Monday Morning Memo --- February 17, 2014

Upcoming Events:

MON. (2/17) No School --- President's Day

TUES. (2/18) Princeton Review "SCORES BACK NIGHT" --- 6:30pm @ PAC

WED. (2/19) LATE START WEDNESDAY, 1st Period @ 8:37am For Students

Common Core Collaboration For Staff :)

GIRLS WATER POLO vs. BECKMAN

THIS IS ROUND 1 OF CIF PLAYOFFS!!!!

THUR. (2/20) LOS AL CHOIR PRESENTS "SMILE" @ 7PM IN THE P.A.C.

This choir show runs Thursday thru Sunday (2/20 - 2/22) with

shows starting at 7pm and a special Saturday matinee at 2pm.

FRI. (2/21) BOYS BASKETBALL @ HOME vs. LONG BEACH JORDAN, 7pm

THIS IS ROUND 1 OF CIF PLAYOFFS!!!!

LOS AL CHOIR PRESENTS "SMILE" @ 7PM IN THE P.A.C.

SAT (2/22) RACE ON THE BASE --- CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

ATHLETICS: Guess What? Every Winter Sport is in the Playoffs this week!!!

Please check OC Varsity for the the latest

schedules, and be prepared to come out and support your Griffins as they seek CIF and Individual Championships in Basketball, Soccer, Girls Water Polo, and Wrestling. Your presence and participation cheering in games impacts athletes on both sides of the ball! And as we head into single-elimination match-ups it is critical that the #beststudentsectioninthecountry be at every home and away game making their presence felt throughout Southern California!

& On The Horizon...

2/28 --- LosAl4Life Prize Giveaway!

3/14 --- iHeartLosAl PTSA Fundraiser @ Glory Days in Seal Beach

3/20 --- Thinking Maps Training

.............. Unlimited Possibilities!

Los Al's 2nd Annual Common Core Aquarium Was Amazing!

Teachers Watching Other Teachers Teach Is The Greatest P.D. Of All :)

From top-left to bottom-right, Tracy Lundblad, Ray Coriaty, Brandon Hart, and Lauren Helm conduct fishbowl-style lessons in front of 40+ of their colleagues at a time in Los Alamitos High School's 2nd Annual Common Core Aquarium.

One of the things that makes Los Al Los Al is our unique ability to pull off big ideas with lots of moving parts. From one of the nation's best football programs, to America's Favorite Show Choir, our students, families, teachers, and community partners have experience putting together large-scale efforts that involve hundreds and hundreds of people.

Friday's Common Core Aquarium was Los Al's latest instructional endeavor, and it couldn't have been bigger, better, or more innovative and meaningful than it turned out to be.

What we learned on Friday is that we are uniquely prepared to educate students in alignment with the ideals and values that pervade the Common Core. With technology-infused lessons and tasks that ask students to produce and publish, our EdTech Aquarium highlighted not only how far we have come, but how much more there is to learn when it comes to understanding the nexus between education and technology. Our close-reading Aquarium demonstrated the power of ultra-rigorous assignments, and teachers observed students on valiant pursuits of knowledge sometimes fall just short of their payoff --- yet still achieve mounds more than less rigorous instruction would beget. In the Mathematics Aquarium, we heard as much student talk as in an English or Humanities class, and we saw a shift from understanding procedures to mastering concepts with the help of a novel lesson design. And, in prompting students to go deeper with more complex thinking and language, the Depth & Complexity Science Aquarium brought morality and judgement into the Biology curriculum, and challenged students to evaluate human and animal behavior for the purposes of fitness and survival (a college-level expectation at minimum, if not graduate school).

And our instructional evolution is just beginning...

The world has changed so much in the last generation or two, that it's incumbent upon schools and teachers to prepare students for the lives and workplaces they will actually participate in, not the ones we were necessarily prepared for.

Technology has grown to be play a critical role in our lives, future jobs, and current schooling. Machines do many of the tasks we used to train humans for... as a result, we now have time to think deeper and more critically than ever.

Los Al's yearly Aquariums exist as a time and space to showcase the progress of our shifting educational practices. They allow colleagues to reflect upon their own classroom modalities and gain insight into the many ways we can choose to meet the changing needs of our student population.

In the end, our mission is the same as it ever was: continuing to prepare our Griffins for success and happiness after high school, and ignite unlimited possibilities in college and career for all!

Field Trips & Dreams...

When Los Al Students Visited The Jet Propulsion Laboratory On Thursday, They Were Inspired By Possibility

Los Al students gather at the museum @ JPL to look at full-scale models of the first Mars Rovers to ever touch ground.

In high school, almost all of the field trips that students go on are intended to extend learning opportunities above and beyond the scope of the curriculum. For example, English students reading Romeo & Juliet may catch a Shakespeare In The Park performance in the Spring, or students taking Marine Biology might go for a dive off the coast of Catalina to see what they're learning in class first-hand. These filed-trips are important, no doubt, but they serve a different purpose than the field trips of elementary school --- where one of the main reasons for going was to inspire.

For example, did you ever visit a Fire Station as a 3rd grader? What about a college campus in middle school? These field trips weren't really about extended learning at all... they were about exposure and inspiration. And for that alone, they were important.

This is exactly what a group of 60 Los Al students got to do as Juniors in high school last week. They visited JPL in Pasadena to see first-hand what a life and career in engineering, space exploration, or the sciences might be like.

The field trip was a welcomes change of pace from the daily grind of their PreCalc class. And the fact that these students got to consider their future, their hopes, and their dreams was justification enough for this missed day of school.

Week 22 2013-2014... IN THIS ISSUE:

Upcoming Events

Los All's 2nd Annual Common Core Aquarium

Field Trips & Dreams

Signing Day 2014: 8 More Student-Athletes Headed To The Next Level

Los Al 9th Graders Are The Best-Prepared Students In Orange County

Los Alamitos High School's Show Choir Presents:

SMILE

The curtain rises this Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, February 20-22, @ 7 pm. There's also a Saturday matinee at 2 pm. Tickets are $12-15 with performances taking place in the PAC.

Hurry and buy your tickets HERE now before the show sells out!

The Hallway Conversation:

You Never Know What You'll Learn When You Start A Chat With A Colleague In The Hall :)

Pictured above, Janine King and Ileana Flores (700 Building Neighbors) carry on a hallway conversation well-after 4pm :)

School hallways are one of the most interesting places in the world!

Not only can they be the home of Prom Proposals and Winter Break-Ups, they are where friendships are strengthened, and last-minute homework is completed. In regards to teachers, hallways are the roads to our most important stops on campus: our classroom, the bathroom, the Main Office, the Copy Room. And along the way, the most beautiful, random, helpful, and important conversations can be found with colleagues across departments, experience, and campus geographies.

Take the conversation Ms. King and Ms. Flores are having... Is it about a student? An assessment strategy? A good place for dinner? Weekend plans?

No matter the answer, the time teachers spend chatting, sharing, and learning about each other are healthy for our entire community as it builds relationships, strengthens our sense of family, and makes the tough times easier, and the easy times more enjoyable.

So continue to bump into each other in the hallway. Beautiful things can happen there. And you'll remember those conversations forever :)

Los Al 9th Graders Are Some Of The Best Prepared Students In Orange County:

This Week's OC Register Article Highlights The Accomplishments Of Our Future Griffins

It's a well-known fact that Los Al receives some of the best, most-accomplished 9th graders in all of Orange County. Our elementary and middle schools, collectively, are responsible for this remarkable achievement.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the article in this week's Register that highlights the accomplishments of our elementary schools in the district, you need to take a look!

Our incredible students, families, teachers, support staff, and principals are lauded for their efforts and accomplishments... and at Los Alamitos High School, couldn't be prouder of the preparation of our #FutureGriffins!