Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter
December 2023
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families
Dear Lincoln Cluster Families and Community,
I hope this letter finds you well as we approach the holiday season. In the spirit of promoting mental wellness, we wanted to take a moment to address the importance of prioritizing mental health during this time of year.
The holiday season is often associated with joy, celebration, and togetherness however, for many individuals, it can also be a challenging and emotionally demanding period. The pressures of social expectations, financial strain, and increased family obligations can contribute to heightened stress levels and, in some cases, exacerbate existing health concerns.
SDUSD is committed to the well-being of our students, families and communities, and we want to emphasize the significance of self-care during this time. Here are a few ideas that may contribute to fostering a mentally healthy holiday season:
Encourage Open Communication: Create an environment where children feel comfortable discussing their feelings and concerns. Open communication helps reduce stigma and fosters a sense of community.
Inclusive Celebrations: Be mindful of diverse cultural and religious practices within your community. Consider inclusive holiday celebrations that respect and honor different traditions, fostering a sense of belonging for all.
Community Engagement: Organize community service activities or charitable events, allowing children to come together for a common cause. Acts of kindness can have a positive impact on mental well-being.
Remember, small gestures and a supportive environment can make a significant difference in promoting mental wellness. Wishing you and your family a joyful and healthy holiday season.
Michelle Irwin, Steven Dorsey, Erin Richison
Area Superintendents for Lincoln Cluster of Schools
Lincoln High School
Lincoln
“For the month of November, our counseling team and partner organizations (UCSD TRIO, WAHUPA Upward Bound, Reality Changers) have been hard at work helping our students prepare strong applications for the CSU/UC November application deadline. The process can be overwhelming, and our team assists students months in advance to review which universities and pathways would fit their needs, identify stories they can use in their application’s Personal Insight Questions, and provide reassurance they have the support. Pictured is a group of seniors given a space to fill out their applications while being allowed to ask counselors for support. Next up is the FAFSA application!
We have the privilege of partnering with Feeding San Diego to host Food Drives for our community at least once a month. At these food drives, our student and community volunteers sort and package fresh produce and shelf stable goods for all to enjoy. Families who receive food are grateful for the support especially considering the rising costs. The last food drive provided food to families just before the Thanksgiving break. Pictured are our Lady Hornets soccer team just before the distribution began.
We are in year four out of five of implementing our Small Learning Communities at Lincoln. In ninth grade, students explore their skills, traits, and interests and decide which pathway (Engineering & Design, Health Sciences, or Media Arts & Entertainment) at Lincoln would be best for them. Pathways allow students to learn in a family environment and connect with professionals and mentors in the career fields they are considering. Pictured is a student and staff lead presentation of our Small Learning Communities to our ninth graders who will decide which Small Learning Community they will join in tenth grade. We will also host parent information session so families can decide which small school is best.
We will have two Feeding San Diego Food Drives on Friday, December 8th and 15th from 4:00pm until the food is gone. Get more news and pictures through Lincoln High School Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn”
Knox Middle School
Knox Middle
Take a moment to watch the turkey drive video linked above and to read more in our monthly newsletter linked here
November at Knox was incredible. Mr. Ponsford organized our annual turkey drive in conjunction with The Positive Movement and Wheelhouse Credit Union. Please take moment to view the video above.
Many of our 8th grade students had the chance to attend Camp LEAD for 3 days in Idyllwild. Students participated in team building and nature activities. Thank you to Ms. Loucks, Ms. Lemieux, Ms. Arrighi and Mr. Garcia for chaperoning our students.
Please see below for some more of our awesome activities from November at Knox.
Follow us on Instagram:
@knox_middle
Teacher Professional Learning:
Knox Teachers and Counselors are working as Action Research Teams to study Standards-based Grading Topics. This work is part of our journey to become a Marzano Level 4 Certified School. Through their combined efforts, they are researching 1 of these 4 topics.
- How can teachers assess student learning and provide strategic real-time feedback through the use of RVF* assessments, rubrics and other measures aligned to the scales?
- How can we involve students in tracking their learning and setting goals in relation to the proficiency scales?
- How can we support access to the proficiency scales at the student level (iep, vocab)?
- How can we support access to the proficiency scales for families?
This month our Certificated staff all completed an initial task to move their Action Research Project along. In December, teams will present to each other with the intent of finding successful strategies that answer the 4 questions above. The Knox team loves learning from each other and alongside each other.
Knox is the only school in SDUSD that is certified as a High Reliability Level 1,2, and 3 school.
Millennial Tech Middle School
MTM
Our wonderful Senior Editor of the MTM HOWL Newspaper must leave us for a while. She gave us the following parting reasons why she is going to miss MTM.
5 Reasons I Love MTM
By Autumn Jackson
Hi, my name is Autumn Jackson. And I am leaving MTM very soon because my mother serves in the US Navy. I will miss this school a lot. I am going to tell you 5 of the top reasons why I am going to miss MTM.
#5. The teachers. The reason I love these teachers is because they are nice and they help you with a lot of things, everything from homework to personal issues.
#4 The people: The people here are really nice. You could make so many friends. At MTM.
#3:The field trips. So far the field trips have been very fun and so far the school has been an educational rollercoaster, in a good way!
#2:The classrooms: The classrooms are very decorative and they make you feel excited to learn.
#1: MTM Staff isn’t as strict as other schools. At MTM the teachers are very fun and friendly and they will make you excited to come to school, like me.
Porter Elementary School
Porter Elem
Hello Lincoln Cluster families!
Happy Holidays to you and your families! At Porter we have been continuing to focus on improving chronic attendance and providing engaging experiences for kids.
Students in grades K-2 have been participating in a soccer league hosted by AthLead. Our amazing teachers are coaching our students, and have been having a great time!
We are also focused on providing additional extracurricular opportunities and social emotional learning to focus on the whole student. Ms. Christina Abuelo, from Maria’s Pantry, has been working extremely hard in raising funds for Porter’s sustainability efforts. We are in the early stages of renovating the common area on our South Campus to plant fruits and vegetables. On our North Campus the planter boxes and community area behind the front office have also been renovated to grow plants and vegetables.
Our students accepted a challenge from Principal Anthony that from November 13th through November 17th our attendance rate had to be above 91%. If our school was able to do this, members of the student body would slime Mr. Anthony. On November 27th Porter students learned that they succeeded in meeting this goal! Our entire student body and staff had an assembly to celebrate this accomplishment and slime Mr. Anthony!
Lastly, we are committed to creating strong relationships within our community to best support our students. Beginning in January we will hold “Porter Community Connect Meetings” on the last Tuesday of every month. These will be held virtually. We have created our own Instagram page to keep our community informed of all the amazing things happening at Porter! Please follow us at @porterelemschool. If you would like to collaborate with our team at Porter feel free to reach out to us!
Thank you for all of your support! Go Panthers!
Valencia Park Elementary
Valencia Park
Valencia Park students have been busy setting goals, and also having some fun! Check out these fun updates from November.
Baker Elementary School
Baker Elem.
Parents Learn About Connections between Social Emotional Learning, Positive Behavior, and Academic Achievement!
Grade-by-Grade, Baker Parents are learning the value of social emotional learning both in school and at home. Baker has adopted the Second Step Curriculum and is implementing it school wide. Every week a different grade level attends Workshop Wednesday, where parents learn side-by-side with their own child. Watch this video to learn What SEL is and Why it is important: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPwzFiuR1m8.
Watch this video to see the impact positive SEL has on Children and their communities:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU7s2FGgFQQ. Watch this video to see how Baker Second Graders show respect: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D0uWuZ-9aaBySOnzeM0EspyTnRbgJtux/view. Parents are Baker’s true partners in helping all of our students thrive at school and we appreciate their active and enthusiastic participation!
Go Bobcats! Go Baker!
Chollas-Mead Elementary School
Chollas-Mead Elem.
This month at Chollas Mead we are focused on maintaining our attendance rate through the holiday season by filling each week with activities and events that students, families, and staff won’t want to miss! One of those events was the USPS Operation Santa where our 2nd grade students wrote letters to Santa – we had several news stations come to check it out in action. Many parents have been on campus volunteering with various projects and participated in the creation of a “Leader in Me 7 Habits” mural which has really changed the look of the Chollas campus and the kids LOVE it.
Johnson Elementary School
Johnson Elem.
Students build complex airplane systems to test after they built them.
The students were able to deepens their knowledge about the subject while having fun!
We thank Collins Aerospace and look forward to the next event to learn more about how STEAM topics apply in the real world!
Encanto Elementary School
Encanto Elem.
November Happenings at Encanto
5th grade Student Led Conferences:
We are so proud of our 5th grade students for preparing for and leading their own Parent Conferences for Trimester 1 at Encanto. After completing their presentations, students reflected on the experience. In the words of two students:
Brody
“For my parent-Teacher conference I had to present a slideshow, work samples and test scores of my progress. First, I got a few work samples that I was happy with and took pictures of my samples for my presentation. Some topics that I talked about were my math and reading progress and the things I learned in music class and VAPA. The day of my conference my parents watched me present with the help of my teacher. At the end of my conference, we set goals and my parents shared things they’re proud of me for.”
Mya
“ for my teacher parent conference, I had a slideshow to present my progress to my parents. First, I got some work samples that I was proud of, and then I thought of goals I have for ACHIEVE3000 and STMath. The first part of my conference I was a little nervous, but I started feeling proud about my work. I learned about creating a presentation by myself. Another thing I learned from this experience is how to explain my work to other people.”
Honor Roll 3rd-5th Grade:
Our 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students celebrated their hard work and achievements at our trimester 1 Honor Roll Assembly. Students earned 187 awards for Most Improved in English Language Arts and Mathematics; Proficiency in English Language Arts or Mathematics; Honor Roll for Proficiency in both. In addition, we honored our 4th and 5th grade students for achievement on the 2022-23 state test for English Language Arts and Mathematics.
Perfect Attendance for Trimester 1:
Both students and families were honored for Perfect Attendance for Trimester 1. Each family received a certificate alongside their student. Families joined students on stage for a round of applause and appreciation. We have 75 studentson track for Perfect Attendance for the year!
4th and 5th graders Attend the San Diego Opera
Our 4th grade teacher, Mrs. hernandez, ensures students have access to the arts by researching and securing free field trips for students throughout the year. Once again she made it possible for 50 students to attend the opera where they saw the amazing “El Milagro del Recuerdo (The Miracle of Remembering)” sung in Spanish. This new mariachi opera lovingly explores family traditions in the face of life-changing decisions and dreams of something more.