CHEC bulletin for Week of February 3, 2020
CHEC SHINES ON THE DC ALL STAR TOUR
MARIA TUKEVA’S (MT) MESSAGE:
CHEC CELEBRATES AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 2020
February 1 marked the start of the 2020 celebration of African American History Month, and at CHEC we are launching our focus through curriculum and instruction, field trips, guest speakers, and our culminating assembly on February 26 and 27. Every year, The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) sets the theme for the month, and the theme for this year, “African Americans and the Vote,” comes at a crucial time for this country. The excerpt below from the ASALH website gives a brief synopsis of the struggles of African Americans for the right to vote.
2020- African Americans and the Vote
The year 2020 marks the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment and the culmination of the women’s suffrage movement. The year 2020 also marks the sesquicentennial of the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) and the right of black men to the ballot after the Civil War. The theme speaks, therefore, to the ongoing struggle on the part of both black men and black women for the right to vote. This theme has a rich and long history, which begins at the turn of the nineteenth century, i.e., in the era of the Early Republic, with the states’ passage of laws that democratized the vote for white men while disfranchising free black men. Thus, even before the Civil War, black men petitioned their legislatures and the US Congress, seeking to be recognized as voters. Tensions between abolitionists and women’s suffragists first surfaced in the aftermath of the Civil War, while black disfranchisement laws in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries undermined the guarantees in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments for the great majority of southern blacks until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The important contribution of black suffragists occurred not only within the larger women’s movement, but within the larger black voting rights movement. Through voting-rights campaigns and legal suits from the turn of the twentieth century to the mid-1960s, African Americans made their voices heard as to the importance of the vote. Indeed, the fight for black voting rights continues in the courts today. The theme of the vote should also include the rise of black elected and appointed officials at the local and national levels, campaigns for equal rights legislation, as well as the role of blacks in traditional and alternative political parties.
As educators who are leaders in the quest for social justice, and who are developing our students as social justice leaders, it is critical that every month and every day, we build our curriculum as a tool for equity, by creating lessons, discussions and assignments that engage students in inquiry of the history that has been left out of the textbooks. There is a wealth of resources in the city, and this year The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum joined in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society, by creating a joint archive of resources and materials.
Our CHEC Librarians are also able to connect you with resources, and suggestions for lessons and texts to be used. Please take time this month to delve into African American History and increase your own and your students’ scholarship in this field. Seek out collaboration from your colleagues and you design your classes and lessons. If you would like to share ideas or plans for a special activity, please let us know. We look forward to a stimulating and powerful focus on African American History in our classrooms!
SHOUT OUTS
- Shout out to all teachers who hosed the OSSE Star Rating visitors last week – Mr. AbuSabha, Ms. Benjamin, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Olson, and Ms. Chatalian! The visitors were extremely impressed with what they saw, and we look forward to seeing the article when it comes out!
- Kudos to all teachers, proctors, counselors, administrators and support staff for an excellent team approach to MS I Ready testing last week!
- Shout out to Mr. Molina, Ms. Lemus, and all faculty and Administrators for an outstanding Parent Portfolio participation during portfolio week – 180 parents attended!
- Kudos to Mr. Aguilar and Ms. Emilius for organizing the Ellevation PD! We had great feedback on its effectiveness!
- Shout out to Mr. Galvan, Mr. AbuSabha, Mr. Pinto and Mr. Diaz for coordinating the grand opening of our Bilingual Career Academy last week! There was a great turnout of students and parents, and distinguished panel of scholars to respond to questions!
- Shout out to Mr. Spoth for organizing Capstone Night! We had a great turnout of parents, teachers and students!
- Kudos to Ms. Lewis for hosting a tour of Powell Elementary as part of our Recruitment for next year!
- Shout out to Mr. Jones and Ms. Lopez for coordinating Senior Portfolio Panels last week and this week!
MEETINGS THIS WEEK:
Monday, February 3, 2020
8:00 am – 8:40 am Presentation on Gang Prevention – Optional – can substitute for Wednesday SLC meeting
Senior Portfolio Presentations – High School Library 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. – Math and Science
10th Grade MOY RI
GRADES DUE BY 5:00 PM
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
All School SLC Meeting – Presentation on KiNVO – Auditorium – 8:00 am
Senior Portfolio Presentations – High School Library 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. – Math and Science
Groundhog Job Shadow Day
10th Grade MOY RI
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
SLC Morning Meeting (For those who didn’t attend Gang Prevention Session)
Term 2 Report Cards Mailed
Department Planning Period Meeting
10th Grade MOY RI Make-ups
LSAT Meeting – 4:00 pm - Cafeteria
Thursday, February 6, 2020
10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Alvin Ailey – Kennedy Center
Department Planning Period Meeting
Faculty Meeting – 3:30 p.m.
10th Grade MOY RI Make-ups
Friday, February 7, 2020
10th Grade MOY RI Make-ups
INSTRUCTION:
MS. YAMASHITA'S JAPANESE CLASS
GRADES ARE DUE BY 5 PM ON MONDAY FEBRUARY 3
This is the second week of the Third Advisory! It is important to launch your first GRASPS of the advisory, no later than Wednesday, February 5. You can utilize one of the strategies in the Build Background section of the Ellevation Instructional strategies. These are all designed to engage students in new information, and at the same time assess how much they already know. The activity we saw modelled, “Hanging Hashtags,” would work well as a way engage students when they see the GRASPS for the first time.
Seniors will continue presenting their portfolios in the high school library on Monday and Tuesday – please come by and support by being a panelist if you can. This is an important part of seniors completing their graduation requirements.
JUNIOR SAT DAY MARCH 4
There are 17 school days left before the SAT. The Pre-Calculus team (Mr. Smith, Mr. Sanchez and Mr. Allen) is going to do an intensive push towards the SAT since most of their students are juniors, and they are looking for support from Admin, Counselors, SPED, and College Career Center to help focus and motivate our students. Please see any member of the Pre-Calc team to share resources, stop by to encourage, provide suggestions and deliver motivational speeches.
The plan this week is to discuss the importance, give an overview and practice some strategies on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will simulate taking Section 3 and Section 4 with the allotted time. We will score the sections, make a POP sheet for each type of question in order to design review stations to differentiate based on need. Suggestions to appropriately message these practice tests so that students give their best are welcome. Based on their results, we will design lessons for the following week, a plan for the Feb break and the subsequent week.
Thank you to the Pre-Calc team for this proactive approach to assist our students in doing their best on the SAT!!
INSTRUCTIONAL CALENDAR
The Instructional Calendar is a living document that houses all of the major curricular requirements, assessments, and schoolwide events. Please check it weekly, as it changes as events are added or moved. Please note some additions - the specific dates for each interim have been added, so please check out the calendar! The calendar is curated by members of the Admin team, and Mr. Magee, Science LEAP lead, curates and adds events or items that are submitted by Department Chairs. If you have an event or item that you think should be added to the Instructional Calendar, please submit it to your Department Chairperson first, and then your Department Chair will submit for inclusion if appropriate.
Please view the Instructional Calendar here
OPPORTUNITIES:
MS. ALVARADO'S MATH CLASS
UPDATES FROM: FEBRUARY 6 FACULTY MEETING I ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP TEAM I TEACHER FEEDBACK I BUDGET SEASON I DONORS CHOOSE I PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LINK I LIBRARY UPDATE I OFFICE DEPOT GIVE BACK I
FEBRUARY FACULTY MEETING THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6
We will have our monthly Faculty Meeting on Thursday, February 6 at 3:30 pm. In line with our goal to increase academic discourse and through discourse improve student writing, the faculty meeting will consist of an Open Space Technology in which teachers will present their strategies and approaches for Academic Discourse. The Social Studies and Science Departments are spearheading this meeting; however, they are open to including any teacher from any department who would like to share one of their strategies. If you have tried any of the Ellevation strategies and would like to share, please join in! All who are interested, please contact Mr. Magee or Mr. Connor.
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP TEAM
The Academic Leadership Team (ALT) consists of all administrators, LEAP leads, Department Chairs, and any interested faculty or staff. Meetings are held twice a month, alternating between Early Release Days and morning meetings. The ALT team designs and monitors the Comprehensive School Plan. All are welcome to attend, either for one meeting or for all. At the January 29 meeting, the ALT team reflected on Wow’s and Wonders from the Portfolio presentations and the Ellevation training, and planned for February’s Faculty Meeting, which will focus on sharing strategies for academic discourse and the CHEC 7. The team also worked on the data collected from our internal walk-throughs and planned for February Walk-throughs.
The next ALT meeting will be Friday, February 14 at 7:30 am. During this meeting we hope to receive a training from central office on the TEAMS platform in Office 365, so that we can house all our documents and plans in an accessible place. The notes from this week’s ALT meeting can be found at this link.
In the attached link, you can find the entire year schedule of ALT team meetings and proposed meeting focus here.
TEACHER FEEDBACK ON ELLEVATION PD AND CLASSROOM IMPLEMENTATION
I did "Be a detective", "Conversation Grids", and "Expert-Novice". BTW the strategies are great, and I'll definitely be using them regularly. Mr. Shoenthal
I used the Ellevation strategy Snippet during first period. I'm going to do it again during fourth period. It is a good prediction exercise and gets students discussing the topic. Ms. Ferguson
I used “stronger and clearer”, it was great! Mr. Alvarado
I used hanging hashtags! Kids liked it. Ms. Bruemmer
BUDGET SEASON IS HERE
The 20-21 Budget process has begun. Schools will receive their budget allocations on Monday February 3, and will have until Friday, February 14, to submit them. Our LSAT has already been involved in discussion of priorities, and alignment to our Comprehensive School plan. As usual, we will launch a budget survey to get feedback from staff, students and parents on the priorities for budget expenditures. The survey will launch on Tuesday, so please be sure to participate and make your thoughts known. The LSAT will meet on this Wednesday, February 5, at 4:00 pm in the cafeteria, to analyze the allocation and make recommendations.
DONORS CHOOSE
Donors Choose is a great resource for all teachers. You can receive a mini grant to support a special project or initiative. Please see some of our recent Donors Choose grantees! You can reach out to them for support in obtaining your own grant!
GREAT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER LINK
Here is a link for a monthly newsletter from OSSE about PD opportunities for a bunch of subjects/areas.
It has ELL, SpEd, SEL, H & PE, RTI, literacy, math and more.
LINCOLN LIBRARY UPDATE
#WinterRead2020 Challenge
Welcome to the third annual Winter Reading Challenge! We join hundreds of other schools and libraries across the United States as participants in this exciting event. We challenge you to read at least 5 books during the month of January and track those books here in Beanstack. Share your progress on social media using #WinterRead2020!
Iconic publishing imprint Penguin Random House (PRH) is sponsoring this third annual Beanstack Winter Reading Challenge in support of public libraries, school systems, and YOU achieving your reading goals! Last year’s Winter Reading Challenge enrolled 65,323 readers nationwide, who logged over 150,000 books and 13.5M minutes of reading.
Top-performing libraries and schools will earn the Golden Penguin and Random House awards. PRH pledges to donate $50,000 in prizes, including author visits and new books, to be shared among the winners.
Let's light up the mind this winter! Happy reading, LINCOLN KNIGHTS!
We Need Diverse Books Giveaway
Staff Technology Lessons
Do you want to implement more technology in your projects or with your departments but are unsure what to use? Are you wondering how to create or navigate using the tools shared by your school librarians? Contact Ms. Falkenberg (angela.falkenberg@k12.dc.gov) or pop by the library to schedule technology lessons. Lesson ideas include Office 365 apps, PPT alternative tools, book talks, video creations, podcasts, DC Library databases, and more. Library media specialists are both your instructional partners and technology navigators, engineers, and cheerleaders. When you are more confident using tech, students will be as well.
Teach Central America Resources
October 7-13 was recognized as Teach Central America Week but resources and lessons are applicable year round. "More than four million Central Americans reside in the United States and migration from the region is headline news. However, most schools teach very little about Central America, including the long history of U.S. involvement in the region." Find more resources about Central America here, including social justice books.
Local Events
DC Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action
February 3- 7, 2020
"From February 3-7, 2020, Teaching for Change's D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, D.C. area educators, and community members will collaborate on the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. This week of action is built on the momentum of past local weeks of action and the National Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action campaign taking place in cities across the U.S. to promote a set of national demands based in the Black Lives Matter guiding principles that focus on improving the school experience for students of color.
The Black Lives Matter movement is a powerful, non-violent peace movement that systematically examines injustices that exist at the intersections of race, class, and gender; including mass incarceration, poverty, non-affordable housing, income disparity, homophobia, unfair immigration laws, gender inequality, and poor access to healthcare." More information here.
BELL LIBRARY UPDATE
Check out the Bell High School Library Website to watch the newly uploaded video, Our Tomorrows: Teenagers Around the World Share Their Fears and Dreams.
Please visit the Creative Teaching tab of the library website to explore 2020 (winter, fall and summer) funding opportunities before the deadline.
Third quarter is fast approaching, I am excited to be teaching A Conversation: Critical Approaches to Race, Ethnicity and Representation during 2nd period. We will visit some amazing places including, the Supreme Court to explore landmark cases, the Rayburn House Office Building, Russell Senate Office Building, University lectures and DC State Board of Education. Students will write an anthology that will be published during the start of the 2020-2021 school year and throughout the course, students will discover and rediscover humanity as a familial force.
OFFICE DEPOT GIVE BACK
Office Depot has a Give Back to Schools program that provides 5% credit from people's purchases to help schools buy supplies throughout the year. Below is more info and our school ID numbers that people can share at in-store or online check out. The site provides graphics to share online as well.
Lincoln: 70020154
Bell: 70229484
CHEC: 70020156
https://www.officedepot.com/cm/school-supplies/give-back?cm_sp=FooterLinks-_-products-_-5PercentBack
'Simply make a purchase of qualifying school supplies, provide your school ID at checkout and your school will receive 5% back in credits for FREE supplies!'
CLIMATE:
MS. WEST WITH CHEC ALUM LEILA VILLACORTA
BEHAVIOR REFERRAL LINK
Below is the Google Survey/Referral
link that the entire CHEC school community will be using to send behavior
referrals. If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to your
appropriate Dean directly.
High School - Dean Boone - dewayne.boone@k12.dc.gov
Middle School - Dean Avila - kathrine.avila@k12.dc.gov
Student Culture Intervention
Form - Behavior Referral: Please use this
link to send any behavior concerns after using the 5-step discipline process
and any care system you have in place to support your student's
social-emotional learning. You may also use this link to bring to the Dean's
attention the need for a restorative circle and/or when students are tardy to
your class more than three times. The Dean Team will actively monitor this live
document to support all teachers.
REMINDERS
Students that are Out-of-Area
During the past school year, we noticed a pattern of middle and high school students wandering into the wrong school. For this new year, please be mindful that Middle School students should not be in the High School at all, and certainly not without a pass. High School students should only be in the Middle School on the Lincoln 3rd floor. The route for High School students to the 3rd floor Lincoln is through the Bell 2nd floor and on to Lincoln 2nd floor landing and up the stairs to the 3rd floor. They should not use the 1st or 2nd floor Lincoln to get to the 3rd floor Lincoln. Students that are not complying should be written a referral, so they can earn a consequence.
Detention
Detention is a first intervention we have for students to check and correct their behavior in your classrooms. Students being informed of this consequence is vital to the effectiveness of the consequence. Remember to use our 5 step process with fidelity so that our students will not earn a greater consequence of ISS and thus lose valuable class time
Dismissal
We always need more support at dismissal from 3:15pm until 3:35pm (High School), 4:15pm until 4:35pm (Middle School). Please follow students all the way out to the front of the building. Students should be encouraged to move on toward their bus stops/metro quickly. Teachers and staff that can make themselves available to stay out front will be greatly appreciated.
Cafeteria Support
All lunches have their ups and their downs. We always appreciate additional supports in the cafeteria on days that teachers are available. Check-ins with students build relationships and adult presence supports our daily procedures in lunch.
WEEKLY SPORTS UPDATE
Athletics are an integral part of the educational program and a means to accomplish the goals of education. Our athletic program exists for the welfare of students and the contributions it makes to their educational experience. Athletic participation builds self-esteem and confidence and provides the necessary tools for success. The interaction between individuals on the fields of sport teaches students the value of teamwork, while developing the proper competitive spirit, combined with a sense of fairness.
BELL SHS GIRLS SOCCER TEAM SY 2019-20
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
The High School Bowling Team defeated HD Woodson. The High School Basketball Teams defeated Phelps.
BELL
Bowling 1 - 0
Junior Varsity Basketball: 5 – 9
Varsity Boys Basketball: 8 – 7
Varsity Girls Basketball: 3 – 12
LINCOLN
Boys Basketball: 5 – 9
Girls Basketball: 11 – 0
Wrestling: 0 - 0
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Monday, January 27, 2020
No Games
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Middle School Wrestling Meet at Hardy @ 4:00 p.m.
High School Bowling vs. HD Woodson at Bolling AFB @ 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
No Games
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Middle School Wrestling Meet at Johnson @ 4:00 p.m.
Middle School Swim Meet at HD Woodson @ 5:30 p.m.
Friday, January 31, 2020
No Games
Saturday, February 1, 2020
No Games