• SPRING SHOWCASE & COMMUNITY FAIR! - MAY 11TH
• GRADUATION, GRADUATION, GRADUATION!
• Senior Awards Night
• Senior Breakfast & Rehearsal
• SLPNA Scholarship Winners!
• Parent Power Hour
• PTSA
• School Clean Up
• Teacher Appreciation Week
• Counselor's Corner
• DOL Week Success!
• Students of the Week - April
• Finals Schedule
• Last Day of School - Spring Awards & Tech Fest
• Upcoming Events

It is time to start getting yourselves ready for Graduation Day! Please be sure you have the following in order so you will be able to participate in your graduation ceremony.

• Cap and Gown - if you have not ordered this, you need to do this ASAP so you don't run out of time. Click this link to order your cap and gown - TODAY! Everyone who is participating in the ceremony MUST have: a black gown, a black cap, a tassel, a purple sash (all of this comes in the basic package from Jostens). Graduation is THE BIG SHOW! You are required to have these items.
• Internship - per our discussion, your internship MUST be complete before you will receive your diploma. You have 5 weeks to get these done.
• Community Service - make sure you have a minimum of 40 community service hours logged. Come see Principal Martin immediately if you still need more time. We have an event this Saturday that you can participate in, plus some upcoming things we need help with.
• Graduation Requirements Complete - be sure that your are meeting ALL of New Tech's graduation requirements. Our graduation requirements are higher than the rest of the district. Be sure that you have completed and passed all of your required courses.
• Senior Check Out Form Complete - during finals, you will be required to complete a senior check out form. This form will be signed by all of your teachers, your counselor, the registrar, and the Principal in order to indicate that you are clear to graduate. Students who do not get this form complete will not be able to participate in the graduation ceremony. Principal Martin will be meeting with Seniors the second week of May to discuss Senior Check Out.

Now, take a deep breath. You are almost to the finish line and we are so proud of you!

Congratulations to Yazmine C. and Aaliyah W. for winning the SLPNA Scholarships!

Both Yazmine and Aaliyah will be attending 4-year colleges next year.

Special thanks to the South Land Park Neighborhood Association for giving our students scholarship opportunities!

Want to get a jump start on college? Email your counselor at kim.seyford@snths.org and she can help you get started on the process and enroll you in a class for summer or the fall semester.

12th graders: We need your college acceptance letters! Please email Ms. Kim any confirmation you receive from any university, community college, or post-secondary program you have applied to.

Students enrolled in credit recovery: Your courses are set to end on May 26. You must complete all courses you are enrolled in by this date, or your work will be lost.

Highlights:

• The week of April 17 – 21 is “Defense of Learning (DOL) Week” where all Sacramento New Tech High School (SNTHS) Seniors will defend what they have learned throughout their high school years. Sophomores also participate in DOL presentations in preparation for what is required during their Senior year. Presentations are from 1:00-4:00 each day this week.

• High quality Linked Learning pathways, like SNTHS’s Career and Technical Education Pathways (CTE) often require students to demonstrate their skills through a Defense of Learning project and presentation.

• The DOL aligns nicely with SNTHS’s Career and Technical Education Pathways (CTE). These pathways include Computer Science and Media (Film Production) Pathway Students select Two projects that they have completed in their courses at SNTHS. They can select any two projects that show growth and that upon which they want to share their reflections. Currently, courses from the Computer Science pathway are articulated with college courses, meaning that Students receive HS 10 credits concurrently with 3 college units per course. Course Description and Pathway Details

• DOL has been in place at SNTHS for ~eight years and acts as a replacement for the traditional Senior Project.” Many smaller Sacramento area High Schools also use DOL.

Components of DOL:
1. Students select 2 projects that they have completed in their courses at New Tech. They can select any two projects that show growth and upon which they want to share their reflections.

2. Service-Learning project documented and presented by students via PowerPoint presentation and videos to describe post High School goals and career aspirations.

3. A 15-minute “defense of learning” presentation to a panel of educators, community leaders, community partners, and students after which a Q & A session is held, and panelists provide student presenters with feedback, detailed ratings, and a “Pass” or “Fail” outcome.

Evaluation: Student growth throughout their High School years is an important consideration. As such, projects are evaluated by both Panelists and Students. Panelist rubrics evaluate ~11 project elements along a growth scale that ranges from Emerging, Developing, Proficient, and Advanced*

*See TABLE 1 Evaluation Rubric for detail

Students also reflect and evaluate themselves on their status and growth in two of four “learning outcomes” (Written communication, Agency, Collaboration, and Knowledge and Thinking)

DETAIL on Defense of Learning Process, Projects, Presentations, and Evaluation

SNTHS is invested heavily in Defense of Learning, such that they designate half-days to complete all DOL presentations, running several panels concurrently, each attended by local administrators, industry partners, and students. When Sacramento Unified School District’s Superintendent Jorge A. Aguilar commended student presenters’ “great growth in skills and identifying passions,” Principal Jessica Martin’s response was “DOL is such a big part of SNT High School and culture! Key emphasis is placed on student growth. For example, student work is saved from Freshman year through Senior year, making self-reflection as part of DOL project reflection a critical part of this growth.”

Additionally, Board Member & Trustee Taylor Kayatta - who also served as a panelist hearing DOL presentations - posted the following on his Facebook page, " I had a great time evaluating Sophomore and Senior Defense of Learning presentations at Sacramento New Technology High School. These students walked us through their projects and discussed their career plans. I was impressed by what I saw!

Preparation – Completing DOL projects can take several months to complete. And while no dedicated DOL preparation classes exist, SNTHS does have a Public Speaking class that was created to support their seniors in producing great presentations using the skills they learn in this semester long class. DOL projects are intended to showcase how time spent learning and honing new skills from the Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways - Computer Science and Media (Film Production) Pathway have prepared students for college and/or to help find their passion, and to begin to achieve career goals.

Students described having no known skills prior to their project, but learned programs like Adobe Pro (video editing, video storytelling) or “Unity” (game creation software) in their media classes, which resulted in video creation, editing, and even game creations, and animation. Importantly, students shared how their learnings evolved into the development of a passion for incorporating these skills into career/professional and educational goals.

Personalization – An effective presenter understands the importance of connecting with their audience, imparting information (sometimes personal) in a way that engages and enhances audience interest by providing context. In the case of DOL presentations, context was related to what inspired student goals, and related DOL projects. Students effectively endeared themselves to panel members, with their real life, heartfelt experiences. For example, Sacramento Unified School District’s Superintendent Jorge A. Aguilar related to one student’s personal story and extended an invitation to breakfast, to discuss their shared experience with parental deportation.

Poise/” Grace Under Fire” – Many do not experience presenting research or a project until after High School. Adding to the pressure of a high stakes’ presentation, some students were unable to share their project videos – the essence of their work – due to connection difficulties. While technical difficulties would rattle the nerves of an experienced presenter, SNTHS DOL presenters didn’t skip a beat. They were taught that “the show must go on” and moved forward with the poise and grace of a professional. Nicely done DOL presenters!

For those previously unfamiliar with the Defense of Learning program, we hope the above has been useful. DOL is what’s next for Graduating Seniors - Out with “Senior Projects” and In with New Media/High Tech that enables students to find a passion, do the research, and defend their high school learnings!

About Sacramento New Tech High School: Sacramento New Technology High School Mission – “We commit ourselves to:

• Educational excellence

• Learning through collaboration with family, business, community, and other students

• Using advanced learning methods, technology, and a professional environment to stimulate higher levels of learning.

Creating relationships and opportunities to consistently provide innovative technology and high-quality work and college experiences for high school students.

Contact: Office Hours: 9am – 4pm (or by appointment) Mail: support@snths.org Call: (916) 395-5254 Visit the Sacramento City Unified School District website

Author: Cassandra Santisteban csantisteban1204@gmail.com 916-847-7518

After the Memorial Day Holiday (May 29th) students will come to school for Finals on Tuesday, May 30th and Wednesday, May 31st.

As a reminder, Finals look different at New Tech. During finals, ALL of our students give presentations on the final, culminating products of the projects they have been working on.

Note: Students are REQUIRED to dress professionally during finals.

Be sure to follow the Finals Day Bell Schedule (above).

Our last day of school for the 2022-23 school year is coming up fast!

This is a shortened day! School will end at 12:39.

On the last day of school, we have TWO Special events for our students. The first one is our Spring Semester Awards Assembly. This is where we recognize students from each class who are 1) Most Improved and 2) Most Outstanding.

We are so proud of our Timberwolves and we want to celebrate their hard work before we send them off to summer!

The SECOND Special Tradition we have for our students is TECH FEST!

This is a whole school fun and competitive event. This is a time where our advisories come back together for one last fun and friendly competition.

As stated above, school will end at 12:39pm and this is when our students will need to be picked up for the summer!

May

• 6th - PTSA's School Clean-up Day
• 8th - Parent Power Hour - Final Meeting
• 11th - Spring Showcase
• 24th-26th - Senior Trip
• 29th - Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL
• 30th-31st - Finals

June

• 1st - Last Day of School, Spring Awards, Tech Fest
• 1st - Senior Awards Night
• 2nd - Senior Breakfast and Graduation Rehearsal - 8:30am
• 2nd - Graduation Ceremony - 4:30pm

Parents! Please spread the word that Sac New Tech is accepting students for the 2023-24 School Year. Families that are interested in enrolling should come straight to the school to enroll. They DO NOT need to enroll through the district enrollment center.

Sacramento New Technology High School is a dependent charter school in the Sac City School District. We are an open enrollment school and we do not have an attendance boundary. Anyone from anywhere can attend Sac New Tech as long as they are committed to attending school in person.

We teach students the post graduate skills they need to be successful after high school, and we do this through project-based learning, defense of learning, and real college courses at a local community college. Students who attend Sac New Tech froom 9th grade have the opportunity to take several college courses before they even graduate high school.

We have school tours every Tuesday from 9-10am. Please call ahead and let us know you will coming to tour the school. If your student is interested in shadowing for a day, please give us a call and we will set that up!

Come and be a Timberwolf!

Email: info@snths.org
Website: newtech.scusd.edu
Location: 1400 Dickson Street, Sacramento, CA, USA
Phone: 916-395-5254
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SacNewTech