TLC Charter Chatter
A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC
Virginia Stewart
Fact
Students that vape JUST ONCE are more likely
to try other types of tobacco.
Teenage vaping is escalating
78% of high schoolers have tried vaping
48% of middle schoolers have tried vaping
Up to 80% of teenagers believe they are only inhaling flavoring.
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that can look like a real cigarette or pen. Some with refillable tanks look a bit different. There are hundreds of brands, and they're sometimes marketed as a way to get your nicotine fix without the danger of cigarettes.
They all work the same basic way:
- They have containers filled with liquid that's usually made of nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals.
- A heating device turns the liquid into vapor that you inhale when you take a drag.
Are They Safe:
· Some brands contain chemicals including formaldehyde — often used in building materials — and another ingredient used in antifreeze that can cause cancer.
· Flavors in e-cigs also raise red flags. Some use a buttery-tasting chemical called diacetyl, which is often added to foods like popcorn. When it's inhaled, it can be dangerous.
· "Diacetyl is a well-known harmful chemical, which, among other things, causes a lung disease called 'popcorn lung,'" says Erika Sward, assistant vice president for national advocacy at the American Lung Association.
Below is our current MHS Tobacco Survey Results-
During the 2017-18 school year, 204 of our students (10th and 12th graders) completed the California Student Tobacco Survey conducted by UC San Diego. The results were anonymous. Here are some findings related to e-cigarettes:
Current Use: 7.7% of those surveyed had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.
Susceptibility: 26.3% of those surveyed who had never used an e-cigarette would consider using one if one of their best friends offered it to them. (These students marked a choice other than that they would "definitely not" use the product.)
Access: 49% of those surveyed marked that it would be easy to get e-cigarettes.
Recent Offers: 15.9% of those surveyed said they had been offered e-cigarettes in the last 30 days.
Lunch Menu for this week…. YUM!
Lunch Menu – Week Aug. 26 – 30
Mon. – Pizza
Tues – Chicken Nuggets
Wed – Beef or Bean Tostada
Thurs – Mac n Cheese
Fri –Beef Hot Dog
New
Lunch Debts
Student in PCS or DCS who have more than negative $20 in their lunch account will be given cheese/crackers and water for lunch. Please pay these negative accounts immediately so your student will be served the posted lunch menu.
Lunch Drop Offs
Please remember to communicate to your child if you are planning on dropping off his/her lunches, we need to keep classroom calls and disruptions to a minimum. Please label anything dropped off in the office.
Personal Days for Next School Year 2019/2020
VERY IMPORTANT CHANGE for our upcoming 2019/2020 school year Beginning August 5, 2019, we are reducing personal/family days for students from 10 days down to 7 days. Allowing 7 days is still much higher than what the district schools allow and we feel 7 days is more beneficial for the school and for each students’ education.
NOW HIRING: Athletic Coaches
Interested in taking on the rewards and challenges of coaching a high school athletic team? Millennium Athletics is currently creating a coaching pool for all sports and levels, as the life of a coach is ever changing. If you’re interested in becoming a part of our TEAM for any sport, apply here: https://www.edjoin.org/Home/DistrictJobPosting/1143376
Upcoming Picture Days
PreK, PCS and DCS – Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Flyers coming home week before.
TK
This week in TK we learned all about ourselves and how to treat others.
We began our week by learning about our feelings and how to react to them. We worked on a feelings book that stated when we felt a certain way. Students learned all about using their manners, especially please and thank you. The teachers and friends learned all about each with our All About Me posters we created in class.
Our friends created family trees and had a lot of fun with adding lots of apples. During our centers we focused on fine motor skills, such as cutting, tracing, pencil and glue holding. Look for the awesome work in their green folders today!
We are all excited to start focusing on our letters, numbers and sight words next week!
Initial Phase
What are SWOs? SWO stands for School Wide Outcome. We have 4 SWOs: Polite Citizen. Proud Individual, Productive Worker, and Positive Cooperator. In P2 students can earn their name in our “excellence box” for demonstrating one of our SWOs. Each time a student is in the excellence box they earn a dot towards a SWO bracelet. Students must earn 5 dots by getting in the excellence box 5 times in order to get a SWO bracelet. At the end of the month Primary will have a special awards ceremony where three students from P2 will be presented with a SWO certificate for consistently demonstrating one of our SWOs for the entire month.
Phase One:
This was our first week of curriculum and the students are doing such a great job! For grammar, our students focused on nouns. We talked about how people, places, things and animals can be nouns. Some groups even talked about the difference between common and proper nouns. In Writer’s Workshop the students learned about what a sentence needs to be complete. They learned a fun song to help them remember. They also made a fun Sentence Buddy craft! In Social Studies the students discussed about what it means to be a good citizen and the rights and responsibilities they all have.
Here are the Sentence Buddies our students made in WW.
Phase Two:
Did you know your child can practice their math and language arts skills at home using ixl.com?! Each Phase 2 student has an account where they can work on assigned math and LA skills or even review past concepts. They can also play games with their spelling words on spellingcity.com.
This week our 3rd and 4th graders learned about life cycles. From ladybugs to plants, all living things change and grow throughout their lives. We also did some fun activities to learn more about these concepts.
By now (or early next week) your child should have taken their first math quiz. We will be giving at least 2 math quizzes per month. Please look for these in your child’ green folder.
Discovery Middle School 5-6
Upcoming ⅚ Dates:
September 3rd: Picture Day
October 8th: Picture Day Retakes
Now – August 30th: Spirit Wear can be purchased at https://www.selectspiritwear.com/shop4/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=1173
Mrs. Zuniga/Mrs. Bengson's Math:
All classes completed their first UC Davis test for the year, we hope to see improvement throughout the year as the students take this test two more times.
Varsity: We just took our first quiz for Unit 1 on Tuesday. The students spent last Friday and Monday reviewing for that quiz. The students did different stations focusing on the different topics which were on the quiz.
Honors: Students are moving through Unit 1 finishing up exponents on Tuesday and we have moved into squares, cubes and roots. Parents, we do recommend that students try to memorize their squares (up to 25) and cubes (up to 10).
Scholastic: We have finished Unit 1 and taken our first Unit test today (Friday). Students have learned decimal place value, along with decimal addition and subtraction including learning about properties of addition.
Mrs. Nijjar’s class
Varsity:
Last week the class took a quiz related to addition and subtraction word problems.We started this week by learning to write decimals in word form and standard form. The students enjoyed playing the game “I have…who has?” for decimals. For the rest of the week, we will be talking more about decimals – representing decimals as fractions and rounding decimals.
Scholastic:
We started this week by learning to round decimals to the nearest whole, nearest tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. We reviewed the concepts by taking a quiz on Kahoot. For the rest of the week, students will be learning to add, subtract, and estimate whole numbers and decimal numbers.
Honors:
Our week started with reviewing the concepts for order of operations. The students learned to evaluate algebraic expressions by substituting the variables with values. The students had fun playing “Scavenger Hunt” and evaluating algebraic expressions with their groups. The students will be taking a quiz this week.
For all students: Next week students will be doing Math Interim Testing on 8/26/2019 and 8/27/2019.
Ms. Rodieck's Language Arts and Humanities
Week Three is done. Something new this year is a trimester final. So the students and I decided that I would hold onto their weekly quizzes and pass them back out near to end of the trimester to use to study for the trimester final. Some students wanted to take their's home; they will need to save their quizzes until the end of the trimester so they can use them to study for the final. This will also include Book Finals and Humanities Unit Quizzes.
Next week we will be taking an Interim Test in Language Arts on Wednesday and Thursday. Students are encouraged to bring their own headphones – and they might even get next points for it!
Varsity Language Arts is having the opportunity to be a part of the DARE Program. This week they talked with Officer Abs about making right choices. They have been asked to do 5 points worth of Community Service during the next 10 weeks. They will also be getting 'homework' for the next 10 weeks as it is information they need to go over with you, the parent or guardian, at home. They will get the work on Tuesday, it will be due by Friday. Do the Community Service and Homework, they receive prizes, and I think he said they would be eligible for a drawing. This in an invaluable program that will help them with making better choices at school and in life.
Social Studies with Mr. Bird and Mr. McCarthy
This week, our Falcon historians are learning about prehistory by analyzing cave art and artifacts. They learned about social scientists and how they investigate the past. Today, we turned our classroom into a "cave-like" simulation by turning the lights low, playing cave sounds, and having students use flashlights to analyze art, tools, and other objects around the room — see our students in action in the below pictures! It was a very fun activity. Tomorrow, we will be making our very own cave art!
Next week we will have a short quiz. We will be playing review games on Friday. Students will be asked to take folders or notebooks home over the weekend to study. The quiz will focus on six vocabulary words, our seven continents, and map skills (cardinal directions, parts of a map).
Science with Ms. Diaz:
Happy 3rd week of school future scientists! This was an exciting week as we just entered the wonderful world of physics! We learned about motion, momentum, friction, and potential and kinetic energy. Our classroom is a buzz as we have started building our own Rube Goldberg Machines, creating a multi-stepped contraption to achieve a simple task. We are currently working on steps one and two, with the hope of having five steps to each machine. You can definitely hear the cogs turning!
In two weeks….we will have our first science test, covering data and graphs and some physics concepts.
Awesomely, interesting announcements:
- Don’t forget to register—> Saturday, September 21st– Expanding Your Horizons event for 6-12th grade girls at the University of the Pacific https://www.sjeyh.org
Stay curious & keep exploring!!!
Music with Mr. Dougherty:
5/6 music exploration is busy working on a fundamentals review. Through this process we are learning about music notation of rhythm, melody, and form. It has been a great experience integrating iPads in the use garage band into the music learning experience.
⅚ PE:
Students are Enjoying “Week 1” of their “First Rotation” of Dressing Out & Playing different types of “Fitness Activities” Such as “Medicine…Band Aid…Scissors” & “Head Bands” Etc. in PE!!! Students are being taught that there are “All Types” of “Fun things” that are considered – “Health & Wellness” which is what our 5th-8th Pentathlon/Curriculum is based on this year!!! It is our goal here at DCS to teach our PE Students that “Fitness doesn’t have to be considered a chore” but should be fun, beneficial and scaleable to everyone’s needs!!!!
Also, as a quick friendly reminder, please remind students that they should be applying "Deodorants/Antiperspirants/Baby Powder or Sanitary Wipes" in the morning before they are coming to school and showering daily; as their bodies have already begun puberty even though there may be no signs of it showing physically!!!!
Thank You!!! 🙂
Your Dedicated DCS Falcon PE Staff
Discovery Middle School 7-8
Upcoming Dates:
- Picture Day is Sept. 3rd
- DCS Cruise Fundraiser winner will be chosen August 26th
- Spirit Wear can be purchased now until Aug 30th at https://www.selectspiritwear.com/shop4/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=1173
Top Nest Earners for Week 2!
Math with Mr. Dhillon
varsity :- doing unit 1 ,finished with lesson 1 place value , lesson 2 place value in decimals and lesson 3 power of 10 , lesson 4 compare and order lesson 5 rounding whole number and decimals and doing addition and subtraction of whole numbers and decimals
scholastic :- doing unit 1, review for algebra basics finished doing combining like terms, distribution property and translating expression . doing review for quiz 3
honors :- finished unit 1 geometry basics and also completed constructions and test for unit 1 and now starting unit 2
Math with Mrs. Rapp
Picture of my proud home room with all their certificates on Tuesday
Language Arts with Mrs. Cerezo
This week students in all classes began their second writing assignment of the year. We are still focusing on refining their introduction paragraphs and ensuring that each sentence has focus and is complete. We will conference with these introduction paragraphs next week.
We have also begun our first set of notes for Humanities. Students are learning about the different pillars of wellness and what it means to truly be healthy.
Next week students will take the first of three interim tests to practice for state testing. They will test their skills in math and language arts. We will track their progress throughout the year to make sure that they are on track and excelling.
Each class will have their second test of the year on Friday.
Language Arts with Ms. Greene:
During the 3rd week of school, in Honors, the students have come up with a great idea for our wall decorating contest with the theme of “New Beginnings” they have been very excited to be decorating throughout the week and by the end the 5/6th graders will vote on who has the best wall out of all 7/8th grade.
We have also continued reading Fever 1793 in all classes and have been identifying main characters and plot points along with making predictions of what they believe will happen in the book.
In Varsity, the students came up with the great idea of having a debate focused around their new essay prompt “Creativity takes courage” and the students did extremely well!
In Scholastic, we did a lesson on Humanities and how it relates to Health and Wellness and the students drew great connections on how it relates and how it can also help them in the future in what they want to be when they grow up.
Reminder: Essay 2 (Intro Only) is due on 8/26 and Interim testing will be 8/26 and 8/27.
Social Studies with Ms. Zaca:
Scholastic, Varsity, and Honors began the week by reading the mythological beginnings of Rome’s history. Twin baby brothers who were believed to be raised by a she-wolf until a Shepherd found them, grew up to be fierce warriors who both wanted to rule the land around them. Students discussed which aspects of the story seemed factual, and which parts seemed mythical in the story of the twin brothers.
Scholastic and Honors took their vocabulary quiz this week and were introduced to their new terms on Friday. Varsity will have their vocabulary quiz this coming Monday, but have been studying diligently in class with different vocabulary games. All three classes also identified different physical landscapes of Rome, mapped out major mountain ranges and rivers, and discussed the advantages Rome had due to its location on the Italian peninsula.
A Note from Mrs. King (Math Supervisor)
Welcome to the 2019 – 2020 school year. My name is Leslie King and I am the Math Supervisor for DCS and MHS.
This is an exciting year for math in both schools. We are rolling out all-new math curriculums. It is our goal to have a consistent curriculum in all classes with the same titles. The geometry taught at DCS is the same geometry taught at MHS. Our goal is to be guaranteed that any student who completes and passes a class with 78% will be ready to take on the challenges of the next level.
In the past, classes have not completed curriculum because there was too much time spent remediating what should have been learned the year before. This was true not just for Millennium, but Discovery as well. If a student does not have the foundations needed to build a solid math career, then they will fail. We are hoping to correct that starting this year.
At DCS we have the multi-age classroom. This allows a student to see an entire year's worth of a course and maybe not master everything. No worries, they always have the second year. Parents should not expect every child to move to the next level of math every year. They will move when they have mastered what they need to be successful at the next level.
At both DCS and MHS, we are requiring all students to have a math binder. This holds both the teachers and the students accountable for work before and after it is graded and returned. At DCS we have a grade graph as the first page of the binder. All scored work for a unit will be placed on the graph. This is an up to date visual of how the student is doing. The "grade" lines and the passing line are drawn on the graph to illustrate to students and parents how the student is doing. There will be periodic binder checks to make sure students are keeping their notes and work as required.
At the end of each unit, the teacher will be collecting the students' grade graphs, notes, and unit test. These will be kept in a folder for each student. When the time comes for the Final, the notes and tests will be returned to the students to use as study guides for the final exam. All this in hopes to make them more successful!
I am looking forward to a very productive year. I feel we have the staff to accomplish this task. If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at lking@tracylc.net. I am not on campus full time, but I will get back to you as soon as possible if I receive and correspondence.
Thank you. Have a wonderful year!
Music Exploration with Mr. Dougherty
7/8 music exploration is busy composing background music for their news headlines. We are having fun learning a lot by working with GarageBand as a composition tool.
Art with Ms. Losen
This week in art we finished our Van Gogh oil pastes projects and moved onto some experimental impressionism with actual flowers for paintbrushes.
Science with Ms. Dominguez
Physical Education:
Students are Enjoying “Week 1” of their “First Rotation” of Dressing Out & Playing different types of “Fitness Activities” Such as “Medicine…Band Aid…Scissors” & “Head Bands” Etc. in PE!!! Students are being taught that there are “All Types” of “Fun things” that are considered – “Health & Wellness” which is what our 5th-8th Pentathlon/Curriculum is based on this year!!! It is our goal here at DCS to teach our PE Students that “Fitness doesn’t have to be considered a chore” but should be fun, beneficial and scaleable to everyones needs!!!!
Also, as a quick friendly reminder, please remind students that they should be applying "Deodorants/Antiperspirants/Baby Powder or Sanitary Wipes" in the morning before they are coming to school and showering daily; as their bodies have already begun puberty even though there may be no signs of it showing physically!!!!
Thank You!!! 🙂
Your Dedicated DCS Falcon PE Staff
Millennium High School
Last Friday, MHS held our Welcome Back/Fall Kickoff Rally! Our rallies are an important activity because, like Unity, they bring the whole school together. The rallies give students the opportunity to engage with one another, support our athletic teams, and compete in friendly nest rivalries. We close our competitions with our scream off, which encourages the nests to shout out their school spirit, but we always end a rally united, with the whole school chanting one last, “Falcon Pride!” — because whether you are Saker, Amur, Peregrine, or Kestrel, at the end of the day, we are all Falcons. Our next rally will be Monday, September 23rd to celebrate our TLC Homecoming!
Saker freshman and cheerleaders Sonia Anwar and Karina Linarez prepare for their first rally performance!
Your friendly emcees, Kestrel senior Emma Sales and Amur sophomore Carson Edwards!
Varsity linemen Ian Braten (senior, Kestrel) and Kimani Thomas (sophomore, Peregrine) struggle in a Tug of War game vs. Cheer!
Amur freshman Cross Country runner Caleb Valdecanas in our Stranger Things Waffle Eating Contest!
Members of our junior Peregrine nest cheer and watch their nest members compete!
Kestrel senior Spencer Norvell rides fellow senior Kaiden Joseph to victory!
MHS Europe Trip 2020 Meeting
The Falcons Study Abroad program will have a parent and traveler meeting Thursday, 8/29, at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held in Mr. Young’s room, 304. If your student is traveling on the Amsterdam/Paris trip, please plan to attend. This meeting is only for those who are traveling on the Spring Break 2020 trip. We are not accepting new travelers at this time. We will begin planning our next trip in Fall of 2020.
Top Nest Earners for our first two weeks of school:
Saker – Gianna Reyna, 670
Amur – Vivan Luera, 460
Peregrine – Jin Bi Diaz, 450
Kestrel – Aliza Tapia, 290
These students were honored at Unity and received “MHS Elite” pins for their backpacks, along with stickers for their laptops/water bottles. They additionally had their pick of Millennium branded swag such as lanyards, hydro-flask-style water bottles, and fanny packs!
COUNSELING NEWS!
Unity Announcements: We want to make sure our juniors and seniors who start after 1st period are in the know regarding what is announced at Unity. Along with a schoolwide Google classroom that each student was invited to in their English class this week, daily announcements will also be posted on our school’s website at this link: http://www.tracylearningcenter.com/school/millennium/swo-2/
Delta College classes for Fall semester will be starting next week, the week 8/26! All students who were approved for College Early Start for Fall should have registered during the month of July. If your student needs help with their Delta College schedule, please have them speak with Mr. Gomar in the counseling office.
Senior Class of 2020 – Welcome to the final year of high school! An information packet is being mailed this week to all parents/guardians of 12th grade students regarding important dates, deadlines, activities, college information. We encourage all parents to add themselves to the MHS Class of 2020 remind app using code: ad2378 – this will solely be the remind for the MHS Counseling Office.
Athletics
Football, Cross Country and Girls Volleyball are well underway as teams begin to finalize their rosters! Stay tuned for weekly game updates. Friday 8/23– XC heads to Lodi for the Lodi Flame Invitational. JV/V Girls Volleyball travel to Rio Vista for 5/6pm game times. Football travels to Denair for a 7pm kick-off.
Interested in donating to the Athletics program? Here are 2 great opportunities! If you would like to help us purchase new equipment for the weight room we hope to have open by winter, you may donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/falcons-weight-room
For donations towards Millennium Athletics in general, you can go here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=JV4bGcCRYeBxsAoeIm9378Hq0cPdQ5v5cVuYxrIDCxod5qM0FM8eQcBKQ-YhqrA_hGj2tG&fromUL=true&country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
We appreciate your continued support! FALCON PRIDE!!
Millennium High School – Tutors Needed
We are looking for high school students that are interested in tutoring various subjects including math, history, science, and spanish. Paid opportunities are also available. If interested, please visit the Millennium High School counseling office to pick up a tutor application.