The Howl - First Quarter

Central Coast New Tech High

From the Principal

CCNTH Community,

It has been a fantastic start to the 2018-19 school year. I have enjoyed getting to know our students and many of the parents as well. It is hard to believe we are nearing the end of our 1st quarter. Our students have either completed or are nearing the end of their first projects. I have been so impressed with our students’ collaboration and communication skills in preparing for and presenting their first projects of the year. I encourage all of our parents and community partners to get involved in project panels by volunteering a couple of hours or even a day toward providing student project feedback. It will not only benefit our students but it will also help you to better understand the impressive work your children are doing here at CCNTH.

The safety of our students/staff is the number one priority at CCNTH/NHS. With this in mind, I strongly request that our parent/guardian and student drivers follow all traffic rules with respect to drop off and pick up including abiding by our “No U-Turn” signs and also driving slowly through the CCNTH parking lot. New Tech Way and our parking lot are not ideal, and I have had several meetings to assess how we can make the situation better. There have been a few close calls, as a few students and teachers have almost been hit by accelerating cars in our parking lot and a few cars have almost been hit by the illegal U-Turns. It is imperative that we all drive slowly and carefully to keep everyone safe. When dropping off students on New Tech Way, use the yellow right-hand drop-off curb and then turn right, exiting on Titan Way until 7:40am. After 7:40am, please merge to the left hand lane carefully and loop through the CCNTH parking lot. If dropping off students in the CCNTH lot, please stay to the right when dropping off your student and then merge carefully to the left taking heed to the oncoming flow of traffic and students/staff crossing the parking lot. If dropping off students who have PE first period at NHS, it would be best for those students to be dropped off at the gym. Another drop off consideration is on Mallaugh where students can cross the pedestrian bridge to get onto campus. Thank you all for keeping our campus safe during these busy times.

On a lighter note, remember to keep updated with our school by liking us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and checking our website for other important updates.

I look forward to a wonderful 2nd quarter at CCNTH. Go Direwolves!

Sarah Butler

Parents of the Pack (Boosters)

Our first Booster’s meeting of the year was held on September 11, and we had 25 parents in attendance! We discussed many fundraising ideas and decided on two large fundraisers this year, one in October and one in the spring (Family Bunco Night). It is important to note that our small school community does not have a large budget, therefore we are reliant on donations to keep our special student programs strong and resilient.

Our first fundraiser will be the BOOvine Patty Bingo which will take place on October 31st during lunch. It will be filmed via Facebook Live for our parents and community to view the action.

How it works? Our Robotics Club has created a Robotic Cow to randomly drop an emoji cow patty (created by our Makerspace students) on a lucky square. Ticket price for reserving one numbered square is $40. The Boosters hopes to sell 400 tickets within the month of October. If 400 tickets are sold, the 1st place winner will receive $2,000. If 300 tickets are sold, $1,000 will go to the winner. And if 200 tickets are sold, $750 will go to the winner. In addition, there will be a 2nd and 3rd place winner who will receive a special “mystery” gift, TBD. This fundraiser has definitely been a labor of love by our CCNTH students as the Robotic Cow, the tickets, the posters, the layout of the squares in the “pasture”, and the emoji cow patty have all been student created! A definite New Tech experience! We truly appreciate your support in this upcoming fundraiser as we support our school together!

Plans for supporting the school this year include providing SAT/ACT prep classes and building a larger frontage sign on Thompson Ave/New Tech Way in addition to many other school needs. Currently, we are in need of volunteers and materials to get the frontage sign project accomplished. Please contact the Booster President, Jason Kaufman at [email protected] , or the school's office if interested.

COUNSELOR'S CORNER

SAT/ACT PREP CLASS

Students who are planning on taking the SAT and/or the ACT exams this year can sign up to take the SAT/ACT Prep Class to help them prepare for these exams. The cost is $40 and takes place on Tuesdays and Wednesday, 3:00 to 4:30, for 3 consecutive weeks. If you want your student to take this class please have them bring $40 to Mrs. Crowe in the Front Office. Cash or check made payable to CCNTH Boosters.

HANCOCK CAREER EXPLORATION DAY

Hancock College's 14th Annual Career Exploration Day is taking place this Friday, October 5th. We will have a bus to transport our students down to the college so they can spend the morning talking to industry leaders about great careers as well as the various training programs at Allan Hancock College. If your student wants to attend, please have them sign up in the Front Office, and pick up a field trip permission slip. The bus leaves CCNTH at 8:30am Friday morning and will return around 12:00pm.

PSAT FOR JUNIORS & FRESHMEN:

We still have a few spots open for Freshmen and Juniors to sign up for the PSAT test which is being given here at CCNTH next Wednesday, October 10th. The cost is $20. If you want your student to take the exam please have them drop payment off with Mrs. Lujano. Cash or check made payable to CCNTH.

CASH FOR COLLEGE:

The first opportunity for our Senior parents to attend a Cash For College workshop will be next Monday at the Nipomo High School Library from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Please see this FLYER to get additional information and to see what you need to bring with you.

CUESTA COLLEGE PROMISE DAY:

If your Senior is planning on attending Cuesta College next Fall, please make sure they sign up to attend the Cuesta College Promise Day taking place on Friday, October 19th. They can sign up in the Front Office and pick up a permission slip as well.

Please make sure you check out our Counselor's Page on our CCNTH website. We will be adding to it soon and keeping it updated.

ASB News

The CCNTH student leaders have been very busy so far this semester!

To summarize our year so far, we kicked off our school year with our Culture Days celebration! Student leaders also planned and implemented a school wide Club Fair where we promoted clubs such as Robotics, Leo, Garden, and Link Crew, just to name a few.

We recently finished the second annual intramural volleyball tourney where the teachers rose to victory!

This past Friday was Gold Day which is in recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness month. The campus was shimmering with the color of GOLD!

We are currently in the thick of planning our Homecoming Fall Feast, Dance, and Spirit Week. The student leaders are also learning about how to effectively plan implement and fundraise for events.They will also be brainstorming new events for CCNTH students.

If you would like to volunteer for our Homecoming Fall Feast please feel free to sign up HERE .

FINALLY, come out to CHIPOTLE in Arroyo Grande this Thursday, October 4th to help us fundraise for our CCNTH students. Show THIS flyer when you dine there between 4-8pm and we will receive 33% of the proceeds! See you there!

SENIORS

Senior Lock In is the first of several FUN THINGS that the Class of 2019 gets to do! Senior Lock In is taking place on Friday October 19th here at New Tech. It runs from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am Saturday, October 20th. Permission slips have been sent home (students can get extras from Ms. Mitchell). Can't wait to see all the seniors there! For more information on Senior Lock In, please check out this FLYER ,

In our Senior English class, we’ve finished college essays, letters of intent, and scholarships. We’ve begun our project on Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, diving into the idea of “inspiration” and what that means to us and to others.

Seniors who are planning on going to Cuesta College next Fall (or have as a back up), need to sign up to attend the Cuesta Promise Day which is on Friday, October 19th. We will have a bus transport our students to Cuesta for the event. Seniors must sign up in the Front Office with Mrs. Crowe and pick up a permission slip for you to sign.

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS

WORLD STUDIES:

Freshmen are learning about their family history and their immigration path to the United States. They are looking into various tumultuous regions and times throughout the world. In addition, they are reading The House on Mango Street to gain an immigrant’s cultural experience. They will be presenting to the entire Freshmen class and writing a historical narrative based on their family story.

AMERICAN STUDIES:

Students are continuing their exploration of the founding of the America by exploring lesser-known figures of the American Revolution era. They are working in teams of 2-3 to create a biography of their person, and share with us why their story is important. Soon, we’ll be moving into the history of the 1920’s era.

POLITICAL STUDIES:

MATH:

Integrated Math 1

Students have been practicing modeling and interpreting different types of functions in the form of graphs, tables, and equations by looking for patterns within these different forms of mathematical representation. They now move into diving deeper into linear functions and will extend their learning to generalize and conceptualize the basic forms, procedures and real-world applications of this important model for constant rate of change.

Integrated Math 2

Students in Integrated 2 have begun the year with looking at direct and inverse variation forms and explaining the relationships between the variables involved. To get a clear understanding of the relationships, students raced each other, and recorded distance and time as an example. Along the way they have done intense work that connects with their Chemistry class and involves manipulating functions and mathematical expressions to isolate a specific variable.

The class is now learning how to work with multiple functions at once and find solutions that work for all equations simultaneously, known as solving systems of equations. More importantly the students are extending these skills to be able to model real-world scenarios by creating the system of equations from given information. They have done this by looking at the relationship between height and number of cups in a stack, as well as the relationship between shots made and points scored in a basketball game.

Integrated Math 3

The class has been working to extend their understanding of solving quadratic functions, looking at several different methods and procedures to model and find solutions for these important functions. Taking these techniques even further, the students have begun looking at finding intersections of multiple functions, similar to, but a much deeper look at systems of equations that they learned last year in Integrated Math 2.

Honors Calculus

Students began the year reviewing basic function analysis for quadratic and exponential functions, learning new techniques along the way for extending the concepts they gained in the Integrated Math series. Notably, the class has recently been exploring the relationship between exponential forms and the use of logarithms as a way of manipulating the exponential equation to solve for various unknowns in a given real-world application such as population growth, radioactive decay, or compound interest problems.

Statistics

Students have been diving into statistical data and learning techniques for manipulating the data via spreadsheets to determine patterns in that data and create meaningful graphs and other visual interpretations as well as looking deeply at the concept of standard deviation.

SCIENCE:

Biology

Students are wrapping up their first project “This is Me”, an integrated Project with R&C, World Studies, and Spanish. They have been studying concepts in genetics and crafting family pedigrees to help them in answering the driving question “Who am I and how can I prove it?” We are all looking forward to our whole class presentations this week! Next up is Cancer Awareness, a project focusing on community service, cell biology, and anatomy.

Chemistry

The chemists just finished up a project called Units, Units Everywhere where they participated in a Philosophical Chairs Debate in which they addressed the driving question: Should the US continue to use the standard system of measurement or should we change to metric? We will now be moving onto our Heatpack/Coldpack Challenge where they will blend chemistry and marketing in order to see how energy can be used to make profitable business decisions. Stay tuned if you would like to be on our panel for the student sales pitches November 13-16!

Physics

The Physics students just finished their first project exploring the skills and practices of physicists and engineers. Students designed, tested and competed in a 5 meter bungee egg drop. Now, our next project will be investigating the physics behind animation and video game design.

Microbiology

Microbiology students just wrapped up a whole project on safety and laboratory techniques, preparing them for the different materials and equipment we will be using this year and teaching them how to be safe around bacteria. They have just started their new project, “I’m Covered in What?!,” where they will be learning about infectious diseases, how they infect and spread as well as how to prevent and treat them. Their end product will be an informational piece for SLO County Public Health to use to inform other students about these diseases.

Environmental Science

Students have been working hard on finishing a tiny house on wheels! This tiny home will be donated to Hope’s Village of SLO, a non-profit whose goal is to alleviate the struggles of our local homeless population by providing them with housing while they work to find employment and eventually get back on their feet.

ELECTIVES & CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION (CTE)

Psychology

Students are completing their first project about Consciousness and Self-Awareness. Student teams have been researching different strategies to increase our Self-Awareness and have led the class through mini-workshops about their chosen strategy. Our next project will be about exploring “Personality.”

Spanish 1, 2 and 3

Driving Question: Who are we and how do we celebrate our diversity ? (This driving question is for all three classes and answered differently in each).

Spanish 1 : Project #1: ¡Soy yo! (This is me!) Each student is answering our driving question above by creating 20+ sentences about themselves and their family members. They are doing this project in conjunction with R&C as well as Biology class. The non-Freshmen Spanish 1 students will do a similar project only writing the 20+ sentences in Spanish and presenting on themselves and their families.

Spanish 2 : Project #1: ¡Eres tú! (This is you!) Each student is answering our driving question above by creating 25+ sentences about a partner in class and their respective families. They have sent emails home to their partner´s family asking them questions about themselves, their background, and dislikes; they will be including this information in the final product. They will present on each others´ families and have to memorize 10% of their presentations all in Spanish.

Spanish 3 : Project #1: ¡Soy yo y este es mi mundo! (This is me and this is my world!) Each student is answering our driving question above by creating 30+ descriptive sentences about who they are as a person. They will include the most important elements of them, their families, friends, and hobbies. They will go beyond basic biographical information and have to memorize 25% of their final presentations.

Spanish 2 and 3 have also just completed a mini grammar review workshop done in groups where they took a review concept, became an expert in it, and presented a workshop for the class to participate in to review the concepts from Spanish 1 and 2. These were excellent!

Media Arts

Students in the Per 3 Advanced Media Arts class presented their Digital Media work for the Still Frothy Surf Festival to Ryan and Kyle from the Still Frothy Board of Directors. Student work was used for a couple of promotional items including a booth background and social media promotions to help promote the event. The Still Frothy Surf Festival is a non-profit event held for the past 9 years in Pismo Beach with the goal of generating interest in youth competitive surfing and providing scholarships and financial assistance to local youth.

Digital Foundations students just wrapped up final revisions on the redesign of the new CCNTH Business Card design. Student designs will go out for staff vote later in the week.

Computer Science & Game Design

Computer Science students have just finished their first project - An “ A-Mazing Intro ” to Computer Science! It was our first experience with both programming and robotics. Students were tasked with programming an Arduino robot to navigate a maze and the competition was fierce. Next up.. Web Development!

Game Design students are started to wrap up their first project as well - Capture the Flag ! But.. This is not the Capture the Flag you used to play out on the field in PE class! Used as a cybersecurity educational tool, “Capture the Flag” or “CTF” games are generally a set of challenges that introduce players to cybersecurity concepts and tools. As an introduction to designing games and seeking player feedback, teams of students were challenged with creating their own cybersecurity games, and of course, playing them too! Some students were also inspired to play in this year’s picoCTF game on their own time, which has a $5000 prize! The 2018 picoCTF game started on Friday 9/28 and runs until Friday 10/12.. Please wish them luck!

Research & Communications (R&C)

We are wrapping up our first project of the year, This Is Me! To learn more about what we have been exploring, read the Project Guidelines . Students have been answering the driving question, Who am I and how can I prove it? This is an integrated project between World Studies, Biology, R&C and Spanish. They will be presenting their findings and whatever they create (poster or other physical product) during the week of October 1. You can also encourage them to practice their presentation in front of you before they present.

Entrepreneurial Mindsets

We are continuing to work on our first project of the year, Entrepreneurial Mindsets Gallery! To learn more about what we will been exploring, read the Project Guidelines . Students will be answering the driving question, What makes someone an Entrepreneur? Students will be presenting their findings and whatever they create on October 16 or October 18 .

To sign up to be part of this unique panel experience where you will score and offer feedback to our students, CLICK HERE .

Makerspace

We’ve been making stuff in Makerspace!!! It is so exciting to have an official Makerspace class this year! Thanks again to everyone who has supported the build out of the workspace. The Makerspace mural is complete, but there is more to come.. Stay tuned for amazing work from our CCNTH makers!

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Sarah Butler, Principal

Central Coast New Tech High School

Phone (805)474-3350

Fax (805)929-2770