Titan Talk
Henry M Gunn High School
About us
Email: mgordon@pausd.org
Website: https://gunn.pausd.org/
Location: 780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Phone: (650) 354-8200
October 4, 2020: Vol 4 Issue 8
Upcoming Events
Gunn Together: Period 7:
9th - 12th Grades: Wellness Presentations from the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI).
Students should check into their 7th-period class for attendance and receive links. Students who have a 7th-period prep should check Schoology after Gunn Together starts.
Notable Dates:
November 6, 2020, The second progress/warning notice period ends. Deadline for dropping a class and not having it appear on a transcript.
Titan Talk and Gunn Together Times
Did you miss our previous editions of Titan Talk or Principal Stratton's Gunn Together Times? You can access previous editions on the Communications Link on the Gunn Website, or navigate there by clicking on the Connecting menu and then click on Communications.
The Wellness Center:
Gunn Wellness Center
Last week, Gunn and Paly joined forces to host the first-ever Virtual Wellness Week. We had 13 wellness organizations from the community presenting throughout the week. Students who attended learned about the ways that each presenter is providing services or support virtually, as well as ways to get involved. These opportunities empower students to be able to seek support from organizations in the community or help their peers and family members get connected! All available recordings will be made available next week to students and parents! For a list of all organizations, click HERE!
Coming Soon!
Tuesday, October 13 will start a parenting support webinar series on Families Connecting Across Generations Workshop sponsored by Palo Alto Unified School District’s Wellness and Support Services in partnership with Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI). This is a 9-week workshop that will be led by AACI counselors in Mandarin. While parts of the workshops are tailored specifically to families of middle school and high school age students, it is open to families of K-12 students. The series will focus on educating families on preparing for their children's future with culturally focused parenting and offer guidance under these uncertain times. Contact Yifan Wang, AMFT for more information, 650.329.3999 ext. 6975 or by email at ywang@pausd.org. Please register at Eventbrite. Once registered, participants will receive a link to join live or receive access to a recording of each session.
Mindful Minute
Take 10 minutes to read THIS article on strengths-based parenting. Having a strengths-based perspective means focusing on "what's strong" versus "what's wrong". Practicing this in parenting may just help improve relationships and communication with our children.
SELF (Social Emotional Learning and Functionality)
In partnership with PAUSD's Office for Equity and Student Affairs, this year the SELF program will be presenting a series of lessons for students across all grade levels using curriculum from "Confronting Bias, Working Toward Equity: A High School Curriculum," published by the Anti-Defamation League. In this week's lesson, the first in a series of four, students will explore what microaggressions are, how they have experienced them, and what can be done to counteract them. A central piece of social-emotional learning is empathy, and we’ve been engaged in an intense national conversation about empathy these past several months--what it’s like to not feel safe, what it feels like to be discriminated against, and how some people have privileges that others don’t. These lessons are meant to ensure that Gunn is an inclusive place for absolutely every student and that our verbal and non-verbal communications are conscientious, conscious, kind, and empathetic.
The District's website for Community Engagement Resources contains many helpful resources and the following statement that helps give context to our work as well: "PAUSD is committed to equity and our mission to create and sustain a climate where all students, staff, and families feel valued and respected. Our communities of color are experiencing a great deal of pain and outrage right now and it is important that they know that the attitudes and actions behind the recent racist incidents and violence do not represent our values. As a community, we can help our children to understand what is contributing to the racial violence in our country and to address social injustice, racism, learn how to make lasting change in a democracy."
Gunn Counseling
Lunch with Your Counselor
Attention 9th-grade students - 9th Grade “Lunch with Your Counselor” will be taking place next week. If you have the time, this is a great opportunity for students to stop by and say hello, share about the start of the school year, and get any questions you might have answered. Don't miss it! Here is the schedule of dates, and Zoom links will be provided to you directly through Schoology:
Ms. Bueno – 10/14, 11:40-12:10pm
Mr. Chavez – 10/12, 12:35-1:05 pm
Ms. Dickson – 10/12, 12:35-1:05pm
Mr. Fidani – 10/13, 11:40-12:10pm
Mr. Johanson – 10/15, 11:40-12:10 pm
Mr. Leftwich – 10/12, 12:35-1:05 pm
Ms. Reyes – 10/16, 11:40-12:10pm
Ms. Ross – 10/14, 11:40-12:10pm
Gunn Counseling Parent Nights
In case you missed the 9th and 10th-grade presentations, here are the links to the presentations.
9th Grade Counseling Slide show from Parent Night (Unfortunately the 9th-grade video is unavailable)
10th Grade Counseling Parent Night Video
11th Grade Counseling Parent Night Video
12th Grade Counseling Parent Night Video
Counseling Quarterly Newsletters
Newsletters were sent out this past week. If you missed them, here are the links for each grade level.
Support for Gunn Families
If you are experiencing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19, please let your Gunn student's counselor know. If you are struggling to pay for college application fees or other college-related costs, please contact Linda Kirsch at lkirsch@pausd.org and Leighton Lang at llang@pausd.org. This is a very challenging time for some Gunn families, and the PTSA would like you to know that our community is here for you! We are all in this together and together we will make it through.
- Gunn’s Counseling Department
Sources of Strength
Sources of Strength is a national strength-building suicide prevention program designed to help students spread messages of Hope, Help, and Strength. Past and new participants are welcome. Check out our Gunn Sources of Strength video: tinyurl.com/GSOSvideo
If you would like to get Remind notices of coming events, text @hmghs to 81010. Look forward to a late fall training and following activities, TBD.
ROCK (Reach Out Care Know)
Check out a one-minute video highlighting some of what ROCK does.
ROCK has a few exciting projects in the works.
- socially distanced yoga
- painting rocks
- social media campaigns
- SELF class presentations
- thank you campaign
e-mail: rockatgunn@gmail.com
web: rockatgunn.com
Instagram: @rockatgunn
Student Activities
Student Activities Purchase Pick Up: Buy some Gunn Gear on the web-store and come by the Student Activities Center at Gunn on Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:00 - 4:00 pm to pick up! Be sure to bring proof of purchase/ receipt.
Yearbook Things:
- Order a Senior Baby Ad for this year’s Yearbook! Link to Baby Ad Form Deadline is 10/30.
- Miss out on purchasing a 2019-2020 Yearbook? There are still some available! Purchase at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/19-20GunnYearbook
Seniors Shirts - Pick up in the SAC: If you ordered a senior shirt but missed the Pick Up Days, you can come by the Student Activities Center on Wednesdays or Fridays from 1-4 pm to pick up your order!
College and Career
Seniors: CSU is ready to receive applications through DEC 4. Early to SLO can make a difference. You have priority to CSU EB, SJ, and SF.
UC—know who will be willing to read testing and who will not (UCB UCI UCSC UCSB). Finish essays…be sure your teacher recommendations are set to go.
Filling in applications: look for the Guidance Team postings of dates and times FAFSA: ready to be worked on. College Visits: check out the list on Naviance of who is coming here and who has a listing on “Find your Fit”— it is huge. The end of the Quarter is October 9 feel free to share the good news on your college application. (self-report). The last date to drop a class is on November 6.
Juniors: If you have not signed up for an appointment, please make contact, I am working on November now and there are 200 of you who have not made contact. This meeting is also for students planning to look at military options, go directly to work, or will be attending Community College right after HS. Do take time to visit YouTube and watch speakers or presenters who have something to share about colleges, science, technology….do take time to read for information or pleasure. Put TED TALKS on your “to-do” list and set time aside to listen to some of the experts in the fields you think will be important to you in college.
General Information:
Gotocollegefairs.com more information when you need it.
California Community College INFO: http://stayenrolled.com
Stanford Financial Aid presentations Oct 14, 22, 27 at 6 PM, and PTSA and Parent Networks have sent out the links.
Free ART COURSES— www. academy of art.edu
Cal Maritime: Oct 17-22 www.csum.edu/previewweek — this is a gem often overlooked CSU program.
Summer OPS: The Road Less Traveled just sent the news…they will be able to run this summer and have all the CV19 issues worked out.
NAVIANCE: will add work-based learning with local options, Career Exploration with profiles and salary as well as the path to get there and capturing Merit Money will be college-specific and student targeted.
“Did You Know”
University of Notre Dame (IN) has a one of a kind Latino Studies program to train Latino Leaders and there will be scholarships.
CSU FRESNO: as the top-rated Physical Therapy and Nursing Program. They have a forensic behavioral science lab. Check out the Business Science Major there.
NEW COLLEGE PLANNING COURSES & TOOLS FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS
As part of our ongoing commitment to ensure PAUSD families have multiple points of access to timely information, Collegewise has provided a free series of college planning programs and resources, called “Runway.” This series provides carefully structured resources to give students and parents the tips, tools, and timelines they need to reach their college goals in 2020. Program offerings are specific to high school grade levels.
When students sign up for “Runway,” they will have access to content and videos designed for you and your family that cover topics including:
- College list building
- Finding good value colleges
- Overview of types of colleges
- Personal statement brainstorming and writing
- Effective Common App completion
- Financial aid applications
- Fee waivers overview
- UC application guidance
Students in grades 9-11: You’ll have access to an on-demand video library, access to a monthly newsletter, and a variety of guides covering everything from STEM programs to understanding the demands of The Common App. Sign up for the program here.
“Runway” provides a valuable supplement to the more specific information available from counselors and college advisors at each high school. Here are the links to the resources available at Gunn. For more information, please review the counseling/guidance web pages, under Campus Life, on the schools’ websites: https://gunn.pausd.org/.
Gunn Affiliated Associations
PTSA
The Gunn PTSA supports Gunn high school in many ways such as teacher grants, student activities, fundraising, and organizing volunteers. Please visit the Gunn PTSA website for more information.
Palo Alto Partners in Education
Partners in Education (PiE): PiE raises money from parents and the community to provide all Palo Alto Unified School District students an educational experience beyond what is possible with public funding. The 2020-2021 fundraising campaign has begun. See here what PiE funds for Gunn.
Gunn Foundation
The Gunn Foundation grants need-based scholarships to graduating Gunn seniors in our community. Scholarships fund college expenses like deposits, textbooks, fees, and technology needed for distanced learning. Gunn Foundation scholarships can make a huge difference in the future of a Gunn student.