The Spartan Standard
Creating Coherent Systems That Promote Learning For All
Our Mission: Why We Do The Right Thing
- Academic rigor across the curriculum fostering lifelong intellectual curiosity
- A climate of respect, fairness, equality, and security promoting individual confidence and responsibility
- A culture of collaboration between school, family, and community
- A proactive network of student support
- Exciting, unprecedented opportunities for student involvement
- Creative and artistic expression
- State of the Art Technology
Something To Think About...Which Wolf Do You Feed?
Mary Rose's Schedule (Subject to Change)
WEEK ELEVEN:
Monday, April 4: Staff Reports Back; Students Report Back; PLC Collaboration
8:00 Teacher Mtg.
Tuesday, April 5: PLC Collaboration
7:30 Formal Observation
9:30 Parent Mtg.
1:30 PD Mtg. with SDCOE and Curriculum Coaches
Wednesday, April 6:
9:30 Clerical Mtg.
12:37 Formal Observation
2:00 Campus Assistants Mtg.
2:50 FAC Mtg. @ New Library
Thursday, April 7:
9:00 SEA & District Mtg. re: CVH Alternative Schedule @ Legal Services Conference Rm.
12:37 Dept. Chair Mtg. @ Learning Lab
3:00 Pat Pestka Retirement @ D.O.
Friday, April 8:
7:45 Calendar
Saturday, April 9:
8:00 Saturday School
WEEK TWELVE:
Monday, April 11: PLC Collaboration
4:00 Technology Task Force Mtg.
Tuesday, April 12:
8:30 Formal Observation
9:48 Formal Observation
11:00 Formal Observation
12:40 Teacher Mtg.
3:00 School Site Council
Wednesday, April 13:
8:00 Dr. Janney site visit
11:00 Formal Observation
2:50 Faculty Mtg. @ TBD
Thursday, April 14: SBAC Special Schedule: Periods 1-3-5
4:00 Management Mtg. @ PDC
7:00 Room Full of Guitars @ PAC
Friday, April 15: SBAC Special Schedule: Periods 2-4-6
7:45 Calendar
Saturday, April 16:
8:00 Saturday School
8:00 Magkaisa Conference @ SYHS
Kudos, Thanks, and Transitions
- Please welcome Serena Pariser to our Spartan Family. She will be teaching English to our seniors and Literacy Wokshop to our Freshmen.
- Emily Allison has accepted the position of English Language Arts Curriculum Coach.
- Please welcome Daisy Heard as our School Administrative Assistant, a.k.a. Principal's Secretary. Daisy is a Chula Vista High alumnae. She is happy to come home.
- Please join me in thanking Sandra Gray for helping us out the last several weeks. She will be here one more day on Monday, April 4, to assist Daisy with outstanding issues. If you have the chance, please thank her for all her work with us during the transition.
- Please welcome Yadira Marroquin-Solis in her new role as the Categorical Office Assistant. She will be supporting Marisol Higareda in her role as CIS Coordinator.
- Congratulations to Kristie Christensen who secured an internship partnership for her student at Buffalo Wild Wings. Way to go reaching out to our surrounding businesses and community!
- Kudos to our Dance Teachers, Marla Navarrete, Valerie Ingram, and Sonia Jaime. Our Dance students represented well in the District Dance Concert.
- Kudos to Michelle Spielman and Tom Lynn for their participation and coordination of the District Art Show held in the Orange Ave. South County Public Library.
- A very big thank you to Hilda Bender who coordinated credit recovery this past Intersession. We had about 200 students attempt to complete a credit or meet A-G requirements. Special thanks to Daryl Butterfield, Marisol Higareda, Michael McCann, and Lindsee Tauck for taking time out of their vacation to help our students by taking on teaching duties.
- Congratulations to Patrick Doerr and James Barton. On Sunday April 3rd, the Spartan Color Guard won the Bronze Medal at the West Coast Winter Guard Championships! This is their 4th medal at championships in the past 5 years. Kudos!
VMA & Dance Students Extend Learning in London
London was an AMAZING experience!
Perhaps the most rewarding experience was our cultural exchange with the arts school (Italia Conti Arts) in Guilford. We had a double decker bus transport us out of the city, our students got to see the country side of the UK on our way to small town of Guilford.
When we arrived, their voice teacher gave my students a workshop in a Les Miserables song! After that we met the all the students of the school and performed for them. They loved our performance! Then they performed for us and they were absolutely amazing! After the exchange, we had a nice talk back session with the students. They asked each other questions typical teenagers would ask another from a different country! Then lots of photos with the students!
The tour went smoothly with no major problems. The incident in Brussels did not impact our airport either. Great attitudes from the students and parents!
Special thanks to our faculty who, with parents, served as chaperones: Marla Navarrete and Clint McDonald.
Spring Sports Thrive During Intersession
Spartans Impress on a Visit to Japanese Garden
Faculty Meeting Follow-Up
I want to commend all of you for your professionalism and support of our students who risked sharing answers to questions about student engagement. The students were impressive in sharing their experiences. They were very poised and articulated well. Please know that these 6 students belong to, and represent, the following groups in our school:
- SCPA
- English Learners
- Students with Disabilities
- AP/Honors/GATE
- Homeless
- Students Dealing with Trauma/Crisis
- "Regular" students
The students were prompted in their discussion with the following:
- "An engaging lesson/experience that I had in class was..."
- "I feel I can reach my highest academic potential in the classroom when..."
- How did your teachers create a supportive classroom? What strategies did the teacher use to facilitate engagement between students?
- How did they form positive relationships with you and other students? Did this impact your attitude and academic performance?
- Is there a difference between being compliant/ontask in the classroom and being engaged in the lesson?
- What challenges did your teachers face with student engagement? Was this challenge a result of the relationship the teacher had with the class?
- How do you know when there are high expectations in your classes?
- Talk about a time when your relationship with a teacher either encouraged you to rise to high expectations, or impede your academic growth.
The following is a summary of our students' responses:
- We want our teachers to show us they care. This could take the form of asking us how we are doing, knowing our name, knowing when there is something wrong and asking us if we are okay. We thrive when they care.
- We have had caring experiences with our teachers at this school.
- We want feedback on our work. We appreciate receiving teacher comments about our work, aside from just a grade.
- When we learn, we remember for the rest of our lives. We will comply with work but not necessarily learn.
- We want to be held accountable for our behavior but we also want to be given chances before we are referred to the next tier of discipline.
- We appreciate how hard our teachers work and we feel bad when they are disrespected by students.
- Relevance engages us to the lesson.
- We want to be challenged but we also want to be supported. We want to be able to ask for help when having difficulty.
- We were students who challenged teachers at one time and were frequently in the Main Office but because of caring teachers, we persevered.
- We do not want to disappoint our teachers who we have a caring relationship with. We try harder.
- We do not appreciate being treated like little children. We want to be treated like young adults, capable of having reasonable conversations with the adults here at school.
Our students validated many of the things that we do to help our students thrive. They have honored the work that many of you do, as thankless as it may seem. They have also given us food for thought as we continue to engage in the work of supporting all students.
Walkthrough Focus
As we walk through this week, we will be looking for the following:
- How am I building on skills learned first semester to help students be successful second semester?
- How am I conveying, with clarity, the purpose of the day's lesson, how the day's agenda supports its completion, and the evidence that students need to show for completion/mastery?
- How am I developing creating opportunities for structured student interaction?
- How have I planned for possible misconceptions?
- How am I scaffolding for English Learners and/or Students With Disabilities?
- How am I grouping my students so that they are helping each other reach their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as they collaborate?
PLC Collaboration
- Please work on the agenda that you had agreed upon based on your last PLC collaboration.
- The Science Department will be engaged in safety training.
- A reminder that everyone is expected to stay on campus until the end of the PLC time. Thank you for your professionalism.
- Consider the following suggestion: Specifically concentrate your planning around anticipating student difficulties or misconceptions in your lessons. From your experience or from data you have, what misconceptions or difficulties do students have with the lesson/unit you are/will be presenting? How do you/will you plan differently to address anticipated misconceptions or difficulties in learning of students? I truly believe that by just doing this will make a big difference in student learning, engagement, and achievement.
- Minutes should include products (lessons, CFA's, adjusted lesson plans, specific agreements on instructional strategy use) that should be uploaded to our CANVAS page. I want to see the result/s of your collaboration. Please see your Curriculum Coach for assistance, if needed.
Thank you for your focused engagement and hard work!
Culture Corner: Transforming Classrooms Through The Power of Building Relationships
With intentional action using these strategies, relationships between students and teachers will become stronger and classrooms can be transformed.
Have a Teaching Moment
Use mistakes as learning opportunities for individual students, and if appropriate, for the whole class. Use discretion and good judgment, never embarrassing anyone. Kids are a work in progress and can use as much guidance as possible, regardless of what they may think they need.
Summer School Returning to CVHS
Summer School will be returning to Chula Vista High School this summer of 2016. Mr. Alain Garnica-Mendoza will be the Administrator in Charge. He will be assisted by the rest of the administrators and Marisol Higareda. Applications for summer school will be generated from the Human Resources Office. Please watch your E-mails for the applications.
This is everyone's notice that ALL classrooms and facilities will be used for summer school. If you have a classroom with airconditioning, please note that your classroom will SURELY be used. Office work spaces will also be used by clerical and support staff. It is a good idea to start making your classroom and/or work space summer school ready for our visiting teachers and staff by clearing clutter and disposing of unused paper and instructional materials a little at a time.
For The Common Good
- INNOVATIVE SCHEDULE UPDATE: The District and SEA will be talking about the innovate schedule on Thursday, April 7. James Love and Deborah Nevin will be at the table with SEA representing CVHS.
- FACILITIES UPGRADES: Good news! $5.3 M has been allocated for facilities upgrades for our school. A series of meetings will be scheduled with us and our community to talk about guidelines and priorities. I will keep you informed.
- SMARTER-BALANCED CONSORTIUM ASSESSMENT (SBAC): Mr. Garnica-Mendoza has sent the memo regarding this high-stakes testing (our baseline data continues this testing cycle). Please note our special schedule for your planning purposes. Juniors take this test. Please be mindful of taking students out of classes during these crucial times. Questions, please see or E-mail Alain Garnica-Mendoza.
- CALIFORNIA STANDARDS TESTING (CST): All our sophomores will need to take the CST End of Course in Life Science on April 28. Again, Mr. Garnica-Mendoza will send the memo as to what our day will look like and our involvement. Again, please be mindful of taking students out of classes during these crucial times.
- STUDENT-LED CONFERENCE UPDATE: The 9th grade student-led conferences will be from April 18 – 21 from 3:00 – 7:00 pm in the Learning Lab. With the support of all 9th grade teachers, freshmen have been constructing an academic portfolio that should include at least one work sample from each of their classes. The students’ conference date/time is determined by their English teacher and period. A schedule has been E-mailed to all staff. On their assigned date students will invite their parent/guardian to come to the Learning Lab and have an academic discussion about the skills they have been learning for this first semester and a half of high school. A student led conference is a great college and career ready activity and it gives students and families an opportunity to have an authentic discussion about learning and to set goals for the future. Thank you to all the 9th grade teachers for supporting and guiding your freshmen students in selecting their work sample and completing the Work Reflection Form. Special thanks to the 9th grade English teachers for taking the lead on this important grade-wide initiative. As a reminder, if you are a 9th grade teacher, you are invited to attend any one of the student led conference dates. Please let Marisol know which day/times you can attend in order to receive compensation.
- PARENT INSTITUTE for QUALITY EDUCATION (PIQE): Through the efforts of Marisol Higareda, our parents will be able to participate in a series of workshops designed to teach them about our educational system and engage them in our school processes so they can get involved. The workshops are every Wednesday, from April 8-May 25. There will be two sessions, one at 8:30 AM and another at 6:00 PM.
- SAFETY CORNER: If you have any concerns about a safety hazard in your work area or anywhere on campus as a result of facilities or furniture, please let our Safety Officer, Alain Garnica-Mendoza, know either by E-mail or by personally telling him.