DesertAcademy

Tuesday, January 24
Reminder: Students are to be ready to be interviewed on January 24th at 5:30. They will be interviewed once from 5:30-6:30.  The Symposium is open to parents and community members from 6:30-7:30. Students may leave after their interview. Students may stay after school to help set up. If they stay after, they are to either be helping set up or working on something.

Wednesday, February 1, 7:00pm

Please join us for College Night for Parents of Juniors (and parents of sophomores welcome too!)
Wednesday, February 1st, 7pm in the big room. Come & find out about the college & financial aid processes. Questions?  Contact our college counselor, Jennifer Dryfoos at jdryfoos@desertacademy.org or 992-8284 x28

Please click the link below to access the January 20 E-minder.

Weekly E-minder January 20-27

Please click the link below to access the January 13, 2012 E-minder.

January 13 2012 E-Minder

Next Friday, January 20th, 9:30am
Desert Academy’s 2011-2012 1st Semester Honor Roll, High Honors, National Honors Society, and National Junior Honor Society Assembly will be held next Friday, January 20th at 9:30am. Honor Roll students have received a 3.5 grade point average or better, with no grade lower than a C.  High Honors students have received a 4.0 or above. (Please note, middle school students’ report card GPAs only reflect the high school classes that the student is enrolled in, and not their overall GPA, as middle school classes are not weighted.  For the ceremony, however, we will calculate the full GPA of all classes).

Students with an Incomplete in any subject are not eligible to qualify for the Honor Roll, NHS or NHJS.

National Honor Society (10-12th grades) and National Junior Honor Society (7-9th grades), have received a GPA of 3.4 or above, with no grade lower than a C, and have submitted a self-nominating form that includes the leadership and community service component of the nomination criteria. NHS and NHJS applicants are then reviewed by the committee and elected to the society corresponding to their grade. The full description of the NHS/NHJS nominating criteria and deadlines were sent in the e-minder in December and is posted on the website.

Parents and students will be notified of their Honor Roll status and the results of the NHS and NJHS. Everyone is welcome to attend this ceremony in honor of their students’ academic achievements for 1st semester. Please contact Tamara Rossi (trossi@desertacademy.org) regarding the Honor Roll and Jocelyne Comstock (jcomstock@desertacademy.org) regarding NHS and NHJS.

Saturday, January 21st, 5:00-8:30pm, Big Room
Join Desert Academy’s Chinese class to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Dragon! Learn to make dumplings dragon puppets & more! This will be a potluck style event, so please bring a covered dish to share. Please RSVP with our teacher Fu Mei-Tsai at: ftsai@desertacademy.org and include the number of people you will be bringing. All donations will be applied to our 2013 trip to Taiwan. P

Wednesday, January 25, 10:30am
On Wednesday, Jan. 25th, the Acting for the Stage class will present staged readings from four plays.  These will be performed at a special assembly for the high school at 10:30am in the Big Room.  Jasper Grossman and Gabby Medina will be performing a scene from Neil Simon’s, “Barefoot in the Park.”  Marley Medina, Sarah Nuamah and Ariana Montez are presenting a cutting of “Cotton Girls.”  It takes place at the top of a ferris wheel that gets stuck. Onima Heilbron, Forrest Sanchez, Cole Tolbert, Sophia Stroud, Luna Redondo-Campiglio, Valentin Traub and Jasper Grossman are doing “The Fox in the Fairway,” a farce by Ken Ludwig.  This play takes place in the clubhouse of an upper-crust country club during a local golf tournament. And finally, Mellie Nolen is directing her original one-act play that she wrote last year.  This has been a major component of Mellie’s IB Theater work.  The play is excellent.  The cast is Onima, Forrest, Sarah and Jasper.  All this great theater in less than an hour!  Parents are welcome to come.

RACE TO NOWHERE FILM SCREENING
DATE CHANGE: Monday, January 30 at 10:00am DA Big Room
Due to a scheduling conflict, we decided to change the screening of the documentary ” Race to Nowhere” to Monday, January 30 at 10:00am instead of next Wednesday January 18. We will screen the film for our high school students – parents are also welcome to join us. This new date will also allow us to have a follow up discussion with the students on Wednesday, February 1st  during their advisory/study hall.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES February 16 & 17 Thank you to all who took the time to fill out reflection sheets on student led conference this past fall. The response was overwhelming positive, with the vast majority of parents, students, and faculty members seeing great benefits from the student led format. Some parents did express that they would like an opportunity to meet with teachers without their student present. In response to this request, we have decided to use a traditional parent/teacher conference format this spring. A student reflection component will also be utilized so that each teacher will incorporate the student’s reflection on his/her experience in the class into the conference. In the future, we will most probably use the student-led format once per school year, although we will reevaluate that at the end of this conference cycle. Parent/teacher conferences will be held Thursday, Feb. 16 from 12:30 til 5:30 pm and Friday, Feb. 17 from 8:30-5:00 pm. School will dismiss at 12:00 pm on Thursday, Feb. 16 to accommodate the conferences. You may call Patty to set up your 15 minute time slots with your student’s teachers beginning Friday, January 20. We look forward to reviewing your student’s progress with you.

Ski/Snowboard Program

Santa Fe Ski School Daily Schedule:

• At 7:30 on 1/12/2012 and 8:00 on the remaining two days the bus will depart Desert Academy.
• At 8:30 on 1/12/2012 and 9:00 on the remaining two days the bus will arrive at Ski Santa Fe and students will proceed to the rental shop or suit up with their personal gear.
• From 10:00 to 12:00 all students and chaperones will attend instructional sessions.
• Between 12:00 to 12:10 all students must check in personally with Program Coordinator, Jud Osborn at the designated location in the Main Lodge.  Failure to check in at allotted time will result in a temporary suspension of lift ticket privileges.
• From 12:10 to 12:45 students will have a lunch break.
• From 12:45 until 2:00 all students will have open ski/snowboard time.
• Between 2:00 and 2:10 all students must check in with chaperones at designated location.  Failure to check in at allotted time will result in a temporary suspension of lift ticket privileges.
• From 2:10 until 3:45 all students will have open ski/snowboard time.
• At 3:30 students renting equipment must return gear to the rental shop.
• At 3:50 everyone must be on the bus.  Tardiness will result a loss of some portion of open ski/snowboard time the following week.
• At 4:00 the bus departs the Santa Fe Ski Basin
• By 5:00 the bus will return to Desert Academy without exception.

Safety Issues:

• Desert Academy busses will undergo a thorough safety inspection over Winter Break.  Any potential recommended repairs will be taken care of at that time.
•  No student will be allowed to ski/snowboard alone.  Groups will be assigned according to skill levels.
• Students will not be allowed to ski/snowboard beyond their skill level.  The Santa Fe Ski School staff and Desert Academy chaperones will work together closely to insure that all participants are correctly assigned to the appropriate skill level classes.  Upon completion of each instructional class the Santa Fe Ski School staff will mark student lift tickets with lift restrictions appropriate for their various skill levels.
• Students will not be allowed to participate unless they have come prepared with the proper winter weather attire (wool socks, snow pants, waterproof winter jacket, and gloves).
• Students of every skill level will be required to wear helmets.  Please see the Ski Santa Fe Forms Cover Sheet for additional information about helmet rentals.
• Chaperones will be instructed to read message boards each time before they get onto the lifts.

Chaperones:

• Jud Osborn: Coordinator, Snowboard
• Karen Lindeen: Downhill Ski
• Julia Tatsch: Downhill Ski
• Elisabeth Gilbert-Desmond: Downhill Ski

Option 2: Alt. Winter Sports

Schedule:

• At 9:30 depart Desert Academy.
• At 9:45 arrive at destination for the day’s activities.
• At 10:00 begin day’s activities.
• At 12:00 is lunch.
• At 12:30 resume day’s activities.
• At 2:15 back to rental shop if appropriate to return rentals.
• At 3:00 return to Desert Academy.

Activities:

THURSDAYS:

• The 1/12/2012 activity will be ice skating.
• The 1/19/2012 activity will be sledding.

WEDNESDAY:

• The 1/25/2012 activity will be shadowing a high school student.

Safety Issues:

• Desert Academy busses will undergo a thorough safety inspection over Winter Break.  Any potential recommended repairs will be taken care of at that time.
• Students will be required to participate in all activities as a group.
• Students will not be allowed to participate unless they have come prepared with the proper winter weather attire (wool socks, snow pants, waterproof winter jacket, gloves and sunglasses or goggles).
• Chaperones will ensure that Desert Academy rules of conduct are followed by students at all times.

Chaperones:

• Juliana Peterson: Chaperon
• Natalie Martino: Chaperon