Middle School Intramural Flag Football Festival

Middle School Intramurals hosted another successful event on Saturday, December 9^th at Pacific Beach Middle School.  A special thanks to Dennis Guildehaus for his organizational skills and for hosting this year’s Flag Football Festival.  Teams from Muirlands, Roosevelt, Pacific Beach, Memorial, Taft, Challenger, and Correia middle schools participated.  There was a total of 8 teams and approximately 55 students in attendance.  It was a great mixture of district staff and parents coaching the teams who played 7 games on Pacific Beach’s new turf field.  Looking forward to next year with a wider participation throughout the district.

Naviance Family Connection

Did you know that all high school students within the San Diego Unified School District have access to the Naviance Family Connection program?

What is Naviance Family Connection?

It is an online program that allows students and their families to explore career and college programs as well as scholarship opportunities available to them.

How do you access Naviance Family Connect?

Students and their families can log-in directly to the site from the web link that is posted on their high school’s webpage.  

Once in the program, students and families have access to:

over 200+ scholarship opportunities; career exploration videos and inventories; in depth post-secondary programs; college search activities; academic planning tools; college application links; resume building and more.

Please speak with your student’s high school counselor if you have further questions about the Naviance Family Connection program.

Showcasing East Village High School

East Village High School is located downtown and is apart of the Early Middle College Initiative.  Founded in 2008 and formerly known as San Diego Early/Middle College, East Village High School offers students:

• Opportunities to earn up to 54 college units, free of charge, while simultaneously earning a traditional high school diploma
• Free college textbooks and small high school classes with a 1:20 student/teacher ratio
• Dedicated City College Counselor on site, AVID courses, and tutoring services (tutors from San Diego City College on site)
• ASB, student clubs/organizations, community service opportunities, and experiential internship opportunities  

Furthermore, the partnership between East Village High School and San Diego City College consist of:

• Students earn college credits every year, beginning in the ninth grade with opportunities to earn credits during the summer
• Dual enrollment in college classes on the City College campus 
• High school and college faculty participate in ongoing professional development focused on high school/college curriculum alignment and best teaching practices for equity
• Early Colleges were created to encourage all students to earn a high school diploma while simultaneously earn college credits, without having to pay any tuition (earlycolleges.org) 

East Village High School is currently accepting student applications for students grades 9-12 for the Spring semester and for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year.   Please contact Ha Le (counselor) at hle@sandi.net if you have questions.

Reading, Writing, ‘Rithmetic and CODING

Our students are changing the future with an Hour of Code.
We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly depend on understanding how technology works.
Computers are everywhere, changing every industry on the planet, but fewer than half of all schools teach computer science. Girls and minorities are severely underrepresented in computer science classes, and in the tech industry. Good news is, we’re on our way to change this.

With the Hour of Code, computer science has been on homepages of Google, MSN, Yahoo!, and Disney. Over 100 partners have joined together to support this movement. Every Apple Store in the world has hosted an Hour of Code. Even President Obama wrote his first line of code as part of the campaign.
That’s why schools are joining in on the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (December 4-10). More than 100 million students worldwide have already tried an Hour of Code.

Ask your student if they participated in an Hour of Code activity and to show you what they did.  If they (or you!) want to learn or do more, visit https://hourofcode.com/us/learn to find activities for all grades (pre-reader to grade 12).  Activities include: making your own Google doodle, creating a Flappy Bird game, animating Star Wars characters and coding with Frozen’s Anna and Elsa.

Standley Students Explore the Relationship of Place & Identity

On November 30th, 2017, approximately 100 8th grade students from Standley Middle School participated in a full-day event at the Ballard Center in which students explored the relationship between place and identity. This day, organized by their teacher, Monte Carroll, kicked off the day with a presentation that helped students better understand the complexity of the relationship between place and identity. Mr. Carroll shared some of his own experiences and connected the concept to The House on Mango Street, which students are reading in class.  In addition, Mr. Carroll

modeled and emphasized the importance of risk-taking in the learning process, by stepping out of his own comfort zone to make this full day experience happen, and by trying new techniques to connect students more deeply to the concepts. Following the presentation, in groups of three, students interviewed an adult volunteer about their relationship to place and identity. Students were well prepared, worked collaboratively, and asked questions that were incredibly well thought out and thought provoking. Three cheers to Mr. Carroll for going the extra mile and to his students for their incredible work!

STEAM Leadership

On December 6, 2017, the Institute of the Americas, in collaboration with the San Diego Unified STEAM Leadership Series, the San Diego Unified School System, lead sponsor the Moxie Foundation, hosted over 300 secondary students for a day of discovery, designed to emphasized the importance of education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for future careers.

Latin American professionals shared their experience and demonstrated how their achievements and personal pathways to success could serve as practical models for students, inspiring them to achieve their true potential. Our speakers / panels of exciting and knowledgeable experts included:

·         Amb. Jamal Khokhar, President & CEO, Institute of the Americas

·         Marcela Celorio, Consul General of Mexico in San Diego

·         Wendy Martinez, Chief Engineer, Manager, Electrical Engineering Raytheon

·         Luisa Reyes, STEM Programs Manager, Institute of the Americas

·         Michael Goodbody, Strategic Partnerships, San Diego Unified School District

·         Steve Chapple, Exec. Director of the San Diego Unified STEAM Leadership Series

·         Felipe Fernandez, Chief Operating Officer, Jelp, Software Engineering Visionary

·         Guillermo Mejia, Director Tijuana’s Mind HUB, Consortium of Software and IT Startup Companies

·         Gabriela Dow, Owner, Mora Dow Consulting; Director, NV5; and Co-founder, “Plug & Play San Diego”

·         Adriana Herrera, Entrepreneur, Consultant/Advisor, Co-founder of GrandIntent and FashioningChange

·         Miguel Marshall, Chief Executive Officer, Centro Ventures

·         Adriana Heldiz, Reporter, Digital Editor, Voice of San Diego 

The goal was to make students aware of the variety of business, research, academic, and not-for-profit opportunities in the San Diego / Baja California mega region. The collaboration sought to empower youth to discover their personal aspirations, set goals, and to encourage them to position themselves for the future so that they might take advantage of the richness of opportunities available in our region.

The STEAM Leadership Series is a program of Intellectual Capital Media and Kids Eco Club in partnership with the San Diego Unified School District with support from The Moxie Foundation, The San Diego Foundation, Farrell Family Foundation, SDG&E, the USS Midway Museum, Samuel Lawrence Foundation and others, including producing vendor Intellectual Impact. Now in its third year, the successful program has reached thousands of high school students from dozens of high schools in San Diego Unified. Across ten major events, the students have interacted with legendary San Diego science and high-tech executives, Nobel Laureates, inventors and entrepreneurs from a range of industries including unmanned vehicles/drones, satellite communications, biotech and green tech, video gaming, software and sports.

As a first for the STEAM Leadership Series, the main sessions and breakouts were live-streamed to a host of academic institutions in Latin and South America – including, but not limited to, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.

UC Lab Coat Ceremony

Wednesday, November 29^th marked a special moment for 79 University City High School seniors who participated in the Lab Coat Ceremony that was held at the First Baptist Church off of Governor Drive.  These seniors are currently participating in the Patient Care and Biotechnology Pathways at University City High School. This is a four course Biomedical Project Lead the Way sequence over their high school tenure.  This is the largest number of students for this ceremony, which “packed the house.”   The White Coat Ceremony celebrates a “rite of passage” for seniors as they prepare to participate in various internships during the upcoming spring semester.  These students will spend time in various clinical settings ranging from UCSD Hospital, VA Hospital, biomedical companies and even local vet clinics.  This event acknowledges the hard work accomplished by the students who participate in the University City High School Biomedical platinum pathways program. 

 


  

 

 

 

Hoover High School wins SDCCU High School Takeover – a private performance by one of today’s hottest up-and-coming artists

San Diego County Credit Union® (SDCCU®), San Diego’s largest locally-owned financial institution, and Channel 933 teamed up to give students at Hoover High School an unforgettable holiday treat! As part of the SDCCU High School Takeover, Hoover High School won a private performance from one of today’s hottest emerging artists, Alex Aiono!

Students, teachers and parents entered on Instagram for a chance to win a private performance with Alex Aiono, a popular YouTube sensation best known for his genius covers and mashups. In addition to the performance, SDCCU is giving Hoover High School a $1,000 award.

In previous high school takeover contests, Mira Mesa High School won a concert by Echosmith and a second performance by Alessia Cara, Scripps Ranch High School won a private Tori Kelly concert, San Marcos High School won a performance by Zara Larsson and Noah Cyrus performed at San Diego High School this past May.

SDCCU Classroom Heroes is a program set forth by SDCCU to honor deserving educators and recognize the importance of education in shaping the future of today’s youth and contributing to a strong and thriving economy for years to come.

Honorary San Diego Unified School District School Board Student Representatives & the Council of ASB Presidents

Every month, the high school ASB Presidents rotate serving as Honorary School Board Student Representatives.  They prepare reports on the things happening at their school site, both academically and socially, and engage in meaningful discussions with the Board Members and Superintendent.  They then report highlights from the Board meetings back at their monthly Council of ASB Presidents meetings.  The Council of ASB Presidents is made up of all high school ASB Presidents, both comprehensive and atypical.  The purpose of the Council of ASB Presidents is to strengthen operations of ASB organizations at their schools and provide a channel of communication to district administration and the Board of Education.  The next Board of Education meeting with the students is scheduled for Tuesday, December 12, 2017.

Diego Robles, Kearny High School
ASB President and the
 President of the Council of ASB Presidents

Jocelyn Venegas, Hoover High School ASB President

How Can High School Students Use CaliforniaColleges.edu

The CaliforniaColleges.edu platform provides high school students the tools to match their interests and skills to postsecondary college and career opportunities. They can take career assessments and use search tools to develop college, major, and career lists, write goals and journals, track activities, and read a variety of age-appropriate content to develop and expand their knowledge on all college, career, and financial aid planning topics. Students can also launch Cal State Apply, CCCApply, and FAFSA.

BlueTECH Week 2017

On November 8th, 2017, teachers from the Mission Bay Cluster’s  BlueSTEM Pathway attended The BlueTECH Summit, part of BlueTECH Week hosted by the Maritime Alliance. Mission Bay and Pacific Beach Middle teachers heard from panelists and participated in a tech expo to learn more about the Blue Economy and to create connections for future partnerships and projects. The event was inspiring, helping teachers to connect more deeply with the work taking place in the BlueTECH sectors and to get a better sense of the workforce needs they are preparing their students to meet.

Biotech Incubator Lets Clairemont Students Tackle Real-Life Problem — Hepatitis A

Clairemont High's Biotech students were featured on KPBS News working on solutions to San Diego's Hepatitis A Outbreak.

Click here to watch the story.

The U in Us

One of the goals of Kearny’s new E2E lab is to ensure that students apply, get accepted, and are successful in college. To help with this process, this week the lab hosted two students from Cal State San Marcos who gave a presentation about the college journey. Deya Hernandez and Yoana Lozano are both sociology majors at CSUSM, but took very different paths to get there. The two speakers were able to come together to form their non-profit, The U in Us, focused on inspiring, motivating, educating and spreading positivity. Kearny juniors and seniors were energized as they interacted with real college students covering topics such as: the importance of networking and resources, the application process and where to get help, and how to become involved on campus. Feedback from Kearny students shows that they appreciated the unique opportunity to hear from students who are currently attending college. The biggest takeaway from the presentation: You can lose everything, but no one can take away your knowledge!