Fountain Valley School District Newsletter

On behalf of the Fountain Valley School District and our Board of Trustees, we want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!! 2018 was an extraordinary year for FVSD with strong increases in achievement, significant progress in the construction of Masuda and Courreges, as well as the design of Cox, Fulton and Tamura, the further implementation of a robust professional development program and the strengthening of a highly effective culture.

In this issue, we...

Celebrate Students and Parents
Provide a Construction Update on Courreges and Masuda
Support Childhood Cancer Research and Awareness
Share Strategies with Parents on CGI

I greatly appreciate each of you for your commitment to our students, as well as your dedication to one another and to our District. FVSD is a very special community, because of the people who choose to make it an exceptional place to live, work and go to school. We hope you enjoy some of our recent highlights!!

As always, thank you for all you do to support teaching and learning.

Kindly,
Mark Johnson, Ed.D.

Superintendent

HIGHLIGHT: Trustees Honor Oka and Tamura Students and Parents at January Board Meeting

At their January meeting, the Board of Trustees had the opportunity to celebrate some outstanding students and dedicated volunteers from Oka and Tamura Schools. The meeting began with Girl Scout Troop 4166 leading the Pledge of Allegiance. From Oka School, the Board honored and thanked parents Nicole Brecht and Carrie Wood. And from Tamura School, the Board honored and thanked parents James Arrighi and Frank Drechsler. In addition, from Oka School, the Board celebrated the accomplishments and outstanding efforts of students Gavin Donnelly (K), Olivia Calderella (1st), Daniel Ortiz (2nd), Angelina Nguyen (3rd), Joyce Sato (4th), and Trevor Parker (5th). And from Tamura School, students Bush Co (TK), Nathan Soderberg (K), Lucas Gilliam (1st), Maci Ford (2nd), Samantha Lam (3rd), Julius Castro (4th), and Caroline Drechsler (5th). It was a wonderful evening spent in celebration of our amazing parent community, dedicated and outstanding students and outstanding staff from both Oka and Tamura Schools! For more photos from the evening, visit our Facebook page.

UPDATE: Construction Progresses Well at Courreges and Masuda; Cox, Fulton and Tamura Set for Summer Groundbreaking

Construction at our Measure O Phase I Schools, Masuda and Courreges, continues to progress well. At Masuda, phase three is nearing completion with teachers scheduled to move back into their rooms at the end of February. Phase three focused on the B Core and will mean eight more classrooms at Masuda have air conditioning, in addition to new flooring, ceilings and paint. At Courreges, phase three in the library core has begun with six upper grade classrooms soon to see the benefits of improved air quality. It is exciting the see the dramatic changes at both campuses and more so, to hear the positive comments from our community!

Moreover, our Phase II Schools, Fulton Middle School, Tamura Elementary School and Cox Elementary School, have all received approval of their plans from the Department of State Architect (DSA). These schools are set to break ground during the summer of 2019.

With half of our campuses undergoing transformation through design and construction as part of Measure O, it has been a busy and exciting time in our District. We continue to be grateful to our community for their generous support of our students and staff through Measure O!

JOIN US: FVSD Focuses on Pediatric Cancer Awareness with Gold Day February 15th

One of the greatest parts of this community is our willingness to join hands and support each other during challenging times. To this end, we are partnering with local families to raise awareness and funding for pediatric cancer research. On February 15, please join the entire FVSD Family as we Go Gold for International Childhood Cancer Day. We are kindly asking everyone to wear yellow or gold to school on February 15th to show your support for the students and families who have experienced the damaging impact of childhood cancer. In addition, we hope that everyone in the FVSD community will consider donating $1 on February 15th to combat this disease through the support of childhood cancer research. All proceeds will be donated directly to the Irvine-based Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. Each school will be sending out additional details regarding how you can participate. For more information, visit internationalchildhoodcancerday.org .

SPOTLIGHT: CGI Resources for Parents

Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) helps to elicit children's mathematical thinking to use as a basis for instructional decisions. It's an approach to teaching mathematics that allows teachers to connect new math ideas to students' prior knowledge to promote a deeper conceptual understanding of a chosen concept. As a parent/guardian, there are so many things you can do to help your student learn to solve problems, communicate mathematically and to demonstrate reasoning abilities, all fundamental to learning mathematics.

Here are some points to help your student understand and reinforce at home:

Problems can be solved in different ways -- Although most math problems have only one answer, there may be many ways to get to that answer.
Wrong answers can sometimes be useful -- Accuracy is always important. However, sometimes a wrong answer can be used to help your student figure out why s/he made a mistake. Analyzing a wrong answer can help your student understand the concepts underlying the problem and learn to apply reasoning skills to arrive at the correct answer.
Take risks! -- Help your student be a risk taker and to see the value of trying to solve a problem, even if it's difficult.
Being able to do math in your head is important -- Math is not limited to pencil and paper activities. Mental math is a valuable skill that comes in handy in everyday life (grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc.). By using mental math, your student's math skills will become stronger.
It's sometimes okay to use a calculator to solve math problems -- Calculators are widely used today and knowing how to use them correctly is important. The key is not to let your student fall back on the excuse, "I don't need to know math; I have a calculator."

In addition, there are some great resources online for both you and your student:

TAG IT!: #FVSDDriven #WeHeartFVSD

As noted above, our theme for 2018-19 is FVSD Driven! We hope that you will join us in documenting how you are "FVSD Driven" by capturing the amazing moments in our schools and tagging your photos on social media #FVSDDriven #WeHeartFVSD.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

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