Finally, Summer's Here
AVID May Newsletter
Reflections of a Fantastic School Year
- 4th 9 Weeks Event Page is due on Friday, May 20
- Final Exams begin May 24 and end May 27
- Check with your AVID elective teacher for the summer enrichment opportunities
This AVID newsletter is dedicated to our extraordinary CHS Admin Team and teachers who make the AVID program a success! Thanks to you our indicators for Schoolwide metrics increased from 20 to 30 (a 50% increase) & Our indicators for the top level, Sustaining Schoolwide metrics increased from 6 to 12. (a 100% increase).
Have a wonderful and safe summer!
Student Spotlights
Kenya Palmer-Taylor
Erick Robles
Maddie Foye
Lydia Chen
I cannot speak highly enough about this AVID scholar. Lydia is a born leader, who was this year selected to attend our AVID Leadership Retreat. At this retreat, Lydia constantly pushed herself and proved herself as a leader on her team. She was one of only a few students who climbed the center of the rock climbing wall, the section that juts out and forces your legs to hang in mid air as you hang on with only your fingertips. She’s brave, kind, and strong. She’s also a scholar – Lydia consistently finds herself on A/B honor roll. There is nothing this young lady cannot accomplish when she sets her mind to it – I cannot wait to see what her future brings!
Great Summer Enrichment Opportunities!
Youth Entrepreneurship Academy
The Youth Entrepreneurship Academy, which we’re offering this summer, June 14-16. This is open to high school students only (grades 9-12) and participants must attend all three sessions. Registration is in person beginning May 31 at any of the five Plano libraries. It promises to be an exciting learning opportunity and skill-builder! Please share the information with your AVID classes across all the high schools and senior highs.
Teen Street Team
TST is made up of teen volunteers from across Plano who actively promote teen library services to their peers, and participate in creating and implementing teen library programming. Opportunities for service hours will include attending TST meetings, completing special projects using the libraries’ media labs, as well as planning, promoting, and presenting teen library programs.
Additional perks to membership include opportunities for free advance copies of books and personalized letters of recommendation.
Applications are accepted May 1 – June 1, 2022
AVID Shenanigan's
Spring 2022 Stay Day was a Hit!
May AVID Educators of the Month
Coach Travis Williams
Thank you for inspiring children!
Dr. James Lynch
Mrs. Forrest attends AVID C/O 2022 Awards Banquet
Message from Mrs. Hendrickson to Class of 2024
Where can I even begin? I cannot believe our time together here at CHS is at an end. I’ve been dreading this day – I’ve never been very good at goodbyes. I’m better at reminiscing, looking back. So, let’s do that instead. I’ll never forget my first day as your AVID teacher – what a strange first day it was. I sat in my home office, nervously dialed into Google Meets, waiting for the first of your faces to pop up during 1st period. Simba – thank you for coming into the meet and chatting with me and calming my nerves – I’ll never forget you for putting me at ease! That first month of school your 9th grade year was so strange – we worked together to begin the hard and weird process of getting to know each other based more on an interpretation of our chosen avatars than on normal body language and facial expressions. When we switched to hybrid learning, we transitioned once again – never in my career have I taught a group of students asked to pivot so many times and be ok with it. I cannot tell you how proud I was, and am, of every single one of you – you have collectively gone through something no student should ever have to experience, and you have done it with such resilience and grace. Fast forward to your 10th grade year, and we were FINALLY able to all be back together again. Suddenly avatars turned into faces, and screens turned into actual human beings – ones I have come to care about more than I can ever say. I’m so thankful for the time we’ve spent together – in the mornings before school, for the counseling sessions that take place during study hall, for the field trips and Fun Fridays and just all the NORMAL. This year we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve screamed, we’ve fought, we’ve danced, we’ve loved, we’ve lost, we’ve grieved – we’ve gone through the entire beautiful spectrum of human emotion, and we’ve done it together, as an AVID family.
My wish for you, my sweet, strong, resilient AVID babies, is simply this: go out there and LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE, the AVID way. Have integrity. Show compassion. Breathe empathy. Be kind. Love tirelessly. Maintain your moral compass. Fail, struggle, fall, and then RISE.
I am not going to say goodbye to you – at least, not until you graduate and I come to watch you walk the stage at PSHS in 2024. For now and always, I’m only an email away. Instead, I’ll leave you with this, a few lyrics that daily remind me of you: “So take care, and don’t go too far, I will miss your soul. And when the distance grows and the nights are long, and you’re scared at times and you wonder why, take care and don’t go too far, the road back home is shorter than you know.”
Love always,
Mrs. H
Ashley Hendrickson
10th Grade AVID Elective Teacher
Email: ashley.hendrickson@pisd.edu