019, he lives with his family in Boulder, Colorado. His mother, Tamara Roske, was the one of the founders of the Earth Guardian Community Resource Center, a high school in Maui, Hawaii. Roske serves as Executive Director of Earth Guardians. Martinez has two younger siblings, sister Tonantzin, and brother Itzcuauhtli. His father, Siri Martinez, is of Aztec heritage, and he has raised his children in the tradition of the Mexica (one of the native peoples of México). His family has transferred the traditional knowledge of seeing an individual as part of a greater whole, and emphasizing connection between all aspects of the natural world
Learn More
Address to United Nations https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=27gtZ1oV4kw#
Real Time with Bill Maher https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ivz4OaYpMpc&feature=youtu.be