Dear CNMT Community,

I would like to focus on some upcoming events, since we’re close to the end of the school year and there’s a lot going on in these two weeks.

First of all, final exams. Finals start on Friday with periods 5&6. They continue next Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Grades are due on Friday the 15th and verification rosters are due on Monday the 18th.

Tomorrow Arctic Hotspot lunch will be provided for all CNMT teachers to come to R-212 to help plan our CNMT Awards Night, which is being held from 5:00-7:00PM on Friday, June 15.

This Tuesday we have our senior project presentations. All CNMT seniors will be presenting the senior projects they worked on in Mr. J’s class. We have invited guests, and if you haven’t yet RSVP’d, community members are welcome to come. Just send an email to rjayasin [at] lausd [dot] net. I am excited to see what the students have done in this first year. We will meet at 12:30 in R-101 with lunch and the presentations will run from 1:30 – 3:00.

On Tuesday, the RHS Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support Team meets from 3:30 – 5:00 in the Penthouse. This group will be looking at the Roosevelt Discipline Policy for next year, and we will try to get it ready for approval by the SDMC before next Monday the 11th.

On Wednesday after school, the CNMT School Site Council will meet with the Instructional Leadership Team to dive more deeply into our WASC Self-Study. All members of the community are welcome. This meeting takes place in R-212.

During lunch on Thursday, please come out to the quad for the College Prep, Not Prison Prep Rally. We’ll be celebrating the work of the Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support Team and the RHS Principals will sign a pledge to implement a more proactive, consistent approach to discipline next year. Yours truly will be speaking too. I’m nervous!

Thursday after school in R-207 is the makeup session for teachers who were not able to get their new laptop last week. I am typing this on my new MacBook Pro, and I want to thank the Partnership, Cecilia Marn and her team for making this a reality. These are great little machines.

Thursday night is the Roosevelt Senior Awards Night. I am looking forward to seeing our seniors recognized for their accomplishments, and I will be awarding the 2nd annual CNMT Scholarship as well.

This Saturday Roosevelt will be hosting a conference, Eastside Stories: Youth Transformation Across Los Angeles, organized by the Politics and Pedagogy Collective, and featuring workshops by RHS students and partner organizations. Mr. Lopez and many others have been planning this event for months, and it should be a powerful experience.

Next week, the culminating SHOW concert is being held on Monday at the Nokia Theatre. I have no idea who is performing, but a lot of students have already returned their permission forms, and I am excited for them. Last year in Chicago the concert featured Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco. Congratulations to the students who earned the right to attend with their good grades and attendance!

On Tuesday plan on attending another celebration of student work at Libros Schmibros. If you’ve never been, this is a perfect opportunity to check out this little bookstore, now located on Mariachi Plaza. Tuesday evening is the book release party for Like A Shadow Blocking my Light: Hopes for A Better Boyle Heights, 826LA’s latest chapbook, produced by the non-profit writing and tutoring center 826LA, and written by CNMT sophomores. Don’t miss it!

On Friday the 15th, as I mentioned, we have the CNMT Awards Night. Look for your invitation!

Looking ahead, graduation is on June 20 at the Shrine and CNMT teachers will be meeting for PD at Roosevelt on the 21st and 22nd.

Educator of the Week:

New to CNMT this year, but by no means new to Roosevelt, Ms. Alva is well known and well respected by her colleagues (should I have used hyphens, Lisa?). She holds and MBA and is a National Board Certified Teacher. She also wrote much of our WASC report at least once.

I remember Ms. Alva showing the RHS English teachers her approach to teaching grammar, which I adopted and found to be one of the most successful pieces of curriculum I used. She was always a leader in the English Department.

Early in the year I had signed us up for the Big Read, which this year is based around Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Ms. Alva agreed to use the book, since we received 100 free copies thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts/Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Although the book is full of African American dialect and challenging material, Ms. Alva has found ways to make it accessible to her students, and I have seen them truly engage in its characters and themes.

I want to thank Ms. Alva for taking over for Ms. Berteau when she left. I admire her professionalism and the high standards she sets for her students and herself. We are fortunate that she has joined us in CNMT.

Have a great week,

-Mr. Gertner

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