Da Vinci Science

Thank you, thank you to all of you who contributed notes and goodies to our staff!! We are grateful for the support from our wonderful DVS students and families!

When we come back, the week 15 and 16 schedules will be as shown. Your child’s progress reports have been mailed to your home, and we encourage you to continue to review their grades and assignments with them as we near the finish line of first semester! The last day for students to turn in any late work is Friday, December 10th.

We hope you have a restful, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving break!

Dear Parents and Guardians of Da Vincians,

Da Vinci Schools acknowledge that parents/guardians are the primary sexuality educators for their child/children and we are committed to partnering with you to provide supplementary resources to support you in this role. California requires school districts to provide students with integrated, comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention education at least once in middle school and once in high school. Da Vinci Schools has adopted the “Teen Talk” curriculum which includes the below core components:

• Covers topics of sexual and reproductive anatomy, conception and fetal development, birth control, pregnancy options, STIs and HIV, gender and sexual orientation, media analysis, relationships, sexual crimes, consent, communication and decision-making
• Establishes a foundation for understanding sexual health and common language for communicating respectfully
• Helps students identify resources (e.g., parents/trusted adults, school personnel, healthcare providers)
• Encourages communication with parents/trusted adults, including an interview assignment
• Uses gender inclusive language

More info on the curriculum used can be found here:  https://www.health-connected.org/

DVS will be presenting our Sexual Health Education series for our students the weeks of Dec 6 through the 17th. Hybrid instruction utilizing both webinar and in-person presentations will be followed by question and answer sessions. The large group webinars will be interactive (polls, check-in questions) and will take advantage of Zoom’s integrated Q&A function. Questions submitted during the webinars may be answered at the end of the session, or at the following week’s in-person presentation.

Parents/guardians have the option of excluding their child from sexuality education instruction. If you do not want your child to participate in comprehensive sexual health/HIV prevention education, please do so in writing to the Principal. Students who are excused will be assigned alternate activities for the period.

Questions can be directed to the School Nurse, Emily Green at egreen@davincischools.org.

Thank you!

Emily Green, School Nurse, RN, PhD

Fax: 310-356-3224

Have you been wanting to capture your family members (and pets, too!) for your annual holiday greeting cards? If so, here’s your chance to do that AND support our FRC Team 4201 at the same time thanks to our very own Da Vinci parent and an entertainment industry award-winning photographer Matt Beard (https://www.mattbeard.com/)!

The photo shoots will take place on Saturday, November 20th from 9am-6pm in the Da Vinci Blackbox theater; available time slots can be found at this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080E4DA9AA2FA0F85-vitruvian

For a donation of only $249 you will be able to bring between 1-10 members of your family or closest friends (pets welcome too) for a photo shoot. Proceeds will go toward supporting our FRC team!

You will receive all of the photos from your shoot, as a web-gallery with the full resolution digital downloads so you can easily save them, share them, or print them at home. You can also order a wide variety of different prints from the website itself (Canvas, Fine-Art Paper, Ornaments, Holiday Cards, Coffee Mugs, etc.) at a discounted price.

Thank you for your support and Happy Holidays!

-Team 4201 Booster Bots

It’s not too late to contribute to the Thanksgiving baskets we are giving to the DVS teachers, counselors, and academic coaches to say THANK YOU for all they do to teach and support our kids! There are baskets in our office, one for each staff member, and students can come drop off notes and items in their baskets tomorrow, Wednesday, or Thursday morning.

There is nothing that means more to school staff than words of appreciation or encouragement! Please consider handwriting a note of thanks or typing one digitally here: DVS Staff Appreciation Notes We will be printing these digital messages and including all words of appreciation in the baskets.

If you are interested and able to purchase something to show your appreciation, please consider using this list of the DVS staff’s favorite things for ideas. If you’d like to make a general contribution to be shared amongst the whole staff, you can send an e-gift card to dvsappreciation@gmail.com. Your gift will be used to purchase items for the baskets and your name will be included with the basket.

Thank you for all of the support and encouragement you give to our staff as they support your kids on their journey!

Seniors’ Cap & Gown photos are now available for viewing and purchase! You can access them here: https://staceelianna.smugmug.com/DaVinciSchools/Class-of-2022

Galleries are all password protected and the passwords are their student ID numbers.

Make-up appointments for cap & gown photos are available during our winter break on January 4-6, 2022. Students can sign up for a makeup appointment using this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F45AFAF28A64-class

If you have any questions specific to your cap & gown photo order, please contact the photographer Stacee Lianna directly at seniors@staceelianna.com. Thank you!

Next week is our last week before Thanksgiving break! Students only have classes on Monday through Thursday. We will not be holding our regularly scheduled parent office hours on Monday, but our girls’ basketball and boys soccer teams have games after school throughout the week!

Next week, we are continuing our tradition of organizing Thanksgiving baskets to deliver to our school staff on Thursday, November 18th. The idea is that each staff member will receive one basket containing things they like and words of appreciation from students and parents/guardians. If you wish to contribute to the baskets of Thanksgiving, here are some ways you can do that!

1. Items: If you are interested and able to purchase something to show your appreciation, please consider using this list of the DVS staff’s favorite things for ideas. Students can drop off any items for staff baskets in Steve & Grace’s office.  We will begin collecting items for the Thanksgiving baskets on Monday, November 8^th! If you’d like to make a general contribution to be shared amongst the whole staff, you can send an e-gift card to dvsappreciation@gmail.com. Your gift will be used to purchase items for the baskets and your name will be included with the basket.
2. Words of Appreciation: There is nothing that means more to school staff than words of appreciation or encouragement! Please consider handwriting a note of thanks or typing one digitally here: DVS Staff Appreciation Notes We will be printing these digital messages and including all words of appreciation in the baskets. Handwritten notes for staff baskets can also be dropped off with Steve & Grace!

Finally, one of Da Vinci’s Signature Practices is Exhibition Night, an evening event for our community to come together to witness and celebrate how much our students have learned and grown in the project-based environment. Though we originally planned to hold an Exhibition Night this semester, we have decided to allow our teachers and students additional time to prepare for this important showcase. As a result, we will be rescheduling our Exhibition Night for second semester (January – June). We look forward to showcasing our students’ terrific projects in the new year, and we will let you know as soon as we decide on our new dates.

With gratitude for your ongoing encouragement and support,

Steve & Grace

 

 

On behalf of the entire DVS family, THANK YOU to all the Veterans in our community who are currently serving and who have served in our armed forces. We are grateful for your service and the sacrifice you and your loved ones have made for our country and for protecting the freedoms we enjoy. As we take today to honor you as we rest from our work, we remember you and appreciate you!

The November “Counseling Corner”, full of resources for college counseling and socioemotional wellness put together for you by the DVS counselors, is now here! You can access it by clicking on this link: DVS November Counseling Corner Newsletter

Today, we will be holding our weekly Zoom parent office hours from 4:30pm-5:30pm at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/SteveGraceOfficeHours – all are welcome to drop in and say hello and share ideas, feedback, and questions with us!

The calendar for the remainder of first semester is shown here – please note that we have moved our Exhibition Night to next spring and that the final date for students to turn in any late work for their classes is Friday, December 10th. Presentations of Learning, or “POLs”, will begin on Monday, December 13th. More information about POLs will be coming next week.

Finally, we are writing the draft of our self-study for our WASC accreditation this month, and we invite all of our stakeholders to take a look at the document here or in the “resources” section and provide us with your input and feedback.

We hope you have a terrific week!