Eastside Stories conference kicked off with Aztec dancers in the auditorium. Over 400 people attended.

Dear CNMT Community,

We’re almost there. 7 more school days, if you’re counting, but who is, right?

There’s a lot going on this week, and I want to again focus on important events and a couple of quick reminders.

Finals continue Monday with periods 1&2. Tuesday is a day off from finals, since it’s a banked day, which is a good thing, because we have the SHOW concert on Monday after school. Congratulations to the 90 CNMT students who will be attending this free concert at Club Nokia! They earned the right to go through their grades and attendance.

Tuesday we do have an RHS Community Partners breakfast from 8-10am. We will be welcoming representatives from local schools, universities, non-profits, government agencies and others who currently work with Roosevelt or may in the future. We will be giving a tour of CNMT and will be visiting classrooms, most likely before nutrition.

Tuesday we will meet together for the banked day and an after school faculty meeting. We need to spend some time discussing our summer professional development plans and other important upcoming events, including Friday’s awards night.

Tuesday evening is the book release party for the CNMT sophomore-produced Like a Shadow Blocking My Light. We’d love to have lots of CNMT teachers and students to come out and hear students reading their powerful words at Libros Schmibros on Mariachi Plaza. The event runs from 5:30-7:30pm.

Finals continue with periods 3&4 on Wednesday and 7&8 on Thursday. For teachers, please remember that grades are due on Friday morning at 7:30 and verifications are due on Monday morning at 7:30. Let’s go for 100% on-time grades this term.

Friday from 5:00-7:00pm in the Student Cafeteria will be the CNMT Awards Night. Students will receive their invitations on Wednesday.

Next week we have two minimum days. Monday we will have the end-of-year luncheon in the Student Cafeteria from 12:45 – 2:30. Please come to celebrate our accomplishments this year, of which there are many, and to recognize the faculty and staff who will be leaving us after this year.

On Tuesday we are planning a pool party for the students who passed the CAHSEE this year. More details to follow soon.

I will be collecting roll books on Tuesday, June 19 after school.

Educators of the Week:

CNMT students presenting their work for Proyecto Mercado Fresco at the Eastside Stories conference on Saturday, June 9. Most second floor R-building classrooms were filled to capacity with workshop participants.

On Saturday Roosevelt hosted the first annual Eastside Stories conference. This was a student-led conference with workshops on topics including immigrant rights, school discipline, LGBT rights, and food justice. Over 400 people came out to the conference, most of them students.

This conference has been over a year in the making. A group of teachers, students and partners from UCLA, calling themselves the Politics and Pedagogy Collective, met almost every Friday after school to create the vision for the conference, to flesh out the details of that vision, and then to bring it to action.

I must admit that I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with all the end-of-year tasks and deadlines, and also demoralized by the impact the budget cuts will have on our school next year, knowing that we are already struggling with the unreasonable budget we already have to work with.

This conference was just what I needed, and I think this is true for many of us. The whole day the mood was so positive. The students were so engaged and were just so happy! I haven’t heard so many students chanting “CNMT” before. They and their teachers made this conference happen, and it was palpable how justifiably proud everyone felt.

So this week I would like to recognize the entire Politics & Pedagogy Collective as Educators of the Week, since it was truly a collective effort. From CNMT I especially want to recognize Mr. Lopez, Ms. Duenas, and students Cinthia Gonzales and Rene Ayala. Other members of the Collective include Ms. Gendrano, Ms. Godoy, Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Im from MSTMA and Mr. Lopez and Ms. Claycomb from Law & Gov’t.

I look forward to the second annual conference next year!

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