I hope your week is off to a great start! If you have not done so already, please sign up for your Individual Post-DVS Planning Meeting. Please sign up for your meeting here
I’ve posted instructions on Canvas to support juniors in best preparing for their meeting, which includes a tentative college list and the A-G GPA calculation. If student need another copy of their transcript, please reach out to Ms. Valle, Academic Counselor for the 9th and 11th Grade.
If you have any questions reguarding this meeting, please reach out to me directly. I look forward to meeting with each of you to discuss your Post-DVS Plans!
We had a great, busy, and fun week last week. Juniors buckled down to take part in state testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, then refreshed with team and character-building activities with Fulcrum on Thursday, and then many students went on field trips to consider post-high school plans. We visited El Camino College, Cal Poly (SLO), and NACAC to learn about possibilities and to have career pathway experiences.
Week 33 is a short week with Friday, 5/5 being a PD Day (students no school), and in the evening, Prom at the Proud Bird!
Monday, May 1st is Decision Day!We will be celebrating seniors and their post-high school plans. Students are encouraged to wear college or career gear that represents their post-high school plans or goals. We will be celebrating the seniors in the Black Box during 1st period.
National Teacher Appreciation Week is May 8-12th. If you are interested in coordinating or helping out with providing breakfast or lunch for staff this week, please let Liz know at ediaz@davincischools.org. If you are able, we are also grateful for any gift cards to be used as prizes and purchasing of supplies for staff appreciation week (no obligation, completely voluntary). You can give e-card gifts to dvsappreciation@gmail.com or drop off gift cards at the front office. Thank you in advance for your support! We are going to celebrate our teachers with a Movie Theme — and our teachers are the stars of the show! Here are some ideas to give our teachers and staff the “royal treatment” this week:
Monday, May 8th: Fan Mail– Shower your teachers with fan mail! Write a note or card with written words of why you are a fan of them.
Tuesday, May 9th: Selfie and Autographs Day- ask your teachers for their autographs and get a selfie with them. Email the pic to that person.
Wednesday, May 10th: Sweet Movie Treats- Offer a sweet treat for a teacher (boxed candies like at the movies, red vines, etc).
Thursday, May 11th: Salty Movie Snacks – Bring a salty snack for a teacher (their favorite popcorn, chips, etc.)
Friday, May 12th: Oscar Awards– Award your teacher with something that you enjoy and share with them why you enjoy it!
“Ghosted” Kaiser Play and Workshop:9th grade students will be participating in a two-part mental health and resilience program provided through Kaiser Permanente’s Thriving School Resilience in Schools Environment (RISE) initiative. They will be audience members for a play called “Ghosted” on Wednesday, May 3rd and will participate in a virtual workshop on Thursday, May 4th. Find out more about “Ghosted” and RISE here.
Parent Office Hours: We will have parent office hours on Thursday, 5/4 at 4:30 pm at this zoom link. Please join us for any questions or updates, or just to chat!
Promis this Friday, May 5th at 6:00 at the Proud Bird. Contact Kat Ramos at kramos@davincischools.org. We look forward to having a fun and safe evening event.
Week 33 Schedule
Da Vinci Science students were greeted by Cal Pol President Armstrong
El Camino College Visit
Important Upcoming Dates:
Wednesday, 5/3: “Ghosted” Kaiser Play for 9th grade
Thursday, 5/4: Kaiser Virtual Workshop for 9th grade
We had another great week here at DVS! Time is flying by as we are already heading into week 32! We are very proud of our students for still learning well. They are engaged in heart dissections, moot court debates, fashion shows in Spanish, and more! We also wish our Robotics team well in Houston. They are having a great time at the FRC World Championships in Houston. Team 4201 is doing very well and is currently ranked 9th. “Takeoff” (the name of the Robot) looks smooth and zippy out there! Here’s the link to the competition if you would like to keep up with the action this weekend: https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/4201.
Administrative Professionals Day is Wednesday, April 26th. We are grateful for our front office staff, Liz Diaz, Brittany Alvarez, and Summer Munoz.
National Teacher Appreciation Week is May 8-12th. If you are interested in coordinating or helping out with providing breakfast or lunch for staff this week, please let Liz know at ediaz@davincischools.org. If you are able, we are also grateful for any gift card donations to be used as prizes and purchasing of supplies for staff appreciation week (no obligation, completely voluntary). You can make ecard donations to dvsappreciation@gmail.com or drop off gift card donations to the front office. Thank you in advance for your support!
A message from the Wiseburn Education Foundation: Wiseburn Education Foundation’s Rock Around the Block, coming up on April 29th at Dana Middle School. Did you know that WEF runs a Rock Around the Block silent auction, which is live right now? You can log on to WEF’s auction website at bit.ly/RABAuction2023 to view and bid on items such as restaurant gift cards, summer camps, museum tickets, and more! You also will not want to miss the “School Packages” category, which has items such as front-row seats for graduations and end-of-the-year concerts, principal for a day, and special experiences with your student’s favorite teachers. Bidding on items in this auction is an easy way to support WEF, because 100% of winning bids will go right back to our schools, teachers, and students. The auction ends on Saturday, April 29th at 9pm, so don’t miss out!
11th grade- next week is a busy week, especially for our juniors! 11th-grade students have state testing followed by a team-building Fulcrum Day and then a field trip to Cal Poly SLO College Visit or National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). We hope these experiences will be positive and helpful to their learning journey
Week 32 Schedule
Important Upcoming Dates:
FRC Robotics World Championships in Houston: 4/19-4/23
Tuesday and Wednesday, 4/25 and 4/26: 11th Grade State (SBAC) Testing
Thursday, 4/27: 11th Grade Fulcrum Day
Friday, 4/28: 11th Grade NACAC Field Trip, Cal Poly SLO Pathways Fieldtrip
Friday, 5/5: PD Day, Prom at 6:00pm
Thursday, 5/11: Senior Awards Night
DVS Graduation: Thursday, June 8th at 5:00pm
Summer School (for credit recovery): Session 1: June 13-June 30, Session 2: July 11-July 27
I hope you had a fantastic weekend! The Individual Post-DVS Planning Meeting for Juniors and their parent/guardian will begin May 9th and run through POL Week. The purpose of these meeting to discuss next year’s plan; including the college application process, career selection and post-high school plans. Every Junior is expected to schedule a meeting and have at least one parent/guardian present. This meeting can be in person or via Zoom. These meetings can also be conducted in Spanish if needed. Mrs. Valle, Academic Counselor for the 11th grade, and I will provide classroom presentations on 4/24/23 to prepare students for this meeting. I will post a video and slide of that presentation on Canvas for those of you who are not at school that day.
It was great to welcome everyone back from Spring Break this week!
10th-grade students started off their week with fun, team-building activities led by Fulcrum staff. The day culminated with a boat build and race in the pool. Many memorable moments were captured (PC: Stacee Liana)!
Wiseburn Education Foundation’s Rock Around the Block is April 29th (9:30am-2:30pm)! Get a jump ahead by purchasing your food and tickets for the day. While you are planning your day, please consider volunteering for a shift. There is something for everyone! We all know that volunteers help an event run smoothly and we all want to ensure the best possible day for everyone. The links to presale tickets and volunteer sign-up can be found atwww.bit.ly/WEF2023RAB.
Since April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, we will be reviewing and reiterating the importance of consent and how to be an active bystander in next Friday’s Advisory class (4/21). Students will also be provided with resources to access support for themselves or for another student. Please feel free to reach out to Saya Wai, DVS Dean of Students, at swai@davincischools.org with questions or concerns.
Parent Office Hours: We will have parent office hours on Thursday, 4/20 at 4:30 pm at this zoom link.
Senior Activities Fundraising– we are continuing our efforts to support our seniors in their senior activities. If you are able to support this, please do so through MySchoolBucks.
10th Grade Fulcrum Day:
Important Upcoming Dates:
Monday, 4/17: Senior Beach Day
FRC Robotics World Championships in Houston
Tuesday and Wednesday, 4/25 and 4/26: 11th Grade State (SBAC) Testing
Thursday, 4/27: 11th Grade Fulcrum Day
Friday, 4/28: 11th Grade NACAC Field Trip, Cal Poly SLO Pathways Fieldtrip
Friday, 5/5: PD Day, Prom at 6:00pm
Thursday, 5/11: Senior Awards Night
DVS Graduation: Thursday, June 8th at 5:00pm
Summer School (for credit recovery): Session 1: June 13-June 30, Session 2: July 11-July 27
Hello Seniors! The 5th annual Johnstone Scholarship application is now open for Da Vinci seniors to apply! Through the Wiseburn Education Foundation, Dr. Tom and Terry Johnstone have established a scholarship to help five Da Vinci seniors (one from each DV school site) get a little head start with their freshman year of college. Dr. Johnstone was the superintendent in Wiseburn for many years and played a significant role in envisioning and actualizing the high school. With his support, Wiseburn Education Foundation is honored to be able to offer scholarships to high school seniors.
Applications are due Thursday April 28th, by midnight. The application link is below.
We hope everyone has been enjoying their Spring Break! We are excited to welcome students back on Monday, 4/10, and dive into the last 9 weeks of this school year. There is a lot of learning that takes place in the last two months. We look forward to seeing students engaged and learning well to finish the year strong!
Thank you to those of you who planned, presented, and/or attended the DVS Spring 2023 Exhibition Night on Thursday, 3/30 before we left for Spring Break. It was a great success! Students in the 9th and 11th grades were able to showcase their learning through mini-theaters, life-sized human sculptures, robot competitions, pirate treasure hunts, personal storytelling, and more. We are immensely proud of our students and their amazing work.
Spring 2023 Da Vinci Schools Experience Surveys: Your feedback is valuable to us. If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to complete this semester’s experience surveys, thank you for your support.
Please note that we have an adjusted schedule for Monday, 4/10 in order to allow time for clean-up after Exhibition. 9th and 11th grade students will start the day in their Exhibition classes, whereas 10th and 12th grade students will go to their Homerooms (10th grade students will participate in activities led by Fulcrum from there). Looking forward to seeing students on Monday!
Important Upcoming Dates:
Monday, 4/10: 10th Grade (on-campus) Fulcrum Day
Monday, 4/17: Senior Beach Day
Tuesday and Wednesday, 4/25 and 4/26: 11th Grade State (SBAC) Testing
Friday, 5/5: PD Day, Prom at 6:00pm
Thursday, 5/11: Senior Awards Night
DVS Graduation: Thursday, June 8th at 5:00pm
Summer School (for credit recovery): Session 1: June 13-June 30, Session 2: July 11-July 27
We are just two days away from our Spring Exhibition Night! Please join us for an evening of celebrating student work and project-based learning! We hope for all students and families to participate and join us for Exhibition Night this Thursday, March 30th, from 5:30-7:30 pm. 9th and 11th-grade students will be showcasing their work and are looking forward to sharing it with the community. Guests can see and hear stories from Verona, see life-sized human sculptures, meet the Men in Black, and use trigonometry to find buried treasure, among many other fun and engaging learning experiences! See you there!
This has been a very busy week at DVS! We are still celebrating and recuperating from hosting last week’s FIRST Robotics L.A. Regionals at Da Vinci Schools. Congratulations to our Vitruvian Bots! Team 4201 is going to World Championships in Houston! Team 4201 qualified by winning the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. We also competed well and made it to the semi-finals. Most importantly, the team worked hard, were gracious hosts, had fun, and demonstrated kindness and inspiration to the community- truly “more than robots!” Thank you to all those who came out this weekend to support us.
The biomedical pathway also held our annual “Grand Rounds” where students presented their diagnosis and treatment plan to real industry doctors. We thank Dr. Ian Kramer, Dr. Jennifer Imparato, Dr. Mike Liu, Dr. Michael Healy, Dr. Jeanette Fong, Dr. Jay Lee, Jeremy Wong, and Saya Wai for hosting this amazing event. The doctors shared that this was the best presentation they have heard!
Our counselors also gave wonderful college webinars this week. College webinars will be posted soon.
Da Vinci Schools CARnivalis tomorrow!Da Vinci Schools will be hosting our 2nd annual CARnival TOMORROW, Saturday, March 25th, 10am-5pm! This fun day of games, food, entertainment, and cars is an important fundraiser that supports student activities and is open to the community! Please join us and invite your friends and family! For more information, check this CARnival website and please contact Kat Ramos, DVS Leadership Advisor, at kramos@davincischools.org.
Exhibition Nightis this week!Please join us on Thursday, March 30th from 5:30pm-7:30pm for Da Vinci Science High School’s Spring 2023 Exhibition Night! 9th & 11th grade students will be showcasing their learning, and we hope all students will attend. Please invite family, friends, and prospective students! See you there!
Spring 2023 Da Vinci Schools Experience Surveys:Your feedback is valuable to us. Please take a moment to complete this semester’s experience surveys.
Calling Diabetes Guest Speakers:This year, seniors in the DVS Biomedical Pathway are finishing out their semester with a Design Project on Diabetes (type 1 and 2). Their mission is to use the design process to identify a diabetes-related problem and come up with a subsequent solution. As part of the design process, students will be interviewing individuals who have experiences with diabetes in order to develop empathy and a fuller understanding of diabetes. These individuals can be patients, family/friends, researchers, or medical professionals. These interviews will take place after Spring Break. If you or someone you know may be interested in being a part of this process, please let Saya know at swai@davincischools.org.
We still have Metro passes at the front office. If you would like a free LA Metro pass, please pick one up at the front office.
Week 29 Schedule– please note there is no school on Friday, 3/31, in honor of Cesar Chavez Day. We appreciate the legacy of Cesar Chavez and all he accomplished as a civil rights leader, educator, and environmentalist.
We will then be on Spring Break from 4/3-4/7, students will return from Spring Break on Monday, April 10th.
Important Upcoming Dates:
Friday, 3/31: Cesar Chavez Holiday – No School
Monday-Friday, 4/3-4/7: Spring Break
Monday, 4/17 Senior Beach Day
Tuesday and Wednesday 4/25 and 4/26 – 11th Grade State Testing
Thursday, 5/11 Senior Awards Night
DVS Graduation: Thursday, June 8th at 5:00pm
Summer School (for credit recovery): Session 1: June 13-June 30, Session 2: July 11-July 27
We appreciate all the students and families that attending our grade level College Planning Meetings this week. If you were not able to attend, below are the recordings and slides for each grade level. Please reach out to the respective counselor if you have questions.
