TLC Charter Chatter

Posted on August 24, 2019 by tlccharterchatter

TLC Charter Chatter

A Message from Virginia Jan. 24, 2020

The Power of Positive Attention

How to use it (instead of negative attention) to change behavior

Katherine Martinelli

When kids are misbehaving, it is natural for parents and educators to want to correct them, pointing out — sometimes not too calmly — what they are doing wrong. Though this may seem like common sense, it can actually backfire.

Experts have found that giving kids positive rather than negative attention is much more effective in changing behavior. Research shows that praise for behavior you want to encourage gets more results than calling out things you want them to stop doing.

So what do we mean by positive attention? And how is focusing on the positive, instead of the negative, different from “looking the other way” and letting kids off the hook when they misbehave?

What is positive attention?

It’s easy to respond harshly when kids are doing something they’re not supposed to and not react at all when they’re doing what we expect of them. Positive attention requires a lens shift in which we call out kids for good behavior and ignore (at least in the moment) the not-so-good.

The idea is that for children, parental attention is so powerful that whatever behavior we pay attention to will increase, even if we’re telling them to stop.

Essentially, rather than chiding them for what they’re doing wrong we want to catch kids doing right. It’s a simple shift, but one that goes against centuries of parenting norms and takes some practice before it becomes second nature.

How to implement positive attention

So what does this look like in practice? Positive attention can take many forms, including verbal praise, hugs, kisses, high fives or rewards. It may look different for a three-year-old than it does for a teen, but the basic idea is the same.

The key, explains Lindsay Gerber, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, is being as descriptive and specific as possible in your praise so that children know exactly what behavior they should replicate. Experts sometimes call this giving “labeled praise.”

Instead of saying “great job!” or “I love how you’re doing that,” try to spell out exactly what they are doing well. For example, you could say “I love how you are sharing your crayons with your sibling” or “it’s awesome that you finished your homework before asking to use your tablet.” No matter their age, letting kids know that you appreciate their behavior will make them feel good, and when they know exactly what they are being praised for they will be more likely to do it again in the future.

But what about bad behavior?

This is the part that may be the most challenging. If a child is behaving in a way that is unsafe for themselves or others, then of course an adult should intervene. Otherwise, do your best to ignore the behavior then provide positive attention when they stop. Child behavior experts call this “active ignoring.” By withdrawing your attention, you are sending the message that acting out is not the way for them to get what they want. You reinforce this message when, as soon as you see them calming themselves down or obeying an instruction, you do give them your attention.

Just because you are ignoring a behavior in the moment doesn’t mean that you don’t ever address it or that you are pandering to your child; quite the opposite. “When you’re seeing a behavior that you want to decrease, that’s really not the time to interact with the kid,” says Dr. Gerber. “That’s a time to take a deep breath, notice it, maybe gently try to redirect them to something else or actively ignore it.”

Redirecting them can be anything from asking if they want a snack to pointing out something fun coming up on the family calendar. Later, when things have calmed down, you can circle back around to talk about it.

Next School Holiday

Monday, Jan. 20, 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Personal Days for this School Year 2019/2020

VERY IMPORTANT Information for our current 2019/2020 school year beginning August 5, 2019, we have reduced 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.

It’s that time again. THE 14TH ANNUAL TRACY LEARNING CENTER CRAB FEED – FEBRUARY 1, 2020

Tickets to the February 1, 2020 Tracy Learning Center Crab Feed are on sale now!

Tickets are $55.00 per person, or a table of eight is $440.00. Table reservations include pre-assigned seating and your name or company name prominently displayed on your table.

The doors of the Portuguese Hall will open at 6:00 p.m. for a no-host cocktail hour. Your delicious crab dinner served with salad, pasta and bread will begin at 7:00 p.m.

Through so much generosity we have amazing raffle baskets and silent auction items. Then put on your dancing shoes and hit the dance floor until 12:00 a.m.

Please let me know if you can kindly donate to our DESSERT AUCTION.

Donna Baker (209) 321-9157 via text or donna@donnabaker.com

Please let me know if you would like to volunteer for this awesome event. We are also looking for a new committee chair that would like to shadow Tom and Donna through all aspects of this community building event. Their daughter Ally will be graduating this year whereby they will kindly step down.

Lunch Menu Week of JAN. 27 – 31, 2020

Mon – Pizza

Tues – No meat spaghetti

Wed – Chicken Strips

Thurs – Orange Chicken

Fri -Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Don’t forget to click the STAR after scanning and enter your student’s classroom number for credit.

NOW HIRING: Spring 2020 Head Athletic Coaches-

Boys Volleyball: https://www.edjoin.org/Home/DistrictJobPosting/1228598

TLC Preschool: Art Show and Silent Auction!

TLC preschool will have its annual art show on February 21, 2020 6:30-8:00. More details to come home soon!

Our students are learning all about primary and secondary colors. Our teachers have been busy teaching students how to paint with primary colors and how to mix them to make secondary colors. Students will use this new knowledge to recreate art just as Eric Carle did in some of our favorite books!

Initial Phase

Today kicks off our Read-A-Thon! It will run through January 31st! This is a great fundraiser for our school and it is so easy to track minutes! Please see the information sheet in green folders for additional information on how to log your students reading minutes!

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, Valentine cards are already out in stores! Students will be able to bring in 66 valentines with the “to” section left blank. A treat can be included with the valentine card. If you have any questions about this please email p2@tracylc.net.

This week in TK, we learned all about Martin Luther King Jr.

First, we learned all about how Martin Luther King grew up. Did you know he skipped two years of high school and started college early??

Then, we learned how he told everyone that we should all be treated equally. The students were able to make hats sharing what their dreams are for the future. Such great ideas!

Lastly, we looked at a brown and white egg and asked what the differences were. Once we cracked the eggs, we could see that we may look different on the outside but are the same on the inside. They enjoyed seeing those eggs crack!

Phase One:

Phase 1 students are super excited about the Read-A-Thon! It started today and will go through January 31st. We were lucky to have had the Falcon “Cheer Readers” (Cheerleaders) come read to our students this morning and we have already logged minutes!! This will surely help our students reach their AR goals while helping to raise money for our school. Check your student's green folder for more information.

This week phase 1 students learned about Martin Luther King Jr. Many of our SWOs mirror what he believed in. We are proud to be teaching our students important character traits alongside our curriculum.

Thank you to all those students who brought in recyclables to help our Phase 2 students with their next project: a new equipment container.

Have a great weekend and remember – READ, READ, READ!

Phase Two:

The Primary Read-a-Thon starts today!! It will run from January 24-January 31. Please see your child’s log-in page in their green folder today. This is a great fundraiser for our school!

Back in October, our 4th grade leadership students worked VERY hard to sell candy grams. They decided to use the money to purchase new playground and field equipment for the whole school! On Friday we were able to finally enjoy all of our new jump ropes, scoops, frisbees, soccer balls, dodge balls and 4 square balls! This month our leadership students are collecting recyclables to earn money for a new equipment cart. We are so glad to see that our students love to give back to our school community!

Primary Parents: This will be the last chance to order spirit wear this school year! Please go to selectspiritwear.com to place your order by January 31. Orders will arrive by the end of February.

Discovery Middle School 5-6

Upcoming ⅚ Dates:

February 17: NO SCHOOL – Presidents’ Day

An update from PE:

Students are Enjoying “Week 3” of their “Third Rotation” of the learning and playing different types of “Fitness/Nutritional Activities” for the “Nutritional Unit“ in PE and the major components of why Fitness and Nutrition go hand in hand.

Coach Williams’ Class this week is introducing “Olympic Handball ,” Coach P.’s Class “Soft Tennis” and Coach Levand’s Class “Speedball!” It is our goal here at DCS to teach our PE Students that being flexible due to the weather and still being able to learn and participate in fun new things is never an issue!!!!

Also, as a quick friendly reminder, please remind students that they should be bring warm clothing such as sweatpants, sweatshirts and an extra pair of socks are important. Please let your students know that they should still 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

Mrs. Zuniga’s Math:

Varsity: Our class took our decimal unit test Friday. We begin moving into prime numbers and start looking at concepts of fractions. This will include LCM and GCF, which means students need to know their multiplication tables at this point to have an easier time with these concepts.

Scholastic: Our class completed Unit 4 and are now beginning to look at our fraction unit. We are starting with prime, composite and divisibility rules. The students will also be creating a fraction kit within the next week to use as a hands on and visual manipulative for fractions.

Honors: Our class is getting close to ending our current unit. Students are practicing solving and graphing inequalities.

Mrs. Nijjar’s Math:

Varsity: This week students spent time learning about greatest common factor (GCF) and explored different strategies to do the same. In the coming weeks, students will be taking the quiz and will be learning about least common multiple (LCM).

Scholastic: In this week, students learned to add, subtract and multiply integers. In the coming weeks, students will be completing the unit by learning about dividing integers and reviewing the concepts.

Honors: In this week, students learned about finding slope, y-intercept, and slope-intercept form for the given linear equations, and plotted the linear equations on a graph. In the coming weeks, students will be taking a quiz for Unit-4 and will further learn to solve linear equations.

All my students started working on part-2 of the SWO Lifelong Learner project. The students are encouraged to do research at home and complete the graphic organizer by January 31st.

Ms. Rodieck's Language Arts and Humanities:

Scholastic and Honors finished Fever 1793 – we survived the epidemic. Now we are taking the Final and completing the Newspaper Project.

Our next book will be Frankenstein. This was the High School Novel for the theme of Health and Wellness. We will not be reading Mary Shelly's version, instead an illustrated classic version. Parts of the Mary Shelly version will be read to the class (parts that are not in the version we are reading).

Varsity is continuing to read Fever 1793. We are going a bit slower since we are doing stations three days a week. In our small groups we are reading short articles or stories at our reading level and focusing on Comprehension Skills. We are also spending more time in class learning how to answer essay test questions. Ask your son or daughter what is means to "Go APE over Essay Questions."

Language Arts with Mr. Harding:

We have survived the Fever, and we are now ready to tackle end-of-novel tasks. We have an exam, and an essay, but we also have a Movie poster Project! Please check Google Classroom for updates!

"Compositions are the blending of unequal things." Our goal as a class is to learn how to blend and create meaning. It is composition time.

Social Studies with Mr. Bird and Mr. McCarthy:

This week we started off with a quiz about Ancient Greece on Tuesday. Students were quizzed on the four different types of government that were practiced. Continuing on with Ancient Greece, Students are learning about the two major City-States, Athens and Sparta. Next Week Students should expect a quiz towards the end. Below is a class reviewing what life was like if you lived in Athens around 400 B.C.E.

Science with Ms. Diaz:

Greetings scientists! This week, we learned about the constellations Leo, Lyra, Pisces and Scorpius. We also had group practice quizzes on the constellations of Cygnus, Gemini, Canis Major, Aquarius, Aquila and Aries. Our Moon Project continues, and so far we have tracked the moon for 19 days, observing how it changes over time. We also created our own constellations and wrote a myth pertaining to it. Next week, we will start working on the Moon Project lab report and go over the theories about the solar system held by famous Greek scientists.

Last but not least, come one and come all to check out the DCS science blog site at: www.tlcdiscoverychannel.weebly.com. Read all about the Top 5 Fastest Dinosaurs (RJ Thomas) and how Spongebob is a Cannibal (Vanesa Madera). Prepare to be SCIENCED!

Awesomely interesting announcements

Upcoming Deadlines:

Constellations Quiz Pt. 1—> Jan 28th
Constellations Quiz Pt. 2—> Feb 4th
Solar Systems Test—> Feb 12th
Moon Project Reports due—> Feb 14th
Please don't forget to check Google classroom and/or the science class website regularly with your student
Google Classroom Hon/Scholastic code→ jp9wlua
Google Classroom Varsity code→ 8d4s9b
Science class website: https://diazdoesscience.weebly.com

Mission to Mars:

The next payment is due Feb. 4th. Your balance needs to be paid in FULL. Please check your account to stay up to date.
Please check your email and let me know if you would like to take a bus with us from TLC to SFO. If we have enough of an interest, I can arrange bus transportation.

Rube Goldberg:

Drop-in practices M-Th 4-5pm

Science Olympiad

Parent permission forms and list of events have been handed out. Permission forms and top 5 choices of events are due Monday, Jan. 27th

Stay curious & keep exploring!!!

Discovery Middle School 7th-8th

No School on January 20th for MLK Day

Nest Certificate Winners for Week 21:

Winner of Amazon Giftcard in Nest Certificate Drawing (Dec):

A Note from Mrs. Cerezo:

Notice to Parents of students in the Varsity 2 class:

A letter has been sent home this week to inform you that starting Week 22, students in this class will begin to be reintroduced to having homework (this may look like: reviewing notes, making flashcards for terminology, annotating their notes, finishing up an assignment not completed in class, etc). Students will be expected to record their homework in their agenda, complete it at home, and it may be checked for a grade in each class. Please be on the lookout for this letter as it explains in detail the methodology behind reintroducing homework to this class in hopes that it will help to increase their sense of accountability and performance in class. Please feel free to contact me at acerezo@tracylc.net with any comments or concerns. Thank you.

School Improvement Committee Invitation!

The School Improvement Committee is a new aspect of our DCS team this year. This Committee is comprised of students, staff members, the DCS Team Leads, parents, Mrs. Woods, Mrs. Stewart, and a TLC Boardmember (Mr. Murray). We meet roughly once a month to discuss the DCS Action Plan and the overall progress of our school. We would love to welcome new members! If you are at all interested in joining or attending a meeting to find out more about DCS then please contact myself, acerezo@tracylc.net for more information.

Technology with Ms. Ferguson:

1-22-20

Trimester two of technology is well underway! Over the last couple of weeks, the students have finished up the units on internet safety/cyberbullying and have also made their way through a unit on finding reliable sources of information online and how to look out for inaccurate information or “fake news” as well as how to use keywords to find the information that they are looking for. The students built a newsletter and researched a news source that they had an interest in.

This week the students are working on a Google Docs Challenge where they are given a set of instructions to follow and if all instructions are followed correctly will build a Google Doc using many of the skills that they have already learned. This may be challenging for some students because there are a few new skills in the instructions and some students may have difficulty remembering some of the skills required of them.

Next week the class will be moving on to inventions and begin a project where they will be developing their own app.

Physical Education:

Also, as a quick friendly reminder, please remind students that they should bring warm clothing such as sweatpants, sweatshirts and an extra pair of socks are important. Please let your students know that they still 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

Ms. Polo Spanish Jan-Feb 2020

Lectura Readings D: Dado and E: Elote Read aloud in class. Students are responsible for the 37 vocabulary words we highlighted from those readings. They must know them in Spanish and in English.

This will become 1st oral test, either D or E. We will do Alphabet worksheet with 30 vocabulary words. Some are new, many are not. They are responsible for all 30 alfabetos and all 30 palabras (words) as vocabulario. That will be oral test #2 for unit 4. Also all the days of the week and months of the year are part of this month’s unit. 7 days of the week, 2 have accents, none are capitalized in Spanish. Months of the year, none are capitalized and none have accents. Also students will be able to write their birthday in Spanish, day, date, month, and year in a complete sentence. And number 0-31 will be reviewed as it will be needed when going over the calendar this unit. We will then move on to F and G lectura readings and pull vocabulary from those 2 readings for Unit 5. One of those will be chosen by each child to be read aloud and 1st oral test for unit 5.

Music Exploration with Mr. Dougherty:

DCS music classes have been busy working on a "Music, Media, and Technology" unit. In this unit, students created for news headlines and used iPads to compose underscore music. Students read these headlines with the music they composed playing in the background to create their own newscast. Below is a sampling of the project.

The end of the trimester concert will be on March 4 (Wednesday). The performance will take place in the gym during the school day. Stay tuned for more information.

Millennium High School

YEARBOOK ORDERS and SENIOR DEDICATION AD ORDERS NOW OPEN!

Yearbooks are on sale now! Yearbooks are $75. Now is the perfect time to order a 2019-20 yearbook for your student. We look forward to yearbook delivery day, May 15th. Orders are open through April 11th. Click HERE to go to our convenient online order center! Or you may go to yearbookordercenter.com and enter code 21362. You may also pay by cash, check, or card in the front office or by contacting Miss Lamanna, blamanna@tracylc.net

Senior Dedication ads in the yearbook are available and can include photos alongside a personal message to your son, daughter, or teammate. There are a limited number of pages available, so act quickly. The deadline to place an ad is 3/15/20. Credit cards accepted! If you have any questions, please direct them to blamanna@tracylc.net.

Speech and Debate

This weekend, our team attended one of the most competitive collegiate invitationals of the year, James Logan MLK Invitational in Union City. There were 113 schools from nine states in attendance, comprising 1,578 entries.

All of the nine students who attended finished in the top 30 of their events. Lucy Lamanna advanced to Quarter-Finals (top 24) and Semi-Finals (top 12) before being eliminated in the Semi-Final round. A picture of her with her Semi-Finalist trophy is attached. We are so proud of our students for setting a new team record in attendance and rankings at this prestigious event!

Last Saturday, 1/11, our students competed in regular league tournament in Buhach Colony, where they competed against 20 schools across 250 entries. Here are our students who finished in the top ten from our league tournament.

Lilliana Zapien, 9th, Varsity Original Advocacy

Danica Knowlden, 8th, Dramatic Interpretation

Kyle Fisher, 8th, Varsity Original Advocacy

Arianna Billings, 7th, Varsity Original Advocacy

A Ni Clepper, 7th, Varsity Original Advocacy

Giovanna Chukwuma, 4th, Novice Congressional Debate

Shika Acolatse, 4th, Varsity Original Prose and Poetry

Lucy Lamanna, 4th, Varsity Original Advocacy

Logan Malsack, 3rd, Novice Impromptu

Shika Acolatse, 3rd, Varsity Impromptu

Crysuel Cunanan, 3rd, Varsity Original Advocacy

Crysuel Cunanan and Eli Galvez, 2nd, Parliamentary Debate

Lucy Lamanna and Logan Malsack, 2nd, Parliamentary Debate

Nicole Engen, 2nd, Varsity National Extemporaneous

Nicole Engen, 2nd, Varsity Impromptu

Nicole Engen, 1st, Varsity Big Questions Debate

Falcon Culture Project

Shika Acolatse

This is Shika, a Ghanaian, second generation student at Millennium. She grew up in various places, ranging from Nebraska to the Bay Area with yearly summer trips to Ghana. Shika treasures her trips to Ghana because she feels as if Ghana is a completely different world. She quotes, “The camaraderie made everyday feel warm and inviting.” One of her favorite traditions goes back to when she went to school in Ghana: the “Our Day” ceremony. On the last day of school, the students wouldn’t have to wear uniforms, and would perform dances, play games, and eat food. Shika grew up eating traditional Ghanian dishes, including jollof rice (mixed with vegetables and meat) and kenkey (pounded cassava eaten with tomato stew or a spicy salsa called shito). Her favorite food is fried plantains, in which she adds, “they are best when they are super ripe!” Shika overcame her parents’ expectation of obtaining a traditional career and plans to pursue her passion in writing and filmmaking. With her drive and hard working personality, we know she can accomplish her biggest aspirations.

This Week in Science…

Students in Integrated Science are studying Astronomy and Cosmology. They learned to measure distances of stars using parallax, they modeled the Big Bang, and they learned about

Students in Environmental Science are learning petroleum chemistry. Petroleum is a mixture of substances that can be separated and manipulated for many different purposes, but it is a finite resource with huge environmental impacts.

Students in Chemistry are learning about chemical bonding and the different properties of ionic and covalent compounds.

Biology has recently delved into the magic of the cell cycle. Why do cells divide? How do they know when to stop dividing? If they don't ever stop dividing, what happens ? (hint: cancer. not good) We also studied how sperm and egg are created in the process called meiosis.

Forensic Science has busied itself in a study of illicit pharmaceuticals, which are of enormous importance to forensics labs. On a creative day, we held a pro vs con debate as to whether specific types of drug felons should be resentenced, or not, according to the guidelines of the new law called AUMA, or 2016's Prop 64.

Athletics

Interested in donating to the Athletics program to help complete furnishing of the weightroom and equipment purchases: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=JV4bGcCRYeBxsAoeIm9378Hq0cPdQ5v5cVuYxrIDCxod5qM0FM8eQcBKQ-YhqrA_hGj2tG&fromUL=true&country.x=US&locale.x=en_US

Weekly Schedule (Girls & Boys Soccer, Girls & Boys Basketball):

Monday 1/27: JV Boys Soccer @ Laguna Creek, 4:30pm

Tuesday 1/28: Basketball vs Turlock Christian (5pm/6:30/8pm), Played at West High

Varsity Boys Soccer @ Big Valley Christian, 5pm

Wednesday 1/29: Varsity Boys Soccer @ Venture Academy, 3pm

Thursday 1/30: Girls/Boys Varsity Soccer @ Stone Ridge Christian, (3pm/5pm), Played at Castle Field in Atwater

Boys Basketball @ Brookside Christian, (5:30/7pm)

Saturday 2/1: Varsity Boys Basketball @ Elliot Christian, 8pm, Played at Lodi High

Sports Scores:

Girls Basketball: Falcons 47, Stone Ridge Christian 30

Falcons 43, Linden 40

Girls Soccer: Falcons 0, Holt Academy 3

Falcons 6, Hughes Academy 0

Varsity Boys Soccer: Falcons 2, Elliot Christian 1 (FFW)

JV Boys Soccer: Falcons 3, River City 5

Varsity Boys Basketball: Falcons 50, Stone Ridge Christian 34

JV Boys Basketball: Falcons 67, Stone Ridge Christian 22

Meet the Coaches!

Hi! I am Cleshonda Cook, aka Coach Cleo. I'm excited to be part of the coaching staff at Millennium High School. I ran track and cross country all 4 years of high school and 1st year at DeAnza College. I competed in the 1600, 800, 4×100 and long jump. I was no superstar! But I definitely held my own :-). No one could out work me! I love the individuality yet team aspect of the sport. My passion for coaching comes simply from cheering on my two athlete children (club track brats), being a volunteer parent and coach. I LOVE motivating, and stretching athletes. I am tough, but I don't ever expect anything that I am not willing to give. You CAN do ANYTHING you put your mind to. That is my motto. I am honored to assist running this blossoming program at MHS, and I am honored to coach your athletes. We ALL have potential and we can realize it together. Let's GO Falcons.

NOW HIRING: Spring 2020 Head Athletic Coaches-

Boys Volleyball: https://www.edjoin.org/Home/DistrictJobPosting/1228598

Interested in a coaching position not currently posted? Submit your coaching resume/application here for consideration in future openings: https://www.edjoin.org/Home/DistrictJobPosting/1143376

Follow Millennium Athletics on Social Media:

-Instagram- @Millennium_Athletics

-Twitter- @MHS_Falcons

-Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/BalsamoPE

We appreciate your continued support! FALCON PRIDE!!

Upcoming Fundraisers for Athletics:

-Mother Son Dance: February 8th, 2020

COUNSELING, COLLEGE, AND COMMUNITY NEWS!!!

College Board Opportunity Scholarship Presentations

College Board Ambassadors Alondra Camarena (12th Grade) and Tyler Gore (12th Grade) visited Career Education classes last week to share College Board Opportunity Scholarships! These are wonderful opportunities for our junior and senior students to be eligible for scholarships by completing steps that are helpful (and in some cases required!) along their journey toward college. For more information, please visit this link: https://opportunity.collegeboard.org/

9th Grade Presentations

Ms. Moore did presentations for 9th grade Life Skills classes this week regarding community service updates, Fast Track, graduation requirements, and A-G requirements. Students had wonderful questions! It is great to know that students are thinking about their futures within and beyond high school!

Hire Me First Breakfast

If you know of a business (Profit or Non Profit) who may be interested in offering an unpaid internship experience for the 2020-2021 school year, we encourage you to attend the upcoming Hire Me First breakfast event to learn more about participating in preparing our youth for the future workforce!

9th Annual TLC’s Got Talent Show – February 13, 2020 – TICKETS ON SALE NOW! $9.00 General Admission. Purchase your tickets from www.atthegrand.org from the MHS Counseling Office, or the TLC Main Office.

Millennium High School – Community Service Opportunity-Thursday February 6, 2020

Central School Parent Group is hosting a Valentines Craft Night and is in need of volunteers to help manage craft tables and assist as needed. The event time is 4:30pm-6:30pm. If interested in volunteering please visit the Millennium High School Counseling Office to sign-up.

TLC Charter Chatter

Posted on August 17, 2019 by tlccharterchatter

TLC Charter Chatter

A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC

Virginia Stewart

Aug. 16, 2019

We are off to a fantastic start to the school year. I am so pleased with the responses we are receiving from students at each level. They are happy and are cooperating with our expectations. They are adjusting to changes and they are settling in for a very successful year.

Last week, I had a chance to read to our Phase Two students in P1. They told me about the grown-up changes they had after moving from Phase One and how they liked their new schedule. I read them a book about how important our voices are. We need to express ourselves to bring out change, to be grateful or to heal. They gave me some very good examples of ways they could improve their world with their voices.

This week, I enjoyed seeing all of you who attended Back to School Nights for the high school and for Discovery. We love seeing parents at those nights. It does not matter if it is your first year or your last year in that school, we change things and there is always something new to learn.

Thank you for your great cooperation in the car lines. I know it starts out slow, but the time it takes gets shorter each day when you follow our directions. We believe it is essential for us to protect your child with our “wrap-around approach”. We want to be responsible in a safe and caring way from the time your child leaves you until your child is picked up at the end of the day.

Lunch Menu for this week…. YUM!

Lunch Menu – Week Aug. 19 – 23

Mon. – Pizza

Tues – Chicken Corn Dog

Wed – Bean or Bean Soft Taco

Thurs – Beef Lasagna

Fri –Beef or Veggie Burger

New

Lunch Debts

Students 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

At Tracy Learning Center we believe that teaching focused on student needs is the most effective method for student growth and success. It is important to the teachers that our curriculum is tailored to each individual student’s learning goals. We do our best to ensure that our curriculum is always challenging without being frustrating. We are so impressed with our students and are very excited to dive further into our curriculum next week!

Don’t forget to sell raffle tickets to our cruise fundraiser! Send us an email if you need more tickets!

Phase One:

This week was our first full week of centers. The students and teachers are getting into the swing of the new year beautifully. The teachers continued to assess the students this week and we will begin curriculum next! In your child’s red folder this week you will find information about our technology programs we will be using this year. These programs are a great way to continue practicing the concepts taught in class at home.

Here we have some students enjoying some of the interactive centers we have been doing this week.

Do you know the difference between our green and red folders? Red folders are handed out every Monday and have your child’s Parent-Student Work. This is something that you can help your child with throughout the week. It will contain sight words, spelling words and the grammar focus for the week. Red folders are due every Friday. Green folders contain all your child’s work from the week and their behavior calendar. Green folders are due every Monday. When checking your child’s green folder please make sure that you completely empty it and sign their behavior calendar so that we know you have looked at it.

Phase Two:

This week our phase 2 students got back to work with our math and language arts curriculum. All of our students are working on place value in math…while it may be review for some, it is a very important foundational math concept. A strong number sense and confidence with large numbers and their values will help your child progress in math for years to come. Practice reading, writing, and rounding numbers at home. We are also using the math website play.prodigygame.com in class and you can also access it at home!

We are loving our elective classes so far! Our 3rd and 4th graders are learning a fun game called “rhythm poison” in music. It’s a great listening game! They are writing numbers in Spanish class and creating cave drawings in art. Our students are so lucky to have these daily enrichment classes!

Mr. Martin teaching rhythms in P8.P1 hard at work with cave drawings.

Discovery Middle School 5-6

Upcoming ⅚ Dates:

September 3rd: Picture Day

October 8th: Picture Day Retakes

August 12th-23rd: DCS Cruise Fundraiser

Now – August 30th: Spirit Wear can be purchased at https://www.selectspiritwear.com/shop4/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=1173

A Note from Mrs. Prescott:

WOW!!! What an amazing turn out we had for Back to School Night on Wednesday! I don’t know if or when we’re ever had so many DCS parents and students come to this event. Thank you parents for your support and interest in your child’s education. Teaching and raising a child takes a village, as the saying goes, and your attendance meant a lot to all of us. If you missed it because of other engagements or responsibilities, we completely understand. Look below to find some highlights of the general school information we shared.

And just like that, we’re already 2 weeks into the new school year! I walk the halls and go into classrooms seeing enthusiastic teachers and engaged students everywhere I turn. No time is being wasted. Please be sure to reach out to your child’s teachers if you have any questions for them.

And again, please feel free to contact me, Mrs. Prescott (kprescott@tracylc.net), if you have any additional questions. I’m always here to help!

Mrs. Zuniga/Mrs. Bengson’s Math:

Note for all classes: Parents if you would like to know what your children are working on each day or if there are any tests or quizzes coming up please refer to the math calendar in their binders. Test and quiz dates will be written on that calendar as soon as dates are set for each test or quiz.

Varsity: Our class has finished up comparing and ordering whole numbers. We will now be learning to round whole numbers before we begin reviewing for our first quiz on Tuesday.

Scholastic: Our class has finished rounding decimal numbers then we will begin to add and subtract decimal numbers. Our first quiz will be coming soon and I will send out that info with students as soon as a date is set.

Honors: Our class has finished up their first quiz of Unit 1. We will continue through the unit moving onto exponents then squares and cubes.

Ms. Rodieck’s Language Arts and Humanities

We finished week 2!! – This week we started getting into the curriculum. Students in all three classes had their first weekly quiz and homework assignments. Varsity does their work in reinforcement lab. If you would like to do work at home, they have a book club book to read and spelling words to study. We also started reading Love That Dog. In writing, we closely read articles about pet ownership and wrote summaries of the articles.

Next week, we will start learning music theory in Humanities. We will be learning terms used in music theory so we have a common vocabulary for listening to and talking about Musical Pieces as related to the Pentathlon theme Health and Wellness.

We will also write our first essay – an expository piece about pet ownership. We will continue reading our novel, weekly spelling and vocabulary, and grammar basics.

Social Studies with Mr. Bird & Mr. McCarthy

This week our Falcon historians are developing their map skills. They learned how to identify the different parts of a map, identify cardinal directions, as well as understand how to read the map grid and measuring scale. We applied our map skills by using a map from Fortnite, a popular video game, to identify various locations (see pictures below).

Next week we will begin our unit on prehistory and early humans. We are doing a cave-like simulation for one of our activities next week. Students will be asked to bring in a flashlight from home. Please do not go out and purchase flashlights if you do not have one.

Science with Ms. Diaz:

Happy 2nd week of school future scientists! It has been a great week so far, with us asking questions such as “what is science?” and “what is data?”. In groups, we did a brainstorming activity and then presented our thoughts and opinions to the class. We also practiced some lab skills, taking measurements of length and the volume of liquids using metric units. Now we are experts at adeptly transferring liquids from one container to another with a high degree of precision. We also completed our first lab activity, investigating “how do you know when you have enough data?” by calculating the proportions of different skittle colors in a bag as groups and then comparing them within the class. This enabled us to learn to collect and record data like good scientists. We will ultimately use this data to create a bar graph to show information and give comparisons.

Next week….get ready for forces and motion!

Awesomely, interesting announcements:

Saturday, September 21st– Expanding Your Horizons event for 6-12th grade girls at the University of the Pacific https://www.sjeyh.org

This is a great event that I attended as a 6th grader, and for a small fee, you get workshops, lunch, a t-shirt and SWAG. If interested, register asap as spaces are limited

Mission to Mars DCS science trip, April 13-16, 2020. Come attend the parent info night if you are interested in your child joining. The meeting is at 6pm, Thursday, August 22nd in room D5 of the DCS building. I will go over trip information and the trip coordinator will be available via Skype to help answer any questions.

Stay curious & keep exploring!!!

Art with Ms. Losen:

This week in Art class we learned about Van Gogh and created our own versions of Starry Night, using a layer of glue first for texture and then going over that layer with oil pastels. We discussed Van Gogh’s life and contributions to art and spent time contemplating the trend of famous artists being unrecognized during their lifetime as well as the role self-doubt plays in creative success.

Discovery Middle School 7-8

Upcoming Dates:

Picture Day is Sept. 3rd
DCS Cruise Fundraiser will begin August 12 and continues until August 23rd
Spirit Wear can be purchased now until Aug 30th at https://www.selectspiritwear.com/shop4/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=1173

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 and will start with lesson 4 compare and order

scholastic :- doing unit 1, review for algebra basics finished till evaluating expressions and doing review for quiz 2 and doing combining like terms

honours :- finished unit 1 geometry basics will do constructions review for quiz 3 and unit test 1

Math with Mrs. Rapp

Picture of my proud home room with all their certificates on Tuesday

Back to School Night

This Wednesday 7th and 8th grade had their Back to School Night event! We had a great turnout from both parents and students! (Pictured below: PE staff giving their presentation)

Nest Certificates and Top Nest Earners:

(Pictured below: Top 5 Nest earners for Week 1)

Language Arts with Mrs. Cerezo

This week students worked hard on developing their writing. I met with each student to conference with them about their introduction paragraphs. As a pair we read their work and discussed possible improvements they could make for their next written assignment.

During our Creative Teaching Day this week each class played Literary Device Bingo to practice their understanding of literary elements such as personification, simile, plot, and more.

Each class will have their second test of the year on Friday.

Language Arts with Ms. Greene:

This week in Language Arts, we are focusing on our essay introduction revisions. Conferences will be one on one with my advice to revise and edit their introductions, this will be held Wednesday, August 14th.

For our creative teaching day, Tuesday the 13th, we played literary device Bingo and “I have, who has” which helps build their literary vocabulary. In all classes they will be presenting their Soundbites, a summary of a news article that they have read in class.

In Honors, we have only just began reading and we are focusing on the plot and the conflict. In Scholastic, the students have started to identify the rising action of the plot and are making connections and predictions of what they believe might happen. In Varsity, they have started to identify the plot and different types of figure of speech.

Students will have a test on Friday, focusing on the vocab and the literary devices that we have reviewed throughout the week. The test will also include questions about Fever 1793 which we have continued to read in class.

Social Studies with Ms. Zaca:

Students started the week by finishing their presentations on the medical traditions for Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India. Students analyzed their different traditions and grouped them based off of natural and divine. To help connect the ancient world with our modern world, students were given one of eight parts of the Hippocratic Oath. With their two or three group members, they discussed the meaning of their part and rewrote it in their own words, simplifying the complex version that current doctors learned during medical school! Students wrote the new, simpler version on poster paper and stapled them to our classroom walls. Each student walked around the room, writing down the rest of the parts in their notebook. With this activity, students learned how the ancient Greeks did not believe in cutting open the body to diagnose ailments, but that learning about the patient as a whole through observations and questioning was the key to solving any ailment.

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

Music exploration is off to a great start. It has been a pleasure getting to know new students and getting reacquainted with returning students. We started off the trimester with a musical me presentation, students also created a beat on GarageBand and then wrote a rap to perform to their beats. This is going to be great semester!

Spanish with Mrs. Polo

This week and next week in Spanish class we will be going over rules, regulations, giving out school supplies and beginning with Spanish name and translations as well as accent marks and spelling. We will also go over the 4 questions that have to be asked in Spanish

Ex: Can I go to the bathroom?

We will also begin an alphabet review and reading letters A & B

Art with Ms. Losen

Science with Ms. Dominguez

This week in 7/8 Science, students will have their very first Google Classroom Quiz. For Honors and Scholastic, this quiz will be completed on their own at home. Students will receive a study guide in class on Friday, and we will review that together while students are given time in class to fill in the guide with the information they will need for the quiz. Varsity will complete the quiz during class time on Friday with assistance from the learning guides and me.

PLEASE NOTE: Next week, we will start discussing this year’s Academic Pentathlon topic of Health and Wellness: The Science and Biology of Cancer. I understand from my own personal experiences that this topic can be very difficult and complicated for students of this age group. If there are any reservations regarding your student’s exposure to this content, please feel free to contact me via email at gdominguez@tracylc.net.

Millennium High School

A big thank you this week goes out to our students for being so prompt and attentive during our picture day. The staff at Lifetouch had some wonderful compliments with regards to our students. That means a lot and you should all be very proud. Also, thank you to all the parents who attended Back to School Night. We had a wonderful time speaking with you and look forward to being part of a team that will make this year a great success!

MHS English Charter Chatter

English I

Our Freshmen are finding out how things work in high school. We have started the year strong with grammar, non fiction articles, and beginning our first novel Orphan Train. Students already have their first Language Arts quiz under their belts as well as their first essay assignment. We will continue to work on writing beginning with introductory paragraphs.

English I is a big transition for students- they have 7 classes with 7 individual teachers which can seem overwhelming at first. This year, students seem to have taken to the new schedule and responsibilities remarkably well and it is shaping up to be a fantastic year!

English Two– English Two is rolling right along! This week we’ve taken a Diagramming Assessment, started our diagramming work. and continue to work on the non-fiction article we started last week, “Afghan Boys Are Prized, So Girls Live The Part”. The students enjoy learning about Afghanistan and are making observations and predicting what impact the history of the country will have on our characters in the novel, “The Kite Runner”. We are also working on writing Introductions and are learning a lot about writing through peer review.

English Three– English Three hasn’t missed a step! We are reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and analyzing Steinbeck’s use of the natural world at the beginning of each chapter. We are examining the themes of Loyalty, Friendship, and Discrimination throughout the novel and identifying how these themes are prevalent in today’s literature as well. We are working on Expository Essays and integrating citations into our essay.

The Senior class has embarked upon the most important year of their lives. It has been a great start, and they have set an outstanding example for all MHS students. From the way they line up at Unity, to the standards they set in the classroom, we expect these seniors to make us proud all year long. In English class, we have begun reading The Things they Carried, a book that explores both the tangible and intangible weight that American soldiers struggled with then and continue to struggle with today. The high school has renewed their focus on producing strong rhetorical writers, who communicate on the page just as well as they do in person at the front of the class. At MHS, we strive to prepare our students for their future, and the English department has their eye on the metaphorical prize.

Delta College classes for Fall semester will be starting soon! All students who were approved for College Early Start for Fall should have registered during the month of July. Classes begin the week of August 26th. 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 will be mailed at the end of the month 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. Saturday, 8/17, football will have their first scrimmage out at Big Valley Christian in Modesto with all of our CCAA teams.

Girls volleyball will have their first scrimmage on 8/22 out at Mountain House.

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 – Homework Support

Homework support has returned for Millennium High School students who need help with their homework. Please see below for the current schedule.

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.

DCS and MHS Back to School Nights

Posted on August 13, 2019 by tlccharterchatter

Discovery 5th – 8th Grade Back to School Night is Tomorrow: Wednesday, 8/14

Please join us in the gym on Wednesday for an introduction and important information about our school, then head upstairs to our classrooms for information about this year’s subject matter.

5/6 back to school night begins at 5pm
7/8 begins at 630pm

High School Picture Day is Tomorrow: Wednesday, 8/14

Students who do NOT have a 1st period class must arrive at school at their usual start time, if not earlier. These students are to go to the gym between 8:00-11:00 to have their picture taken.

Seniors MUST have their picture taken tomorrow for their Student ID card. Senior/Yearbook Photos are to be taken separately (information to be mailed home later this month).

High School Back to School Night: Thursday, 8/15 5:00-7:30pm

Parents and Guardians: Join us in the gym at 5:00pm on Thursday for an introduction and important information about our school, then travel to designated classrooms to hear presentations from teachers about each academic department.

TLC Cruise Fundraiser!!

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Welcome Back! TLC Charter Chatter

Posted on August 9, 2019 by tlccharterchatter

TLC Charter Chatter

A weekly newsletter for parents and students of TLC

Virginia Stewart

Aug. 9, 2019

Happy School Year. We are so pleased to have all of our students joining us for the 2019-20 school year. New beginnings are always exciting. We appreciate the donations you have made to classrooms. The teachers are always pleased to receive wipes, tissues and such supplies.

But most of all, we appreciate your support and cooperation with such important things as:

Procedures for car line

Avoiding sending fast food, soda, or candy with lunches

Being certain your student is on time

Avoiding unnecessary absences

Checking your student’s grades

Emailing teachers if you have questions

When we work together everything goes well.

If you are considering helping us, consider a donation to help support our schools so that we can continue to purchase more technology, playground equipment, or other big items. This year, we purchased a tractor lawn mower so we could take care of our own landscape needs rather than a contract service. We operate our schools on a very tight budget but we want the best for our students, so any additional funds are always and greatly appreciated.

Important Reminders

Follow the rules for our two drop off and pick up car lines
Primary’s dismissal begins at 3:20, If your 3rd or 4th grade student is a walker, please have a designated meeting/waiting spot.
Discovery is dismissed at 4:00
Millennium is dismissed at 4:00
Do not park or even stay in your car in front of someone’s driveway. We have very nice neighbors unless you block their driveway.
If your student is a Discovery “walker” please have your meeting point away from our school on another block to avoid all of the current traffic congestion. Please do not park and wait on Beverly or Mae.
If you have a PCS and or Discovery student and a Millennium student, use the high school pick up line.

We truly appreciate your cooperation and support of our program. We realize we are a big school, with lots of traffic in a quiet neighborhood. Your cooperation allows us to have peace among ourselves and with our neighbors. We have already had several complaints of unsafe driving and drop offs and very rude behavior between our own parents towards each other.

Bottom line, STUDENT SAFETY IS OUR UTMOST CONCERN!

Lunch Menu for this week…. YUM!

Lunch Menu – Week Aug. 12 – 16

Mon. – Pizza

Tues – Chicken Corn Dog

Wed – Chicken Taquitos

Thurs – Cheese Ravioli

Fri –Beef Hot Dog

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

registration form 2019

Personal Days for Next School Year 2019/2020

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

MHS – Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019. Flyers going home Aug. 9, 2019

PreK, PCS and DCS – Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Flyers coming home week before.

Facilities

Welcome back to a new school year! While the summer break was being enjoyed by the students, my crew was busy at the site!

This was the first break that we had the whole site after the completion of the construction. This way a challenge to accomplish everything that needed to be done in a short time. All furniture had to be moved from each area, then the floor needed to be stripped and scrubbed of its old wax. Many layers of new wax applied. There are over 65,000 sq feet of tile in all of the building at the school!!

Discovery lunch tables were pressure washed and repainted.

All of the outside of the buildings and walkways were pressure washed and windows cleaned.

I would like to thank you for having family attending the Tracy Learning Center! We hope to have a great new school year and if you have any concerns please don’t hesitate to ask!

Tracy Learning Center Preschool

Now enrolling new students ages 2-4!

See our pricing below

This week in preschool we have been very busy learning all about our new classrooms, meeting new friends, and HAVING A LOT OF FUN! We had a blast reading NO! David by David Shannon and we had many discussions about the mistakes David made and how to fix them.

We would like to thank our preschool parents for successfully assigning their new PIN numbers and using them successfully!

TK

We had an incredible start to the school year together in TK!

We began our week by learning TK routines and procedures. We rehearsed such skills as: lining up, behavior at Unity, how to use silent signals, and how to wait patiently for our turn to talk.

We also participated in fun activities, like: creating a Chester Raccoon mask, a name flower pot, and a feeling craft. Be sure to check out our awesome artwork in our green folders this weekend!

We are off to a great start, and we can’t wait for more fun next week!

Initial Phase

WOW! It has been an amazing first week of school! The teachers are SO lucky to have such a wonderful class! We are very impressed with how well everyone has adjusted. Students are already mastering our classroom routines, procedures, and rules. Teachers can already tell that this is going to be a great year! We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each student this week and are looking forward to our second week together. Don’t forget to follow our instagram account to see what we are up to throughout the day!

On Monday, we will start selling raffle tickets for our upcoming PCS/DCS cruise fundraiser!

Phase One:

The students in Phase One had a great first week! We did a lot of fun activities to get to know our classmates and teachers. We also started assessing our students to place them into our LA and Math groups. We will continue to give more in depth assessments next week to better place our students. Our first graders are loving that they get to use the monkey bars now!

Every Friday you will receive your child’s green folder and they are due every Monday. Please make sure you are checking green folders Red folders will be sent home starting August 19th. Homework will also begin that week.

Phase Two:

Our 3rd and 4th grade students had a great first week! We did lots of exciting activities to get to know our classmates and took assessments to place students into their LA and math groups. We are impressed with how seriously our students took their learning this week and they’re eager to start learning even more! We also welcomed our new art and music teachers this week. We know Mr. Martin and Mrs. Harvey will love working with our PCS students.

Next week, phase 2 students will receive homework on Monday. Please work with your child throughout the week to practice spelling words and complete all assigned homework. Homework is due on Fridays.

Please remember to always check the green folder for important papers! Phase 2 students will soon be using agendas for parent communication so look for those to come home soon.

Discovery Middle School 5-6

Upcoming ⅚ Dates:

August 14th: (Date was changed!!!) Back-to-School Night, 5-6:15, starting in the Gym

September 3rd: Picture Day

October 8th: Picture Day Retakes

A Note from Mrs. Prescott:

I want to welcome all of our students and families to Discovery Charter School for the 2019/2020 school year. I think we’re all off to an amazing start! The teachers were all prepared and excited to meet their new students on Monday. The students came in with a mixture of excitement and nervousness but made it through the week with plenty of learning, smiles, and new friendships being made. We ended the week with our first rally hosted by Ms. Zaca and her leadership students. It was TONS of fun watching their teachers and nest leaders compete in a relay of hopscotch, football throw, cupcake eating, and flipping the cup. Now we’re ready to really kick off the new year and see just how far our DCS Falcons will soar with their learning!
Please contact me, Mrs. Prescott (kprescott@tracylc.net), if you ever have any questions. I’m always here to help!

Ms. Polo’s Spanish class:

Ex: Can I go to the bathroom?

We will also begin an alphabet review and reading letters A & B

Ms. Polo for both 5/6 and 7/8

Mrs. Zuniga/Mrs. Bengson’s Math:

All classes are underway with our new math curriculum lessons. I do want students to be successful and one way to help with that at home parents, is work with your students on their math facts. This will be very beneficial to them all year long and for their future math courses.

Varsity: The students have begun learning place values of numbers. They have begun to read numbers to the millions along with writing numbers in word form to the millions. Our focus has been on spelling and correct form, so please help your students at home with reading large numbers. We will begin to look at place versus value for the next lesson.

Scholastic: Students are learning place value of whole and decimal numbers. We will begin to work on expanded form after finishing writing numbers in word form.

Honors: The students are excited and moving through our first lesson on integers and absolute value with operations. Our next lesson is fractions, so parents please review with your students about fractions at home.

Thank you,

Mrs. Zuniga

Ms. Rodieck’s LA

It has been a great first week of school and I have enjoyed getting to know my new students and reconnecting with students from last year. Thank you for sending pictures of students with their pets. Friday, we got to see each others pets – oohing and aahing over them.

Next week we will begin reading our first novel Love That Dog and will get into our curriculum. Scholastic and Honors will start having their weekly vocabulary and spelling words along with a book club book they need to be reading at home.

I look forward to seeing you at Back-to-School night next week.

Social Studies with Mr. Bird

This week in social studies, students are getting to know their classmates and teachers to help create a positive classroom environment. All social studies students are working in groups to create a poster that shows our classroom expectations. Below are pictures of students working on these posters and presenting them to the class (the group shown came up with a skit to show the class examples of our class expectation – very creative!). The social studies syllabus is due by Monday, August 12. Next week we will begin learning about geography and developing map skills.

PE with Coaches Penerine, Williams, and Levand:

Welcome Back!!!! 🙂 With the new school year underway, students and staff are excited about the “The New Locker Room Expectations/Procedures” that are being implemented this week (by Coach Penirian, Coach Williams and Coach Levand) as 5th/6th & 7th/8th students will be “Dressing Out” in PE clothes for the first time in 2 years, since “The Remodel” of TLC! All students must have the following in PE Class: PE Clothes, a lock, Deodorant/Baby Wipes and Athletic Shoes. More information about all of this can all be found in the PE Student Syllabus/Packet that was sent home this past Monday. Also, as a 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!

Discovery Middle School 7-8

Upcoming Dates:

Picture Day is Sept. 3rd
Back to School Night is August 14th beginning at 6:30pm (meet in the gym)
DCS Cruise Fundraiser will begin August 12 and continue until August 23rd.

Language Arts with Mrs. Cerezo

Welcome back students! This week we have hit the ground running with content and curriculum! Already we have begun reading our first novel, Fever 1793.

This years’ Academic Pentathlon theme is Health and Wellness. The first novel that we are reading for this year is the Pentathlon-selected novel. It is an interesting tale of Yellow Fever and its spread throughout Philadelphia.

Each class has also received a writing assignment for the week. All classes are working on just the introduction paragraph. We are hoping that because we are starting simpler this year that students will have more time to dedicate to honing their writing skills.

This assignment is due Monday August 12th.

Language Arts with Ms. Greene:

It has been a great start to the school year! In Honors, we have started our writing journey. Students have been assigned to write an introduction paragraph that focuses on their school year last year; what was their greatest success, what makes a great learner and why is it important for students to learn all subjects. In addition to writing, we have begun to read Fever 1793. Students have started to analyze the plot, beginning with the exposition of the story.

Similarly, Varsity and Scholastic have begun Fever 1793 and are making connections with the character relationships and are learning how to define works that are unknown through context clues.

The student’s first essay (which is just the introduction paragraph) is due on August 12th. Each student will be having a one on one conference with me on how they can revise their introductions.

Reminder: there will be a vocab quiz and test on Friday August 9th.

Social Studies with Ms. Zaca:

Welcome back and hopefully, everyone had a wonderful summer!

After spending all of Monday going over rules and expectations, students officially started their social studies curriculum on Tuesday. All classes, Varsity, Scholastic, and Honors, went around the classroom learning about the ten oldest civilizations: Incan, Mayan, Aztec, Indus Valley, Chinese, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greek, Persian, and Roman. Students were placed into three large groups and went around the room looking for their three or four assigned civilizations. After their ten-minute timer went off, students went back to their original groups and shared with their group members the information they had collected. Students became mini-teachers as they taught their group members the necessary information about their assigned civilizations.

Scholastic and Honor’s students need to make sure to sign up for Google Classroom. They have an assignment due Monday (Hippocratic Medicine PowerPoint Notes) before they are to come to class.

Technology with Ms. Ferguson:

This week in Technology is an exciting week! The students spent their first few days working on an “All About Me” cellphone project (picture below) and are finishing their week by getting assigned to and logged in to their Chromebooks for the first time.

Next week the students are being introduced to their first unit, Digital Citizenship, and Cyberbullying. Next Friday, August 16th the students will take their first vocabulary quiz on Unit 1.

Math with Mrs. Rapp:

Welcome back! Exciting news to start the year in D6, Ms.Dominguez is officially married and is now Mrs. Rapp. My new email is drapp@tracylc.net. This year in my math classes it has been a smooth and exciting start. Varsity is off to a wonderful beginning with Unit 1 ‘s topic of Whole Numbers and Decimals. This unit will help set a good foundation for what is to come in this year in Math 78. Scholastic is in the Algebra 1 curriculum, which matches the high school Algebra course. This group has been awesome with showing what they know. Last, but certainly not least there is Honors Geometry, also matching the high school curriculum. This group is superb with the amount of geometry knowledge that many of them already have from last year in 6th or 7th grade. I am excited to see what they can do throughout the year and continue to challenge them.

Spanish with Mrs. Polo

Ex: Can I go to the bathroom?

We will also begin an alphabet review and reading letters A & B

Art with Ms. Losen

Students decorated their personal sketchbooks began their daily practice of visual journal entries and discussed in depth what art is to them. In every class, students collaborated on posters that represented their interpretations of art and voted on one poster per class to hang in the hallway.

Science with Ms. Dominguez

This week in 7/8 Science, we jumped right into our first unit on Matter. We started with a word search competition. Each class brainstormed all the vocabulary they could recall that was related to the topic of matter. Once we had a list of 15-20 words, students were challenged to find as many of the words as they could on a provided word search. It was very exciting to see each of the students get into the competitive aspect of the assignment, and give their full participation in the word search.

We will continue with our unit on Matter for the rest of the week to prepare for this year’s Academic Pentathlon topic of Health and Wellness, and more specifically the science of Cancer.

Physical Education:

Welcome Back!!!! 🙂 With the new school year underway, students and staff are excited about the “The New Locker Room Expectations/Procedures” that are being implemented this week (by Coach Penirian, Coach Williams and Coach Levand) as 5th/6th & 7th/8th students will be “Dressing Out” in PE clothes for the first time in 2 years, since “The Remodel” of TLC! All students must have the following in PE Class: PE Clothes, a lock, Deodorant/Baby Wipes, and Athletic Shoes. More information about all of this can all be found in the PE Student Syllabus/Packet that was sent home this past Monday. Also, as a 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!

Millennium High School

WELCOME BACK, FALCONS!

Wednesday, August 14th is MHS Picture Day.

Flyers for ordering pictures will go home Friday, August 9th from first period teachers.
Any MHS students who do not have a first period class need to get their flyers from the front office.
Students who do not have a first period class should go to the gym between 8 – 11am to have their pictures taken.
All other students will stay in their first period class until an overhead announcement has been made saying all pictures are done.
Seniors do need to have a picture taken, but for their ID purposes only; their senior portrait will be used in the yearbook.

Mrs. U

Math is off to a great start in all of my classes! Pre-Algebra started at integers. Integers are brand new to some and a nice refresher for others. Algebra 1B started right at the second half of Algebra 1 in Unit 6. They are learning about monomials and operations on them. They got to have a friendly competition while practicing this past Wednesday. They were very engaged and I heard many comments about how class flew by and they were learning! In Algebra 2, we are reviewing some Algebra 1 material that is very crucial to the course. The students are exercising their brains while trying to get back into the Algebra mindset! Next week, we jump right in! The students seem eager to learn and ready to take on the year.

Mr. Creasman

Math is fun and so is the first week of school! This is my first official year teaching at MHS and my classes are going great so far. The culture and atmosphere of this school is a thrill to be a part of. Students in my Pre-Calculus, Algebra 1A, and Pre-Algebra classes all received a lesson and homework assignment on the first day of school. One unique addition to the daily routine in Mr. Creasman’s class is called the “Pre-Test.” This is something that has got all my students very excited so far! Every day we start off first with a warm up, some homework questions from last nights assignment, then three minutes for the Pre-Test. On your marks, get set, go! The students are allowed 3 minutes to work on one of the hardest problems that I picked out of their upcoming homework assignment. The first person, (if there is one), to get the problem right gets +20 nest points and a free perfect score on their homework! The idea is, if you can complete the hardest problem on the next day’s homework assignment in less than three minutes, (that I haven’t even taught yet), than you deserve to get out of the homework! Students are not allowed to win two days in a row. We’ll see how this “Pre-Test” develops going down the semester, but so far it’s been great!

Mr. Kay

The first week of school is in the books and the first of the Davis Tests have been completed! Algebra 1 started at with organizing the set of real numbers into subsets. Mathematical Properties are up next! Finance Math’s is first unit is about the skills, knowledge, and experience valued by employers. Once we finish up the unit, we will move on to jobs/careers and the various ways people earn their money.

Mr. Shelton

One week of school down and it is safe to say that we are making math fun again! Algebra 2 is getting warmed back up and reviewing their Algebra 1 concepts. It’s important for their success that they are up to speed going into Algebra 2. And it is safe to say that most of them are where they should be. They’re putting in a lot of effort to do well and it is great to see! Algebra 1 jumped right into instruction. They learned their sets of numbers as well as their properties. Your students are doing a great job of participating and being active listeners in class! It is great to see, and even more fun to teach. Last but not least Pre-Algebra is off to a great start as well. It is nice to see everyone participating and taking an interest in what we are learning. This first unit contains the building blocks for not only this class but all of the math classes they will take throughout high school! Overall I have had a week of great participation, and excited learners. If this keeps up the whole year I can tell it’s going to be a very fun year.

Mr. Vaughn

Hello to all parents! We’ve gotten to an excellent start in our first week of school! We’ve jumped into an introduction to the real number system and a review of key Algebra concepts in our Algebra 1A and 1B classes, and we’re going to kick it into high gear in the coming weeks. It is truly amazing to see the effort and hard work my students have put in during the first week, and I’m honored and very pleased to have the opportunity to teach them for an entire year! All of my Geometry classes have hit the ground running and we’ve moved quickly from the basics of planes and line segments into some applications of those ideas to calculate distances. We’ve also begun discussing some of the logical thought processes behind proofs, which is important to do from the beginning because of confidence issues that students sometimes face with proofs in particular. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish this year!

Mr. Tariku

Great first week of school! I am teaching Precalculus and Geometry this year. We are doing Rule of Four in Precalculus. It helps students with representing their work in a variety of ways and helps them with connections across concepts and topics. In Geometry, we are working on fundamental skills and looking forward to logic and proof. Homework 1 and 2 are in the books for both classes and we have our 1st assessments on monday.

Mrs. Griffin

This week was a very good week! I think that we set a pretty impressive tone for both our staff and our students. In Calculus class, we did a lot of review of previously learned material and both classes realized and appreciated the review time that we spent going over those concepts. When we are done reviewing we will start working with limits! My computer science class starts the year with keyboarding lessons and learning how to type properly so that when they start programming, they can be more efficient when writing lines of code in Java Script and Python. My Algebra 1 class has the privilege of having both myself and Mrs. Stewart teaching them! This class will be awesome with their math skills by the end of the semester. We are off to a great start!

Back to School Night is Thursday, August 15th

5PM – 7:30 PM

Parents are invited to come and meet our staff and learn about our excellent Falcon programs

Join us in the gym at 5:00 PM for a brief orientation from Mr. Saldate.
Take a tour and meet our department teachers in 20 minute sessions.
See our beautifully remodeled campus and find out about the opportunities and programs available to your student.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn firsthand about what your students are doing in and out of class!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Next Friday is our Welcome Back/Fall Sports Kick-off Week!

Next week is a spirit week, culminating in our Fall Sports Rally, which will be Friday at 10 AM, directly after second period. Students will earn nest points and show their school spirit by dressing in the themes of the days:

Monday is Jersey Day,
Tuesday is Trend Day,
Wednesday is Sunglasses/Dress Up for Picture Day,
Thursday is Nest Color Day, and
Friday is Black and Gold Day for our Rally.

We look forward to seeing our Falcons show their spirit and start our year out right!

Counseling Office

It’s been a great first week of school. For many of our Freshmen, last Thursday was really their first day of high school at Falcon Flight School. We had the largest turnout of students attending!

Athletics

Football, Cross Country and Girls Volleyball are well underway as teams begin to finalize their rosters! Stay tuned for weekly game updates. In the meantime, Millennium Volleyball at Texas Roadhouse on Monday and Tuesday to help the girls raise money for warm-up shirts!

TLC Charter Chatter

Your Weekly Newsletter for the Tracy Learning Center

Monthly Archives: August 2019

TLC Charter Chatter

TLC Charter Chatter

A weekly newsletter written to parents of the TLC

Virginia Stewart

Aug. 16, 2019

Lunch Menu for this week…. YUM!

New

Lunch Debts

TK

Initial Phase

Phase One:

Phase Two:

Discovery Middle School 5-6

Discovery Middle School 7-8

Millennium High School

DCS and MHS Back to School Nights

TLC Cruise Fundraiser!!

Image

Welcome Back! TLC Charter Chatter

A weekly newsletter for parents and students of TLC

Facilities

Tracy Learning Center Preschool

TK

Phase One:

Phase Two:

Discovery Middle School 5-6

Discovery Middle School 7-8

Millennium High School