T H E
E A R L Y
C O L L E G E
O F
A R V A D A ' S
THE GRIFFIN W E
C A N .
A N D
W E
W I L L .
IMPORTANT DATES
OCTOBER 12 NO SCHOOL FOR STAFF AND STUDENTS
OCTOBER 13 PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
REMINDERS STUDENTS, PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING A MASK TO SCHOOL. IT IS HELPFUL IF YOU HAVE A SPARE IN YOUR BACKPACK IN CASE YOURS BREAKS OR YOU LOSE IT.F FALL IS HERE! PLEASE DRESS APPROPRIATELY. MORNINGS CAN BE COOL AND AFTERNOON SHOWERS ARE A NORM SO YOU MAY WANT TO BRING A SWEATER OR LIGHT JACKET REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR WATER BOTTLES. THE WATER FOUNTAINS WILL DISPENSE WATER FOR WATER BOTTLES ONLY..
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October Events SEPT 28
SEPT 29
SEPT 30
OCT 1
OCT 2 Last Day to Submit your TimberGriffin Audition
OCT 5
OCT 6
OCT 7
OCT 8
OCT 9
OCT 12
OCT 13
OCT 14
OCT 15
OCT 16
No School for students and staff
OCT 19 Online book fair
OCT 26
Parent/Teacher Conferences
School picture retakes
Coffee & Convorsation @ La Dolce Vita
Online Book Fair
OCT 20 Online book fair
OCT 27
OCT 21 Online book fair
OCT 28 Board Meeting @ 6
OCT 23
OCT 24
Online book fair
OCT 29
OCT 30 Halloween eve
FREE AND REDUSED LUNCH APPLICATION IF YOU HAVE NOT APPLIED FOR F/R LUNCH PLEASE DO SO HERE
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OPEN STREAMS OF COMMUNICATION TODD CORDREY 720-473-4403 TCORDREY@ECARVADA.ORG
Dear ECA Parents and community, In times of change and wide-spread community unrest, I would like to make sure the doors of communication are wide open. ECA teachers are doing an admirable job with both in-person and online education this fall. We have Chromebooks for all students, a robust curriculum, Wi-Fi hotspots, and additional staff to help manage this unusual fall semester. We are also active with many health and welfare activities. We are monitoring student and staff health with daily health screenings plus regular staff COVID testing. One thing is certain, change will continue to move at a dizzying pace. For that reason, I would like to encourage direct communication with me for ANY question or concern. My desk phone number is 720-473-4403, my cell and text number is 720-322-5470, and my email is TCordrey@ECArvada.org. I look forward to hearing from you with any questions, concerns or comments.
Here is a special announcement from the Colorado League of Charter Schools:
FOCUS GROUPS NEEDED ON OUR ADVOCACY NETWORK The Col orado League of Charter School s created the Col orado Charter Advocacy Net work (COCAN) several years ago as a way f or charter school supporters i ncl udi ng parent s, f ami l i es, teachers, admi ni strators and board members to stay up- to- dat e on i mport ant pol i ti cal i ssues i mpacti ng our school s, as wel l as provi de tool s to easi l y cont act and i nteract wi th el ected of f i ci al s. Joi n us next week to l earn more and tel l us what you need to advocat e f or your school . When you chose a publ i c charter school f or your chi l d, you probabl y made your choi ce based on a parti cul ar school model or curri cul um, or perhaps i ts si ze or cl oseness t o your home. But di d you know that the approval (authori zati on), renewal and operat i ng condi ti ons of most charter school s are determi ned by the l ocal school board? Di d you know that the state l egi sl ature establ i shes the f ormul a f or f undi ng al l publ i c school s, i ncl udi ng charters? There i s a l ot to l earn and a l ot of work to be done, t o be sure your chi l d’ s school and other publ i c charter school s have what they need, and we can’ t do i t wi thout you! Parti ci pate i n a one- hour Zoom f ocus group f or f ami l i es and supporters t o l earn more and provi de your f eedback. Spani sh transl ati on wi l l be provi ded f or f ami l i es who need i t . Regi ster by cl i cki ng on the l i nk bel ow that best represents your f ami l y. Fami l i es of a Denver publ i c charter school students — Wednesday, September 23rd at 6pm
Fami l i es of a charter school students i n Col orado (outsi de of Denver) — Thursday, September 24th at 6pm
It is no secret that the political and policy landscapes are changing — within your local school districts, at the state level and nationally. We want you to be prepared to engage strategically (proactively and reactively) on issues that matter to your child’s school as well as our collective public charter school network when appropriate. With that in mind, we are embarking on a process to revamp COCAN over the next few months — expanding opportunities for advocates of all kinds to learn new skills and increase their impact as we grow and strengthen our network at all levels. In this focus group, we' ll ask you what you want and need to feel prepared to advocate on behalf of your school, as well as what kind of materials and resources you might need to be able to take action when necessary. Don' t miss out on the opportunity to inform this important League strategy which will be rolled out later this fall.
PRINCIPAL
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PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES JANICE ANDERSON JANDERSON@ECARVADA.ORG I want to commend our parents, students and especially our staff for coming together to help to support our students as we transitioned back to Remote Learning for our 11th and 12th Grades. It was a difficult decision, but with the help of our partnership with Children's Hospital and our relationship with Tri-County Health we were able to mitigate exposure to most of our students. We were very happy to hear that, because we have been so cautious and intentional in creating cohorts so that we would not have to impact all grade levels. We are continuing to clean the building twice daily. In addition, we spray down our building with the electrostatic device that kills viruses and bacteria on contact, nightly. Our students will continue to remain in cohorts that limit cross exposures. We will continue to make sure that prevention is of our utmost importance. Our partnership with our families is a key indicator of student learning. For this reason, parent teacher conferences are a critical piece to make sure that we are all working together towards student success. Due to COVID though, conferences will look very different this year. We will be doing them virtually. During the first week in October you will be receiving a Sign Up Genius for conferences. If you have a Middle School Student you will only sign up for one 15 minute conference where you will meet with all the core teachers at the same time. For High School, Specials or Semester Long Remote learning, you will need to sign up with each individual teacher for a 10 minute block. The teachers will send the zoom links a few days before conferences. Just like in person conferences, it is very important that you log in on time, so that the teacher can provide you the maximum time to talk about how to help your student grow as a learner. Parents we also want to remind all of our in person families that we need to be respectful to our neighbors during drop off and pick ups. Please make sure to follow all signage. There are no left turns from our school to 60th Avenue in the mornings nor in the afternoons. In addition, please do not block any of the neighbors driveways even if you are sitting in your vehicles. We have asked the city of Arvada Police Department to stop by on occasion to help us with these matters. Thank you for continuing to help us keep our students and families safe.
Counselor Corner BRIDGETTE FOSTER BFOSTER@ECARVADA.ORG
Dear Seniors, I am pleased to introduce Naviance – a comprehensive website that you will use to plan for college and a career! Naviance allows you to: Get involved in the planning and advising process – Build a resume, complete online surveys, and manage timelines and deadlines for making decisions about colleges and careers Research colleges – Compare GPA, standardized test scores, and other statistics to actual historical data from our school for students who have applied and been admitted in the past Research careers – Research hundreds of careers and career clusters, and take career assessments Create plans for the future – Create goals and to-dos, and complete tasks assigned to you by the school to better prepare yourself for your future college and career goals Please login to your ECA gmail account, click on the Naviance Icon, and Login. We will be doing this in advisory for anyone who is having trouble. The most IMPORTANT thing at this moment is to create your college list in Naviance. It is pretty user friendly and there are videos available to help you out. As your counselor, I have already assigned some tasks to do with your advisor, including resume building! All activities are to help you with your college process and post grad plan. Take the time to browse colleges and add them to "colleges I'm interested in". When you are ready to apply, you must move them to "colleges I'm applying to". Even if you have already applied to college, add them to your list so I may send transcripts, LOR, ect. Looking forward to working with all of you this year! Page 7
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OPERATIONS MANAGER
COVID REMINDERS JULIE RAMSEY 720-473-4409
As you are aware, we have a confirmed COVID case that has caused our 11th and 12th grade students to be off campus and on the Remote Learning platform until at least October 5th. Please rest assured that our administration has taken every precaution to keep our students and staff safe by thoroughly cleaning and detoxifying. The decisions made were at the direction of the Tri-County Health Department in conjunction with Children's Hospital. ECA is committed to ensuring the health and safety of all of our students, staff, parents, and visitors. Please continue to do your morning wellness checks before coming to school and if you have any symptoms please stay home and notify us so we can adjust your attendance. The more information you can provide us regarding your student's symptoms the better we can keep everyone safe in our building.
Rick Heroff Middle School Dean of Students/C.E & Career Coordinator (720) 473-4400 EXT 320
Concurrent Enrollment Contract: Every year ECA revises it’s Concurrent Enrollment contract due to changes with college policies and new partnerships. This year we have many changes with remote learning. Parents will receive a Google Form via email by October 2nd. We will have a question and answer session over Zoom on Thursday October 8th at 6pm Expect a link to be sent out for the Q&A with the form. Thank you. ECA Campus classes:Registration is complete for the semester. If your students are having difficulty with a class they need to communicate that with their instructor. Most of the colleges have passed their drop deadline. If a student needs to withdraw from a class they will get a W on their college transcript. For students completing their classes they will receive a grade on their High School and College transcripts. Front Range campus classes: All students taking traditional classes from the FRCC campus are being done remotely. This means that if you sign up for a class are mostly run by logging into a livestream of your class via remote learning instead of going to the campus. Each department has slightly different guidelines click HERE to see the latest details on how they are delivering classes. Please stay in contact with your professors and the college as COVID guidelines could change quickly. AIMS classes: One of our new partners this year has a vast online and remote learning offering for the 20’-21’ school year. We are utilizing AIMS for its remote offerings since their closest campus is a good distance from our community. Students taking courses here currently range from LIT 115, to HIST 121 among others. Early College of Arvada | 9
MIDDLE SCHOOL DEAN OF STUDENTS/C.E & CAREER COORDINATOR
College prep: This is a crazy time to be a senior! Our SAT was delayed due to a quarantine of the senior class. Stay tuned for the make up day. If you haven’t already narrowed down your college preferences it’s go time! It's generally recommended that you apply to about a half dozen colleges, but you should have a good idea of your top 3-5 preferences. Students not planning to attend colleges still have plenty of options post high school. Please see or email Mr. Heroff or Ms. Foster to get more details and questions about planning for after High School. Here are a couple resources to help you out with essay writing… https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/college-essay https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/how-to-write-a-college-essay College Visits: JUNIORS and undecided SENIORS! Go to this website where you can take a virtual tour of most of the colleges in our state and the nation. Just type in the name of the school and check it out! https://www.youvisit.com/collegesearch/ Also www.niche.com is a great resource to compare colleges. Middle School:Students have done a great job of keeping their masks on. Please continue to encourage them to wear fresh ones every day. Here at school we are doing our best to keep student cohorts as separate. Every room is cleaned daily, and bathrooms are cleaned regularly throughout the day. Academically we are getting into the meat of instruction for the fall. Students recently took the NWEA assessments and did fantastic! They showed minimal slippage which is great news! Students are continuing to show flexibility and resilience as they do a lot of hybrid styles of learning in the building everyday. As we settle into our routines please talk with your students about the changes this year and remind them of the reasons for all the rules and structure we have set up. It's not easy to be a middle school student, but during COVID its more challenging. Please be assured that teachers are doing everything they can to keep their day engaging, and rigorous to prepare them for college courses in High School.
Early College of Arvada | 10
WE CAN
AND WE
WILL Guadalupe Marquez
Highschool Dean of Students 720-473-4408 We are almost done with all our fall testing and students did great. We can see that, despite remote learning, they have shown us how amazing they are.Classes are going great and we see great instruction taking place. If your student is doing remote learning, please continue to encourage them to handle it as if they were in person. They should be doing school work from 8:30-3:30; this is just as important as if they were in school, in person. WE are not on break! Students shouldn't be out working or with their friends. In addition, please remind your student to continue to keep their mask on and social distance. It is crucial to follow all the guidelines as we want to make sure we stay open, but keep our students safe; especially as the flu season is soon approaching. Early College of Arvada | 11
The development of a growth
WHAT IS A GROWTH MINDSET?
mindset can increase a student’s confidence, academic achievement, motivation, and self-esteem. For the
Alejandro Reynoso EARSS Advisor areynoso@ecarvada.org
purposes of this unit, the following definitions will be used: Growth Mindset: Those with a growth mindset believe that through
In the EARSS Program we teach
hard work, they will be able to
students to become advocates for
ultimately master what seems so difficult for them to learn at any
themselves and teach them life skills.
given point. They are willing to struggle with new ideas and concepts and are ready to let people see that
A growth mindset is the belief that
they may have to struggle to learn a
one’s intelligence, competencies, and
new concept or task.
abilities can be developed. Unlike individuals with a fixed mindset, or
Fixed Mindset: Those with a fixed
the belief that one’s limitations are
mindset do not see intellectual ability
not changeable, those who possess a
as a factor that can grow and change
growth mindset are more likely to
in relation to hard work. Instead, they
believe that they can always improve
believe that intelligence is static, and
and so they persevere in the face of
this belief can diminish their
obstacles, crave learningrather than
confidence as a learner and result in a
approval, perceive failures as
recursive pattern of low
opportunities to improve, and both
achievement, low motivation, and low
process and apply feedback to grow.
effort.
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Extra Curricular Highlights
TIMBER GRIFFIN Kelly Graham Kgraham@ecarvada.org
Our Timbergriffens are about to begin production on Prodigy, a new musical by Jenni Stafford & Willem Oosthuysen. We will be accepting auditions through Oct. 2nd and recruiting for behind the scene help and extras throughout the semester. If you'd like to audition or work with us please email Ms. Graham at Kgraham@ecarvada.org.Our Prodigy premiere will be in March of 2021, we are working on finding a fun way to premiere the film with our cast, crew, and community. If you like what we do and want to stay up to date on the latest follow us on twitter and instagram @ILove_APiano & on Facebook @TimbergriffenTheaterCo.
STUDENT COUNCIL Guadalupe Marquez gmarquez@ecarvada.org
We are happy to announce that we have a President and a Vice President. This year, Kristen Graham will be representing us as Student Council President and Jael Perez as Student Council Vice President. We have great things coming up and our vision is about helping the community and giving back.We will also be focusing on leadership and community service activities to make sure all students have an opportunity to help our school and community. Stay tuned for more news...
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Extra Curricular Highlights
WHERE IS THE GRIFFIN GOING?
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL Betsy Mazza
Hey ECA families! I hope you have seen our clues on Facebook and Instagram as we try to figure out where the Griffin is flying to next. For those of you who have not seen them, I have included the clues below. Please sumit your guesses to bmazza@ecarvada.org for the chance to win a prize. The first one to solve all three will win the grand prize.
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Early College of Arvada | 15
n o s a ke
et r t e g r fo t ' th n 6 o 1 D r e b o O ct
EARLY COLLEGE OF ARVADA
PTCO NEWS
MEETING SCHEDULE Meetings will be postponed until the
Lots of exciting activities here at ECA and we could use your help to make them a success! Hope to see you in the spring at the ECA PTO at 4PM! ptco@ecarvada.org
spring sememster
Muchas actividades emocionantes aquí en ECA Y podríamos usar su ayuda para hacerlos un ¡éxito!
Espero verte aquí la próxima primavera ptco@ecarvada.org
Early College of Arvada | 16
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