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| February 2010 Issue |
Issue No. 31 |
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| AE Wright Middle School
Principal Kimmarie Taylor 4029 N. Las Virgenes Rd.
Calabasas, California 91302
818.880.4614
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Important Dates this Month
2/9 PFC Meeting 9:15am; LVUSD Board Meeting 6pm
2/12 Valentine's Dance, 3:15-4:30pm
2/15 No School - President's Day
2/16 Spartan Gardening Club meet 9:15am
2/23 LVUSD Board Meeting 6pm
2/24-26 Astrocamp (6th grade Honor Society)
2/26 5 Week Progress Report; Talent Show Audition Forms Due
For details of all AE Wright events, click This Month Calendar of Events
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 A Note from the Principal
Happy February!
Congratulations to the following students who received the AE  Wright Spartan Award for excellence during the first semester: Cynthia Alvarez, Adriana C'Dealva, Amanda Cochran, Bridget Devaney-Nirenberg, Shanee Dinay, Dayton Doucette, Trang Huynh Webster, Diana Millan, Leah Moffett, Pegah Natanzi, Anna Page, Fernando Poot, Ashley Siavoshi, Andrew Stevens, Clare Stonich, Rebecca Vangelos, Rhianon Weatherman, and Sarah Zhou. These students were nominated by the faculty and staff for demonstrating academic achievement, improvement, and/or outstanding citizenship. They were recognized with their parents during a special award ceremony on January 27.
On February 1 st, A.E. Wright students will have the opportunity to hear guest speaker, Nick Vujicic, talk about his life experiences, school challenges, bullying, and self-esteem. Mr. Vujicic has overcome great challenges in his life and truly understands what it is like to be teased, different, lonely, and struggle with self-worth. You see, Mr. Vujicic was born in 1982 in Brisbane, Australia without arms or legs. He is very open about the physical, emotional, and social challenges he faced growing up. "People say to me, 'How can you smile?'" he says. "Then they realize 'there's got to be something more to life than meets the eye if a guy without arms and legs is living a fuller life than I am.'" Mr. Vujicic has traveled around the world sharing his message through his motivational speaking company, Attitude is Altitude. We are grateful that Mr. Vujicic is willing to donate his time and energy to come to A.E. Wright and share his experiences and lessons learned.
A.E. Wright is getting ready for its annual Talent Show. If your child is interested in sharing his/her talent, please have your child pick-up a Talent Show Audition Form from the assistant principal's office. Forms are due by February 26. Auditions will be held on March 3 during lunch and after school. Students selected for the show will perform during one of the recognition assemblies during the day and at the evening performance on March 25.
A few important dates for your calendar:
February 9 PFC Meeting, 9:15am
February 12 Valentine's Dance, 3:15-4:30p.m.
February 15 No School
February 24-26 Astrocamp (6th grade Honor Society)
February 26 Talent Show Audition Forms Due
Have a great month,
Mrs. Taylor
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| Parent Faculty Club Donor Drive
by Deborah Vangelos & Mathy Wasserman
We thank all of you who have contributed your donation already and urge those of you who have not to take advantage of this 100% tax free contribution before the end of the year. Please remember that no amount is too big or too small when it comes to sustaining your child's excellent education. We at the PFC are committed to using your donations towards programs, staff and improvements that benefit A. E. Wright this year. Our goal for the Spartan Donor Drive is 100% participation! Thank you Kim Long and Susie Rome for all your hard work in getting the Spartan Donor Drive off to a great start!
It is vital that we receive 100% participation, so for donating the recommended $300, simply click here.
To donate a different amount, click here and select a different amount.
Recent activities that PFC dollars contribute to:
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Notes from the Counseling Office
We hope all of you had a nice winter break and a happy holiday season. It's hard to imagine that it is the end of January and we began the second semester of the school year! A lot of important dates are coming up within the next few months- here is a preview: The 7th grade STAR Writing test is on March 2, 2010. Please make sure your student gets plenty of sleep and has a good breakfast. The rest of the STAR tests will be during the week of May 10, 2010.
The elective course description and selection sheets will be going home for current 6th and 7th graders in March. Please review all the
information carefully with your child because the elective they choose is a full year course. Although we try to accommodate your child's first choice, please choose three options in the event of a schedule conflict or a full class.
We will be visiting elementary schools in March and hosting a 5th grade Parent Information Night on March 24. Fifth graders will visit our
campus later in the semester.
For the parents of eighth graders, there will be lot of activity in March. On March 8 both high schools have their Open House with an 8th
grade parent information session preceding the classroom visitations. On March 9 the high school counselors will come to A.E. Wright and speak to our eighth graders. On that day our students will receive high school course selection sheets that are due back at the A.E. Wright Counseling Office by March 19. Both high schools have "drop in dates" for 8th graders and their parents. Please check the *Counseling Transition to High School *page on our website for the dates and times. These "drop in" days are designed for parents of eighth graders to come to the high school and speak to the high school counselors. We are working with both high school counseling offices to help your child make a smooth transition to 9th grade. Our 8th graders will visit their high school site in the Spring. (the exact date to be determined)
In closing, all of us at A.E. Wright are working together to make your child's education both positive and successful. Please help us by setting up a regular study time and place for your student. The time and place should be consistent and free from distractions. Check
your child's organizer every day, look at the homework and make sure it is complete and then placed in the appropriate section of the binder. If you have a question or concern about class work or homework, please contact the teacher. |
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February in English Language Arts 7th & 8th Grade
by Ms. McDonnell
The end of the fall semester finds eighth graders continuing to study writing, literary analysis, and grammar. Students in college prep classes finished the semester by completing their study of the dramatized version of The Diary of Anne Frank. Future activities will include reviewing topic sentences and writing an in-class character essay. The GATE classes will be continuing their study of Edgar Alan Poe's works for literary analysis and enhancement of writing instruction and grammar. The students will then experience the multi-dimensional novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury which will include writing and interactive components.
Seventh grade students are learning about the Mexican Revolution, dust bowl, and immigration through the widely acclaimed, award-winning novel Esperanza Rising, a student favorite. Much of our in-class focus will be on writing. For the month of February, seventh grade GATE students will be conversing in literature circles, writing a persuasive essay and completing many in-class writing prompts to follow up on our reading of A House on Mango Street and Esperanza Rising.Students are making important connections, discussing self-annotated quotes, questions, and ideas, and having incredible discussions. Beware in March: Barbs and the Bard!
The CST Writing Assessment takes place on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, for all seventh graders. Please make every effort to ensure students attend school on time for this important assessment.
All seventh and eighth graders will take a semester final exam in June. WARP points for the 3rd quarter will be due in late March.
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| Library News
by Mary Jo Ammon & Mathy Wasserman
Despite the significant budget cut of our certificated Librarian, our Library/Media Center is now supported by our PFC. The AEW PFC funds the Library Media Clerk position which is filled by Mary Jo Ammon. In the fall, we were able to re-open the library for a full day with this set-up, along with parent volunteers. Each week, a core group of parents helps ensure that hundreds of students have access to the library during lunch to read, study, complete homework (with complete sets of class textbooks for loan) and take WARP tests. Speaking of WARP tests, the WARP list is already extensive but Ms. Ammon regularly orders more as new books are released and available. After the December Book Fair, additional tests were requested and are now accessible to students . These tests are purchased with PFC funds because we believe that the children should have the maximum amount of choices for their free reading.
Parents also assist Ms. Ammon in the never-ending task of shelving the many books our students read, and helping process new books which we are constantly adding to our collection. Thank you to the following parents for your commitment to keeping our library available to AEW students.
Kim Hamilton Lisa Maliani
Andrea Paskal Linda Massarella
Sharon Garapedian Allison Sain
Laura Goldwasser Susie House
Briar Grossman Gina Pope
Cheri Lemons Diana Kuhn
Caroline Bogeaus Sue Gross
Amy Short Karen DeLuca
Annette Sinker Jason Rubel
Kay Fields
Thank you to everyone who supports the PFC with time and financial contributions!
The top WARP readers for the second quarter are:
6th Grade
Adriana C'Dealva 369.4
Camille Rubel 187.1
Ruth Wilson 171.9
Neekon Koohpareh 168.3
Kjerstin Skorge 162.3
Erica Neighbors 145.5
Shir Klainman 144.0
Aya McGlothlin 123.3
Yasmin Ardehali 119.4
Michael Ghodrat 115.7
7th Grade
Victoria Te 129.0
Jordan Cherkes 88.6
Jacob Breddan 76.0
Amanda Mihalovich 73.7
Lauren Spielman 70.8
Alaina Garren 68.4
Ava Ticotin 46.6
Arianna Reznik 45.6
Garret Coffman 45.0
Anna Page 43.0
8th Grade
John Ocampo 208.7
Avedis Hagopian 146.0
Lorenzo Robb 136.9
Meg Graham 107.6
Michelle Kaneko 105.7
James Zhu 100.7
Alexander Te 82.4
Rebecca Vangelos 54.3
Pegah Natanzi 54.3
Angelie Laurent 51.2
Lukas Lshiyama 50.7
The Book Fair ran from Dec 3-10 and filled the Spartan Center with thousands of books. This Book Fair is not so much a fund-raiser as an opportunity to bring great titles to students at the discounted Scholastic book price. In addition, profits from the Book Fair brought over $997.00 worth of books to our A. E. Wright library and we have a credit for the future to restock classroom libraries and core-lit titles. Great thanks to Lisann Gould, Book Fair Chairperson, and her wonderful volunteers:
Ruta Taksen
Julie Cahill
Michelle Garner
Shirin Shahrokhi
Karen Resnick
Sheryl Lester
Karen Wrinkle
Laura Goldwasser
Sheila Hammon and
Simone Brien
In addition, thanks to Ms. Ammon our Library/Media Clerk who reviewed the titles in the Fair to make sure we can order as many WARP tests as possible. Hopefully, students will find adventure, interesting facts and great experiences from their new books.
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| Reflections Program
by the Las Virgenes Arts Parent Teacher Association (LV Arts PTA) 
The Las Virgenes Arts Parent Teacher Association (LV Arts PTA) has organized the Reflections program because students need more opportunities to create works of art for fun and recognition, and the program provides an outlet for students to creatively explore what they are learning in the classroom. The Reflections Program is run by parent volunteers, thereby providing another opportunity to involve parents in their children's education. Participation in the program gives students a chance to experiment in the arts. When children express themselves through words, pictures, music, dance, film, and other art media, they grow intellectually; they learn to analyze their thoughts and feelings. The Reflections Program helps parents recognize, support, and enhance their children's continuous process of self-discovery.
As mentioned in the PFC Co-President message, Las Virgenes students participated for the first time in Reflections' 40 year history! Aspiring student writers, photographers, producers, choreographers, composers, and artists created works inspired by the theme for 2009-2010: "Beauty Is. . ." Las Virgenes Gallery night was November 18th at Sumac Elementary, and winners will also be on display in the lobby art show at the LVEF Benefit Concert in March 2010.
LVArtsPTA was organized to participate in Reflections, a state and national recognition program for the arts sponsored by CA and National Parent Teacher Association (PTA). To learn more, visit them at http://lvartspta.tripod.com or contact the AE Wright representatives: Susan Polk, Lisa Maliana and Fariba Tiffany. |
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Physical Education Update
by Ms. Dickson
We are off to another exciting year. Our program is in full swing and students are actively involved in a variety of challenging units. 6th graders recently finished up bouldering the outdoor rock wall, 7th grade used their eye foot coordination to give Takraw a try and 8th grade was in the gym exploring physical challenges and tumbling. Students have also been introduced to our Heart Lab. This is our on campus work out room full of state of the art weight training equipment. Ellipticals, stairmasters, rowers, bench press, leg extension, free weights and stability balls are prime examples of the wide variety of equipment used. This is a fun and exciting way to increase fitness levels while learning valuable lifelong fitness techniques. A big thank you to our wonderful PFC and community for supporting this room and updating our equipment from monies earned during our annual AEW Fitness Celebration.
A few department reminders...
1 . Cold days are here so please consider getting plain grey sweats to keep your child warm. We also sell them in class for $25 cash or check.
2. P.E. clothes should go home every Friday to be washed.
3. Be looking for paperwork coming home soon for our annual Fitness Celebration in March.
4. Continue to encourage a healthy lifestyle. |
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Gifted and Talented Education Program
by Rose Dunn - District GATE Director
Our GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) plan allows parents to refer their child for possible identification as a Gifted student and an opportunity to participate in our GATE program. If you choose to refer your child, you will need to obtain a referral form from the GATE website (corp.lvusd.org under Resources, Click on GATE) or from your school office on Friday, March 12 and follow the directions as outlined on the referral process letter.
The identification protocol evaluates many factors in your child's learning. A referral from a teacher or a parent starts the identification process. As a parent, please look at the behaviors of a "Bright Child or Gifted Child" and think about your child.
If you choose to refer your child, please think very carefully about how your child learns. A Parent Information Meeting on the referral process and GATE program will be held on Wednesday, March 10th at 7 :00 P.M. in the District Office Boardroom.
Please note: Students who have already been identified GATE by the Las Virgenes Unified School District DO NOT need to be re-referred or retested.
Please review the following information regarding important changes in GATE timelines:
Parent referral forms for Grades 5-7 will be available on the GATE website or in school offices Friday, March 12 and are due in the GATE office by Monday, April 12, 2010. Testing dates will be posted on the District's GATE website on Tuesday, April 13 and will be mailed to all those who refer as well. Testing appointments will be made on a first come, first served basis.
Any LVUSD student in grades 5-7 or new- August enrollees who miss the testing window for this year will need to wait until the following year to be referred for Spring 2011 testing. Qualification letters will be sent to all students as soon as all testing is complete. Please call the Ed Services Office at 878-5219 with any further questions. |
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Las Virgenes Education Foundation
February News
The mission of LVEF is to create and/or financially support quality educational opportunities for all students K-12 in
the Las Virgenes Unified School District and to engage the communities of the LVUSD in this support.
Read the Acorn article regarding leadership changes with LVEF.
Benefit for the Arts 2010 is coming! Mark your calendar for Friday, March 26, 2010 at the Canyon Club!
To find out how you can help and be a part of the future of quality education, visit: www.mylvef.org |
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The AE Wright Parent Faculty Club would like to thank this months sponsor advertisers. We encourage parents to utilize these organizations and services.
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