Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter
October 2023
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families
Dear Lincoln Cluster families and community,
Well, can you believe it! We have been in school for 11 weeks! Our teachers continue to plan rigorous and relevant lessons for our students each day. Our students are engaged not only in academics, but also school life. It is important that students are engaged not only in their classes, but also in extra-curricular activities such as sports, intramurals, student clubs, and tutoring support. As a district, we promote the culture of belonging, inclusion, and access. Our principals work tirelessly every day to ensure that our students have the opportunities to grow and develop into thoughtful productive citizens. For example, our secondary schools offer College Career and Technical Education (CCTE) pathways to promote opportunities with a variety of pathways such as BioTech and Engineering, Medical and Emergency Services and Communication Technology. These pathways allow our students to grow and become interested in possible future careers while learning skills that include critical and creative thinking, problem identifying and problem solving, and interpersonal capabilities. We encourage you to learn more about our schools by reaching out to our principals or by visiting our schools’ websites.
Thank you for continuing to be our partners in education.
With much gratitude,
Michelle Irwin
Steven Dorsey
Erin Richison
Area Superintendents for the Lincoln Cluster of Schools
Lincoln High School
Lincoln High School
“October has been an exciting month for Lincoln High School. We started our parent/guardian meetings with a listening circle where parents shared their hopes for the school year and topics they would like to learn about to better support their students. At future meetings we will pair a learning topic chosen by parents with a fun activity to build community. Our hopes for these meetings are to support our families and provide opportunities for them to get involved.
The San Diego Wave Football Club took time out of their playoff preparation to visit our players. Staff members shared their jobs at the Wave and gave students an opportunity to learn about career pathways in sports beyond being an athlete or trainer. Wave players also shared their journeys to becoming professional athletes, how they deal with adversity, their motivations, and more.
Shoutout to the Lincoln Stingers, our robotics team, for placing 3rd in the FIRST Robotics competition. Our Stingers have worked hard designing, testing, and adjusting their creations to be competition ready. This team is a passionate, dedicated, and creative group of students who support one another. They are an example of the many opportunities our students have on campus to explore their creativity and push their limits.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate our Varsity Girls Volleyball Team for going undefeated (8-0) in the SDCC City League and an overall record of 26-4. This is said to be our FIRST League title for Girls Volleyball! We are also excited to announce the Varsity Football program has also gone undefeated (4-0) in the SDCC Western league with an overall record of 10-0 for the season. Best of luck to both our teams in their playoff journeys!
Our next Food Drive will be on Friday, November 17 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
October was a great month at Knox. We had the opportunity to celebrate our students for their success in grading period 1. Students received certificates for GPA, Citizenship and Perfect Attendance at our p1 ASB Pep Rally. The new Knox Cheer team and our Ballet Folklorico students performed at the Pep Rally. Our 6th grade students completed their swim lessons at the YMCA. Fifth grade students from all of our Knox feeder schools visited for tours (Baker, Balboa, Nye, Valencia Park, Porter, and Chavez). Our Knox Advisory classes built our first ever Knox Ofrenda, and it's amazing. Knox was also ranked 4th in attendance for the entire Lincoln Cluster. During Saturday School our students took a trip to MTM's Earth Lab, and students got trained to help the Golden State Service Dogs. We look forward to many more continued fun events and success during the month of November! Please see the pictures above for some of October's highlights.
Please also follow us on Instagram:
@knox_middle
Knox Teachers Engage In Professional Learning: Marzano Level 4 Standards-based Grading
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?
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
"It was another awesome week at MTM. Over 40 students have helped create an amazing mural for our 3000 building. Meanwhile, 6th grade students conducted water PH tests, then designed and engineered water filters with teachers like the radical Ms. Kyra. After, they used college level skills to write stories, and draft STEAM based-solutions incorporating game design, literacy, and hands-on Earthlab science. Our favorite part was the Water Drop Comic-strips" we got to draw using all the science we learned. ASB got the party rolling with Boo Grams and Spirit Week. Kids wore pajamas on Monday, Halloween costumes on Tuesday, and there is still three days to go. The Minga Party had terrific ice-cream while some kids played volleyball. Kids made cheesy quesadillas in culinary class and 6th graders reverse engineered salsa. Students in the ELD classes trick-or-treated and they told us that they loved stopping by classes to see teachers like the one-of-a-kind Ms. Welch. She dressed like Cat In the Hat and she was super chic. Other kids in Ms. Selmon's class chatted with friends in Paris, Mumbai, and Barcelona in the Global Scholars program. On Halloween, Mr. Smith tried to dress up super scary, but none of the newspaper staff were scared (we heard some kids shrieked). Great outfit, Mr. Smith!
At MTM, even after school is fun. Over 12 students have joined our own newspaper team, and dozens more have been swimming during wheel with Ms. Hillard at the YMCA. We even have a skateboard building club where kids build and then learn tricks on their skateboards. 7th and 8th graders just got back from leadership camp up in the mountains of Idylwild. The MTM basketball team is fuego, and kids play soccer before school and on their lunch. We think its pretty cool that more than 30 kids are coming to Mr. Courtney's homework club, and their grades are soaring. We heard the world-famous Henry in collaboration with the world-famous Mr. Berman is making a teacher music video. But you didn't hear that from us...
MTM is simply the best.
From, The Millenial Tech Howl Newpaper Team"
MTM is the best middle school in the world."
Horton Elementary School
Horton Elem. -
October has been a month filled with school spirit and student leadership!
Horton’s Safety Patrol is in full service. 5th grade students work every morning and afternoon to ensure that Horton’s students are safe coming to and going from school.
The School Safety Patrol members’ job is to cross children and adults safely in front of the school. They are selected, trained, and supervised on an ongoing basis by Juvenile Services Team Officers of the San Diego Police Department, and supervised by Horton staff members Mr. Neil and Mr. Jimenez.. Their jobs include:
Control pedestrian traffic
Control vehicle traffic
Watch and report traffic violations
They also raise and lower the flag daily.
We also have our 4th grade student leaders who lead the Pledge of Allegiance and our newly created Horton Hawk mantra (thank you Mr. Matthews for authoring our school pride mantra!). Each morning, Horton students assemble on the playground for a morning assembly where our 4th grade students lead the school in saying the Pledge of Allegiance and the Horton Hawk mantra. We’re very proud of all our student leaders who are role models for our younger students.
Horton held its first Fall Festival since the pandemic shutdown on October 25th. Over 350 families and students came to spend a fun-filled afternoon playing games, eating, making crafts, and interacting with community partners. It was a great afternoon of community building.
We also held a Red Ribbon Spirit week 10/30-11/3 with dress up spirit days- classrooms competed for spirit points. On Tuesday October 31st held its Storybook Character and Superhero Dress Up day, where Horton students showed off their costumes in a parade.
Valencia Park Elementary
Valencia Park Elem.
Baker Elementary School
Baker Elem.
BAKER ELEMENTARY!
OVERFLOWING WITH CELEBRATIONS!
Hats off to Baker Parents who created a wide array of beautiful ways for us all to celebrate our culture and community. Our AMAZING Parent leader, Ms. Maria Beltran was selected as a Distinguished District Volunteer of the Year with the announcement happening at our annual Fall Parade! Our parents also ENGAGED our whole school in celebrating Hispanic/Latinx Cultural Heritage. We had a door decorating contest and hand-made posters that helped us learn about many different an amazing Hispanic Heroes. We had a Culture Day where our students each received a passport and “visited” all of the countries where the Spanish Language is spoken. We had a Dance Folklorico Group whose members included our own students and the children of some of our staff members. We celebrated healthy habits and we celebrated the LGBTQ+ community. The grand finale was the gift that ten of our parents provided by decorating their cars for Trunk-Or-Treat! We aligned all of these activities with our Wellness Goals and students shared that it was the most fun they have ever had! We are ending the month with a tribute to all of the people in our lives who have passed, and yet need to be remembered. Our beautiful Dia De Los Muertos Alter increases the love in our community by allowing and encouraging us to share our stories and our histories! Hats off to Baker Parents for being a POWERFUL POSITIVE FORCE in our school community!
Chollas-Mead Elementary School
Chollas-Mead Elem.
Johnson Elementary School
Johnson Elem.
Red Ribbon Week’s theme this year was “Be Kind to Your Mind!”
One of the ways we do this is to learn about and from role models who show leadership qualities and to follow the Habits of Highly Effective Kids!
Working together (Synergy), Beginning with the End in Mind (Having a Plan) and Sharpening the Saw (Balance work and play) are just three ways our school practices being kind to our minds!
Other ways parents and staff worked together this month was to put together activities for the Fall Festival and to have the Book Fair open during Red Ribbon Week.
Having brand new books to read is being kind to our minds and the Fall Festival was a blast!
Our school community will continue to use our leadership skills because that’s what Johnson Tigers and the adults who support them do!!
Webster Elementary School
Webster Elem.
Encanto Elementary School
Encanto Elem
ENCANTO ELEMENTARY families, staff and community partners came together for food fun and festivities at our annual Fall Festival this past week.
Students wore costumes, had their faces painted, played games, and enjoyed food and treats with family and friends.
Students and families engaged in STEAM activities with our middle school MTM and the EarthLab at MTM.
Our community partners at the Elementary Institute of Science brought engaging science activities.
While our DEEP partners provided free books to all and the Malcolm X library prepared them to check out their books and join various events at the library.
Multiple healthcare providers were on site to give much needed information and resources to families.
It was a day filled with laughter, love and lots of fun!