Mark West Charter School
Newsletter
2/24/23
Ms. Franci: We are looking for 3 yard supervisors and 2 crossing guards. The shifts for yard supervisor are: morning break from 10:00-10:15 on Wed. from 9:57-10:12 and lunch break from 12:20-1:05 on Wed. from 12:50-1:20. The crossing guard shifts, one on Lavell and another on Old Redwood Highway, are from
2:40-3:25 and on Wednesday from 12:50-1:35. If you know of anyone that may be interested, please have them go to https://mwusd.org/employment/ to fill out the application.
Independent Study Contracts: Must be for no less than 3 days and for no longer than 14 days. Please remember that we need at least 5 days notice to get an Independent Study ready to go. It takes the teachers quite a bit of time to get all the materials together. If you are needing a contract please let Nikki Dale in the office know so she can get the paperwork started. Thank you for your cooperation!
COVID Protocols: If your child is out sick or if they are sent home sick, we require a negative COVID test before they can return. Please send a photo of the negative result labeled with your child’s name and date of test to Mrs. Dale at ndale@mwusd.org. If you do not have access to a COVID test, we are more than happy to provide one for you to administer, upon request.
PTA: Our wonderful PTA surprised the staff with sugar cookies on Valentine’s Day that had our logo on it. They were beautiful and delicious! THANK YOU!
Mr. Carusone: My 7th grade students just started a novel study of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This novel explores three important thematic topics 1) Dystopian Society 2) Survival 3) Violence in Reality TV by answering the following essential questions: a) How is Panem a Dystopian Society? b) How does any ruling class maintain power? c) What is my role and impact on society? d) How can using individual strengths and/or intelligence help someone survive? e) What is the importance of alliances to survival? f) What is real and what is manipulation in reality TV? g) How can people change perceptions in order to win?
From Mrs. Sunde: 7th graders recently had a guest presenter from the Sonoma County Water agency in our science classes. We learned about how electricity is generated in Sonoma County and then participated in a turbine design challenge.
From Ms. Woods: 8th Grade ELA – Has been reading The Diary of Anne Frank, which will culminate with a timeline project. The project can be on a poster, a digital slide presentation, or a WeVideo. Students will not only show at least ten of the events that stood out to them in the novel, but will also be showing what was happening in Europe (outside the Annexe) at the same time. As we have been reading the novel, students have been honing their annotation skills, working on critical thinking while answering comprehension questions, and focusing on developing vocabulary.
8th Grade History – We jumped forward to World War II while reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Students completed mini-projects on important figures during the war. We learned about women and men that risked their lives to save Jewish people and others who were persecuted during the Holocaust. One group in each block reported on the Tuskegee Airmen, another on Chiune Sugihara, and many others. We have now moved on and have traveled back in time to just before the civil war. We are learning about the changes being made to our early government and our nations fight to make this the best country for all its people.
From Mrs. Kaufman: The “Make Music” elective class is preparing to perform at two short music assemblies on Tuesday, February 28 at 1:30 and 1:45. The class will be performing an improvisational piece on bucket drums, a simple piece for marimbas called “Easy EC,” a more complex rhythmic work for bucket drums by Olivier Cutz called “The Camel,” and an African-inspired piece for voice and various percussion instruments–including conga drum, bongos, cabasa, frame drum, maracas, woodblock, and marimbas called “Funga Alafia” by LaRocque Bey. Our audiences will be the students of Mark West Elementary and Mark West Charter. We are looking forward to the performance!
From Mrs. Lemieux:
Math Squared
Math Squared has been focusing on the language of math this quarter, as well as reviewing the math skills needed to tackle what they are learning in their core math class. Here is an activity in which students matched the vocabulary terms and definitions, making the hearts “whole”. We have also enjoyed some games like “Trashketball”.
From Ms. Dickey:
8th Grade Math/Science
This month in math, students wrapped up their long unit on linear equations. They even prepared a study guide as a class and presented it to each other! We have now begun our exploration of systems of linear equations, which will build on the knowledge they gained in the previous unit. We started the new unit by reviewing previous skills using mini whiteboards.
Science
In science, we have continued learning about atoms. Each student “adopted” an element and have begun building a “baby block” to highlight the important information they have learned about their adopted element. After researching their elements, students had to draw their template for their baby block, which was a fun tie-in of math and science (they had to call on their geometry skills to draw the template). Students will also be making “mini” periodic tables of the first 18 elements in class before the end of the quarter. We also had an amazing presentation from Sonoma Clean Power and Sonoma Water where students were able to explore clean energy. They made their own wind generators to see what type of wind blade generated the most wind energy.
Forensics
In Forensics, we wrapped up our unit on impression evidence. Students had to try and match bite mark evidence. We then moved on to chromatography (separating a mixture into its components). Students were able to practice this in a lab where they separated marker colors into their component dye colors. We will wrap up the quarter with some information on blood and DNA evidence.
Important Dates:
February 28: Parent Workshop on the Dangers of Social Media held at the District Office Learning Center at 6:00
March 1: 8th grade field trip to LBC for Mayhem Poets at 8:30 am
Charter Girls Basketball Practice at 1:20
Charter Girls Basketball Game at 4:00
March 2: Charter Girls Basketball Practice at 3:10
PTA Board Meeting at 5:30 pm in Rooms C5 and C6 at MWCS
March 3: MWCS End of Third Quarter
“Caught You Being Good” Movie at 1:05
Charter Girls Basketball Practice at 3:10
March 6: Charter Girls Basketball Game at 4:00
PTA Bowling Night at Epicenter at 6:00 pm
March 7: PTA Bowling Night at Epicenter at 6:00 pm
March 8: 7th grade Bike Rodeo
March 14: District Board Meeting at 5:00 pm in the Learning Center at the District Office
March 16: PTA General Meeting at 5:30 pm in Rooms C5 and C6 at MWCS
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
MWCS Report Cards sent home with students
March 20-24: Spring Break – No School
April 5: DELAC Meeting at 6:00 in the MWE Library
April 6: School Site Council Meeting at 3:15
April 6: PTA Board Meeting at 5:30
April 7: Non-instructional day – No School
April 10: Non Instructional Day – No School
April 11: District Board Meeting at 5:00pm
April 17: Professional Day – No School for Students
April 20: PTA General Meeting at 5:30pm
April 28: PTA Sponsored Walk-a-Thon (all day)
May 4: PTA Board Meeting at 5:30pm
May 5: Cinco de Mayo
May 8-12: Staff Appreciation Week
May 9: District Board Meeting at 5:00pm
May 12: Honor Roll Field Trip to SRJC 9:30-11:45
May 18: MWCS Open House at 5:30pm
May 19: Professional Development Day – No School for Students
May 25: Caught You Being Good Movie from 1-3:10
PTA General Meeting at 5:30pm
May 26: Epicenter All School Field Trip 9-2:30
May 29: Memorial Day – No School
May 30 – June 2: MWCS Finals Week Early Release each day (12:30pm)
June 1: PTA Board Meeting at 5:30pm
June 2: 8th Grade Promotion at 8:30am
Last Day of School
June 8: 4th Quarter MWCS Report Cards mailed home
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