Charter Chatter

                                       A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC

Nov. 17, 2017                                                                                                                               Vol 15

Thank you for all of the support you have given us this year.  It is exciting to see our new building coming to life.  BUT thank you for putting up with no parking spaces and lots of wait time in car line.  When all of the construction is done, we will all be so grateful!

November 20 – 24 Thanks Giving Week – no school all week

T K

On TK island we learned how to give thanks and be thankful for the things we have. All week we prepared for our Thanksgiving feast by making placemats, hats, and decorations. We all sat down and enjoyed our feast together… the kids loved it!

Primary Charter

Initial Phase:

The cold and rainy weather didn’t put a damper in our week in P-6! We had a really fun week! First and foremost, thank you to every parent that came to parent-teacher conferences this week. We love being able to spend time talking with you about your wonderful children! The fun continued when we had a surprise visit from Sparkles the Clown! We have all been working so hard this trimester it was nice to have a break and clown around a bit! Our exciting week didn’t stop there… we had another visitor on Thursday to teach us about taking care of our teeth! Thank you to Ruby’s mom for that awesome presentation and the pouch filled with supplies to keep our teeth healthy and clean!  Finally, we finished our week off with a nice slice of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream! Thank you to everyone who donated to make our Thanksgiving pie feast possible! What a nice treat to take us into Thanksgiving Break! We all have so much to be thankful for, especially our P-6 families! We hope everyone has a wonderful week off with family and friends and a Happy Thanksgiving! We will see you back on Monday, November 27^th!

Phase 1:

Thank you to all parents that came out to meet with us during Parent Teacher conferences!  We enjoy talking to you about your student’s progress and goals.  If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.  Phase one had a fun week before fall break!  Students did all kinds of fall projects including writing about what they are thankful for and a Thanksgiving placemat.  We ended our week with a feast, green trimester certificates, SWO’s of the month, the Golden Lunchbox, and the Golden Broom! We are looking forward to a great trimester two!  Have a safe and wonderful week off!  School will resume Monday, November 27th!

Phase 2:

Thank you to everyone who attended conferences this week.  We enjoyed discussing your child’s growth and goals with you.  This week our classes worked on their group biome projects.  They did research, printed and drew pictures, and presented information about their assigned habitats.  We also went around and saw the hard work of the other two classes.  This was a great lesson in being a Positive Cooperator and we look forward to more group projects in the future!  See you on November 27th!

DCS and DHSP PE

Discovery

Thank you to the parents that came for Parent Teacher Student Conferences.  We enjoyed meeting with each of you.  If you were unable to meet for conferences, your son or daughter’s report card will be arriving in the mail shortly.

Those students with good behavior and have not met with Mrs. Stewart or the ROAR teams enjoyed a fun afternoon of movie watching and popcorn eating in the gym.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break and we will see you back to school on Monday, November 27th.

^DHSP

General Info:

Students are starting this trimester with a clean slate in the grade book this week. Please encourage your student to turn in their essays every week on time and to study their notes every night. The sooner they learn which study strategies work best for them, the better they will be in the long run.

Furthermore, students are being rewarded this Friday 11/17 for all of their hard work and constant determination! Those students that have not attended a ROAR panel meeting for poor behavior are being recognized for their efforts with an afternoon pajama and movie party! Keep up the good work!

Also, students who qualify for CJSF for the second trimester will be receiving their LA classes today. Remind students to fill out their applications and turn them to either their LA teachers or Mrs. Prescott

Language Arts:

In Language Arts this week, students are reflecting on personal experiences, things they are grateful for, and how they are doing in class overall. They have learned 90 vocabulary words over the course of trimester 1 and are becoming better and better at using them correctly in their writing. You can find any upcoming assignments and due dates for your student’s classes in their agenda.

End of Semester Approaching

Fall Semester ends Friday, December 8^th!  A finals schedule will be released shortly.

TLC’s Got Talent Show Auditions

Our school-wide Talent Show is taking place on Thursday, February 15^th of 2018.  Auditions will be held the week of December 11^th-15^th.  Pick up an audition request form from the Counseling Office!  This event is a fundraiser for the Senior Class of 2018.

Sow A Seed Community Foundation Youth Workshops

Sow A Seed Community Foundation will begin youth workshops starting November 27th at Sow A Seed Office.  These free workshops are a safe and supportive place for youth to connect with peers and foster healthy lifestyle habits. Each workshop meets once per week for 8- 10 weeks.  They include Girls’ Circle for girls age 11-16, Boys’ Council for boys age 10-14, and Fresh Start Thinking for teens age 15-18.  Visit http://www.sowaseedcf.org/ for more information.

College Early Start – Next Steps

The Counseling Office is currently processing College Early Start forms and submitting them to Delta College.  The registration date and time for Millennium students will be on November 30^th at 3:45pm.  Students will have their CES forms returned to them with instructions on how to register when we return from Thanksgiving Break.  Families will have to pay for the students’ classes online, and they will be reimbursed after the student completes the college course with a B or higher.

Community Service

Sunday, November 19 – Moose Thanksgiving Luncheon – 10:45 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Location: Moose Lodge (35 East 6^th Street, Tracy)

Volunteers: 2 dish washers and 6 servers are needed – black and white server attire

Contact: Alex Zamora 209-815-6408 or azamora@pacbell.net  MUST contact Alex Zamora for scheduling

Friday, November 24 – BLACK FRIDAY Animal Rescue of Tracy – 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Location: West Valley Mall, Tracy.

Volunteers Visit the JCPenney end of the mall (in the alcove area) on weekends for more information or visit the website animalrescuetracy.org and complete the “junior” or youth application.

Phone: 209-642-4324

Email: Contact@animalrescuetracy.org

Facebook: AnimalRescueofTracy

For additional community service opportunities, please visit: https://millenniumhscounseling.weebly.com/community-service.html

College Bound Workshops

      Charter Chatter

A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC

Nov. 9, 2017                                                                                                                            Vol 14

I am sure you will read about it in the school sections, but I would like to congratulate Ms. Rodieck on a wonderful third annual spelling bee.  The children were well prepared and it took us two hours to complete the competition.  The winners are to be congratulated on a great job.  Everyone who attended did a great job and were an excellent audience.  Well done!

November 20 – 24 Thanks Giving Week – no school all week

Board Member Opening

The Tracy Learning Center is now accepting applications for a TLC board member.  All interested applicants please send a letter of interest and a resume to 51 E. Beverly Place Tracy, CA 95376- ATTN: Human Resources.  Board meets once a month.

Brighter Christmas

Canned Food Drive

November 13 – December 14, 2017

Primary Leadership students and Brighter Christmas are joining together for a canned food drive to help needy families in the Tracy community.  Please donate non-perishable goods and send to school with your student for collection.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

T K

This week on TK island we learned how to run a democracy.  The little fishies learned the importance and responsibilities of a president, election process, and voting. We even did some mock elections, but their favorite was being able to vote for some of their classmates that were running for class president.

 

Primary Charter

Initial Phase:

We are so impressed with all of the disguised turkeys! They are so good that we can’t even tell they are turkeys! It is going to be so hard to pick a winner! If you haven’t turned your turkey in yet you can bring it in on Monday!

Don’t forget that parent-teacher conferences are next week! We can’t wait to meet with all our P-6 families!

Phase One:

Our students had a great time making letters and cards for our Vetarans this week! They also continued and finished their “Me on the Map” project!  We can’t wait to put these on display!

Phase 2:

Our phase 2 students loved our “Rainforest in a Bottle” project this week! We made a mini biome with rocks, soil, moss, a plant and a real worm!  Our students enjoyed seeing a real life habitat and it was a great way to wrap up our science unit.  We also enjoyed a recorder concert from our P1 students who have worked very hard this trimester to learn how to play the recorder.  They did great!

Please see the information in the green folders today about our upcoming food drive.

Please remember that there is no school tomorrow, November 10^th.  Next week is parent teacher conference week.  If you are unable to attend your assigned meeting day, please email your child’s teacher as soon as possible.  Fall break is from Nov. 20^th to Nov. 24^th.

Have a safe three day weekend!

Discovery

Discovery Charter School

This has been a busy week.  Monday, choir and drama students had their first showcase and the students did a remarkable job.  Thank you Mr. Dougherty and Ms. Dane for all of your hard work.

This week has seen the end of the first trimester.  You should have heard from your student’s homeroom teacher regarding conference times for next week.

The annual Spelling Bee was held on Wednesday, and we have many Stellar Spelling Bee Students!

Please remember that our Thanksgiving break is 11/20-11/24- no school.

Enjoy the three day weekend!

Discovery Showcase Choir:  Great Job to all our 5-6 and 7-8 students.  The show was amazing and we are all proud of how heard you have worked.

^DHSP

Charter Chatter week of 11/6-11/9

General:

• Trimester 1 ends 11/10
• No school Friday 11/10 in observance of Veteran’s Day
• Don’t forget Thanksgiving Break begins 11/20!

This week Drama and Choir had their first performance! It was a huge success! Pictured below: Students rehearsing in the gym before the main event.

And the BIG SHOW:

Language Arts:

Students have moved into studying art from the Roman, Greek, and Etruscan civilizations. All classes have also continued to read their second novel of the year, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”

MHS

San Jose State and Santa Clara University Field Trip

On Tuesday, 46 Millennium students attended campus tours at both San Jose State and Santa Clara University.  Both of our tours were excellent, and it was great to experience the energy of each campus, as well as learn a lot from the college students’ perspectives!  It is highly recommended that our students visit the campuses of colleges they are considering.  Despite how close these two campuses are to each other, they were quite different!

College Early Start – Next Steps

The Counseling Office is currently processing College Early Start forms and submitting them to Delta College.  The registration date and time for Millennium students will be on November 30^th at 3:45pm.  Students will have their CES forms returned to them with instructions on how to register.  Families will have to pay for the students’ classes online, and they will be reimbursed after the student completes the college course with a B or higher.

      Charter Chatter

                                      A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC

Nov. 3, 2017                                                                                                                             Vol 13

As the first trimester comes to a close in Discovery and Primary and the final weeks of the Semester approach in the high school, I would like to remind each of you that we are using a different approach to discipline this year. It is called Restorative Justice.  In other words, we are punishing less and reflecting more.  The responsibility for behavior rests with the student.  The student needs to see how the behavior exhibited hurts the entire classroom or learning environment.

In Discovery, I believe we have been very successful.  We use a review panel approach in which any student who scores a negative 20 or more is reviewed.  The review consists of looking at the negatives and seeing what suggestions can be made for improving.  After two or more times with the negatives still over twenty, we ask for a parent meeting.  To date we have held about 32 of these meetings.  They have been wonderful.  It is so good to have parents, staff and the student working together to find ways to make things better.  The student is then put on probation for two weeks.  It is amazing, but most students truly change.  The support from parents has really made a difference.  It has been rare that we have gone beyond the notice of probation.  In fact, we have so many success stories of students improving.

Restorative justice is based on helping students restore the classroom or the school to a fair and just place with maximized learning time.  Students have learned that being off task, talking out of turn, walking around the classroom, not being prepared for class does not just affect that student but takes away from the entire class.  They have learned that a negative twenty means they have had four infractions in one week.  (Only increments of five are given at a time).

The primary students are learning what restorative justice is and how to excel in their classes so everyone can learn and stay focused.  When a primary student is in the excellence box, that student has been a model to the others.

As we proceed in this process, we believe less students will be suspended because they will know how to regulate themselves and understand how they affect the entire class.  We are already noticing the introspection of students and their willingness to accept responsibility for what they are doing.

Production

Pleased to Announce: Choir and Drama Students will be presenting their first

Discovery Performance Showcase on November 6, 2017

At Kimball Auditorium in two sections;

Mr. Dougherty will offer his choir performance from 6:30-7:15 or 7:30

A short intermission will follow

Ms. Dane’s Drama classes will perform from 7:30 or 7:45 – 8:30

Singing, Dancing, Poetry, Reader’s Theater and Video will show what students have been working on during the trimester.  Tickets are free to family and friends.

Special performances include; dances, piano, trumpet, ukelele, American Sign Language, My Shot from Hamilton, You’re Welcome from Moana, Lightning Larry and Monkey’s Paw reader’s theater plays and examples of video taped classroom performances.

Next Holiday

Veteran’s Day Friday Nov. 10, 2017

November 20 – 24 Thanks Giving Week – no school all week

Board Member Opening

The Tracy Learning Center is now accepting applications for a TLC board member.  All interested applicants please send a letter of interest and a resume to 51 E. Beverly Place Tracy, CA 95376- ATTN: Human Resources.  Board meets once a month.

T K

This week on TK island was very mysterious.  All the little fishies were disguised as different characters in their wonderful costumes.  They enjoyed doing the parade and singing 5 little pumpkins for their parents.  The fun didn’t stop there they did Halloween Bingo, made slime, and created a skeleton picture and a bat hat. Also, this week they became astronauts and explored the solar system.  They climbed about their rocket ship and explored outer space.  They learned facts about the planets and the sun and why we live on planet Earth.

Primary Charter

Thank you to our PCS parents who generously donated to the Read-a-Thon prize ceremony.  We were able to make this a great event, because of you!!

Thank you

Brantley Family                  Fisher Family

Moore Family                     Ramos Family

West Family                       Real Family

Bhalla Family

What fun we had on Halloween! Teachers loved seeing all the P6 students dressed up in their costumes on Halloween! Everyone looked great marching in the parade and the kids did such a good job performing the Halloween dance! Thank you to our amazing PE coaches for putting together the parade and dance! We had so much fun and the kids left school with a ton of treats!

Wow! We can’t believe it’s already November! Time is going by so fast! The end of trimester one is near and parent-teacher conferences are coming up quick. Check your student’s Monday red folder for your assigned date and time!

Phase 2:

Thank you to all of our field trip chaperones.  We had a great time at the Oakland Zoo on Wednesday!  Our 3rd and 4th graders loved seeing all the animals that we’ve been learning about, up close and in person.  We are still in need of 2 liter bottles for an upcoming project in science.  Please send them in by Monday, we appreciate it!

Discovery

Charter Chatter

What a fun Halloween week.  Primary was dressed up and trick-or –treated the 5-8 grade classrooms.  This is always a good time.  5/6 enjoyed decorating the classroom doors for this occasion as well.

Things to remember:

It is time to Fall Back. Remember the time changes on Sunday, 11/5. We gain an hour but it will be getting darker earlier.

Be looking for information on your child’s conference for trimester 1.  Let your child’s teacher know as soon as possible if you can make the allotted time for your conference.

Remember that Friday, November 10^th is a holiday (Veteran’s Day) and there will be no school.

Thanksgiving vacation is 11/20-11/24/2017.  School resumes 11/27.

Please continue to check your child’s agenda for important information and due dates.

^DHSP

General Info:

• Grades drop 11/6-11/8
• Trimester ends 11/10
• Thanksgiving Break begins 11/20
• Parent-Teacher Conferences are 11/14 (7th grade students) 11/15 (8th grade students). Times to be announced

Language Arts:

Students taking their first trimester finals this week on the following subjects: grammar and diagramming, Humanities, and vocabulary. Students also presented their final projects for the first novel of the year, A Long Walk to Water.

Students are also wrapping up their first trimester SWO projects and turning in their community service hours. Don’t forget, all students need 30 hours of community service by the end of the school year.

8^th Grade Parent High School Information Night

On Wednesday night, the Counselors hosted a parent information night for families of prospective incoming 9^th graders.  The purpose of the meeting was to share information about what Millennium has to offer as a high school of choice.  We were pleased to have current Millennium students as guest speakers, as well as great questions from families considering Millennium High School for their children.

College Early Start Forms due Monday!

Please note that College Early Start forms for Spring classes are due to the Counseling Office on Monday, November 6^th!

Those who have signed up will take the Delta assessment on Saturday, November 4^th at 8:30am on the Delta Mountain House campus.  These students have been sent a reminder including specific details.