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May 10, 2016
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Covington Howler|
In This Issue
Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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Principal’s Message |
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Dear Covington Families & Community Members, Are We Adapting Fast Enough? One of my favorite educational bloggers is Will Richardson. We share many of the same perspectives and thoughts around educational change. One of his latest pieces is Adapt. Fast. He discusses how our current climate is one of rapid change and that the ability of adapting is a necessary skill, not only for our students, but for our educational institutions. He references the idea of “perpetual Beta.” My take on perpetual Beta is that because of our hyper-connectedness and the current move from a market to a network economy, today’s work skills need to be flexible and always adapting to fit a new need. We are always in collaborating, compromising, and learning mode. Learning to gain mastery is a life skill with a moving target and one that our students need to understand. Our focus, throughout our entire organization should be reflecting that ability to learn. Will Richardson comments, “The fact is, few schools reflect the ability to learn. Few have cultures where the emphasis is on questioning and wondering and iterating new practices for the new contexts that now surround us. Instead, schools are focused on doing the old stuff better. Better policies. Better assessments. Better practices, not new.” It’s difficult to move into the unknown, especially when we can’t always define and see the answers due to the rate of change. What we need is adaptation. In order to survive perpetual Beta, we need our entire community to collaborate and innovate new solutions. Here in Los Altos we are working to implement some better structures and systems to help our teachers collaborate, learn, and develop mastery in current educational needs while growing adaptive and agile mindsets. “In today’s world, we’re going to need to move beyond obvious thinking, strategies, and connections if we are to effectively prepare our students for a very non-obvious future.” - DCulberhouse, “The Future Will Be Very Different.” Adapting to new ideas can take time, however we must be aware of how much time we are taking for the benefit of our students. Warm Regards, Kami Thordarson Covington Principal |
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LAST PTA MEETING |
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Please come to the staff room Friday May 13th at 8:30am for the last PTA meeting of the school year. PTA will be approving the following:
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Student Council News |
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This Friday the 13th!
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C-STEM Showcase |
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Come support computer science in LASD Schools and visit the CSTEM Showcase at Almond School, Thursday May 19, 2016 from 3:15pm-5:00pm. You check out the flyer here: http://tinyurl.com/ |
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MORE PTA NEWS |
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PET PARADE: Walk with your Covington friends and critters this Saturday May 14th in the annual Los Altos Pet Parade. Parade starts at 10am, lineup starts at 9:15. Our line up area B-4. See map for location. Wear your blue and orange! Hope to see many of you there! FIELD DAY 2016 is FRIDAY, JUNE 3rd! Now that the Junior Olympics are over, it's almost time for Field Day 2016! On Friday, June 3rd from 10:00am - 12:00pm, all Covington students will be participating in Field Day. Field Day is a fun filled event where all students participate in games (for example: bowling, "pin the nose on the coyote", seed spitting, etc.), face painting and a blow-up obstacle course. We have food, music, lots of water, and a "6th grade verses teachers" volleyball game. If you haven't had much of a chance to volunteer this year, this is the event for you! We need parent volunteers at each game, for face painting, and for serving snacks. We need your help to make it a success. Volunteer hours are from 9:30 to noon. Please sign up on the Google doc found here:
https://docs.google.com/ We need at least two parents from each class to help!! Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! Louanne Gonzalez (louannegonzalez@gmail.com) Ladies Sip 'n Swap: an evening of fun and fashion! Price: $40 per person (limit 30 people), please email jtebbitt@gmail.com to sign up and drop off checks in the office made out to "Covington PTA". Date/Time: May 19th, 2016, 6:00pm Location: University Club of Palo Alto Hosts: Jennie Ebbitt, Hillary Frank, Kate Lee and Lara Sullivan. Looking for some fine new fashion items and a chance to clean out your closet? Join us for a ladies only get together to sip on wine and swap your new or pre-loved clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry and accessories that you no longer need (but are in good condition) and swap them for other great items. Bring your fashionable items to swap and leave your inhibitions behind! We’ll supply yummy eats and wine to sip! Spots still available for the Caddyshack Party - May 14th Calling all Bushwood Country Club members and caddies - Join us fore a night of golf themed activities, food and adult beverages. Don't miss out, be part of this Cinderella story, It's sure to be a Hole In One! Come dressed as your favorite character or dress to Tee-off! The Snapps, Schuders and Townhills, May 14th , 4:00pm Brushwood Country Club aka The Snapp Residence 180 Marvin Avenue, Los Altos, Price - $100 per couple. Please RSVP to Jennifer Townhill - jennifer@townhillfamily.com. Please make your check out to “Covington PTA” and drop it in the PTA box in the office or bring it to the event” |
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Think Green Initiative |
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Think Green as you Spring Clean! As you may know, Covington has moved more fully toward becoming a “Greener” school. We have been increasing our “green education” and training our students how to understand and separate compost, recycle and trash items. We emphasize this throughout the day, but especially at lunch.
In an effort to broaden our approach and to model for our students, Covington is collecting gently used school supplies to demonstrate to students the impact of recycle and reuse on communities. We will organize and put together the supplies to push out where needed in the community. So, as you do your spring cleaning, think Green! We are collecting:
Please donate to the box in front of the Office. Thank you! |
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LAEF |
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It’s not too late to request a corporate match to support LAEF
With just 25 days until the end of school now is the time to submit a matching request to your company. You might be able to double or even triple your donation! Did you know that in 2014/15 corporate matching contributed $530,000 towards our annual grant? Amazing! And it all starts with you. With a little more than $100,000 to go to meet our goal, every dollar counts. Find out if your company matches by going to www.doublethedonation.com/laef |
Principal’s M
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LASD & Community Announcements |
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School & Community News now found via Peachjar: https://www.peachjar.com/ |
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How to Submit an Article to the Covington Howler |
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Post an Announcement in the Howler? If you have an announcement to include in Howler, please send it to sevard@lasdschools.org. Announcements must be received by 12:00pm on Friday in order to be considered for the Howler scheduled for the following Tuesday. |