Monthly Archives: November 2014

Thank you to all of the schools that participated this year in the annual National PTA Reflections Art Contest.  The Art Show was a great success with parents and students coming to view their art.  With the exception of the art moving on to the next level, the art will be returned to their schools after Thanksgiving break.

The pieces that were selected to move forward will be sent to Ninth District PTA at the San Diego County Office of Ed.  Once there, they will be judged and any pieces moving forward to receive awards will be kept until the Ninth District PTA’s Arts Reception Evening on March  13, 2015.  Any pieces not qualifying for special mention will be returned by the end of January.

Please join me in congratulating the following winners in Cajon Valley!

Dance Choreography

Alexi Grabia  Hillsdale Middle School

Alexis Moua  Flying Hills Elementary

Literature

Jack Gavin  Flying Hills Elementary

Aurora Wendall

Hillsdale Middle School

Saige Wilbur  Flying HIlls Elementary

Jaklyn Everett

Flying Hills Elementary

Photography

Owen Costello  Chase Elementary

Benjamin Miller

Flying Hills Elementary

Judith Sperry  Hillsdale Middle

Madison Shephard

Flying HIlls Elementary

Cesar Oros  Avocado Elementary

Visual Arts

Soleil JaQuay  Avocado Elementary

Peyton Beers  Avocado Elementary

Trent Contreras

Los Coches Creek Middle

Rita Aflleje  Los Coches Creek Middle

Alya Maestas  Hillsdale Middle

Sophia LaRosh  Flying HIlls Elementary

James Smith  Montgomery Middle

Clarissa Rodriguez

Los Coches Creek Middle

Vanessa Nunez  Los Coches Creek Middle

Regina Acosta

Avocado Elementary

Ashley Petros  Los Coches Creek Middle

Ashley Feil  Blossom Valley Elementary

Samantha Arnold

Los Coches Creek Middle

Leela Whatley  Los Coches Creek Middle

If these students are your schools, please share our congratulations!  

Thank you to all of the schools who encouraged their students to participate.  It is a personal highlight of my year to see our students so engaged in self expression.

Tamara Otero, PTA Reflections Chair

CVUSD Governing Board President

Meridian Elementary School Extended Day Program partnered with the University of California, San Diego’s Math program to provide an after school Math and Science Club!  Each Monday and Wednesday afternoon Dr. Daniel Bajic along with Anthony Bajic and the UCSD math students worked with over 70 students in the area of math and science.  The students loved the small group math tutoring and hands on science experiments.  The students also developed their public speaking skills and participated in a speech contest.  A huge thank you to the UCSD students, Professor Bajic, Mr. Tony, Renell Nailon, and Pastor Rolland Slade for this wonderful opportunity!

Junior Achievement, in collaboration with volunteers from local businesses and universities, provided guest teachers for every classroom at W.D. Hall on Friday, November 14, 2015.Students were introduced to fundamental principles of economics and the relevance of education in the workplace through relatable stories and activities.  Students had a great time with their guest teachers and it was a pleasure to work with community partners.  Thank you JA and volunteers!

Colleen Newman, Principal

W.D. Hall Elementary School

Engineers in Kindergarten !

For three and a half years Madison has been striving to remake itself as a “21st Century School”.  For us, being a “modern school” means keeping your feet firmly planted in two worlds:  the world of providing a quality education to all students focused on “the three Rs” of “Reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic” and the world of engaging students’ interests and igniting their passions for learning using technology and innovative teaching strategies.  The need for both a solid foundation and a framework for future learning and global citizenship has helped Madison teachers embrace Project/Problem-Based Learning and the Next Generation Science Standards.  This fall our Kindergarten students have been working on meeting this Next Gen Science standard:  Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.  Our kindergarteners are engineers!

The Kindergarten Team and Principal, Christine Sphar

Madison Elementary School

Images from our last parent workshop at Anza.  We had parents come in for 2 and a half hours to learn about the technology and programs their children were using at Anza in the classroom and how they can expand it to home. Parents also were able to go into classrooms to see the blended learning with the use of technology in progress.  They finished up the session by making posters for other parents in Arabic.  Parents loved it!

Cindy Knight

Principal Anza Elementary

(619)588-3116

Twenty five districts that are changing the trajectory by working on blended, personalized and competency-based learning. They are big and small, from urban and rural, east and west-representative of the American education challenge.

Guess who made the list?

Click here to see where CVUSD Landed…

Director Spencer Caldwell and the Hillsdale Middle School Symphonic Band had the distinct privilege of playing before the El Cajon City Council, distinguished officials, and the Veterans of El Cajon.  Thank you Principal Marietta Minjares, Director Spencer Caldwell, and students for representing the Cajon Valley Union School District in this important event… And thank you Veterans for your service!

Seems that everything is under construction at Lexington these days. The staff suited up in construction gear in solidarity of all of the changes going on at school.  Classrooms were all a buzz with Halloween activities.  Pumpkins were the focus in several classrooms to integrate Math, Science, Reading and Writing. Lexington is excited about the new writing program being implementing this year. Lexington Authors are finding out that they really like to write.  Happy Halloween from Lexington.

Our Magnolia 5th graders participated in Spinzilla, an international spinning competition. The National Needlearts Association monster of a spinning event, was held October 6th through the 12th, 2014. The overall goal was to spin as much yarn as possible in a week, the second main goal was to spin a mile of yarn. Our event was sponsored by The San Diego County Spinners who provided mentors, The National Needlearts Mentoring Program who provided 140 CD spindles with a half ounce of fiber each, Abstract Fiber who provided colored fiber for our students to spin, Liz Miller who provided more spinning fiber and prizes for our top spinners. (This was a competition after all.)
After a month of research and preparation, we kicked off our week long event with the San Diego County Spinners Spinzilla Team, as they visited Magnolia to teach us how to spin. Our SDCS mentors helped us to become “makers”. We tried, we learned a new skill, we persevered, and were successful in making yarn. We also learned how to use yarn by creating a “Kumihimo”, a Japanese braiding technique used by the Samurai. Several of the SDCS team members continued to return to school during that week, to help ply and measure our yarn.
Here are our results:
Total class yards spun – Kelley 1225 yards 31 inches
1st place with bragging rights! – Plack 1063 yards 33 inches
Leon 565 yards 9 inches
O’Hara 111 yards
School total to report to Spinzilla was 2966 yards 1 inch
We met our goal of spinning more than a MILE!

Top Spinners:
Emily from Kelley 1st place with 476 yards spun
Allison from Leon 2nd place with 252 yards spun

Class winners:
Chaise from Plack with 209 yards and 21 inches spun
Lynda from Kelley with 69 yards spun
Yousif and Maryna from Leon with 30 yards spun and
Morgan from O’Hara with 22 yards 9 inches spun

We want to thank all of our sponsors for helping us to try something new, and be successful. Many of our students are still spinning. Next up on the agenda? Learning to weave with our yarn!

Dinese Kelley, Yvonne Leon,Celine O’Hara and
Susan Plack – Captain of the San Diego County Spinners Spinzilla Team

Password Management

Project Based Learning in a Blended Learning Classroom

Using Data in a Blended Learning Classroom