LAPS Newsletter

Welcome to December! It will be a busy month filled with a lot of events and activities as we prepare for the holiday season, and wrap up the fall semester of the 2023-2024 school year.

Los Alamos Public Schools has been named College Board Advanced Placement® District of the Year for being the national leader among small-sized school districts whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening access.

Los Alamos Public Schools was one of more than 12,000 school districts across the U.S. and Canada whose schools achieved high placement on the annual AP School Honor Roll. From this list, three AP Districts of the Year―one for each category of district population size: small, medium, and large―were selected based on research-based criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing college-going culture, providing opportunities for students to earn college credit, and maximizing college readiness.

Students and staff learned about the award during a Pep Assembly Wednesday morning. Dr. Michelle Cruz Arnold, Vice President, College Board, presented the award and a $10,000 check to LAPS Superintendent Jennifer Guy. Other dignitaries in attendance included State Senator Leo Jaramillo, New Mexico Public Education Department Deputy Secretary Amanda DeBell, and State AP Coordinator Melissa DeLaurentis.

Tuesday, December 5

Barranca Mesa Elementary PreK Winter Wonderland Family Engagement Night 4 pm

Chanisa Elementary PreK Family Engagement Night

Winter Orchestra Concert, Duane Smith Auditorium, 6:30 pm

Performances by the Los Alamos Middle School and Los Alamos High School students

Wednesday, December 6

Los Alamos Middle School Spelling Bee, 3:30 pm

Barranca Mesa Elementary Spelling Bee, 4:30 pm

Mountain Elementary PreK Math & Literacy Family Engagement Night Polar Express

Thursday, December 7

Winter Choir Concert, Duane Smith Auditorium, 6:30 pm

Performances by Los Alamos Middle School and Los Alamos High School students

Friday, December 8

Jazz Performance, Black Box, 7 pm

Saturday, December 9

ACT, Los Alamos High School Upper Commons, 7:45 am

Jazz Performance, Black Box, 7 pm

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.

Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days. This year Hanukkah will start the evening of Thursday, Dec 7, 2023. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods.

Tuesday, December 12

Los Alamos Middle School 7th Grade Student of the Semester Breakfast

School Board Meeting

Thursday, December 14

Los Alamos Middle School 8th Grade Student of the Semester Breakfast

Hawk Hangout, PEEC

Native American Parent Advisory Council Meeting

Saturday, December 16

Saturday School

Monday, December 18

Los Alamos High School National Honor Society Induction Ceremony

Tuesday, December 19

Parent Council Meeting

Wednesday, December 20

Chamisa Elementary School Science Fair

Piñon Elementary School Science Fair

Thursday, December 21

Employee Council Meeting

Friday, December 22

Hawktime

Check out the LAPS Community Events page for information about events and activities in the community for students and families.Or view the Los Alamos County 100 Days of Winter.

2023-2024 School Calendar

Multicultural Events Calendar

Please note that these are DRAFT versions and subject to change.

2024-2025 School Calendar DRAFT

2025-2026 School Calendar DRAFT

Please check with your school site for any additional concerts and performances.

Wednesday, December 13

Elementary Winter Holiday Caroling

Winter Band and Jazz Band Concert, Duane Smith Auditorium, 6:30 pm

Performances by Los Alamos Middle School and High School students

Thursday, December 14

Barranca Mesa Elementary School Winter Concert

Piñon Elementary Band and Orchestra Concert

Friday, December 15

Aspen Elementary Band, Choir and Orchestra Winter Concert

Chamisa Elementary Band, Choir and Orchestra Holiday Concert

Tuesday, December 19

Piñon Elementary 1st/2nd Grade Concert

Wednesday, December 20

Barranca Mesa Elementary 5th/6th Grade Musical

Bobcat Choir Caroling

On December 6, all students in grades 3-12 will be asked to complete the state's new Student Wellbeing and Competency Survey. The survey takes about 10-20 minutes to complete. If students are absent on December 6, they have until Thursday, Dec. 14th, to complete the survey.

These resources are provided to help families and their students better understand and prepare for this new platform and survey.

• Student Instructional Slides (best for in-person)

• Brief Videos outlining Student Survey Taking in English and Spanish (best for asynchronous surveys as independent assignments)

• Mini Vocabulary Lessons for Survey:

• English

• English & Spanish

• Enabling Text-To-Speech:

Ensuring Accessibility for student surveys

Want to know more-- Student Wellbeing and Competency Survey

Students at Aspen Elementary had fun in the snow.

Chamisa Elementary 3rd and 6th grade students learned about the moon with the help of Oreos.

First grade fun.

Students from Aspen Elementary and Barranca Mesa Elementary participated in the Girls on the Run 5K race on Saturday.

Kristine Coblentz, our Prevention Support Specialist, shared December's prevention theme with the principals and I wanted to pass it along. This time of the year can be hard for some people, please check out these resources.

December can feel like a race to the end of semester all wrapped up in expectations around the holiday season. Our primary prevention focus this month is on stress management. Life stresses are inevitable - developing strategies and coping skills can make all the difference in becoming more resilient and finding joy in the chaos.

The Child Mind Institute recognizes the additional stressors parents and caregivers face and shares tips around Making Holidays Kid-Friendly. Their articles always include informative links to related topics like understanding/managing disruptive behaviors and meltdowns.

CornellHealth offers this practical ideas list and description of the research-based impact of taking purposeful, energizing breaks to refresh your brain and body: Study Breaks and Stress Busters

Check out this linked article re: how scrolling through social media doesn't actually give you a break (what?!?!) AND how cell phones can support mental health.

The Los Alamos Police Department School Resource Officers (SROs) would like to express the importance of Cyber Safety and the many ways parents can ensure their children are being safe on their electronic devices.

Many service providers offer parental controls however there are apps such as Qustodio or Bark that allow you to monitor social media text messages etc. There are many others that can be found by searching parental controls app.

If you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update, please review this warning.

IPhone recently installed a feature called NameDrop. This feature allows you to easily share contact information and photos to another iPhone by just holding the phones close together. This feature is defaulted to ‘ON' which means it remains on and you may not know it.

To shut this feature off, go to Settings, General, AirDrop, Bringing Devices Together and change to 'OFF'. This will disable this feature. Make sure you check it periodically to make sure it remains in the OFF position. Please check your child's phone to ensure the feature is off on their phone as well.

Los Alamos High School Freshman Erin Broadnax Qualifies For North American Nationals In Irish Dancing

Los Alamos Public Schools Is 2023 AP® District Of The Year

LAPS: Ride The Bus On Friday

LAPS: Planned Oversized Load Transport Wednesday Evening From Chamisa Elementary School

The most fundamental responsibility of schools is to teach students to read and write.

Why then do some students find reading and writing a fairly easy task while others struggle to read and write year after year? The answers to these questions can be found in the scientific research on literacy instruction that has been conducted throughout the past 50 years. Fortunately, reading is one of the most studied and researched topics of human learning. The research gathered from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages from developmental psychologists, cognitive neuropsychology, developmental linguistics and educational intervention research has resulted in a large body of knowledge of how proficient reading and writing develop.

Within the first several years of life, the majority of toddlers learn to speak without any formal instruction. Thus, speaking is natural and the brain is ‘hard wired’ for oral language. In contrast, the brain has several areas involved in learning to read and write, and the process of learning to read and write is not a natural process. Both children and adults require years of formal instruction to develop this skill to proficiency.

Reading requires children to make meaning out of print. They need to know the different sounds in spoken language and be able to connect those sounds, (individual letters, syllables, and meaningful word parts) to written language in order to decipher words. They need both knowledge of the world and vocabulary so they understand the meaning of the words they read. Good readers process the letters of each word in detail, much of which is done so quickly, unconsciously, and automatically that it is assumed that a person learns to read whole words effortlessly. Skillful readers learn to read and understand text by paying attention to ideas, grammar, punctuation and sentence structures. For more information on how reading develops within the brain, click on a short video, How We Learn to Read.

Contrary to popular belief, reading and writing depend on language proficiencies, not visual memory or visual-motor coordination. A student may be adept at puzzles, drawing, or graphic design, but have great difficulty remembering or producing the letters in printed words. Therefore, vision therapies are, for the most part, disproven as valid treatments for reading difficulties. Yes, reading requires the visual area of the brain and glasses are essential to help readers ‘see’ the letters accurately.

In 1999, Congress commissioned a panel of experts to evaluate existing research and evidence to find the best ways of teaching children to read.

The panel reviewed roughly 100,000 reading studies published since 1966 and another 10,000 published before that time. From this pool, the panel selected several hundred studies for its analysis.

In 2000, The National Reading Panel's analysis made it clear that the best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates:

• Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness

• Systematic phonics instruction

• Methods to improve fluency

• Ways to enhance comprehension

Unfortunately, it has taken a long time for this information to reach teacher preparation programs and schools. A popular approach to reading instruction, “Balanced Literacy,” as known as, Fontas and Pinnell, Leveled Readers (A to Z) remains stubbornly present in many school systems despite decades of research conducted by cognitive scientists showing its ineffectiveness and damaging outcomes for many students. In October 2022, Emily Hanford, a journalist and reporter on reading instruction, published this podcast,"Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids To Read Went So Wrong.” This podcast explains how the Whole Language/“Balanced Literacy” movement originated and its lasting legacy.

Los Alamos Public Schools is committed to adhering to evidenced based ‘science of reading’ teaching practices. This relatively new coined term refers to a “vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.” This definition is taken from the “Reading League,” a non profit organization, The Reading League.

Los Alamos Public Schools adopted a new K-5 reading curriculum in the fall of 2022, Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA). In December’s parent newsletter, I will explain the Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum. Additionally, I will provide information on the two year statewide professional development all elementary teachers are currently enrolled in, “Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). This is a state mandate to improve literacy skills for all students.

If you have any questions regarding literacy instruction, please contact me, Sigrid Wurthmann, s.wurthmann@laschools.net.

If you have concerns about your student’s literacy progress, please contact your student’s classroom teacher.

References for this article

Hanford, Emily, journalist. “Sold A Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong, American Public Broadcast Service, October 20, 2022, https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

Hasbrouck, Jan. “Fluency: “Key to Comprehension,” The Reading League, Wisconsin, April 4, 2023.

(2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Apr 13, 2000

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS.

Moats, Louisa. “Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science, American Educator, Volume 44, Number 2, Aft.org., Summer 2020.

(2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Apr 13, 2000

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS.

Swartz, Sarah and Sarah Sparks, “How do Kids Learn to Read? What Does the Science Say,” Education Week, October 4, 2019.

Swartz, Sarh, “U.S. Parents Think Reading Instruction Is Going O.K.-Until They See National Test Results, Education Week, November 15, 2023.

Young, Nancy. Ladder of Reading and Writing

TutorMe is now available to all LAPS students in grades 4-6. Students have access, 24 hours a day- 7 days a week, to individualized support with any subject!

How to Get Started with TutorMe

1. Open your Clever Portal, and click on the TutorMe icon to launch the platform.
2. Click the “Request a Live Tutor” button.
3. Answer a couple quick, easy questions to help TutorMe find the best-match tutor for you.
4. Once you submit your request, we’ll match you as fast as we can – but please understand it may take a couple minutes for us to find the perfect match.
5. Click the “Request a tutor” button to submit your request.
6. Once you’re paired with a tutor, you’ll be taken to the Lesson Space where you’ll have access to all the tools you need for your tutoring session.

3-minute TutorMe Getting Started Video to Watch with Students

Get Ready for Your Online Tutoring Journey

Connecting with a tutor can feel like a big step, especially if it is a student's first time. This roadmap will help them get started.

The Los Alamos High School Eco Club is hosting a clothing drive!

The club is accepting wearable clothing in all sizes, including shoes and accessories (No undergarments).

Donations can be dropped off at the LAHS main reception area, to Ms. Harden; or to Ms. Hum´s room E109. We will be accepting donations until December 8th.

All donations will be sold at an exciting thrift sale. Students can purchase items first during lunch and academic time on Friday December 15th in the Speech Theater, and then the sale will be open to the community from 8-12 on December 16th in the Speech Theater as well.

All proceeds will go to the LAHS Eco Club to work on sustainable projects on campus.

Students registered for the ACT this Saturday should plan to arrive no later than 7:45 am. Bring a printed copy of your admission ticket, valid photo ID, No. 2 pencils, approved calculator, a snack, and water. Printing services and calculators will not be provided. Cell phones will need to be turned off and stored. Park in the Duane Smith Parking Area and head to the A wing Upper Commons. Questions? Contact Mrs. Goettee at c.goettee@laschools.net or at 663-2204.

Los Alamos High School will be hosting the UNMLA Financial Aid Director for a FSA ID (Federal Student Aid Identification) workshop on Monday, December 4th and Thursday, December 7th from 5:30 pm to 6:15 pm in the Topper Library.

Los Alamos High School seniors who are applying to college will be required to fill out the FAFSA to be eligible for scholarships and college admission so please plan to attend.

You and your parent or guardian must have an FSA ID BEFORE you will be able to complete the FAFSA when it opens December 31st.

You will need to bring your Chromebook.

If you have questions, reach out to your school counselors.

High school students have the opportunity to win a $40,000 scholarship with minimal, but productive, effort.

Just attend BigFuture® Scholarships Week to learn the best strategies to plan for life after high school—and to hear the inside scoop on qualifying for monthly scholarship drawings. The totally free events are happening on December 4, 6, and 7.

Saturday School is now being offered for Los Alamos High School AND Los Alamos Middle School

students in the LAHS Topper Freshman Academy (E-Wing) from 8:30 am - 11:30 am will be held on December 9 and December 16. Email lahssaturdayschool@laschools.net to register for Saturday School. Give your full name and grade.

Visit the Saturday School Website for more information.

The fall semester ends on December 22. Finals are scheduled at the middle school and high school Tuesday, Dec. 19 through Friday, Dec. 22.

Sports Schedule for December 4 - 9.

To check out the complete Sports Schedule, go to RankOne.

Monday, December 4

LAMS Girls Basketball vs. Santa Fe Indian School, LAMS Brousseau Gym, 7th grade 4 pm, 8th grade 5:30 pm

Tuesday, December 5

LAHS Girls Basketball vs. Escalante High School, Escalante High School, C-team, 4 pm, JV 5:30 pm, Varsity 7 pm

LAHS Boys Basketball vs. St. Michael's High School, Griffith Gym, C-team 4 pm, JV 5:30 pm, Varsity 6 pm

Wednesday, December 6

LAMS Girls Basketball vs. McCurdy Middle School, Espanola High School, 7th grade 4 pm, 8th grade 5:30 pm

LAHS Girls Wrestling., Cleveland High School, 5:30 pm

LAHS Girls Basketball vs. Monte del Sol High School, Griffith Gym, C-team, 4 pm

LAHS Boys Basketball vs. Monte del Sol High School, Griffith Gym, C-team, 6 pm

Friday, December 8

LAMS Girls Basketball vs. Memorial Middle School, LAMS Brousseau Gym, 7th grade 4 pm, 8th grade 5:30 pm

Saturday, December 9

LAHS Boys and Girls Wrestling, Bobcat Duals, Bloomfield High School, 8 am

LAMS Wrestling Tournament, Griffith Gym, 8 am

Welcome winter at the Family Strengths Network annual gingerbread house building event.

The LANL Foundation Grandparents and Kin Advisory Group is sponsoring a free training for grandparents and kin raising children as well as for educators who teach children who are being raised by their grandparents or other kin.

Los Alamos Middle School orchestra teacher will be conducting the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra for a holiday concert.

Mark you calendars now for the First Annual Seasonal Showdown.

Los Alamos Public Schools is hiring high school custodians and substitutes. Click here for more information about working for LAPS and all current job openings.