Dimond News Blast

January 23, 2024

Dear Dimond Families

We are well into the 3rd quarter and seniors will start to work on things in preparation for graduation. Most importantly, staying laser focused on successfully completing their coursework for graduation. Senior parents, please be looking for key information in the weeks to come regarding senior activities and events.

If you have not marked your calendars yet, graduation will be on Wednesday, May 15th, 7:00 PM at the Alaska Airlines Center. Also, remember to order graduation items through Jostens.com. Your items will be delivered to the school for pick-up.

Winterfest School Carnival

Our Winterfest School Carnival will take place this Thursday, January 25th from 3:30pm to 7:00pm. Family members of all ages are welcome.

Door Prizes for students including: Cotopaxi Backpack, Stanley Mugs, JBL Speakers, and much much more!

Game Booths to challenge your skills and win prizes

Cake Auction and Bake Sale.

Come and Enjoy fun for the whole family!

Safe Children’s Act Lessons

As noted in the message sent to families on 1/17/24, our two remaining Safe Children’s Act lessons will be delivered on 1/26 and 2/9 during homeroom. Please see the SCA Family letter linked to this NewsBlast if you have any questions.

Tardy Sweeps!!
This is just a reminder, it has been in the last two newsblasts. Being on time to class is a foundation for success, and communicates to both teachers and classmates that the goal of school is learning. It is also an important habit to form as students begin to enter the workforce.

Punctuality is, in fact, the number one request from Anchorage business owners in their conversations with ASD regarding College Career and Life Ready (CCL) goals. With this in mind, our student services team will conduct periodic Tardy Sweeps this semester.

During these sweeps, any student in the hallway without a pass, will receive a detention slip from security. Please partner with us by encouraging students to manage their time well and be in class before the tardy bell rings.

SAT/ACT Preparation Opportunities

10th, 11th & 12th Grade Parents and Students: The Dimond High School counseling department has partnered with Frontier Tutoring to deliver a college admissions webinar for 10th, 11th, and 12th grade parents and students. Parents must register for the webinar in advance – see instructions below. The webinar will cover the 3 Steps to SAT/ACT Success, including information about the new fully digital SAT, the latest updates on test-optional policies, how to craft your standardized testing strategy and timeline, and how SAT/ACT scores can qualify you for significant college scholarship funding. ASD counselors will be online to answer questions.

Date & Time: Wednesday, January 31st at 6:00 PM

Registration Link: https://www.frontiertutoring.com/webinars

Practice SAT Opportunity:

10th, 11th & 12th Graders: Sign up for a free practice digital SAT, brought to you by Frontier Tutoring and the Dimond High counseling team. After taking a full-length practice SAT, you will get a detailed score report with a roadmap to score improvement, plus guidance on whether to focus on the SAT or ACT.

This semester, Dimond is co-hosting the following event on President's Day (a school holiday):

Practice digital SAT on Monday, February 19th: Check-in will begin at 12:30 PM, with testing running 1:00-3:30 PM.

Space is limited. View all practice SAT/ACT dates and reserve your seat for free at www.frontiertutoring.com/practicetest

Academies of Anchorage (AOA)

9th and 10th Grade Families: As spring approaches, ASD has some exciting news to share! The Anchorage School District is introducing a comprehensive, wall-to-wall career-academy model, known as the Academies of Anchorage (AOA).

The Academies of Anchorage is dedicated to providing every student with career opportunities and essential workplace skills. Stay tuned for more details about the Career Academy model during upcoming transition activities with your high school.

To support this important work and tailor it to the Dimond School community, we will provide a brief 5-minute survey, allowing for feedback on what students and families would like to see at their local high school in this brief survey. Your survey response will play a crucial role in shaping and enhancing the academy structure. 9th and 10th grade students will take this career academy focused survey during their English Language Arts classes. Finally, families will receive a similar survey from the Anchorage School District in the near future.

Thanks in advance for communicating your preferences through these upcoming surveys, and please let us know if you have any questions.

ACCESS Assessment

Beginning February 6th our school will be conducting a state required assessment for English Language Learners. This assessment is called ACCESS and provides important feedback about the progress of our English Language Learners in Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing. Students will take the test using our school’s computers.

Only students who are currently identified as members of the English Language Learners (ELL) Program will be assessed. Most of the assessments will be completed during the first two weeks of February but some may continue into March.

More information about the ACCESS assessment can be found on the Alaska Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s ACCESS page, http://education.alaska.gov/assessments/elp as well as the attached flier, translations are also available.

Safe Children’s Act Lessons

As noted in the message sent to families on 1/17/24, our two remaining Safe Children’s Act lessons will be delivered on 1/26 and 2/9 during homeroom. Please see the SCA Family letter linked to this NewsBlast if you have any questions.

Second Semester Achievement

It is a new year and a new semester. With a new year can come a sense of hope, optimism, and positive energy toward new goals that we hope many students are feeling.

Some important things to help students set themselves up for success towards their goals is having them think about what the daily goals are that will help them towards their bigger goals, as well as what they need to do to set themselves up to achieve their daily goals. Some examples include having students think about what time of the day they are best able to work on schoolwork, where they work best, how do they minimize distractions during their time for schoolwork, when do they need to be asleep each day and how do they make that happen, etc.

We hope that your students are feeling that this new semester and each day in it are new opportunities, no matter how things have gone in the past.

Additional resources:

For students- https://opportunity.org/learn/lists/10-habits-of-successful-students

For parents in supporting students- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/setting-stage-success-10-ways-support-your-teens-traci-bakenhaster

Career Resource Center Information

Mrs. Lauwers is in the process of updating and posting upcoming scholarship, testing information, FAFSA, potential college timelines/ application deadlines and with job resources that may want to pursue after graduation. That and so much more is available on-line and in person in the DHS Career Resource.

Please contact Mrs. Lauwers through email at lauwers_kimberly@asdk12.org if you have any questions or if you or your student would like to set up an appointment. If the CRC office door is open, Mrs. Lauwers is in her office and feel free to come in for help! You must have a pass from your teacher or come in at lunch or after school. Appointment hours are 8:30am-3:00pm.

GRADES MATTER! Academic Eligibility for Sports and Activities

Students participating in sports or all-state academic/ fine arts activities must remain academically eligible. Eligibility is checked at the beginning of the 1st and 2nd semesters, as well as the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

ASD VIRTUAL STUDENTS be aware that although virtual courses are self-paced, a quarter grade will be given based on your work completed during the grading period. This grade counts towards your academic eligibility.

Students that are not eligible will not be able to participate in their sport or activity.

YEARBOOKS!

Yearbooks are priced at $75 and are available to order until January 31st.

You can purchase your Senior Ads until February 29th, their cost is as follows:

$300 - full

$160 - half

$90 - quarter

You can make your purchases at: yearbookforever.com

If you have any questions please contact Ms. Castoe at castoe_tracy@asdk12.org.

Senior Portraits and Quotes

Quotes must be appropriate.

Send to our email @dimondlynxYB@gmail.com