TLC Charter Chatter
A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC
Virginia Stewart
Teens and the Transition to College
The recent college admissions scandal has put a renewed focus on the lengths parents will go to make sure their kids are on the right path, sometimes taking control of their lives altogether by telling them which sports to play, where to go to school, who to be friends with and even calling teachers to complain about grades. These efforts to control and improve a child’s life, however, may actually end up being a detriment to the child.
In a new study, teens who felt a lack of independence and autonomy in their lives as they were entering college were more likely to be worried about their overall college outlook.
The study, conducted at the University of Mississippi and published Tuesday in the Journal of Social Psychology, suggests that empowering kids to express who they are and feel accomplished by their own efforts to achieve can alleviate some of the stress of starting college.
“Whenever you’re going into a new environment, there are certainly things to be stressed about,” Dr. Meera Menon, a psychiatrist who works with college students at The Ohio State University who was not involved in the study, told ABC News. “You don’t just need to worry about waking up, going to school and coming back. You need to worry about where your classes are, who you’re friends with and how to do laundry. The whole gamut of adulting tasks.”
Anxiety and depression are common among college students, with 41 percent of students experiencing anxiety and 36 percent having depression, according to survey data from the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors.
Menon said the number of college students being treated for anxiety and depression has increased over time as well. It’s difficult, however, to tell whether that’s because the condition is becoming more prevalent or because public awareness campaigns are resulting in more students seeking treatment.
For the study, 355 students entering their freshman year at the same college answered surveys during orientation week, which asked them to report how true three statements about themselves were. “I feel free to be who I am” measured autonomy and feelings of independence. “I feel very capable and effective” measured competence. And “I feel a lot of closeness and intimacy” measured relatedness. The students then ranked how worried they were about starting college and their sense of guilt about their achievements.
The researchers found that only students who reported feeling a greater sense of autonomy were likely to have fewer worries about starting college. Higher rankings on the autonomy and competence scales were both associated with less guilt about students’ levels of achievement. Being the first person in the family to enroll in college did not change these results.
“It’s a difficult time for college students,” Menon said. “Not only are they seeking education, but they’re learning to live on their own, which can be stressful.”
This article was written by Dr. Leila Haghighat she is an internal medicine resident at Yale New Haven Hospital who also works with the ABC News Medical Unit.
Sponsored Stories
Safety First!
This is a friendly reminder that all students must be using the crosswalk when crossing the street. Please talk with your students about street safety, we have noticed many students not using the crosswalk and crossing the street through oncoming traffic before and after school.
Ways we can avoid an accident:
· Have a conversation
· Lead by example
· DO NOT wave your student over to your car so that they have to cross traffic
· Walk with your student
Lunch Menu for this week…. YUM!
Lunch Menu – Week April 1 – 5
Mon. – Pizza
Tues – Beef or Bean Taco
Wed- No Meat Spaghetti
Thurs – Beef or Vegi Burger
Fri – Baked Potato Bar
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.
Pre-school, TK and PCS Spring Pictures and 8th Grade Promotion Pictures are on April 9, 2019
Flyers coming home soon.
TK
Did you know that bell peppers, cucumbers, and avocados are actually fruits?
This week, the children learned how to make healthy food choices, and began to categorize foods as: fruits, vegetables, dairy products, or proteins. We learned that fruits contain the seeds of a plant, while vegetables come from the roots, leaves and stems of a plant. Many foods that we think of as vegetables, are actually fruits!
Initial Phase
On the last day of school before Spring Break (April 12th) we would like to have a P2 egg hunt. In order to make this happen we are asking for each family to donate one dozen filled plastic easter eggs by April 10th. The eggs can be filled with anything! Some good egg fillers are: little toys, trinkets, erasers, stickers, candy, etc. Please be sure that the eggs are closed tightly or taped if necessary. This is always a fun activity for students and we appreciate any and all donations. If you have any questions please email p2@tracylc.net.
Phase One
Phase One is going on a field trip on Thursday, April 4th to the Chabot Space and Science Center. We will be leaving school at 8:00 am sharply! Please make sure your child is at school by 7:45 this day. When your child arrives at school they may walk straight to their classroom. Please send your child to school with a completely disposable lunch in a brown bag labeled with their name. We would also like the students to wear PCS spirit wear. If you would like to purchase some please contact Mrs. Stroup or Mrs. Kiefer. We are looking forward to this fun day filled with hands on activities!
Phase Two:
Please help keep our students SAFE! Third and fourth grade students were given “walking permission slips” at the beginning of the school year. This allowed students to wait off campus for older siblings or parents to pick them up. We are trusting that our phase 2 students are being safe and responsible while waiting. However, we have seen several dangerous behaviors while “walkers” are getting picked up. Please do not encourage your child to jaywalk or wave them across the street. Those that are waiting for siblings outside the gate should not be running around, especially around the parking lot. Please remind your child about appropriate after-school behavior. Thank you, parents!
Some of our 3rd and 4th graders performed their PE tinikling routine at Unity on Thursday! We were impressed with their creativity and coordination. Great teamwork! Senora Wharton also gave out Outstanding Achievement Awards for Spanish (trimester 2). We are proud of all of our talented and amazing students in Primary!
Discovery Middle School ⅚
Discovery Yearbook Sales:
We are coming up on that time of the year when it is time to start ordering yearbooks.
This year you can order your yearbooks online at –
https://dcsyearbook.picaboo.com/
The password is ‘yearbook’.
When you order online, you get free pages to customize at the end of your own yearbook.
This does not include Eighth Grade Dedications – they are separate.
Paper order forms will be going out after Spring Break, including Eighth Grade Dedication forms.
Yearbooks are $48.00 to pre-order online.
Thank you
Questions? Please contact Ms. Rodieck (lrodieck@tracylc.net)
⅚ Upcoming Dates to Know:
Saturday, March 30: Math Olympiad Competition at the SJCOE for 5th & 6th Grade
Shout Out to Our ⅚ Team Being Sent to Represent DCS:
Colby M Sebastian D
Christina P Steven M
Ethan K Diego C
Ana R Joel D
Julian W Ashlan B
Jackie C
A Glance into ⅚ Classrooms:
Verbal Expressions with Ms. Dane
Ms Dane’s classes are using their artistic and creative talents to make designs for Masks and for Sock puppets.
5/6 students are writing original scripts and creating puppets from socks and miscellaneous art materials to show characters and props for their soon to be performed puppet shows.
Ms. Dane
Math with Mrs. Zuniga
Varsity: Our class will begin percents next week. Your child will learn how to convert not only between decimals and fractions but also percents, fractions, and decimals. Our class will look at tax, tip, and discount in this unit. Parents, you can talk with your student about these and help them practice any time you go shopping or out for dinner by having your child figure out the tax, tip or discount.
Scholastic: Our class has begun looking at exponents and discussing what they are. Your children will also begin to look at variables and like terms. Our first quiz for this unit will be next Friday, April 5.
Honors: Our class started inequalities this week. Students understand how to solve for a variable in equations however now we are looking equations where the answer is a range of numbers. The beginning of the unit, students are focusing on the pythagorean theorem and will be applying the theorem to word problems.
Science with Ms. Diaz:
Hello TLC! Here is what the students in 5/6th science have been up too…
Recently posted blog articles were authored by: (Honors 2) Jaclyn Chukwuma, Max Delgadillo, Eileen Flores, (Honors 1) Michael Brown, Harold Ferea, (Scholastic 1) Kyle Bordes, (Varsity 1) Kaylee Carillo, Fernando Casillas Perez, Ankush Deep and Laniesa Felix. Well done blog authors!
Also, classes have just finished running their designed stream table experiments and groups were able to make both video and poster presentations of their experiments. Here is a wonderful example of a slide show (http://bit.ly/StreamTableSlideShow) and a video presentation:
Go Science!
DCS 7- 8
⅞ Upcoming Dates to Know:
Note: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.
Spring Picture Day and Promotion Picture Day will be on Tuesday,
April 9, 2019.
Wednesday May 8th– 8th Grade Parent Activities meeting: Please come to this meeting from 5:30 to 6:30 in D12 to learn about all 8th grade promotional activities! See you there!
Language Arts: Cerezo
Students debated this week on a range of topics, from social media usage to the use of the death penalty. Each group took their debates and their teams very seriously. All students conducted their own research, compiled their own arguments, and drafted their own speeches. This was a spectacular way to showcase what the students have learned throughout the year as it incorporates writing, reading comprehension, critical thinking, and analysis of informational texts.
I was extremely pleased with the time, effort, and success of each debate. Please be sure to ask your students what they have learned about their debate topic!
Math:
With Mr. Singh
Varsity- completed unit-7. Started unit-8 linear functions and graphing.
Honors- 9.1 to 9.4 complete doing 9.5 trigonometry.
Scholastic- .Doing unit 7 Factoring Polynomial and completed 7.1 to 7.7. solve equation by Factoring and now doing 7.8 solve problems by writing and solving equation.
Social Studies with Ms. Zaca
This week students started learning about our first political parties and our first four presidents. Did you know that in those days, the Vice President was NOT chosen by the president, but was chosen by whoever came second in the presidential elections? Thomas Jefferson because John Adams Vice President due to losing to him in the elections. Students discussed why having a VP from a different political party (or even becoming someone’s VP that you lost to) would create tensions and problems for the executive branch. Next Friday, students will take a test on the content of these two topics.
Technology with Ms. Ferguson
This week in technology the students are creating a slideshow about their favorite activity where they will learn how to insert a timeline, table, and chart inside of Google Slides.
Verbal Expression with Ms. Dane
Ms Dane’s classes are using their artistic and creative talents to make designs for Masks and for Sock puppets. The 7/8 class has worked hard researching and developing a design for a mask and using problem solving skills to figure out ways to make paper and foam look like something else. (See below)
Physical Education:
“Happy Spring!!!!” 🙂 Students are “Finishing Up” Preparing for “State Testing” in PE for next week 03-25/29-2019 “5th & 7th Grade Students” will not only be “Running The Pacer Test” but also measured on Height, Weight, Flexibility, Push-ups & Sit-ups!“ 6th & 8th Graders will be “Graded on Participation” as the State Testing does not apply to them this year unfortunately!!!
A HUGE Heartfelt Thank you to ALL that participated in our “Fundraising Efforts” for Sponsoring “DCS 5th Annual Jog-A-Thon” this year as we are excited about the upcoming event on May 10th & The New Design of The Jog-A-Thon Shirts That each student will be receiving!!!!! 🙂
Also, as a quick friendly reminder, Since an increase in “Sunny Days” 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
Youth Advisory Commission (YAC) in currently Accepting Applications
The City of Tracy is currently accepting applications from teens and adults interested in serving on the Youth Advisory Commission (YAC). The Commission operates in an advisory capacity to the Recreation Division – Youth & Teen Services staff, the Parks and Community Services Commission, the City Council and other community groups on matters relating to youth in Tracy.
Members of YAC recommend and assist in the planning and implementation of youth programs and events and host forums on health, safety and recreation. Adult Commissioners will work with teens from all Tracy high schools, as well as City leaders and staff, to implement programs that positively impact the youth of our community. Adult Commissioners will also mentor the teens as they work with them on subcommittees and special projects. Both adult and teen commissioners attend monthly and scheduled meetings.
Youth Advisory Commission meetings take place on the second Wednesday of every month at 6 p.m. at Tracy City Hall, Room 203.
Teens between the ages of 14 to 18 and attending high school in Tracy, as well as adults that live in Tracy, are welcome to apply. Applications may be obtained at the Tracy City Hall, located at 333 Civic Center Plaza, or by visiting www.cityoftracy.org and clicking on the Elected Officials & Policy link.
The YAC application deadline is Friday, May 3, 2019.
Millennium High School Homework Support – Schedule Change
Hours for MHS Homework Support have changed, please note the new schedule below:
Millennium High School Percussion Band and Color Guard – Win First Place!
The Millennium High School Percussion band and Color Guard, each brought home First Place trophies from their respective divisions on March 23, 2019 from the Foothill 2019 Winter Show competition held in Pleasanton, CA as part of the Northern California Band Association(NCBA). The two ensembles will move on to the Winter Championships that will be held in Lincoln High School in Stockton on March 30, 2019. The Millennium High School Band Program is under the leadership of Mr. Roland M. Zepeda, Music Director.
Millennium High School – Field Trip to CSU East Bay and Las Positas College
Millennium High School students grades 10th and 11th will be visiting the
Western Association for College Admissions Counseling (WACAC) conference held at the CSU East Bay campus and also visiting Las Positas College on May 3, 2019. In addition, students will be given tours of both campuses. If interested in attending the field trip, permission slips are still available in the Millennium High School Counseling office. Students are required to have good grades in order to qualify (No failing grades accepted) for the trip and pay a fee of $27.00 to attend. For any questions, please contact the MHS Counseling Office at (209) 627-8299 or email: mhscounseling@tracylc.net
REMINDER: Class of 2019 – Seniors Community Service Hours – Due May 1, 2019
Class of 2019 Senior Community Service Hours are due on May 1, 2019 (no later than 2:00pm), please turn in all hours in the MHS Counseling Office (RM A114). For questions, please contact the Millennium High School Counseling Department at (209) 627-8299 or email: mhscounseling@tracylc.net