Dragon Tales

How about this weather! Feels like a long cry from what we all went through just a few weeks ago. This week, there was an air of excitement around the start of the 3rd Quarter. While students’ core classes remained the same, most students found themselves in new elective classes which was fun to see. I know that our teachers are excited as well. There is a real sense that we all get a fresh start in Quarter 3.

Yesterday was the start of Black History Month. During Advisory this month, our classes will be competing in a door decorating competition engaged in learning around Black History Month. Many of our classes will also have units that connect to Black History Month and on the 29th of February we will have an assembly put on our Black Student Union (BSU) to honor Black History Month. It is activities like this that will help educate our students, honor the contributions Black and African American people have made to our city, state and country, and help us continue to work towards our schoolwide goal of ensuring all students feel a sense of belonging here at da Vinci.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the excitement around Newsies rehearsals. They are also in full swing. As I write this, there are dozens of students outside my office in rehearsals and the energy is...STRONG! They all seem like they’re having a blast and their joy reminds me how lucky our students are to have such opportunities.

Our family-teacher conferences are this Wednesday and Thursday. These conferences will be in-person and held in teacher's classrooms. You do not need to sign up ahead of time as families will form a line outside each teacher's classroom and wait for them to come get the next family.

Dates: February 7th and 8th

Time: 4-7pm

Location: da Vinci Arts Middle School

Format: In-person

Our live auction, Back to the 80's, is on Saturday, February 24th and TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW! Open bar, drinks, dinner, dancing, and lots of fun for only $80. There will be lots of great live and silent auction packages available, and the best of all, you get to dress in your favorite 80's outfit! All monies raised benefit the students of da Vinci directly.

See the flyer or use THIS LINK to purchase your tickets.

Counselor Appreciation Week is February 5th-9th. Please take a moment to complete this two question survey to share your reflections on our two amazing counselors, Ms. Shannon and Ms. Shelby.

All ELA classes enjoyed, or will be taking part in, the Author Viewing Party in the Library, popcorn included!. Even though we missed our in-person author visit, Gene Luen Yang provided a video presentation that he created just for our school. Students learned in his presentation about his journey of writing, how he comes up with his ideas and his projects that he has worked on. The opportunity still exists to purchase a signed copy of his graphic novels: The Books of Clash Volume I or II or both through SchoolPay or using this provided QR Code.

PPS is seeking input from students, teachers, school staff, and community members about how to build a long-range plan to lower carbon emissions in our district.

The question we want help answering is: “How can PPS most effectively implement GHG emissions reduction measures to give us the best chance of meeting our emissions goals, given financial, industry, and facility constraints, while considering historic inequities in the distribution of resources across PPS?” For more information, please click here.