Hello Families!
The weather has turned and fall has arrived. These past two weeks has been filled with Senior nights for girls volleyball and water polo, girls flag football, football and cross country. Our band and choir have had their first shows of the year. The VAPA department has opening night of 12th Night, our fall play, right around the corner and our jazz band will be at Yoshi’s in November. It has been a packed first quarter!
With the quarter ending also comes the first set of grades for the year. We know the first grading period can also bring questions on how to get support for your student who may be struggling in their class or classes.
We ask that all parents create a Canvas parent account. By being a Canvas observer as a parent, you can see the assignments that may be missing or that your child did not do well on. This can be a quick window into the class and what the issues might be. Emails have been sent to all parents who have not signed up to be a Canvas Parent Advisor. If you did not receive one, please feel free to reach out to your student’s Associate Principal and they can get one for you.
The first step when concerns come up is to always start with the teacher. Your child’s teacher is the best person to speak to the challenges your student is facing in the classroom. Our board policy also asks that parents first reach out to the teacher to discuss any concerns.
The best first step is to encourage your student to be their own advocate. Simply go and speak to their teacher and share the worry or challenge they are having. We have noticed this is a skill our students are struggling with. A transferable skill students need to have before graduating is how to advocate for themselves. Our staff is very willing to work with their students, but students have to start by talking to their teacher to know how they can get support. We have many students who want to skip that step, drop the class or try to get a schedule change. A quick way to help students do this is to help students write an email to their teacher sharing their concerns.
Counselors and administrators are also able to support setting up a meeting with a teacher and can also join the meeting if parent or student feels that would be helpful.
In addition to connecting with your students' teachers, we also have our Peer Tutoring program now set up and is being offered Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday from 3:30-4:30 in the library. There is staff onsite to connect students with peer tutors to get support on their assignments.
I also encourage you to ask your student where they are spending their Academy time each week. We have two periods a week students can make appointments so they can complete assignments or get additional help. These periods each week can help a student get back on track quickly in a class if they take advantage of the time.
We know helping to support your student navigate through high school comes with its own set of challenges, I am right there with you that is for sure, but we want Las Lomas to be a part of your child’s team and if we want to partner with you to create that layer of support to surround your student.
One quick reminder, next week will be our last Knight’s news that will come out on Wednesday. Beginning on Nov. 8th, we will begin sending our Knight’s news on Fridays.
Thank you and go Knights!
Heather
