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Upcoming Events:
MON. (10/14) BREAST CANCER AWARENESS WEEK -- See Schedule Here
6th-12th Grade STAFF DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS
Teachers From McAuliffe, Oak, and Los Al participate in a Staff
Development session meant to establish a framework and
language for talking about instruction and sharing great ideas!
AGENDA FOR THE DAY
TUES. (10/15) Leadership Council Meets @ 7am In Room 500
FALL PLANS DUE TO YOUR ADMINISTRATOR
Please email or drop off your Fall Plan (click here to download
the document again) to the Administrator who oversees your
Department. We'll be using Fall Plans as the basis for our
teacher conferences throughout the months of October and
November.
WED. (10/16) PSAT FOR ALL 10th GRADERS & OTHER REGISTERED
9th, 11th, AND 12th GRADE STUDENTS
Students that have not filled out their Answer Document before
testing day MUST see Ms. Beachley in the College & Career
Center before the end of the day on Wednesday to have their
PSAT scored by The College Board.
Teachers not proctoring the PSAT will be in extended
professional development sessions with department-
created agendas
THUR. (10/17) CHOIR SHOW BEGINS --- 7pm in PAC, 10/17 - 10/19 ON BROADWAY, Choir's first show of the year debuts to sell-out crowds from Thursday through Saturday. Don't miss America's #1 Show Choir and America's #1 Show Choir Director, Mr. David Moellenkamp!
FRI. (10/18) Colleges Continue To Visit Campus!
Be sure and come to a session by a school you're interested in
attending. (The Yale session last week was a blast!)
For a schedule of visits, check out our school calendar here:
losal.tandemcal.com
ATHLETICS: Congratulations to the Los Alamitos Marching Band! They won
First Place in the Capistrano HS Field Tournament in High Music, High Effect, and High Visual. CLEAN SWEEP! Speaking of Clean Sweeps, Los Al's Girls Volleyball Team defeated a nationally-ranked Lakewood team in three straight sets over the weekend. Our girls are now ranked in the top 5 in the country! Girls Tennis, Boys Water Polo,Girls Golf, Hockey and Football are in the thick of Sunset League action this week. Come out and cheer for our teams!
10/25 --- Los Al Live, Comedy Improv Show --- After School In Black Box
10/31 --- Homecoming Assembly
11/2 --- Homecoming Dance
Unlimited Possibilities...
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The Gradual Release Of Responsibility Framework:
Tips, Tools, And Resources From Today's Staff Development @ Los Al
 Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mark Johnson will introduce the Gradual Release Of Responsibility framework Monday morning, a tool for thinking, sharing, and talking about instruction as we head into the Common Core.
Most teachers will agree that, fundamentally, the way people learn something is through a process by which somebody with knowledge transfers information to somebody with less knowledge. In fact, that's one of the definitions of learning: acquisition of skills and knowledge.
So when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of how learning takes place --- especially in a classroom setting --- defining the process can be helpful for both teachers and students. This is precisely where the Gradual Release Of Responsibility framework can be best used. Through its lens, teaching and learning are defined through a process called "I Do / We Do / You Do," with each phase having specific practices that work best to transfer and acquire knowledge.
I DO. Ms. Marlo Warburton is a teacher at Longfellow Arts & Technology Middle School in Berkeley, California. Her lesson on Algebra mixture problems shows her doing a ton of work inside the classroom. She's modeling, explaining, introducing vocabulary, and directly instructing her students on how to go about thinking and solving mixture problems. There is definitely teaching going on, and the learning process for students is just beginning. But, learning takes time. And full-on mastery, the kind needed to apply skills in college and career with great success are going to require students to work collaboratively with their new knowledge and gain utter independence with the knowledge they acquire. The first 5 minutes of Ms. Warburton's lesson is solid, no doubt... but it's not enough to define the entire process of teaching and learning. Where would you take the lesson from here?
 WE DO. One direction a teacher might take this lesson may be similar to what Mr. Yutaka Hase envisioned when teaching his Window Seat / Aisle Seat lesson to a group of elementary school students. Mr. Hase does a masterful job doing very little during class time other than praise and facilitate. Students are talking alot, thinking out loud and writing everything down in their journals. The lesson is not complete, of course, as very little independent practice truly occurs. Mr. Hase is directly involved in this midpoint of releasing the responsibility of learning to his students, and his guidance is clearly seen by any observer. (For a fully downloadable link to Mr. Hase's entire lesson, click here.)
YOU DO. Broken into two phases (You Do It Together and You Do It Alone), this last part of the learning process solidifies that students "own" the skills and knowledge they have been learning. Collaboration is key during this phase, as working with others helps to bring out nuances of mastery that sheer independence cannot provide. Heading into the Common Core, technology has the potential of playing a huge part in how we provide opportunities for students to apply what they've learned. Also, the "You Do" phase of instruction is usually one that teachers work diligently to stay current in. It's in this phase that projects and student productions (which are the things most students remember about school) get worked on as a form of assessment and mastery.
So where does this leave us? At a school and district that take teaching and learning as seriously as we do, thinking about instruction using the same framework and language will only help us to spread and proliferate our practices faster and with added depth and clarity
The Gradual Release Of Responsibility framework --- or I Do, We Do, You Do teaching and learning --- can be a helpful way for us to focus our individual practice on what we believe needs to occur in the classroom heading into Common Core.
Look for the document introduced during Staff Development (and pictured below) to be a note-taking frame for our next set of Instructional Rounds. We do most of our teaching in-line with Gradual Release already... being even more deliberate about how we structure each phase of our lesson will only help us to build upon the national-caliber academic program we strive so hard to provide.
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All Teachers Should Take The Common Core Sample Test:
Feel What The New Literacy Standards For Students Are Like In 2014
No matter what you teach, take the new SBAC Practice Test in 11th Grade English and pay attention to the following: READING STAMINA. I think you'll agree, there's tons that teachers of all content areas can do to support the overall literacy of all of our students.
In case it got lost in your email, here's an excerpt from last year's invitation to take the Common Core Practice Test online...
Smarter, More Balanced Griffins :)
I just took the freshly released SBAC Practice Test online (all 3 of them), and I already feel more common to the core!
Some really important things you should know before you delve into this test are these:
- IT'S DIFFERENT. Not just the questions being asked, or the wording of the task... but the way you interact and engage with the testing environment. Clicking, dragging, connecting triangles, plotting graphs. Prepare to be easily distracted by the functionality and freedom of your keyboard during the exam.
- JUST CLICK "SIGN IN" ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT TO TAKE IT. The system will automatically log you in as a guest, and take you through the initial set-up. (One of the first things you'll notice is how accessible and customizable the test is for students with special needs and/or preferences of all kinds.)
- EVEN IF YOU DON'T TEACH ENGLISH OR MATH... TAKE A PRACTICE TEST BEFORE THE START OF NEXT SCHOOL YEAR! This education movement will affect everybody in some way. And it's valuable to have first-hand knowledge of what students will be experiencing and what teachers are being asked to prepare kids for. We will, clearly, all need to support each other and move together down this road :)
- TAKE A TEST IN A GRADE LEVEL OTHER THAN "11" IF YOU HAVE TIME. It's amazing to see how Common Core impacts all children, all teachers, and effectively our entire country.
We're getting closer and closer to our country's biggest educational shift in more than a decade, and it's exciting to be doing this work alongside all of you, and to be doing at Los Al.
Smarter And Much More Balanced,
Joshua Arnold
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So Much S.W.A.G.:
Mr. Celestin & Ms. Farrokh-Siar Have Had 100% Attendance In Their First Period Class... Who Will Be Next?
Those shirts look pretty good. Keep encouraging your 1st Period Class to be present and on time and you'll be rocking some SWAG gear in no time!
S.W.A.G. (Students With Attendance Goals) is only in it's first month, but we have some encouraging news to share for teachers of all 1st period classes: It's working!
Just to provide some context on the data that surrounds Overall School Attendance... In high schools across America, the average student attendance rate is somewhere around 94% to 95%. There are a tremendous number of variables that go into this, so it's important not to extrapolate too much from schools with slightly lower or slightly higher rates of attendance. (Think about rural schools that cover district boundaries of hundred of miles, or urban schools where getting to school isn't always safe or easy.)
That said, Los Al as a school and district has always had a phenomenal rate of attendance. Last year, in the month of September, students attended school at a rate of 97.5%. Amazing!
But not as amazing as this September!!!!
As Dr. Gates noted earlier this month, since we started our SWAG program this school year, our Overall School Attendance is an astounding 99.2%. Now, we can't be certain that this is directly associated with SWAG, but we can infer that there is a strong correlation between positively rewarding students for something they're doing right and seeing more of that behavior as a result.
And here's what's really important: The more students are in school, the more they learn. It's that simple.
So whether your 1st period class has racked up 8 or 9 SWAG days in a row, or you're still struggling with one or two students that are habitually tardy or absent... please know that overall, at a rate of 99.2%, students are in class at Los Al and receivng high quality instruction from some of the best teachers in the country.
Now that's SWAG!
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Classes Begin This October!!!
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Two Important Workshops Are Coming To Los Al...
And Students, Teachers, And Parents Are Invited To Attend Them Both
Students who attend either of these workshops with their parents can use this time as a Saturday School alternative. Contact Dr. Gates in the Attendance Office at igates@losal.org for more information.
Being in high school is about much more than the classes students take, or the knowledge they amass over the 4 years they attend. Instead, the time spent in 9th - 12th grade is about choice-making, socialization, growing up, making mistakes, independence, and a host of other life-lessons young people learn while balancing a rigorous course load with the realities of being a teenager.
Not surprisingly, though, students sometimes lose their way...
Fortunately at Los Al, we know that it takes a village to raise a child. And between top-notch counselors and an abundance of community partners and resources, students are supported in getting back on track whenever the distractions of life may take them off course.
This October, as part of our ongoing effort to educate students, parents, and our local community about topics that we see trending in schools, Los Al will be hosting two workshops on back-to-back nights in the PAC that highlight two important topics in the lives of young people today: prescription drug abuse and bullying.
Please know, both of these topics have drastically evolved in the last 10 years to take shape and form in new ways that parents may not fully recognize anymore. Joining us at either of these events is a way to educate yourself on the habits and interests of young people today, and may help you recognize and resolve issues of bullying or prescription drug abuse that are close to you or your home.
Remember, getting educated is always the cool thing to do :) And we look forward to seeing our teachers, parents, and students at both of these events.
(If applicable to your class, please consider offering extra credit for attendance.)
Here are the details:
BEHIND THE ORANGE CURTAIN MOVIE NIGHT & PANEL DISCUSSION
Where: PAC
When: 10/21 @ 7:00pm - 8:30pm
TAKE A STAND AGAINST BULLYING
Where: PAC
When: 10/22 @ 6:30pm - 8:00pm
All are welcome!
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GRIFFIN NEWS IS NOW ONLINE!!!
Check out last week's episode here... And subscribe
From now on, if you need a picture from any of these
Monday Morning Memos, Just find us on FLICKR
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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