Winter Break

We hope all of our students and families have a relaxing and fulfilling winter break. Students have three weeks off, and return on Monday, January 9^th.

Sex Ed

We will be beginning our annual sex-ed lessons in advisory in January. This year we are doing opt-out forms instead of permission slips. If you would not like your child to participate, please either complete an opt-out form we will give to students the week we return, or reach out to your counselor.

ACT Prep

Juniors and Sophomores – we are offering a greatly discounted ACT prep course after school this semester. The course runs for 2 hours twice per week during February and March, and will prep students for the April ACT course. Register with Brittany when we return from break!

Spring Musical!

“Hey Da Vinci Students! Next year’s spring musical is going to be… GREASE!!! Auditions will be the first week that we come back after the winter break. If you are interested, text @dvgrease to 81010. We’ll send you all the info there. Hope you can join!”

Congratulations to all students on their POLs this past week! We were so impressed by students’ preparation and performances – first time pass rates and overall scores were significantly higher across the school, showing the hard work students put into their presentations.

Tomorrow is the last day of the semester. We will be running a minimum day schedule as follows:

Congratulations on POLs so far!

Students have been impressing their teachers this year with POLs across all grade levels! I had the chance to be on the senior POL panel for the first half of the presentations, and I am so proud of our seniors’ presentations – you are confidence and capable presenters (besides really showing off your in depth content knowledge), and have grown so much these past three and a half years!

Teacher and Staff Appreciation Lunch: Tuesday 12/13!

Parents: Mrs. Hudshon (11^th grade parent) has generously offered to organize a lunch for teachers and staff this coming Tuesday at 12:00pm. If you would like to contribute any food or help out, please email Mrs. Hudshon at mrshudshon@aol.com.

Thank you to all our parents for raising such great children, and for your support here at school!

Final Week’s Schedule

Next week is the last week of the semester. We will be running POL schedules on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then we will start at 9am on Thursday for a minimum day schedule where students go to all classes.

Most students will have finished their POLs by next week, so we have different lesson plans for each grade level to make these days valuable for everyone. Here is a preview of the topics covered:

Project Pitch Panel – An Invitation

Parents – do you work in an industry that will one day employ our future DVC graduates? I want to invite you to help shape Da Vinci curriculum at our Project Pitch Panel on Wednesday, January 4th from 9am-12pm.  At this event, teachers will present their project ideas to industry professionals and seek advice on real world connections, student engagement, software, and a range of other topics.  You will be able to interface with innovative Da Vinci teachers and other industry partners.

It really takes a community to make sure school is relevant – your critiques, suggestions, and creativity will be incredibly helpful to ensure the delivery of real-world curriculum.  Help shape the future workforce and inspire teachers!

Please pass along the invitation to others and bring members of your team.  RSVP to Natasha Morse at nmorse@davincischools.org if you would like to attend and see the attached flyer for more information.

Yearbooks!

Parents, relatives, and friends:

Soon it will be time for graduation. The DVC yearbook is your chance to show that special student how much you care by personalizing his or her book in a very special way.

Full-color yearbook recognitions come in many forms and are one of the most popular sections of the yearbook.

Celebrate a graduating senior, a special achievement, or a group of friends!

Purchase yours today at the following link:

https://yearbookforever.com/#school/360495/2017

A reminder that breakfast with the counselors will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 12/06 at 8:15am, classroom TBD – you can check in the office for directions to the room day off. Prepare your queries accordingly friends!

Family Events This Evening, Thursday 12/1

Families – reminded that we have a bunch of great presentations this evening for families and students! Come on by for any of these talks to learn more:

4:30pm: Da Vinci Honors science presentations! Come see DVC students present their honors chemistry and physics work, joined by DVD and DVS students as well. Laura’s room 104.

5:15pm: Nathan’s updates, including the new campus, college course offerings and seminars for spring semester and more. Eynon’s room 101.

5:30pm: DVX update from Kim Merritt, director of DVX (targeted toward, but all are welcome). Dr. Weatherford’s room 108.

5:45pm: UCLA psychology clinic presents insight and tips for how to deal with test anxiety and how to prepare – this will be great advice for POLs as well! Eynon’s room 101.

TEDx – Tuesday 12/6, 10:00am to 12:00pm

Families – our ninth grade students have been hard at work researching, writing and presenting original TED talks these past weeks. This coming Tuesday, December 6^th from 10:00am to 12:00pm come see these TEDx talks live on the DVC campus!