Monarch Memo
Sept. 11 - 15, 2017
September 11 - Patriot Day resources
Our thoughts go out to all the families who have been affected by the fires north of us, hurricanes in the Gulf and the earthquake in Mexico. Monday marks the 16th year of 9/11. I was flipping the channels today and a documentary of 9/11 caught my eye which brought back the emotions and thoughts about the uncertainty of our future at that point. I remember my high school students watching the TV and looking to the adults at our school site to listen to their fears, answer their questions and just be there for hugs and support. Thank you being there for our students on a daily basis. The little things you do and say truly make a difference.
Thank you to Rob Gorney and the ONE.org members for their burrito sales and for hosting a table at the football game to collects funds to support hurricane relief efforts. It was great to see the Senior Class in action working the concessions at the first football game. We appreciate David Crabtree and Jonathan Geraci for being the Advisors this year. We appreciate all the teachers who attended the Actively Learn one hour workshop this past week. Please feel free to share when and how you plan to utilize this in your classroom with others. Thanks to Travis for getting this organized. The ASB coordinated a successful Club Rush on Friday. We hope many of our students get involved and get connected to MVHS.
Congratulations to the Varsity and Freshmen football teams for their win vs. Henry on Friday. Jahmon McClendon rushed for 333 yards for 5 touchdowns. Rumor has it that he has broken the school record for most rushing yards in a single game. Enjoy this article on Coach Hamamoto and the team in the U-T on September 9, 2017
WASC Minimum Day, September 20th
The WASC Focus Group leaders and Department Representatives spent the day Tuesday finalizing our mission, vision and Student Learning Outcomes, analyzing our data, working on their designated sections and preparing for the September 20th Focus Group meetings. All staff members and parent representatives plan to be in attendance at the Focus Group meetings Wednesday, September 20th beginning at 1:00 p.m. We appreciate all the time and dedication our Focus Group Leaders and Department Representatives have put into the WASC process. Thank you to Amanda who has been diligently working on the beginning chapters of the WASC report and organizing all of the chapters through the early draft process.
Family Surveys - please distribute on Wednesday
This week all period 3 teachers will be receiving Family Surveys to hand out to students whose parents have not completed them. These will be placed in mailboxes by Tuesday in order to pass out to students on Wednesday. You may recall that last year we were required to collect these surveys from every student. This year, parents completed the survey during the OLR process, however we still have 450 students who do not have this form completed. We appreciate your cooperation with distributing and collecting these surveys. I have shared this information with parents on this week’s all call.
Schedule changes happening on Tuesday, September 12
Change is not easy, especially when students have started to settle into their schedules. Our enrollment reached a growth point that we can open classes to lower class sizes and offer support classes. Our Guidance Team has been working hard to open two math, two English and one new science class on Tuesday. Parents have been informed and reminded on the Sunday all calls.
As Rad shared, “this will affect many, many students across all subject areas. Please support students who have their schedules changed, and please understand this will affect most courses - even those courses where there are no additional sections being added. Classes will be balanced as best as possible. Please support these moves, and do not tell students to 'see their counselor and get moved back.”
The four-week grade window is now open and will close on Monday, 9/11/17 at 8:00 a.m.
According to the district, this grading cycle is not optional. There are many groups on campus (counselors, coaches, EL, CEIS, AVID, Admin) who use these grades to monitor students, so please make every effort to upload your grades during the window. The plan is to begin our first Advisory Cycle on Tuesday, September 19th.
Advisory Reminders
1. Please do not allow (i.e. clear) students into your Advisory if they have an A, B or C with you UNLESS they are doing test make-ups. Also, please try to not clear students the first couple of days during a new Advisory cycle. Please try to keep your assigned students with you for at least the first couple of days of any new Advisory cycle.
2. If you do need to clear a student please use the MV HUB. Please make every effort to do this by 1:30 that day.
3. Please do not allow students to go get food and return to your Advisory.
4. If you need to lease a student early from Advisory, please make sure to give them a pass.
5. Please do not release your entire Advisory class early; they must stay until the bell rings.
Thank you all so much! Amanda
REMINDERS - emails from the past week
Compliance Procedures - please post.
Denise provided multicolored flyers in your boxes that MUST be posted in your classroom or office space. Please take last year's versions down and replace them with the new versions. You should have received the following flyers:
All Employees complaint procedures - white legal size
Title IX information - Salmon
Nondiscrimination - Blue
Sexual Harassment Policy - Yellow
Williams Complaint Classroom notice - White (English, Spanish and Arabic versions)
Americans with Disabilities Act - Green
Please make sure every flyer is posted in your room. We were several copies short. If you do not have all of the correct flyers in your box, you will have them soon. We will go from room to room next week to check the postings since we will be audited this year.
Infinite Campus tips and reminders in preparation for our 4-week Grading Period deadline from Travis Engstrand
If a student cannot log in or has forgotten their password, there are two options:
- Student manually resets the password using recovery email: See Laura's directions in the prior email about IC. Thanks, Laura!
- Student requests a password reset from the district: Direct students to MV WEBSITE. An Announcement titled "Infinite Campus Help" will always be there for password reset links and instructions. Students must then check school Gmail to receive official password reset link)
Add written feedback / comments next to assignments (more than simply T/X/M, etc.)
- Write in customized comments for students / parents that relay pertinent information about a specific assignment (20-second video tutorial)
Make sure you Enable Grading Calculation Options
- Have you input grades, but do not see a grade being calculated? Check out this 60-second video tutorial to calculate your students' grades.
Infinite Campus has a student self reset option. When students first log in for the first time, they are prompted to put in a RESCUE EMAIL. If they did that (which they have to do to move forward), they simply click on the FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD? LINK in CAMPUS PORTAL and an email should come to whatever rescue email they registered. Then THEY can reset their own passwords.
Advice for those using REMIND in your classes or for your teams/groups -
from Marisa Alvarado
The default setting in the system is to allow "people in the class to see and message each other". What that means is that in the app people can send messages back and forth without your knowledge, can send messages to people they don't have actual phone numbers for, etc.
It has been recommended by many Remind Connected Educators to disable this function for student privacy, safety and liability reasons. Please note, they can still contact you, just not each other. Depending on your purpose however, some may want their members to be able to communicate with each other. It all depends on how/why you are using Remind.
If you'd like to disable the feature, simply go to your settings and unclick the button. If you are not sure what your setting is, I recommended just double checking to be sure.
Please feel free to swing by (S-4) or email me if you have any questions or check out this help article
Nicole with her future Monarch. Tracy and Heather at the Equity Symposium. Monarch teachers “Actively Learn” ing.
Week at a Glance See the Athletics calendar for our sports events.
Monday, September 11 Patriot Day
Site Governance 7:15 a.m. Library Community Room
PTSA Meeting 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. Library
Wednesday, September 13 PIQE - Parent Institute begins, 6:00 p.m. FLEX room
Thursday, September 14 CAMP LEAD
Friday, September 15 CAMP LEAD
Here is the message sent home to parents on Sunday, September 10, 2017
Good evening Monarch families. We have many updates for you for the week of September 11.
Our hearts go out to our extended families who may have been impacted by the recent earthquake in Mexico or hurricanes in the Gulf. We hope for their safety and support of family and friends to get through this difficult time.
Congratulations to the Varsity and Freshmen football teams for their win vs. Patrick Henry last week. Jahmon McClendon rushed 333 yards for 5 touchdowns. Rumor has it that he has broken the school record for most rushing yards in a single game. Thanks to his teammates for the support on the field to make this happen. Please check out the article on Coach Hamamoto and the team in the U-T from September 9, 2017. You can find the link to this article in the email version of this message.
On Tuesday, schedule adjustments will be taking place due to growth. We will be opening new sections - two in English, two in math and one in science. Students may be shifted to a new class or classes, or have a new teacher for their current class. We appreciate your flexibility and understanding. Please contact your student’s counselor if you have any questions.
Parents, each year every family is required to complete a Family Survey. This survey is critical in that it is one factor that determines the amount of funding Monte Vista receives in order to provide programs for our students. While most families completed this survey through the Online Registration Process this year, 450 of our families did not. If you did not complete this survey your student will be bringing it home for parents to complete on Wednesday night. Please complete this brief survey and have your student give it back to their third period teacher. It can also be dropped off at the main office.
Many families apply for and receive Free and Reduced lunch. The number of families who receive Free and Reduced lunch is the other factor in determining funding we receive for Monte Vista programs. One benefit of qualifying is that students receive a significant reduced cost on their Advanced Placement Test fees. Please remember that the application must be resubmitted every year. There is an easy way now to apply online. Please go to the Monte Vista website and click on the article in the announcements or go to the parents tab pull down menu to “Free Reduced lunch”. If the applications are not renewed by September 26th, your child will not receive a free or reduced lunch. Even if you think you do not qualify, you are welcome to apply.
Last year Monte Vista hosted the Screen Your Teen for Sudden Cardiac Arrest event. This year The Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation will provide free screenings at El Capitan High School on Sunday, September 17th. For more info and registration, visit EPSaveALife.org. or the Monte Vista website.
Just a reminder that our first PTSA meeting of the school year is tomorrow, Monday Sept 11th from 6-7pm in the Monte Vista library. Parents, please join us.
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