November Highlights
- At the end of last month, TLC Teen Club students took a trip to Finance Park, where they learned the foundational knowledge and skills they need to make smart, lifelong financial decisions. Guided by volunteers, this program takes students through an adult life simulation where they learn how to budget, save, and spend for themselves and their virtual families.
- Middle and High School Families participated in San Diego Fleet Week though a field trip that offered interactive displays, tours, and hands-on demonstrations around STEM activities.
- TLC Chula Vista's Student Council organized a Fall Festival earlier this month to fundraise for HS activities, giving students a chance to get into the fall spirit and support the school.
- History Field Day provided a fun and educational trip in Julian for families. Activities included candle making, a lilac maze, historical presentations, and more.
Social-Emotional Learning
National School Psychology Week
Each year, National School Psychology Week takes place the second week of November. This is a time to raise awareness about what School Psychologists do, and how they can support students.
Who are School Psychologists and what do they do?
The following description is taken from The National Association of School Psychologists:
School psychologists are uniquely qualified members of school teams that support students' ability to learn and teachers' ability to teach. They apply expertise in mental health, learning, and behavior, to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. School psychologists partner with families, teachers, school administrators, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community.
What Training Do School Psychologists Receive?
School psychologists receive specialized advanced graduate preparation that includes coursework and practical experiences relevant to both psychology and education. School psychologists typically complete either a specialist-level degree program (at least 60 graduate semester hours) or a doctoral degree (at least 90 graduate semester hours), both of which include a year-long 1,200 hour supervised internship.
What Do School Psychologists Do?
School psychologists provide direct support and interventions to students, consult with teachers, families, and other school-employed mental health professionals (i.e., school counselors, school social workers) to improve support strategies, work with school administrators to improve school-wide practices and policies, and collaborate with community providers to coordinate needed services.
Why Do Children Need School Psychologists?
All children and youth can face problems from time to time related to learning; social relationships; making difficult decisions; or managing emotions such as feeling depressed, anxious, worried, or isolated. School psychologists help students, families, educators, and members of the community understand and resolve both long-term, chronic problems and short-term issues that students may face. They are a highly skilled and ready resource in the effort to ensure that all children and youth thrive in school, at home, and in life.
Meet TLC's School Psychologists
Brittney Rosas-Davis
Brittney joined The Learning Choice Academy this year. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychological Sciences from California State University, San Marcos and a Masters/Education Specialist degree from Alliant International University in School Psychology, with an emphasis in School-Based Mental Health and Pupil Personnel Services credential. During her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, getting coffee, and reading books.
How Brittney helps students at TLC: Brittney provides support for the special education department. She helps to identify students who require special education services and works with a team to create and/or adjust IEPs. She also provides individual counseling for students dealing with difficulties such as stress, anxiety, academic difficulties, and social challenges at school.
Brittney says she enjoys being a School Psychologist at TLC because,
I enjoy working collaboratively with staff, families, and other professionals to create a positive and supportive learning environment.
Meet TLC's School Psychologists
Juzenne Toledo
Juzenne Toledo has been at TLC for over a year now. She has her Bachelors degree in Sociology from SDSU and a Masters from Alliant International University in School Psychology with a PPS credential. Juzenne did her 2 year internship program working for the San Diego County Office of Education at the Juvenile Court and Community Schools and at Chula Vista Elementary School District. With over 7 years experience of working with students of all ages, she has a strong background in mental health and child development.
Outside of work, Juzenne likes to spend time with her husband, Brandon and their dog, Milo. They love trying out the best coffee shops and restaurants in San Diego together. Juzenne loves travelling to new places, baking, listening to music, going to the gym and reading.
How Juzenne helps students at TLC: Juzenne can support students and parents when they have concerns or questions regarding behavior, academics, and social emotional needs. She can answer questions regarding IEPs and related services.
Juzenne says she enjoys being a School Psychologist at TLC because,
I love making connections with students and being able to help support their mental health. Additionally, I enjoy using analysis of data (standardized, behavioral, SST, classroom assessment data) to create recommendations for student success.
Alumni Spotlight
Sasha Gracia Ruiz
What year did you graduate?
2021
What school site did you attend?
La Mesa
What was your favorite part about attending TLC?
I loved the flexibility TLC offered. Even with a lot going on in my personal life, I could still attend school and loved the independent learning aspect.
What are you doing now?
I’m currently interning at TLC, working on various projects—mainly the tiny house project, which was my biggest accomplishment in high school. I’m also a senior at SDSU and will be graduating in December 2024 (early, thanks to the concurrent enrollment courses I took in high school).
How did TLC help prepare you for what you’re doing now or for life after graduation?
TLC helped me a ton with time management and independence. In college, I feel confident handling assignments on my own but also comfortable reaching out for support when I need it.
What’s your advice for current TLC students?
Take advantage of concurrent enrollment! It’s a great way to explore your interests, whether or not college is your goal. It helps you figure out what you enjoy and what you don’t.
Introducing the TLC Blog
As part of our efforts to provide insights to current families and share best practices within the hybrid homeschool community, we are excited to be launching a TLC blog.
Our first blog was just posted on our website and is titled, "Our Approach to Providing a Quality K-12 Homeschool Education." It features helpful strategies to take while homeschooling, particularly when teaching students of different ages.
Below is an excerpt for this blog and you can read the entire piece here.
How to Be Involved in the TLC Blog
If you are interested in writing a blog, or collaborating on a blog, we'd love to hear from you! We're looking to create blogs on diverse topics and all perspectives are welcome, including from teachers, parents, and students. Potential topics, for example, include, "Building a Strong Educational Foundation for Young Students," or "How to Create an Engaging Middle School Homeschool Curriculum."
If you are interested in writing or collaborating on a blog, please email kacie.desmond@learningchoice.org.
Strategies to Homeschool Different Ages (blog excerpt)
Choose curriculum that can be diversified across ages. While there are many great curriculums to choose from, some are more readily adapted to serve different ages than others. For example, The Story of the World is a history curriculum that can be multi-age. For younger students, this curriculum includes read-alouds with corresponding maps and coloring activities. For older students, there are options to read independently and answer comprehension questions as well as dive into hands-on projects. It can therefore serve a diverse age range of students while keeping them challenged and engaged.
Create a schedule. A challenge that comes from one parent homeschooling multi-age students is that you don’t want one or more students sitting idle while you instruct a student of a different age. Having a plan in place as to what each student will be doing at each point of the day is key to ensuring that precious learning time is not wasted. For example, if you plan out a schedule in advance, you can give students independent work to complete in the same time block that you are providing direct instruction to another student, keeping all students engaged during learning hours.
Have a space dedicated to learning. All home learning environments are different and not everyone has a dedicated office or classroom space. Even if it is just a kitchen table, having a space that is dedicated to education and instruction can be supportive of both students and parents. First, it serves as a place where you can keep all supplies in one location. That makes organization and hands-on learning much easier. You can reduce the time spent gathering supplies or looking for materials if they are all kept in one reliable space. Second, it helps to signify when parents are in “teacher mode” versus “parent mode.” This can be a challenge of homeschooling, but having a clearly defined time and space in which learning takes place provides supportive context for both students and parents that school is in session and mom or dad is now the teacher.
Stella Fox, a TLC mom and homeschooling parent of a 10 year old and a 16 year old shares that,
“Creating a cozy learning environment, such as arranging separate desks in the girls’ room so they can work on their assignments independently, is a strategy that has worked for us.”
TLC's Parent Groups
If you are a TLC parent, have you joined TLC's Parent Groups on ParentSquare yet? If not, read below for easy instructions on how to join these groups. To provide more information about what these are, here are the basics:
What: TLC's Parent Groups are ParentSquare groups set up specifically for TLC parents. There is one Parent Group per school site.
Why: We created these groups in response to parents' feedback that they wanted to be able to connect with other TLC parents to ask questions, share resources, and form connections and relationships. TLC parents can use these groups to connect with other parents at their school site. This is a great way to plan meet-ups, ask questions, share ideas, pre-arrange to attend a field trip together or carpool to an event, or simply to meet other parents.
How to Join: TLC San Diego parent, Gracie Modica, created these instructions with screenshots to show parents how to join their parent group. Please note, parents from Chula Vista and La Mesa's ParentSquare dashboard may look slightly different, but the joining process is the same. First, access your site's ParentSquare page (Chula Vista, La Mesa, San Diego), and then follow Gracie's instructions.
Recipes for Before and After Thanksgiving
With Thanksgiving upon us, food and recipes are on the minds of many!
Kaiser Permanente has a curated selection of recipes you can browse and incorporate into your cooking at all times of the year. Look here for any last minute Thanksgiving ideas, be it a side dish or dessert.
What To Do With Leftovers
In addition, Kaiser offered the following article to give us all inspiration for what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers. Instead of letting food go to waste, there are number of creative and healthy ways to turn your leftovers into additional meals. They write:
"After hours of cooking and preparation for Thanksgiving, it feels good to sit down at the dinner table and spend time with the people we care about. If you are left with a bounty of leftovers in your refrigerator after the big meal, here are some innovative ways to enjoy them.
Turkey soup: Consider making a Mexican lime turkey soup by simmering turkey stock with diced white onion, garlic, jalapeño, diced tomato, and dried oregano. Add a handful of shredded turkey a few minutes before removing from the heat. Finish with chopped cilantro and generous squeezes of lime juice to taste.
Breakfast hash: A breakfast hash would be a good way to use any roasted vegetables or greens. Simply chop up the veggies and add them to a pan of sautéed onion and garlic. Grate a little sweet potato in as well. Ground cumin or paprika would work here, too. Sauté the veggies together and top with an egg.
Tacos: Chop any roasted vegetable and shred some turkey leg meat, add lime juice, shredded cabbage, and serrano chile. Put it all on a soft corn tortilla to make a delicious taco.
Stir-fry: Did you make green beans? Whip up a stir-fry with mixed vegetables, green beans, firm tofu, garlic, ginger, and your favorite sauce.
Quinoa cakes: Make these quinoa cakes, with chopped roasted vegetables, leafy greens, and mashed potatoes with some herbs, aromatics, and spices. Try it under a poached egg for breakfast or with a salad for lunch (full recipe here)."
Everything but a Cup
TLC La Mesa staff got into the creative (and fun) spirit this month by hosting an "Everything but a Cup" day. Staff were challenged to stay hydrated while using, well, anything but a cup! You can see some of the alternatives they came up with in the photos below.
Tip of the Month: First Aid Training
One safety theme that is present at all times of year is the importance of first aid. Many young people and professionals learn basic first aid as part of their jobs. For example, this training is required for lifeguards and teachers. However, there is a benefit for EVERYONE to have basic first aid knowledge. The Future Learn blog explains some of the reasons to learn first aid, including:
- It helps save lives – If there is an emergency situation that happens in your presence, you may be the only one equipped to respond. Knowing what to do helps you to remain calm in an emergency and assess what measures you need to take.
- It can provide comfort to others – When a situation is not life-threatening, you will be equipped to provide comfort to someone until a medical professional arrives. The care you provide could also determine how much additional help they need.
- You'll learn how to reduce and prevent injuries – Providing the appropriate care early on could significantly reduce pain and limit the impact of illness or injury. First aid training could also help you prevent injuries before they happen by being more aware of potential hazards and risks.
- It encourages you to look after yourself – Through completing first aid training, you'll also learn how to take care of yourself and think about your own safety.
Where to find First Aid trainings: The American Red Cross is a great resource to find local training opportunities, including many in San Diego.
Safety Drills Recap
This month, our La Mesa site completed two gas leak drills. Each took 5 minutes. The first had 217 participants and the second had 155 participants.
Our San Diego site completed a fire drill in 2 minutes with 113 people evacuating.
And our Chula Vista site completed an active shooter drill at the end of October. 406 staff and students took part in the five minute drill.
STAR Student Recognitions
November: Responsibility
TLC recognizes STAR students each month based on a determined character trait. November's character trait is Responsibility. Students are nominated by their Educational Partners and School Site Administrators. Congratulations to this month's STAR students!
Nahla Baker
Bella Baker
Annabelle Becker
Evey Benavides
Adam Bogdan
Grace Bojorquez
Pepper Camat
Kaylee Cardona
Naomi Carlton
Emilee Corral
Leilani DeVries
Finnleigh Duffy
Ailyn Escobedo
Evelyn Falvey
Corbin Falvey
Gracie Fimbres
Elias Fimbres
Olivia Garcia Nunez
Sierrah George
Genesis Gonzalez
Ayleen Gonzalez
Brooklyn Gray
Mason Gray
Henry Guentner
Emberlynn Hawley
Ben Hochstadt
Francis Johnson
Aaliyah Meier
Ivy Miller
Ian Mills
Audri Murrieta
Avery Nguyen
Jahaira Ortiz
Lilian Parman
Sloan Perry
Makeda Porter
Austin Pratt
David Ramirez-Verdugo
Jamie Redick
Ezekiel Rose
Betsy Sanchez
Warren Sparks
Alexander Stewart
Leonard Teyssier
Pariss Thompson
Hudson Thorsell
Aaliyah Venegas
This month's staff recognitions for Responsibility are:
Anais Alvarez
Amanda Camat
Andy Cardona
Adrianna Gray
Teresa Kelly
Delilah Kostrikin
Jennie Linck
Sheala Scavia
Roxanna Vincent
Roxanna Vincent
Ways To Support
In addition to being a valued member of TLC, there are various ways you can support our school. We'll try to highlight different avenues each month so that you can find a way that feels best for you. And if your support is simply being a member of our community, we're glad you're here!
Support our Chula Vista Care Closet
TLC Chula Vista 1st grade teacher, Tiffany Dvorak, is organizing a care closet to support students at her site. As Tiffany describes it:
"I have seen a need in our school that I would like to help by starting a Care Closet. A Care Closet is a room with clothes and personal hygiene items in it. I have seen the need in my class, but I know others could benefit from it as well. I have had on numerous occasions a child who has needed bottoms from either a potty or spill accident and had nothing to change into. My goal is to collect new underwear and socks, new or used clothes, and new personal hygiene products. With the winter approaching jackets and sweaters will be a huge blessing.
When you or your family are cleaning out your closets please keep our school in mind. If you see a good sale on things like toothpaste or deodorant and feel compelled to bless our closet your donation will be much appreciated. I had a Care Closet at my last school and it was a huge blessing to many students. I know it will be a huge blessing here as well.
Thank you all for your support in this project! I look forward to being able to support our students together!"
How to Help:
1. You can make a monetary donation via the DonorsChoose page.
2. You can donate items by dropping them off at the Chula Vista office anytime during school hours.
Needed Items:
- socks of all sizes
- underwear for all sizes and genders
- jackets
- deodorant
Credits:
Created with images by Irina - "The shape of the brain is lined with daisies on a white background." • Mayava - "Mental wellbeing concept with brain made from flower bloom blowing in the wind" • Rysak - "White Flower Brain on a Turquoise Background" • Brad Pict - "What's new?" • JAYANNPO - "Old shabby painted brick wall texture - blue masonry retro background"