Eagle Express
LHS Staff Newsletter--Year 17, Vol. 31, 04/09/2018
One Lunch Committee Meeting
As a follow-up to the discussions we had on our staff day, all those interested in working on fine tuning our One Lunch processes are invited to a meeting on Tuesday (4/10) in the Library at 2:35.
Announcements & Reminders
Ring Dance Chaperones Needed: The junior class would love to have you celebrate with them this Saturday evening at the Aquarium. The Ring Dance will be held from 7:30 to 10:30 and flex time will be awarded to all staff who help out with this event. Please see Danielle Gish or Lindsey Clouser (class sponsors) if you have any questions.
Purple Up for Military Children: April is the Month of the Military Child. In celebration and recognition of the contributions the children of our military men and women, you are encouraged to wear purple this Friday (4/13)!
Class of 2020 Fundraiser: Purchase a certificate for a dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. The cost is $9 and you can redeem the certificate anytime you want at the local Krispy Kreme. Sales end April 11. You can buy them from any sophomore, Dawn Euman or Kate Lucas.
Graduation Gowns: Staff participation in our graduation ceremonies is a wonderful tradition at LHS. If you need a gown and/or hood to wear at our graduation on June 15, please send Dave Siock the following information by Friday, March 30: Name, height, college of highest degree, degree received and degree level (i.e. – Master’s in School Administration). Jostens will cover the cost of these items.
Third Quarter Grades: Due to the extension of semester 1, the quarter 3 grade reporting window has changed. Quarter 3 ends Friday, April 13th. The grade posting window opens April 10th. Grades will be due by noon on Monday, April 16th.
I Make A Difference Award
This week's recipient of the I Make a Difference badge is Laura Newsham. Last week's recipient, Melissa Calaman writes, "Here at the Nest, Laura Newsham is making a difference every day! She works hard to motivate her students to persevere and trust themselves in all that they do. Laura has a gift for enticing even the most reluctant student to participate in their learning with her pedagogy. She prepares creative and innovative learning activities that make Chemistry a little easier to understand through dynamic and interactive labs. Laura is constantly adjusting her learning plans to differentiate and accommodate her students’ learning needs. She never gives up on them and believes that all students can be successful! During her planning time, lunch breaks, and after school, you will find Laura tutoring/ assisting students, ordering Chemical supplies for the Science department, or collaborating with her colleagues about new ideas and strategies. Laura, thank you for making a difference at Landstown!"
Moving SharePoint Content to Office 365
DOT is preparing for the migration of the SharePoint-based department and school Intranet websites from their existing, internally hosted location to Office 365. The first phase of the migration will require staff to relocate their individual My Site and internal OneDrive files to their Office 365 OneDrive using the detailed instructions found here. Staff will receive one terabyte of data storage in their Office 365 OneDrive; however, it is recommended that staff members move only the files that are actually needed. My Sites will be set to read only on May 15 and access will be completely removed on June 18. Staff should move files before these deadlines. If you have any questions or concerns, please see Mr. McCollum, Erik, or Krissy.
PAC Updates
Referrals: A concern was expressed related to teachers not hearing back from referrals submitted. The admin team discussed this at their weekly meeting and have recommitted to responding to referrals within 48 hours. Teachers are reminded to copy Jocelyn or Christina when submitting referrals. If you have a concern about a specific referral, please see the administrator in question.
Tardies: The admin team had experimented with a different process for dealing with the tardies sent from the tardy window. The experimental process was not effective and we are now back to our previous system. If you continue to have concerns about tardies being dealt with, please see the administrator in question.
Kudos
Kudos to our NJROTC cadets who volunteered at the Bounce House during their respite night recently. The owner of the Bounce House wrote that the cadets . . . "were amazing! They were able to serve 5 additional children than they usually have, and every child had their own buddy to assist them. The cadets were responsible, kind, and patient with the children throughout the night. They were a very respectful group of young men and women. All the kids had a blast!" The cadets also assisted with the Landstown Commons Easter festival and with the Special Boat Group 4 Easter Family Fun Day.
Congratulations to Scott Cummings who moves on to the state debate tournament at Randolph Macon. He will be competing in Student Congress.
Congratulations to Alyssa Norris for being named to the First Team All-State Girls Basketball Team and to Alexa Roberson for being named to the Second Team.
Kudos to Jasmine Crawley who was featured in the Pilot recently. Check out the story here.
Kudos to Esabel Samonte who was featured on WAVY-TV10 for her battle with MS. Check out the story here.
Congratulations to Coach Reamon who was featured in a recent online article. Check it out here.
Advisory
Our April Advisory day is set for Wednesday (4/11) and will be used for SCA and class election information. The election videos will be in a Google Slide that will be uploaded to the grade level Advisory Google Classrooms so you can access the final Advisory block materials the same way you normally do. Voting will be done in advisory via zip grade just like last year.
April Students of the Month
9th--Addison Barry
10th--Ayinde Bradford
11th--Bria Miller
12th--Soledad Jimenez
Don't forget that anyone can nominate students for this honor. Use this link to nominate students at any time.
Eagle Nation Mentors Needed
We need the names of rising sophomores or juniors who would make good Eagle Nation Mentors. These students do not necessarily just need to be "A" students, but are students who you think are responsible, trustworthy, dependable and are students who would serve as strong mentors to our incoming Freshman class. These mentors will work over the summer on team building and leadership skills, they will lead Eagle Nation Orientation in August and will help facilitate next year's Advisories. The students you list on this google form will be notified that "someone" thinks they'd make a great mentor, they'll be given information on the mentorship program and directed to an online application. You may recommend more than one student. Thanks so much for your help in making Eagle Nation a great place to work and go to school!
More from Matt @ Ditch That Textbook
Matt Miller is a great resource for educators. He has practical and easily applied tips for teachers. Here are some from his recent posts:
- Check out this free e-book entitled, "101 Practical Ways to Ditch That Textbook."
- Tips on how to deal with cheating: http://ditchthattextbook.com/2018/04/04/fighting-the-battle-of-copy-paste-cheating/
Education Foundation Grants & Prints
For the 2018–2019 school year, more than $150,000 will be awarded to Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) in Virginia Beach Education Foundation grants. VBCPS staff members are encouraged to apply for these grants if they have ideas for innovative projects they wish to implement to engage students in hands-on learning activities not already funded by the school division.
Spring applications due May 11, 2018, for:
- Schoolwide Grants - $2,000 to $5,000 offered for projects that impact at least 25 percent of the school’s student population or one grade level.
- Innovative Learning Grants - up to $2,000 for innovative learning projects benefiting students.
Fall applications due October 12, 2018, for:
- Innovative Learning Grants - up to $2,000 for innovative learning projects benefiting students.
In addition, the Virginia Beach Education Foundation 2018 Commemorative Print is available for sale, unframed, framed and as note cards. The print incorporates the artwork of Old Donation School art teacher, Leigh Drake, and is entitled, If I Could Keep You Little. Click here to access more information and the Commemorative Print order form.
Upcoming Events
April 9 - 13 is National Assistant Principals Week
Monday, 4/9 (A)
Academy Staff Meeting, ECC, 2:35
PTSA Board Meeting, Library, 6:00
Tuesday, 4/10 (B)
Junior Ring Ceremony, Aud., 9:15
Senior Success Recovery, Library, 2:30
One Lunch Meeting, Library, 2:35
Baseball vs Cox, 4:00
Softball vs Cox, 4:00
Soccer vs Grafton, 5:15
Wednesday, 4/11 (A)
Advisory
Drop Out Task Force Meeting, ECC, 12:30
Parent-Teacher Conferences, Cafeteria, 2:30
Boys Tennis @ Green Run, 3:00
Girls Tennis vs Green Run, 3:00
Track, 3:00
JV Baseball @ Salem, 4:00
JV Softball vs Salem, 4:00
JV Soccer vs Salem, 4:00
Thursday, 4/12 (B)
Baseball @ Cox, 4:00
Girls Soccer vs Currituck, 6:00
Friday, 4/13 (A)
Purple Up! Day
ILT Meeting, ECC, 1:00
Softball vs Kempsville, 4:00
Saturday, 4/14
NMSI Training
Ring Dance, Aquarium, 7:30 - 10:30
Congratulations to Maria Fritts who welcomed baby granddaughter Whitney right before spring break!
2Revolutions
2Revolutions is a national education design lab striving to transform the American education system. They work with leaders and practitioners within K12 and Higher Education to design, build and implement new learning models and help catalyze the enabling systems that prepare students for success in the future. The world is changing much faster than our schools have been able to respond. We are failing to equip most young people with the knowledge, skills and dispositions they need to be successful. The work of 2Rev is to disrupt the status quo by giving education leaders and practitioners permission and support to innovate.
Through a competitive application process, VBCPS was selected by 2Revolutions as the sole national partner district on a Carnegie Foundation project to collaboratively develop a Future of Learning model that will serve as a scalable model for school divisions nationwide. As part of this two-year collaboration, six community-based visioning sessions (community meetings) will be facilitated by the 2Revolutions team. Please consider attending one of these meetings.
APRIL IS . . .
ATC Summer Camps
Summer is coming soon and the Advanced Technology Center (ATC) is offering several STEM Summer Camps. Camp registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Transportation is the responsibility of the parent. The cost of the camp is $125.00 by check to the ATC for each camp. Families will directly forward the forms and payment to the ATC or stop by our office. Parent or guardian must be a Virginia Beach resident. Download the registration, emergency and opt – out media forms from our website http://www.imagineinnovatecreate.com. If a parent would like to have their child opted out of media, they will need to return the opt-out form to the ATC at the time of registration.
- The ATC Summer Camp for Rising 9th Grade Students will be three days August 6 - 8, 2018, 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Parents are responsible for providing a bag lunch, snack and drink for their child each day of the camp. This camp will include 60 campers.
- ATC Air Force Association (AFA) CyberPatriot Cybersecurity Camp Middle School (Rising 6th - 8th grade students). July 16 - 20, 2018, 8 a.m. - noon. The camp will include 20 campers.
- ATC AFA CyberPatriot Cybersecurity Camp High School (Rising 9th – 12th grade students). July 23 – 27, 2018, 8 a.m. – 12:00p.m. The camp will include 20 campers.
Filtering & Blocking of Gaming Sites
DOT will be blocking all non-approved gaming sties beginning Friday, March 30. DOT will permit access to sites only as authorized as having instructional value upon review by staff in Teaching and Learning. Teachers will continue to have access to gaming sites. To request that gaming sites with instructional value be accessible to students, teachers or a school designee should submit a Service Desk request ticket. DOT and DTAL staff will review the appropriateness of student access. Student access to gaming sites with features such as chat rooms will not be permitted.
Testing Update
Heartfelt thanks to everyone for helping make the Writing SOL test administration successful. As you know, this was our first SOL test administration as a 1:1 school. The overwhelming majority of the 540 students tested remembered to bring their devices and chargers on Tuesday and Wednesday – kudos to them and all those who provided reminders in the days leading up to the test.
As we head into spring, keep the dates below in mind. As we have in the past, we will have an adjusted schedule during this testing. Details will be forthcoming.
May 21--World History I
May 22--Reading
May 23--Geometry
May 24--Algebra I & Algebra II
May 25--Biology
May 29--World Geography & World History II
May 30--Earth Science & Chemistry
May 31--VA/US History
Progress Report & Report Card Dates
Marking Period 3:
Ending Date: April 13
Report Cards Issued: April 25
PAC
Applying the VBCPS Definition of Student Engagement
Put it to the test . . .
- Is it rooted in standards?
- Are students making connections between content and self?
- Do students have opportunities to take ownership?
- Is it collaborative work?
- Is it relevant?
- Is it authentic?
- Is it purposeful?
- Is there an appropriate level of cognitive stimulation?