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Upcoming Events:
MON. (11/11) VETERAN'S DAY --- No School, We Honor Those That Serve
Check Out This Month's College & Career Bulletin
TUES. (11/12) Leadership Council Meeting, 7am In Room 500
Track & Field Complex Ribbon Cutting, 2pm
All Public Invited, Click Here!
Boys Water Polo, Playoff Wildcard Game vs. O. Lu @ 3:15pm
***Game to be played at Los Al's JFTB***
Girls Volleyball, Playoff Game @ Home vs. Woodbridge, 7pm
WED. (11/13) LATE START DAY, 1st Period Begins @ 8:37am
Click Here For Schedule
POLITICAL DEBATE ON CAMPUS - Room 153/154, 3rd Period
Rick Simpson (D) v. Colin Edwards (R)
Senior Students Preferred, Organized Through Gov't. Classes
GATORADE'S "G WEEK" BEGINS
The CEO Of Gatorade will kick off a three-day event in which all of
our student athletes will learn about the importance of hydration
and nutrition to achieve maximum physical performance.
We'll also have tons of free Gatorade and Gatorade products
(chews, towels, powders, gear) for all Los Al students.
Girls Tennis, CIF Semi-Finals v. Peninsula @ 2pm
THUR. (11/14) NATIONAL SIGNING DAY (FALL) FOR STUDENT-ATHLETES
Please join us in Room 500 @ lunch as we recognize all of our
student athletes who have committed to continuing their athletic
careers at the next level. All friends and family are welcome!
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK BEGINS, 7pm In PAC
The show runs from 11/14-11/16, and tickets are available online
by clicking here.
Girls Volleyball @ 7pm. Location & Opponent TBA
FRI. (11/15) PLAYOFF FOOTBALL GAME vs. FOOTHIIL, 7:30pm
The Game Is @ Tustin High School's Northrup Stadium
ATHLETICS: Okay, here's the deal ladies and gentlemen... our students did very
 well in representing Los Al athletics in the Playoffs this year. We won Sunset League Titles in Girls Tennis & Girls Volleyball. All Fall sports are still competing, and Girls Golf and X-Country have individual students competing for County and State Championships as well. (You can see pics of students competing in all sports by searching the hashtag #LOSALROCKSATALLSPORTS on your Instagram or Twitter account.)
Ice Hockey is undefeated and heads into the Playoffs this weekend. Read more about their incredible season in the following OC Register article.
Girls Tennis is in the Semi-Final Round of Playoffs and plays Peninsula on Wednesday @ 2pm.
Boys Water Polo has a home wildcard playoff game against Orange Lutheran on Tuesday @ 3:15pm at the JFTB pool. For a complete list of the Boys Water Polo Playoff Bracket, including dates and times of competitions, click here.
Football has a Playoff game against Foothill High School @ 7:30pm on Friday at Tustin High School's Northrup Stadium. For a complete list of the Football Playoff Bracket, including dates and times of competitions, click here.
Girls Volleyball is currently ranked in the Top 5 nationally, and has earned the #1 seed headed into CIF Playoffs. They take on Woodbridge @ 7pm in our Gym on Tuesday night, and the "Best Student Section In The O.C." will be there to cheer our girls on. For a complete list of the Girls Volleyball Playoff Bracket, including dates and times of competitions, click
& On The Horizon...
11/22 --- District College Day, Wear University Gear!
11/22 --- Los Al Live, Comedy Improv Show. Black Box Theatre, 3pm & 7pm
11/27-29 Thanksgiving Week :)
11/30 --- Seal Beach Tree Lighting Ceremony
12/5-7 -- Show Choir's Holiday Show, 7pm
Unlimited Possibilities...
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It's BECAUSE Of Athletics Our Students Succeed, Not IN SPITE Of Them:
The Academic Value Of Non-Academics
What students do on the court may matter just as much, if not more, than what they do off the court. At Los Al, we've been saying that for years... now, the science and data exists to support this philosophy.
I couldn't help myself this week (as this edition's Memo is chock-full of athletic information regarding our school's CIF playoff schedule) but to write about the relationship between Athletics & Academics in American high schools. And furthermore, the community support necessary to aspire to be national-caliber in every program offering.
A decade ago, The U.S. Department of Education compiled data on extracurricular activities and found that more than half the country's high-school sophomores participated in sports, one-fifth were in a school-sponsored music group, and cheerleading, drill teams, hobby, academic, and vocational clubs each involved about 10 percent of kids.
It gets better...
The data also showed that students with the highest test scores were the most active in afterschool activities. In fact, 75 percent of students in the top quarter of test takers played sports, compared to less than 30 percent in the lowest quarter.
The link is clear. Students who participate in athletics and activities are academically successful. But why?
ADULTS. Kids who are involved in clubs and sports spend an extra couple of hours a week with an adult, usually a role model like a drama director or a football coach. "In general, athletes don't want to disappoint their coach," Los Al Baseball Coach Matt Nuez said. Teachers know this to be true, and often use this knowledge to motivate an underachieving athlete by talking with their coach. The grades and academic performance of student athletes is extraordinarily high at Los Al in part because teachers and coaches work together to support student success. Also, with so many coaches on staff as credentialed teachers, students have ongoing access to more and more adults that know and care about them throughout the learning day.
MOTIVATION. Extracurriculars also make school more palatable for a whole lot of kids who otherwise might not be that interested in school. Grades improve not because of what kids are learning in their Choir class, but because Choir is making them enjoy school more, so they show up more often, find a circle of like-minded friends, and become more engaged in school.
This is what makes Los Al different from other schools. Not the fact that we know there's a link between athletics, activities, arts, and academics... but that wer'e solely committed to making the 4 A's equally important for each and every student. That is to say, no one aspect of school is more important than the other: Athletics are just as critical to success as the Arts and Academics are, and Activities are equally as important to a high school student as the other 3 A's.
This doesn't mean that we all don't realize how important a class like English 1 or Algebra is to the growth and development of a young student. But, leadership, adaptability, social skills? Try a couple years on the school newspaper to learn that.
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Students Are Like Frogs...
In A Good Way, Of Course :)
Look how far that frog can jump! Scientists never knew just how far a frog could jump until they visited some Frog Jockeys at the Calaveras County Frog Jumping Contest held in Northern California each year. (Shout-out to Janine King for finding this article & video!!!)
Students are like frogs. Everyone thinks they know how to get a frog to jump, or a student to learn, but only a handful of people can truly maximize their efforts. For frogs, not even scientists have a grip on just what's possible when it comes to their jumping. In fact, up until last year, biologists studying the anatomy and physiology of frogs published findings that most frogs jump about 3 feet, and that longest recorded jump was 4.249 feet by any frog. WRONG!!!!  In Calaveras County (home of Mark Twain's famous "The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County" short story) frogs was been jumping 5, 6, and 7 feet for years. In fact, there's a frog jumping contest held at the County Fair each year that's recorded tons of data and evidence to suggest that everything biologists thought was impossible with frogs is actually a fairly common occurrence when it comes to making them jump.
Hmmmm... this kinda sounds like teaching, no?
There are always researchers/politicians/textbook companies/policy advocates that purport to know the best way to teach students (or get them to jump). But time and time again we learn that it's our teachers, the Frog Jockeys on the ground doing the work in classrooms and County Fairs across the country, that somehow keep getting the most our of kids when it comes to education.
Let's keep it that way. And let's use the important background that science and research provide to continue doing amazing things when it comes to teaching and learning. Because when both sides listen to each other, great things can happen for kids... and frogs!
Check out this amazing video on the fallacy of frog jumping in Biology...
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We Did It Again!!!
(Only District In Orange County To Receive This Award 4 Years In A Row!!!)
Los Al is one of only handful of districts across the U.S. and Canada being honored for increasing access to AP® course work while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP Exams.
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More EdTech @ Los Al...
How TOSA Trisha Callella And www.newsela.com Can Enhance Your Teaching Efforts
Last week, Trisha Callella (tcallella@losal.org) was introduced as an EdTech resource for our entire staff. Trisha is already working on projects with Debby Brosius, Piper Brucculeri, and a few others. She will be on campus periods 1-4, Mondays & Wednesdays, and can be easily reached by email at tcallella@losal.org. Please use her knowledge, expertise, and skill to help you with learning objectives that technology may be able to enhance or facilitate. Her job is to help you with your classroom goals, no matter how lofty or imaginative :)
takes current event articles from thousands of news websites and automatically adapts them for reading level and fluency. There's a blue bar on the right-hand side of every article that allows you to meter the lexile level so that students of all ability can access the content. There's even an automatic comprehension quiz that follows most articles!
Check it out below!
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English & Math Teachers Collaborate To Design/Implement Common Core Units:
The Results Are Truly Amazing!
Over the last few weeks, teachers in the two largest departments on campus have been collaborating, and collaborating, and collaborating some more. The final result is a Common Core Unit Of Study to be taught to students this semester.
We've all taken the Smarter Balanced Assessment by now, and we're clear that the learning objectives for students are changing. 21st Century learners are going to need a deeper set of skills to be successful in college and career as the content they interface with now is so varied and accessible due to daily technology tools like Google, Facebook, and more.
So, how do evolve our teaching?
One way to start is with lesson design. English and Math teachers have been meeting on Wednesday mornings and pull-out days over the last month to design Units Of Study that address some of the shifts that come with Common Core. In English, this has meant supplementing core works of fiction with relevant non-fiction reading, and changing the idea of literacy to include all media that requires analysis. In Math, moving to Common Core lesson design has meant including more open-ended in questions as a part of daily practice (or questions with multiple right answers), and creating opportunities for students to talk about their process and conceptual understanding of procedures rather than doing 20-30 problems a day mastering the same skill.
Teachers are anxious to see how it goes! The Algebra team is almost done with implementing their unit, and various English teams are getting ready to begin their units in November. Once taught, teachers will work to modify their lesson design based on their experiences, and cultivate instructional practices that work to best move students towards Common Core goals and expectations.
What does this mean for the non-English or Math teacher?
Everything! Common Core is not like the Standards Movement of the early 2000's... it doesn't seek to fundamentally change WHAT teachers are teaching in their classrooms. It does, however, demand that we all look at HOW we teach, and that we are developing deep sets of skills in students that transfer across content areas and into successful college and career opportunities.
Like our English and Math Departments, re-thinking your lesson design is a great place to start for any teacher. Just make sure it leads you to a place where you're considering the WAY you teach, and how you can best prepare students for a life that will be far different from the one we were prepared for when we were in high school.
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Bringing The Curriculum To Life:
A Good Guest Speaker Goes A Long Way!
Take a look at the Guest Speaker Mr. Carlson invited to visit his Military History class. Donned in full Civil War gear, he truly brought history alive for the students. From his Union Division gear, to his props, to his antique musket, to the accent he used when answering questions from students and sharing the story of his war travels, the experience was one that all of Mr. Carlson's class will never forget.
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Dear Seniors,
College Admissions Officers Read
Your Tweets...
And They Take Action Accordingly!
The following is excerpted from Natasha Singer's article in Saturday's NEW YORK TIMES. It's great insider information on the state of social media in relation to college admissions.
At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, admissions officers are still talking about the high school senior who attended a campus information session last year for prospective students. Throughout the presentation, she apparently posted disparaging comments on Twitter about her fellow attendees, repeatedly using a common expletive.
Perhaps she hadn't realized that colleges keep track of their social media mentions.
"It was incredibly unusual and foolish of her to do that," Scott A. Meiklejohn, Bowdoin's dean of admissions and financial aid, said last week. The college ultimately denied the student admission, he said, because her academic record wasn't competitive. But had her credentials been better, those indiscreet posts could have scuttled her chances.
"We would have wondered about the judgment of someone who spends their time on their mobile phone and makes such awful remarks," Mr. Meiklejohn said.
As certain high school seniors work meticulously this month to finish their early applications to colleges, some may not realize that comments they casually make online could negatively affect their prospects. In fact, new research from Kaplan Test Prep, the service owned by the Washington Post Company, suggests that online scrutiny of college hopefuls is growing...
To read the rest of Natasha Singer's NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE click here
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And In Case You Missed It...
Here's A Few Ways Los Al Made The News Recently
Los Al's nationally-ranked Show Choir was featured on Queen Latifah's syndicated talk show. The television show reaches an estimated 2.2 million viewers each week!
Our student attendance initiative, SWAG, was featured in the following Orange County Register article. Featured above, Mr. Celestin's 1st Period Social Science class... they were the first winners of the SWAG attendance incentive program.
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WE ARE LOS AL!
Cheering On The Griffins Starts Early In Los Alamitos!
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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