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Upcoming Events:
MON. (10/15) THINK PINK, BE THE CHANGE...
Fundraising for the Susan G. Komen
Foundation all week long!
FALL PLANS DUE, please email them :)
TUES. (10/16) *Period-By-Period Harassment Training*
In addition, new purchasing guidelines
will be covered by Melissa Miller, as
well a WASC Update from Dr. Gregg
Stone.
GRIFFIN LAB BEGINS!!!
WED. (10/17) Teaching & Learning Abounds...
THUR (10/18) Superintendent Kropp's 3rd Visit in A.M.
Great California Shakeout, Emergency Evacuation Drill
Evacuation Drill Bell Schedule:
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Period 0
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6:50 - 7:42
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Period 1
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7:48 - 8:38
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Period 2
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8:45 - 9:31
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Drill
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9:31 - 10:20
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Nutrition
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10:20 - 10:26
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Passing
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10:26 - 10:33
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Period 3
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10:33 - 11:19
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Period 4
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11:26 - 12:12
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Lunch
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12:12 - 12:42
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Period 5
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12:49 - 1:35
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Period 6
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1:42 - 2:30
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CHOIR SHOW BEGINS!!!!
FRI. (10/19) PUPIL FREE DAY :)
Professional Development from 8am - 2:30pm... WASC & The Common Core:
THINK PINK, BE THE CHANGE FOOTBALL GAME AGAINST FOUNTAIN VALLEY @ WESTMINSTER HIGH SCHOOL
Support Los Al Athletics All Week Long:
Girls Volleyball, Boys Water Polo,
Girls Golf, X-Country, and Girls Tennis all
compete this week.
SAT. (10/20) PSAT @ Los Al in the morning
TASTE FOR LOS AL at The Shops @ Rossmoor in the evening
Oct. 22 The Start Of Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 24 Edmodo Symposium @ 3pm
Oct. 31 Halloween
Nov. 15 Deadline for Fall Plan Meeting w/ Admin
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Griffin Lab Starts Tuesday!
Come one, come all... this "Homework Club" is designed for everybody
Griffin Lab debuts on Tuesday, October 16th, and is set-up to serve ALL students, regardless of grade, course schedule, etc...
As Griffin Lab develops, it is our hope that recommendations for student use come about in the following 4 ways: 1) Student Self-Referral --- that is, a student or group of students decide to get their homework done after school and pop into Griffin Lab in the Media Center to get it done, 2) Teacher/Coach Referral --- this would be when a teacher or coach recommends to a student that they visit Griffin Lab for extra help on an assignment, project, or to study for an upcoming test, 3) Counselor Referral --- this could happen for a number of reasons, including distractions at a child's home, a drop in GPA, or other personal issues that make Griffin Lab a stable and steady environment in which to complete assignments, 4) Parent Referral --- for any reason at all parents can refer their child to Griffin Lab, and if a parent doesn't plan on picking their son/daughter up until 4pm, they'll know exactly where they were and what they were doing if they attended Griffin Lab.
An email was sent to all parents last week introducing Griffin Lab, and already the response has been tremendous. In the coming weeks, if you have any ideas to contribute as Griffin Lab builds its culture and functionality on campus, please do not hesitate to voice and communicate them.
Gail Davenport, gdvavenport@losal.org, is the Griffin Lab Coordinator, and is always looking for interested teachers to be a part of this after-school homework and tutoring opportunity for students.
More to come as Griffin Lab, hopefully, becomes a staple of Los Alamitos High School. |
Think Pink, Be The Change:
Friday's football game is part League rivalry, part fundraiser, and all for a good cause
The brainchild of Assistant Principals Joe Fraser (from Fountain Valley) and Melissa Miller (of Los Al fame), this Friday's THINK PINK, BE THE CHANGE football game is so much more than a few hours of Friday Night Lights...
All week long, we'll be raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation by collecting change from students and staff by classroom. In addition, there'll be Big Bottles for change collection placed in high traffic areas around campus: Main Office, Counseling, Activities, and behind the PAC at Lunch and Nutrition. Once collected, both schools (Fountain Valley and Los Alamitos) will jointly donate their schools' raised funds to the Susan G. Komen Foundation at halftime of the football game on Friday @ Westminster High School.
And just to make things interesting, there'll be one additional challenge associated with the game: Whichever school can wear the most pink in the stands at the football game on Friday, the losing Principal will have to kiss a pink pig at halftime!
 So, support
Los Al, support those affected by Breast Cancer, and buy a pink iHeartLosAl shirt from Ms. Miller to wear @ Friday's game (just email her at mmiller@losal.org). A portion of all proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
This event has the potential to be an ongoing tradition between the two schools, and we look forward to partnering with Fountain Valley as we do meaningful work for our communities.
See you @ the game :) |
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What A Difference The Kids Make:
A closer look at how our students just change things
This is a picture of the back of the PAC during Club Week. It depicts a colorful sign and a walkway used for traversing our campus...
This is also a picture of the back of the PAC during Club Week. It depicts a colorful sign, a walkway used for traversing our campus, and one more thing... KIDS!
And somehow, that seems to make all the difference.
Walk a high school campus in the dog days of July, and you'll probably be hard-pressed to imagine that it's even a school. Even with all those lockers and classrooms, without kids moving and talking, laughing and thinking, school campus are really just barren wastelands. (The pictures above prove that.)
But why?
This phenomenon is certainly not the same when it comes to all buildings. Certain monuments (think Notre Dame, or The Coliseum) evoke plenty of mystique without a single human being in them. Even if the facility has been re-purposed for centuries! But that's just not the case with schools.
Kids are unique in that they have the ability to change and affect others, or their environment, often without knowing how inspiring and powerful they can be. So, maybe that's why those two pictures of Club Week are so stark...
In the top picture we just see facts: a banner, some grass, a sidewalk, and a huge metal door. But below it, we see nothing but possibility: dreams, questions, diversity, and choices.
What a difference the kids make, eh?
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We're WASCin' It..:
A peek into last Tuesday's session in Home Groups
Even though we had a late-start on Tuesday, teachers showed up to work early to meet in Home Groups and go over all things WASC.
Each Home Group delved further into Chapter 4, as they took a look at the findings from our ongoing Self-Study, and reviewed them so far in the areas of Vision/Governance/Leadership/Resources, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Accountability, and School Culture.
More will take place this Friday, as we meet in Focus Groups with students and parent stakeholders to further refine Chapter 4, and begin to piece together our Action Plan.
As for Bill Moyer, our WASC Chair for this year's upcoming review... he'll be by on November 15th to meet staff and students, as well as answer any questions anyone has about the WASC process overall.
Great job all! There's so much to learn when we ask deep and meaningful questions about ourselves...
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"A New York State Of Mind:"
First Choir Show Of The Season Opens Thursday...
Under the direction of David Moellenkamp, the LAHS award-winning choir presents A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND.
Celebrating the music of Broadway with songs from The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Chicago, Rent, and other recognizable classics. Shows are October 18th, 19th & 20th.
Visit www.losalamitoschoir.com for more information including ticket purchasing...
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BIRTHDAY BRIGADE!!!
If you've got a birthday coming up, watch out... there's an army of caring staff coming to sing for you! |
Los Al Live Comedy Show: Teachers vs. Students... Guess Who Won!
Ummm... not these guys below...  .By the time it was over, the students (who are incredible, amazing, and always funny) trounced the teachers by a score of 16 to 9 --- or something like that. Point is, kids are funny. And, sometimes, just sometimes, teachers can be funny too. But not on this night :(  The sad look on their faces, and through their ski-goggles, says it all...
On the brighter side, Los Al Live did experience its most attended show to date, with over 250 students, parents, and faculty packing the Black Box Theater to watch both shows. And just in case you want to make fun of them next time you see them, the faculty who participated in last Thursday's shows were: Lori Franzen, Taryn Stenberg, Tracy Lundblad, Joshua Arnold, Nathan Howard, Matt Riehm, and Dave Barker. Sounds funny just writing those names! LOL!!!!! HAHAHA!!! ROFL!!! HAHA!!!! |
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The Anatomy Of A "Test Environment"
"Backpacks in the front, everyone," Ms. Lindahl says as students enter the room on the day of a Unit Test in Algebra 2. And the students proceed to follow the direction.
Through a system of routines and protocols, Ms. Lindahl's math classes know that things are just a little bit different on "Test Day." And maybe they should be.
Changing the environment of a classroom on the day of major assignments or higher-stakes quizzes and tests is a good way to emphasize the importance and value of these kinds of assignments. By breaking up routine, students can literally "feel" the difference inside the classroom on the day of a big test.
And for Ms. Lindahl, the backpack protocol is just part of it. (The entire Math Department has students put backpacks in the front of the room to ensure test security, i.e. cell phone cameras...)
 This picture is an example of how seating charts change on the day of tests in Ms. Lindahl's class.
On Test Day, students have no idea where they are supposed to sit. They come in, drop their backpacks off in the front of the room, and take a look at the little paper taped to the front of the desk at the beginning of the row. Once they find their name, they sit in their newly-assigned seat. And the whole process takes about a minute.
Of course, there are tons of ways to affect the environment of one's class on a "Big Day." So the next time you want to emphasize an assignment or due date, do it! All these changes in routine really just take a few seconds to complete! |
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Form & Function:
Ideas for what to do with your walls... and floor!
Nobody likes a barren wall... Especially not teachers!
What's hard about putting things on our walls, however, is the need to stay current, relevant, and meaningful at all times. (Everyone remembers that one section of their high school teacher's classroom growing up that had graded assignments on it from the 70's!!!)
So, what follows are some examples of form & function when it comes to decoration from our very own Mr. Godfrey and Ms. Gallagher:(Below, you'll see a number line taped to the floor of Mr. Godfrey's room)  The idea with this "room decoration" is to increase students' understanding of number sense. By having a number line taped to the ground, students are immersed in the world of numbers when doing Math practice and Math activities in class. This helps them more than a hard-to-see graded Math Test hanging up in some corner of the room.
(Here's a cool idea from Ms. Gallagher's room... she posts No Name Papers for students to claim and get credit for...)
 Again, the idea with this is to create a more "useful" space in class --- one that is dynamic and ever-changing. Students visit this wall space often, and even if the assignment is not theirs, they spend time looking at practice problems, reviewing answers, and more.
How will you use all that real estate in your classroom?
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The Seal Beach Tragedy: One Year Later
On Friday, thousands of students and staff came to school wearing "Support In Love / Seal Beach" shirts to pay respect on the one year anniversary of the tragedy.
Across campus, and in classrooms, students and teachers reflected on the last year, and how our community came together to support in love all those affected by October 12, 2011.
Throughout last week, there were memorials and services taking place throughout our community. And at the football game against Edison on Friday, a Moment Of Silence was held just before the singing of our National Anthem.
Los Alamitos High School is an incredible place. And the ability to come together in times of need is just one of the things that makes our community special...
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Try Doing This 5 Periods A Day
Rikki Jones (top right, in pink top) stretches with her students before their daily practice
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NEED A PICTURE?
Just Click The Link Below To Download Anything From Our Flickr Account:
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Los Alamitos High School
3591 Cerritos Ave.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
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