Newsletter Oct. 2018

Upcoming Events Message from Principal Susan Ryan 10/4 Community against Sexual Harassment Meeting 10/11 Career & WBL Night

We are a month into the new school year and off to a positive start. On 9/19, we had our annual Open House with over 100 participants. Many families shared with me how much they appreciated the individualized attention from teachers at the event.

10/12 Principal’s Chat 10/18 SSC/ELAC Meeting 10/23-10/27 Parent Volunteer Opportunity 10/23 Cash for College (See website for details)

Marking Period 1 ends Sept. 29th. Report cards will be going out the week of Oct. 9. Important Message from Nurse Stuart: Please protect the OC Community by keeping your sick student home. If your child has FEVER, DIARRHEA OR HAS VOMITED after 6 p.m., keep them at home. They will be sent home if they are still sick the next day. Please also UPDATE YOUR STUDENT’S EMERGENCY CARD. In the event of an illness or natural disaster, every student must have an adult who can pick them up from school. This person MUST be on the card.

The previous day, Everett hosted a High School Night, where YOCELIN ZARAGOZA from HBS and TYREE LEWIS from CET represented us. It was inspirational to hear these fantastic young people talk about the only-at-O’Connell opportunities they have taken advantage of to grow personally and prepare for college and career. One middle school parent told us that Yocelin and Tyree had the best presentation of the night. I’m also pleased to announce that after years with a broken digital marquee in front of the school, a fix is in finally the works! With support from Assistant Superintendent Bill Sanderson, we will have a new marquee installed sometime this semester to better communicate with families and community members. Please join us at our next JOCHS Community Against Sexual Harassment family and community meeting on Oct. 4th at 6 p.m. in the gym. Come learn about how we are supporting students and families and help us to strengthen our campaign. Finally, I’m delighted that O’Connell will be featured by the James Irvine Foundation, which highlights educational best practices in California. We will be in a publication about integrated student support for college and career. As always, please email me at [email protected] with any questions or suggestions. I also encourage you to attend the monthly Principal Chat every 2nd Thursday at 9:15am so I can get to know you.

For Families from Ms. Flores •

ParentVue is up and running any parent needing assistance can contact me. There are instructions in 6 languages on our school's website https://jochs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/slhelp. Click under the Families tab, and then click on Parentvue.

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Parents: Please connect to remind.com, so you can receive messages directly from me. Text 81010 and in the body of the message type @jocparents. You will receive a prompt asking for your full name. A second prompt will ask if you are an S,P, or T. All parents are P.

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Election ballots will be sent home this week for SSC chair and ELAC positions for co-presidency. Due next Tuesday Oct. 10.

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We will be having a can/food drive for holiday baskets to give out during Thanksgiving and holiday seasons. Please feel free to donate food items to room 103.

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Cara Y Corazon Spanish and English Workshops start Oct. 4th through Nov. 22.

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Please welcome two individuals who have joined me in the Family Engagement Department. Ana Avilez, our family success coach from Mission Promise Neighborhood, is here Mondays and Wednesdays to connect families with community resources. She will also bring workshops to our school. Gerber Marquez, our college/career specialist, will hold college readiness workshops and provide private consultations to help you navigate the college application process.

Absences If your student is going to be absent, contact our attendance clerk, Andrew Cornejo. Email: [email protected] Phone: 415-695-5370

Keep Us Posted Please inform Family Liaison Rebeca Flores of any changes to your phone or address. You can now contact her directly by phone. Email: [email protected] Phone: 415-695-5370 Option 4

School Address: John O’Connell HS 2355 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 695 - 5370 https://jochs-sfusdca.schoolloop.com/ SF Unified School Dist. 555 Franklin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 241-6000 http://www.sfusd.edu/

Classroom Chronicles:

An Academic Report from the Teachers Entrepreneurship and Culinary Arts Lab: The ECA Lab is diving into brainstorming, research, cooking, and writing for our first major project of the year - A Global Potluck. This project is an indepth, collaborative study of an immigrant group in America. Students will utilize various skills and knowledge that they have been developing this year in order to research and write about culture, assimilation, push and pull migration factors, food traditions, and how America has been shaped by its various immigrant groups and cultures. The project will culminate in group presentations and the preparation of an authentic cultural dish! CET Construction and Environmental Technology Students in the Construction and Environmental Technology Lab are currently at work on their first integrated project, which focuses on preservation. For their Construction component, students are building a physical container for their graduating class to stash away. In English, they are crafting a personal narrative to preserve themselves through writing. In Biotechnology, they are analyzing and experimenting with past and present methods of food and ecological preservation. Humanities and Social Justice House HSJ just finished our Cultural Wealth unit. During this interdisciplinary unit, students in World History researched pre-colonial civilizations and their contributions to the world's cultural wealth, while in English class they worked with tutors from 826 Valencia to publish a book of personal essays on their own cultural wealth. In our next unit, students will study the foundations of democracy, read and analyze dystopian literature, and design their own ideal society. Cosmos, Culture, and Character CCC is excited to be finishing up our first project: essays and minidocumentary films about population ecology. Each wing will hold a film festival in their classrooms (312 and 314) Monday 10/2 during periods 1-2. Please join us! After that, we start our narrative and evolution unit in which students will be exploring how narrative and fiction can both help and hinder our understanding of science, learning about evolution, and authoring short

stories. AP Literature: "What will we stand for this year?", the students asked themselves in the first week of class. Our AP Literature course began with an in-depth character study focused on good, evil, justice & morality, through the reading of To Kill A Mockingbird. As we analyzed literature and characters, we also sought to analyze ourselves and our goals for our lives, our education and society as a whole. Currently, the class is working through a poetry analysis unit, and speeding rapidly towards a study of Hamlet.

Featured Student Work: An Excerpt from “Wealth of Friends, Family and Community” By Ethan Quan (English, Period 2) For me, growing up was a truly unique experience. Language played a very interesting part in my childhood. My parents were Asian, so they spoke Cantonese. I was born in the United States, so I spoke English. I grew up in Central America, so I learned Spanish. Although I didn’t speak Belizean Creole, I understood it, and I’d often hold pleasant conversations with locals at the nearby coffee house. The community around me was small but tightly knit. Everyone knew each other; neighbors became friends; friends became family. Belize was in a unique country and their unique traditions reinforced that. September was a month full of celebrations. I could vividly remember standing on my balcony and watching the color-filled celebrations of carnival pass through the streets, or the patriotism of the independence day parade echo throughout the city. At midnight, fireworks would be shot into the dark night and explode with a bang before a rainbow of colors would shimmer and cascade into the night. My friends and I share many fond memories too. Every day during school or after school we’d sit at a table and have heated-political discussions, laughter-filled commentary, or even juicy gossip-filled exchanges. Some days we’d help each other with homework or study for a test. Other days we’d play cards or chess. All of these things made me feel that I was part of a larger family, which was not related by blood, but instead by friendship. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up. I believe that my experiences with other languages, cultures, and people will be extremely valuable in this field of work. My family as well as the greater community around me played a crucial role in shaping me into who I am. I hope that they continue to inspire me and give me a sense of wealth and reliance on all of my future endeavors.