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Edison Language Academy – Together Through Two Languages (310) 828-0335 www.edison.smmusd.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS Town Hall Briefings on Edison’s Achievement Data -- Principal Orum will be sharing information about Edison’s achievement data, the strengths and challenges it reveals, and how the data are being used to shape this year’s Site Plan. A brief presentation will take place as part of the ELAC Meeting on 10/16 at 8:30 am and there will be a special evening briefing on Wed 10/23 at 6:00 p.m in the Library. Kid Biz/Achieve 3000 Parent Seminar – We’ve asked a Kid Biz trainer to provide a parent seminar on how to use Kid Biz at home to support our 2nd-5th grade students in Spanish and English reading on Monday morning, October 14 at 8:30 am in the Computer Lab. If you have students in grades 2-5 please join us for an information-packed hour. Parent Seminar on Día de los Muertos – Would you like to learn more about the cultural origins of Día de los Muertos? Our own Martha Ramirez-Oropeza (also an adjunct professor at UCLA teaching a course on the Ritual of Día de los Muertos) will offer a seminar for Edison parents on Monday evening, October 21 at 6:00 pm in the Library. After School Music Enrichment in Spanish – This program (funded by PTA) provides students in grades 3-5 an opportunity to learn about, enjoy, and perform choral music in Spanish. The program meets Mondays from 3:10-4:10 pm in Room 107. There is no cost, but parental permission is required. Interim Assessments – At intervals throughout the year, we assess how reading and math skills are developing for our students. These interim assessments are formative – that is, they are used by teachers to adjust instruction and make sure everyone’s needs are being addressed-- rather than to assign a grade to students. However, teachers will share information on student progress with parents during the November 5-8 parent conferences. Our 3-4-5th graders will be taking the CAASPP Interim Assessment Blocks in English and Math in the mornings on Tuesday, October 22 and Tuesday October 29. Please avoid absences if at all possible. Other grade levels are also assessing math and reading, but not all on the same days.
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK: IN THE GARDEN One of my favorite spaces on our campus s the organic Edible Garden with its eight long and deep raised beds (numbered with Mayan numerical symbols) that support a variety of crops our students plant and tend. There are also two pollinator gardens– full of plants that bees, hummingbirds and butterflies love. There are six citrus trees that periodically give us the fruit to treat students to homemade lemonade. There is a wonderful shade structure with a half dozen white benches and a couple of potting tables the serve as an outdoor classroom for lessons. We have two compost bins, a worm bin and a new greenhouse where we can start plugs and seedlings before transplanting them to the big beds. Shortly (thanks to our PTA) a garden shed will be added to the area to store tools, gloves, seeds, and other gardening implements. And we are fortunate to again have the services of one of the District’s Master Gardeners, Lucia Burke, to oversee the gardens, provide classes to our students, and support teachers as they bring their classes to the garden. There are so many lessons that can be taught in the garden – wonderful life cycle and water cycle lessons, the role of pollinators in the ecosystem, and hands-on experience with decomposition as we compost food scraps and brown and green waste to produce mulch and worm tea. We plant edibles like sweet peas, lettuces, carrots, beets, radishes, tomatoes, squash and broccoli to teach about nutrition and tempt the students into eating more green and delicious foods. We plant herbs like cilantro, basil, sage, and epazote (the great herb from Oaxaca and Central America that aids digestion – especially when cooking beans). Companion planting is done with edible flowers and “three sisters” planting (corn, squash, and beans) that was a hallmark of American Indian agriculture. Sometimes, we add Amaranth (known to the Aztecs as huruhtli) as a fourth sister. The crops we plant also allow us to talk about their history and uses in different cultures. We also teach about water conservation and plant some beds with clay “ollas” buried underground and filled as needed with water – an ancient agricultural practice, especially in dry climates. Each summer we let the gardens “go to seed” so we can collect seeds in the fall and begin again. Right now we have more than we need of epazote and cilantro (coriander) seed. If you’d like to come and harvest some seeds for home gardens in the next two weeks, please let us know. Since we’re sprouting new plants and seedlings, we could also use some people who can spend 15-20 minutes watering on Monday, Wednesday or Friday mornings. We’ll put a sign up list in the office for anyone who can help out with this. Thanks in advance! October 16 ELAC – 8:30 am – Library Site Council – 4:00 pm, Room 100
October 16 – Site Council 4:00-6:00 pm, Room 100
October 17 The Great California Shake Out – 10:17 am