Clif Notes 11/4/19
Preparing Students To Be Career & Post Secondary Ready
DATES TO REMEMBER
This Week
Monday - 8 am Start for Extra Help
Tuesday - Faculty Meeting
Wednesday - Academic PLCs; Extra Help;
Report Cards Avail in HAC
Thursday - Academic PLCs
Friday - RTI & Master Schedule Committee Meetings
Upcoming:
11/11 - Veterans Day/CLOSED
11/13 - Fall Blood Drive, Gym
11/14 - ASVAB Testing
11/15 - Fall Sports Banquet
11/18 - Mandatory Senior Class Meeting, 8:15am, Auditorium
Open House
Our staff did an amazing job welcoming prospective students and parents to our school. We also had over 100 student volunteers assist parents and staff with Open House. Our maintenance staff did an outstanding job preparing the building for Open House. The career area teachers had high-interest, hands-on activities that really got the prospective students involved. In addition, the academic teachers, athletics and clubs also offered student-centered, interactive games and activities that made our annual open house exciting. Thank you to all staff members who did a tremendous job creating such an impressive open house event. The extra touch that made our Open House even more memorable to our families.
Delcastle Spirit Committee
Show your thankfulness and appreciation for your colleagues this November. Notecards are located in the mailroom for you to fill out and place in your colleagues’ mailboxes for the month of November.
Thank you!!
Delcastle Spirit Committee
Career & College Fair
Delcastle hosted its annual Career & College Application and Readiness Week last week. Thank you to our awesome guidance staff for assisting students with their applications. Our students received vital information to assist them in completing college applications. Special thanks go to Ms. Jenkins, Mrs. Davis, and her BT students for organizing the Career and College Fair. We also would like to thank all of the staff who assisted and/or attended the Career and College Fair. The students truly benefited from your contributions.
WHAT IS DAY OF THE DEAD?
El Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of life and death. While the holiday originated in Mexico, it is celebrated all over Latin America with colorful calaveras (skulls) and calacas (skeletons). It is a time when families gather to honor and remember deceased loved ones. It is believed that the souls of the dead return to visit the living families in homes and cemeteries to feast, drink and dance with their loved ones. In turn, the living family members treat the deceased as honored guests in their celebrations, and leave the deceased’s favorite foods and other offerings at gravesites or on the ofrendas (altars) built in their homes. Ofrendas can be decorated with candles, bright marigolds called cempasuchil and red cock’s combs alongside food like stacks of tortillas and fruit.
In 2008, UNESCO recognized the importance of Día de los Muertos by adding the holiday to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Mrs. García had a background “Coco” in her classroom. Students decorated face masks.
Image of Marshallton Hall decorated.
Mrs. McCormick dressed as Miguel from Coco. Students wrote loved messages in butterflies to their loved ones and placed them above the Ofrendas (altars).
Arts Summit
Arts Summit helps artists navigate the business side of their craft
Kathy Canavan October 29, 2019 0 Comment Delaware Arts Summit, delaware division of the arts, Elaine Grogan Luttrull
When the commercial real estate market tanked in 2008, John Donato found himself unemployed. He had to replace his salary pronto, but the only skill he could think of was drawing.
“I found myself without a job and with a baby and a wife. My very short-term goal was let’s not lose our house,” he said. “When I was faced with no other options, I said, ‘Why don’t I try being an artist.’”
If you think you know where this story is going, you’re wrong.
Donato swiftly segued into being a “collaborative muralist.” He works with children to paint colorful murals on middle-school hallways, in family-court buildings and at the Freeman Stage in Selbyville.
Nine years later, Donato said he’s far better off financially than he was when he worked in real estate. He said he’s also happier, less stressed, and he has more time for his family, which now numbers four.
The arts employed 4,220 people in Delaware last year. That compares with 3,890 in 2008.
While the numbers moved upward, the wages inched downward. The average wage for the Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media segment was $24.56 per hour in 2008 but just $23.80 per hour in 2018, according to the state Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information.
Donato was one of nearly 250 artists, writers, musicians, performers, filmmakers and others who attended the Oct. 28 Delaware Division of the Arts’ 2019 Delaware Arts Summit, which featured a dozen seminars to help artists navigate the business end of their careers.
<img class="wp-image-170260 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/luttrull-arts-summit-story-by-canavan-150x150.jpg" alt="Delaware Arts Summit speaker" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/luttrull-arts-summit-story-by-canavan-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/luttrull-arts-summit-story-by-canavan-200x200.jpg 200w, https://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/luttrull-arts-summit-story-by-canavan-90x90.jpg 90w, https://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/luttrull-arts-summit-story-by-canavan-64x64.jpg 64w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> Elaine Grogan LuttrullAs speaker Elaine Grogan Luttrull told them in a session dubbed Financial Wellness for Artists, “You can love what you do and get paid. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
Luttrull, a C.P.A. and author of a financial guide for artists, had people nodding in agreement when she said artists should donate their work if they love a cause but they shouldn’t feel they need to donate to every organization that asks in return for exposure: “A lot of us have moved past believing there is value in exposure,” she said. “No one has ever asked a surgeon to do an appendectomy for exposure. Who says to the surgeon, ‘I really need your service. Would you do it and I promise I’ll tweet about it.”
Here are some of her money tips for artists:
- Decide how much you need to earn in order to live the way you want to live and try to build your business with that amount in mind.
- Send thank-yous to people who buy your work. If it’s an art piece, write, “Thank you for buying my piece. I’d love to have a photo of it in your house so I can post it on social media.”
- If you’re asked to donate your work, say, “I’d love to. That sounds amazing. What’s your budget? I usually charge blank, but I’ll be happy to do it for blank.” “It’s like a tennis match,” Luttrull said. “You volley. There’s always a budget.”
- If you donate, ask for something in return –a contact list for people who bid on your piece, tickets to an event where you might meet future customers.
- Because many artists have irregular paydays, a good goal is to set aside 30% of whatever you earn for an emergency reserve fund and save 10% to 15% for your retirement.
One of the youngest Delaware Arts Summit attendees was 20-year-old Edwin Ordonez, who learned digital media at Delcastle Technical High School and is supporting his film work by working seasonal jobs. He walked out with six pages of copious notes.
“As a one-man-band production house, it’s good to get all the information you can to get your finances in order. This has really been helpful,” Ordonez said.
BEWARE of MALWARE!!!
Have you heard students complain about receiving pop-up ads that they cannot turn off?!?
Is your browser redirecting you to a "new" search homepage?!?!
It is likely that you have accidentally installed a type of malware called adware or a browser hijacker on your device!!!
Follow the attached safe computing guidelines to avoid falling victim to malware!!!
Please direct students to this post in their Schoology Class Groups as well. ~ Saladyga
Delcastle Instructional Focus
Interesting Read - Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy by Judith L. Irvin, Julie Meltzer and Melinda S. Dukes
Creating Safe and Responsive Classrooms
In safe and responsive classrooms, teachers respond to adolescents' needs for choice and flexibility and offer clear expectations and support for higher achievement. Teachers are also responsive to differing cultural and socioeconomic perspectives, making their appreciation of these perspectives clear through their facilitation of discussion, choices of literature, structuring of assignments, and assessment strategies. Teachers who successfully build upon the multiple literacies that students bring with them to the classroom learn about these literacies and help students understand how the forms of argumentation, categorization, and rhetoric that they commonly use out of school are similar to and different from those commonly encountered in academic texts.
Most important, teachers must understand that engagement feels like a high risk for many students. For those with low literacy self-esteem, the motivation to read and write depends on their judgments regarding whether teachers will give up on them or believe that they are worth the investment of time and encouragement. Teachers who persist in trying to reach resistant or reluctant learners continue to repeat invitations to join in the discussion, valuing small contributions and allowing students to participate at their own pace. Teachers must make clear to students that they care about their learning and their development of literacy skills, as well as their well-being as individuals. It is okay to make mistakes in these classrooms—the teacher acknowledges explicitly that learning is a continuum and that the role of students in a learning community is to improve their own skills and help others to improve theirs. When possible, teachers incorporate a choice of topic or format and, sometimes, goal setting and self-assessment into reading and writing assignments to accommodate varying student interests and learning styles and to engage students in developing their proficiency as readers and writers.
In the vignette, Kamal's group clearly felt that the classroom was a safe environment in which to learn, question, and present ideas. The team was encouraged to make choices, follow lines of inquiry, and use a variety of sources of information. The teacher validated a personal reason for pursuing the topic and encouraged various means of expression. Resources were provided and support was available to help the students as needed.
Having Students Interact with Text and with Each Other About Text
In classrooms that support motivation, students frequently work in small groups and pairs to analyze texts and to edit one another's writing assignments. Teachers structure learning experiences to help students develop deeper comprehension through discussion, to debate using text-based reasoning, and to understand various points of view. A collaborative learning experience within the context of a classroom environment that welcomes and supports diverse perspectives is the norm across the content areas. The multiple literacies that students bring to the classroom are viewed as a capacity and a resource. Teachers might encourage students to compare and contrast how a scene could be described using first language, home dialects or vernacular English, or IM script. Different ways of approaching and solving problems in math and science and writing are discussed and appreciated. When students share how situations similar to those being studied in social studies or read about in English would play out within their own cultural contexts, teachers value their contributions as additional insight into the topic at hand, not a distraction.
Kamal and his team members were able to discuss their project with one another from its inception through its presentation. They were able to discuss texts and to use their native languages when necessary to understand or explain to one another or to find out how to express something in English. Class activities encouraged discussion and debate and exploration of multiple, often conflicting, texts and points of view.
Focusing on Authentic Literacy Tasks
Authenticity is often the hidden key to motivating reluctant readers and writers to engage in academic literacy tasks. Yet in many middle and high school classrooms, authentic literacy tasks, if they occur at all, tend to be infrequent events. Moreover, many teachers consider simulated performance tasks to be authentic—a perspective students often do not share. Adolescents want their work to matter, and they want to conduct inquiry for reasons other than it being an assignment or an exercise. Authentic literacy tasks play into adolescents' needs to do things that are real and often prompt new effort for rehearsal, comprehension, discussion of content, planning, revision and editing tasks, summarizing, and other literacy skills because these activities are being carried out for purposes other than “just passing it in to the teacher.” This phenomenon was evident in the vignette; the fact that water quality was a real issue that mattered to Kamal and his teammates led to much more rigorous effort than standard textbook reading assignments had elicited.
Other authentic literacy tasks include adolescents reading with younger students or creating books on tape or authoring books for them, designing Web sites, writing newspaper articles, and conducting and reporting upon inquiries that reflect real societal concerns (such as neighborhood crime, pollution, teen issues, or school or city policies that affect them or their families). These strategies often motivate and engage students to persist with challenging or extended reading or writing tasks (Alvermann, 2001).
***More to read next week***