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Upcoming Events:
MON. (2/25) College Information Night For Juniors
7pm in PAC
TUES. (2/26) All-District Band Night
7pm in PAC
WED. (2/27) Teaching & Learning Abounds!!!
THUR. (2/28) All-District Orchestra Night
7pm in PAC
FRI. (3/1) Sadies Dance @ Los Al
8pm - 11pm
*If you're interested in being a chaperone,
Los Al Live - Comedy Improv Show 3pm & 7pm in Black Box Theatre
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WRESTLERS!!!
 First Masters Champions in Mason Kumashiro & Alex Redmond are headed to State!!! Read about it here.
Good Luck Coach Torres @ State Championships this weekend!!!!
& On The Horizon...
3/3 - 3/6 WASC Visitation!!!
Mar. 7 Ed Tech Team Meeting in Room 700, 2:45pm
Mar. 7 iHeartLosAl PTSA Fundraiser @ On The Rocks
Mar. 12 CAHSEE Testing for 10th Graders - English
Mar. 13 CAHSEE Testing for 10th Graders - Math
Mar. 14 STAFF MEETING @ 7am in Room 500
Mar. 14 Every 15 Minutes - Day 1
Mar 15 Every 15 Minutes - Day 2 / Assembly
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Anyone Care For A New Bell Schedule?
Whichever direction we choose to explore, our students and staff will reap the benefits...
Does anybody remember Blockbuster Video? They were the company that had a video store on every corner of every stree t for 20 years. Their business model of installing stores in every neighborhood in America worked because that was the way we all consumed our movie rentals.
But the world continued to evolve...
Consumers started not liking the fact that you'd go to Blockbuster to rent a "New Release" and there were no more copies left. Or, you'd get charged $2 for not rewinding a video all the way. Or, you'd have an emergency on a Monday morning and forget to return your video...
Then came NETFLIX. Their structure of sending videos to your home based on preferences in a personal queue, and charging you the same fee month to month, made sense to consumers who now did everything online... including stream movies.
What does this have to do with our bell schedule?
EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As the world of education evolves, it is becoming more and more necessary to build structures that support the work required by Common Core for students and teachers to be successful. (We certainly don't want to be Blockbuster, if everyone else is using Netflix.)
So, in the same way that Los Al teachers have embraced the increased use of technology in the classroom, we may also find benefit in increased time to work together and collaborate on issues of instruction and curriculum on an ongoing basis. One possible way to do this is by evolving our bell schedule.
THE BEST PART IS... We can design it ourselves!
Starting at the next Staff Meeting on March 14th, we'll set up a Bell Schedule Committee for any interested teachers, counselors, students, and parents that would like to join. Their task will be to consider the future of teaching and learning @ Los Al and propose one or more bell schedules that may enhance our ability to do great work in the classroom for years to come.
The Committee will report their work out at our April Staff Meeting, and hopefully by May, we can communicate to all of our stakeholders any changes for next year.
Of course, there are tons of ways schools have chosen to
increase collaboration time amongst colleagues. And to understand that better, here is a list of some similar schools to Los Al, with great results, and slightly different schedules:
(click the school to check out their schedule)
Let creativity and innovation rule the day! More time to work with each other will just mean even better outputs from our kids :)
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Classroom Questions At 4 Different Levels
by Robert Marzano
In this picture, English teacher Ms. Marechal holds a "fishbowl"-style Socratic Seminar in her English Class...
***After last week's Common Core Aquarium, the following excerpted article feels relevant as it provides language for some of the practices we all observed.***
"Planning a lesson that uses all four of these levels can transform classroom questions into analytic tasks that require students to think at increasingly complex levels," Marzano says.
* Level 1: Details - Recalling or recognizing specific information - for example, "Describe some important features of the Rocky Mountains."
 * Level 2: Characteristics - Describing, comparing, or contrasting the qualities of a category - for example, "What are some differences between older mountain ranges like the Rocky Mountains and newer mountain ranges like the Olympic Mountains in Washington State?" Questions at Levels 1 and 2 are usually asked of the whole class, giving all students a chance to respond.
* Level 3: Elaborations - Explaining the characteristics of a category - for example, "Tell why older mountain ranges are less jagged" or "What effect does major loss of life in a single battle like Gettysburg have on ending or prolonging a war?" Level 3 questions are best tackled by students in groups and then discussed with the whole class.
 * Level 4: Evidence - Providing support or evidence for elaborations, including premises, rules, generalizations, or exceptions that students' conclusions don't explain - for example, "What sources support your conclusions about why older mountain ranges are less jagged?" This level of question usually requires work outside the classroom and may extend over several lessons.
With excerpts from Robert Marzano's "Asking Questions - At Four Different Levels" in Educational Leadership, February 2013 (Vol. 70, #5, p. 76-77)
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Growth Model Grading
(No article on this in The Monday Morning Memo this week... just something to think about.)
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If You'd Like To Help Interact Raise Money on March 8th, Just Bring A Change Of Clothes & A Sense Of Humor Behind The PAC @ Lunch
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Counseling:
The Art & Science Of Helping Kids Succeed
Just another day in the Counseling Office @ Los Al. Students wait patiently in the hallway to chat with their Guidance Counselors after school...
If there's anything we, as educators, can be sure of, it's this: IT TAKES A VILLAGE.
No one entity can do it all.
That's where counselors come in. They are the conduit of every invested stakeholder group in a child's life. So whenever students wonder about parents, teachers, coaches, friends, or teammates, counselors help them make sense of it all, and make healthy decisions in the end.
Notice a distinct drop in motivation from a student? Talk to their counselor. Odds are they can give you some background so that you can tailor your instruction and help maximize learning opportunities for that child in your class.
Want to recommend a child for Honors or AP next year? Talk to their counselor. Together, you'll be able to draft a letter of recommendation that speaks to the student's entire background, not just their academic prowess.
Think one of your students is destined to be an engineer? Again, talk to their counselor. They have information about engineering and career-oriented classes on campus, as well as throughout the community.
Counselors should be considered a resource for teachers as well, not just students. The counseling staff @ Los Al is incredible, and whenever you need to communicate something to a student or family, make sure to touch base with their counselor so that the message can be singular and unified from all points of the school.
The next time you see a counselor, thank them. They work tirelessly to support the teaching and learning that goes on in every classroom. And are always available to help our students and staff succeed.
A list of counselors and their assignments follow:
COLLEGE AND CAREER COUNSELORS
SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST
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Live Peer Review:
Students & Teachers Give Critical Feedback In Real Time
Art teacher Michael Solis leads a peer review session in class with fellow Media teacher Bob Ostmann and a group of students.
Art teacher Michael Solis may be new on campus, but he's quickly learning one of Los Al's favorite teaching modalities: peer review.
In the media courses Mr. Solis teaches, observers will quickly recognize a review protocol that often starts the class. In it, the teacher and students gather around one student's computer to watch a piece of film they've shot as part of an assignment from the day or week before. Students look carefully to notice "highlights" and "recommendations" that they will give as pieces of feedback to the student showing off their work.
Sound scary?
If it was just being done to one student, and in a punitive way, it certainly would be. But because EVERY student gets to participate in this protocol on both sides of the feedback spectrum, kids in Mr. Solis' class have come to really enjoy this aspect of class because they get "real feedback," as one student put it, "from your homies."
Want students to get "real feedback from [their] homies" in your class? Try throwing up one of their labs, essays, or DBQ's on the document camera and see what happens. Just don't forget to embed the rules and norms of the feedback session so that the conversation is focused on the practice and not the person.
Happy teaching :)
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Next Tech Team Meeting Coming Soon:
Join Mark, Dan, And Others on March 7th In Room 700
Just a friendly reminder...
The next Los Al Ed Tech Team meeting will be after school, at 2:45pm, on Thursday, March 7th in Room 700 --- Dan Bennett's room.
All are welcome, as the group will discuss more ways that technology can enhance the education you deliver in the classroom, as well as share best practices currently being employed by colleagues.
For more info, please visit the...
Looking forward to seeing you there!
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Ms. Rofe REALLY "Hearts" Los Al!!!
(In case you're wondering... that's a cow heart in her hand, not that of an unsuspecting student...)
NEW PICTURE
DOWNLOADING SITE
From now on, if you need a picture from any of these Monday Morning Memos,
The pics there are high quality, easy to access, and always downloadable.
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Los Alamitos High School
3591 Cerritos Ave.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
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