We are looking for parents/guardians and community members to participate in mock job interviews with 11th grade students from 12/14 – 12/21 on campus. Please click here to sign up and see the message below from our English 11 teacher, Mr. Oliver!
***
This year’s English 11 POL will be small group job interviews where students will respond to two personal inquiry questions they’ve been writing over the past few weeks. To make the interviews more realistic, I am recruiting two adults to join me in the interview process. Your presence is most important, but if you can also provide some feedback, that would be great! I will have some simple forms where you can leave a comment for the student. To clarify, you would attend an interview for a group of students that doesn’t include your child.
Each POL day consists of roughly three hour-and-a-half long segments, as seen on the sign-up below.
What an exciting week! Exhibition, boat races, field trips, Alumni Day, CD, paint day – so much great stuff happening at Design this week. Truly feeling so grateful to be part of a learning community that does so much to bring the learning outside of the classroom.
Today, we held an all-day event at DVD: Community Paint Day! Community Paint Day at DVD is the culmination of a partnership with Arts Bridging the Gap and the DVD Diversity Council. The day was be centered around painting a 10’x10′ mural designed in collaboration with DVD’s Diversity Council students, and resident artists/muralists Noah and Georgia, who met over eight sessions do discuss themes of diversity and inclusion which would be the basis of the mural. The day started with a schoolwide community dialogue assembly in the gym hosted by the DVD Diversity Council. Then, students from all grade levels spent the rest of the day in the BlackBox theater space painting the mural under the guidance of our resident muralists. And, a representative from Hart House stopped by to provide gift cards to recognize students working on the mural. It was a great day full of celebration and community, and a great way to send our students off to the holiday break! See pictures below!
The first day of school after the break will be Monday, November 27th – here is the Week 15 bell schedule:
THANK YOU PARENTS AND FAMILIES!
We want extend a BIG THANK YOU to all of the DVD families who made contributions to our DVD staff gratitude baskets; thanks to all of you for donating time, treats, and messages of gratitude to our staff to help send them off on a much deserved break with a little something to let them know how appreciated they are. We love our DVD families! And, we wish all of you a restful, safe, and fun holiday break!
DV Schools Blood Drive on November 29th:
The UCLA Blood and Platelet Center will be coming onto our 201 N. Douglas campus on Wednesday, November 29th from 9am-2pm in the Black Box. Students will be called out of class to donate blood if they are registered and have proper consent forms. See the flyer below for more details, including a QR code where students can register.
Upcoming Events and Key Dates:
Nov. 20th – Nov. 24th: NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Holiday Break
Wednesday, November 29th: DV Schools + UCLA Health Blood Drive
Friday, December 1st: Progress Reports Mailed Home
Thursday, Dec. 14th – Thursday, Dec. 21st: Presentations of Learning (POLs) – MINIMUM DAYS
Early release of students at 1:45pm each day
*Special start on Friday, Friday Dec. 15th at 8:40am*
Thursday, Dec. 21st: Last Day of Semester One
Week 14 Highlight: Community Dialogue and Paint Day Hosted By Diversity Council
This week was full of seasonal fun – from spooky lab experiments in Chemistry class to ofrenda building in Spanish class. Our students really had something each day to look forward to this past week at DVD. And, it was so much fun having our annual Halloween costume contest during lunch on Tuesday! Shout out to our winners – see a few photos below!
This week, also had our November edition of “Coffee with Admin”, where parents/guardians can meet with the admin team at DVD to hear updates and ask questions about all things DVD. Our agenda for this month’s edition was 1) Campus Updates & Highlights, 2) Upcoming Calendar Events, 3) Tardy and Absence Updates, 4) Red Ribbon Week: Key Resources, 5) Q&A. If you were not able to attend but would like to see a few campus, you can click here to find the slides from our November Coffee with Admin. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, December 6th.
See the Bell Schedule for Week 12 here, as well key dates and events below:
Upcoming Dates and Events:
Thursday, 11/9: NO SCHOOL – STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Friday, 11/10: NO SCHOOL – Veteran’s Day Holiday
Tuesday, 11/14: 12th and 10th Grade Exhibition Night
10th Grade: 3pm-5pm
12th Grade: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Friday, 11/17: Diversity Council Community Dialogue & Community Paint Day
11/20-11/24: NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Holiday Break
This week at Da Vinci Schools, we celebrated Red Ribbon Week. There were several events on campus to bring awareness to and share resources about drug prevention awareness and health. The theme was “Be Kind To Your Mind”. Especially with Halloween around the corner, we ask all of our students to be safe and make good choices as they engage in holiday festivities and social gatherings. If you would like to review any of the resources shared, please click here.
We are excited to celebrate Halloween on our campus next week with a special dress up spirit day on Tuesday! Please help remind all students that while costumes are encouraged, students are not allowed to bring prop weapons, full face masks, or excessive gore/blood. All costumes must be school appropriate, and students not in costume must adhere to dress code. We will be having a costume contest at lunch in the outdoor quad for the most creative costumes!
Here is the bell schedule for Week 12 at Da Vinci Design:
Please join us in giving a big DVD welcome to Vannessa Ramos, our new Administrative Services Manager! Ms. Ramos started with us this week as part of our front office team. Parents/Guardians: there is a good chance that when you call DVD, it will be Ms. Ramos you are speaking to – so please say “hello” and make her feel welcome at our school.
From now on, please email Vannessa Ramos at vramos@davincischools.org for anything related to: excusing absences, excusing tardies, records requests, withdrawing students, or verification of education forms. She will be happy help!
Ms. Brianna Castaneda, formerly in this front office role, is staying with the DVD family and transitioning to her new role as Intervention Specialist in student support services.
One additional note: thank you to all of you who have completed the biannual family survey via Kelvin! We moved to a new platform this year, so please double-check your spam/junk folders, to make sure that you do not miss out on this important feedback opportunity. Your positive feedback helps us stay competitive amongst the best schools in Los Angeles and California! And, your honest constructive feedback helps us grow.
Thank you families and have a great rest of your week!
Next week, it is SLC week at Da Vinci Design – and we are excited to have you on campus with us! SLCs are an important time when parents and teachers come together for a meeting led by the student. It is a time to highlight a student’s strengths and hard work, to encourage students to set new goals, and to ask guiding questions so students can take ownership of their learning. Every student and parent is expected to participate in leading an SLC this semester. SLCs will happen in-person.See below for SLC schedules and details.
Next week we are also celebrating Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month at Da Vinci Design with events hosted by our Latinx Student Union. We will have a spirit week where students can express and embrace pride in Latinx culture all week long. And, we will end the week with a Community Dialogue assembly (aka: “CD”) CD celebrating Latinx culture.
It is time for our biannual family and student surveys! Today, you should have received an email from a survey app called Kelvin. This is not spam! Please follow the prompt to complete an online survey from Kelvin to share your feedback on Da Vinci Design. We appreciate your time and your feedback!
Student Led Conferences (SLCs): Grade Level Resources
Next week, it’s Spirit Week! In honor of our first dance of the school year, the Phantom Formal, we are having special dress days all next week to build the hype. Tickets for the dance are $25, and are available on MySchoolBucks. Click here for the link to purchase tickets to the DV Fall dance: Phantom Formal! Sign in using your PowerSchool login information.
We are looking forward to a short but packed week! We are preparing for the PSAT Test Day on Thursday, 10/12. Friday there is no school due to staff professional development.
We are also getting ready for Student Led Conferences (aka: SLCs) the following week (10/16-10/19)! Every student is expected to participate in an SLC presentation with a family member and a teacher. SLCs will happen on campus unless a Zoom meeting is requested. See below for SLC schedules and details.
Flu season is here! Our school health team, Dr. Green and Nurse T, want to remind you how to keep your child and others healthy. See the letter to families linked here and above. The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and lungs. If your child is diagnosed with Influenza, please let your school health team know as we track clusters and outbreaks. All COVID cases must be reported to the school health team. To reach our Director of Health Services, email Dr. Emily Green at egreen@davincischools.org with questions or health updates regarding your child.
Lastly, thank you to all of our parents who joined us for our Coffee with Admin session on Wednesday, October 4th! You can find the slides of what we covered here:
For this session, we will focus on positive school culture initiatives, and also on academic supports. We will help parents/guardians understand the different between PowerSchool and Canvas, and how to access these tools.
Happy Friday! This week was another exciting week at DVD – and for our Seniors, it ended with fun and food: our 2nd Annual Multicultural Food Fair. This event is the culmination of a project done in the Ethnic Studies class at the end of their unit on identity. Students analyzed the importance of food as an expression of identity, and celebrated with a potluck where students shared appetizers, entrees and desserts important to their cultural background or ethnicity. See picture below!
Progressreports are being mailed home today, September 29th. The purpose of this is to give families the opportunity to have a snapshot of student progress, and to be able to have a conversation at home with students about how to stay successful in school. This information will also be used by teachers and counselors in their plans to support all students. Please follow up with your child’s teachers directly with any questions about assignments or grades.
If you do not receive a progress report in the mail by Friday, 10/6, please reach out by calling Da Vinci Design at 310-725-5800, or send an email Office Manager Maria Beltran at mbeltran@davincischools.org to request a digital progress report for your child.
School photos from DVD Picture Day have been uploaded for families to purchase here:
Students are sorted by Advisory so families can navigate to their child’s Advisory and make any purchases they’d like through the gallery.
See the Bell Schedule of Week 8 here:
Student Led Conferences Coming Soon!
This is a reminder that Student Led Conferences (SLCs) for Da Vinci Design students are happening on-campus and in-person Monday, Oct. 16th through Thursday, Oct. 19th. This is a time when all parents/guardians should expect to visit campus for a meeting with their child and one grade level teacher. We are excited to share that we are updating practices to keep meetings timely, to increase teacher involvement, and to launch a new biannual survey that is faster and easier to complete. Please check the blog next week for more SLC information and schedules.
Upcoming Events and Key Dates:
Friday, 9/29: Progress Reports Mailed Home
Tuesday, 10/3: Loyola Marymount University Rep Visit
