School News

Sep. 28, 2015, Campbell Calif. — The community will celebrate 11 talented student authors at Campbell Union School District’s 13th Annual Rising Young Authors awards on October 14, 2015, at 7 p.m., at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Stevens Creek Blvd. The students will speak to the audience about their books and later autograph copies for fans who bring copies with them to the event.
 
Guest author Clara Lee, a former Campbell Middle School student and author of Cupcake Theory, will speak to the students about her experience as a student who later became a published author. She is holding a book signing of her own earlier in the day. Information about her book is at ww.cupcaketheorybook.com
 
The Rising Young Authors are a select group of students whose short stories, essays, research papers and poems were among the hundreds entered in the District’s annual Writing Faire. Judges review the entries for technical excellence, focus, structure, use of creative expression, vocabulary, word combinations, and originality in ideas and/or presentation of ideas. Only one author is chosen per school per year, in grades 3 through 7, from among the qualified entries. To view their works online, or to order your own copy, go to www.campbellusd.org/news/authors2015.
 
More than 100 parents, family members, teachers, elected officials and principals attend the annual awards and book-signing event. The award includes one professionally produced copy of his or her book for the school library and a personal copy to keep, a $20 gift certificate from the Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga, a personal writer’s journal from Barnes & Noble, and a chance to win a Kindle e-reader from School Innovations & Achievement.  Barnes & Noble will also donate a portion of sales from that day to the school district to support library and/or writing programs.
 
The 2015 Rising Young Authors
 
Representing                      Author’s Name                Grade - May 2015 Title of Written Work
Blackford School.................. Lily Anna Higareda....................... 3.............. Opinion Piece
Campbell Middle School........ Jett Felder.................................. 6.............. Poetry Collection
Capri School....................... Aidan H. Morales......................... 5.............. Battle Scar
Castlemont School............... Alyssa S. Lena........................... 3.............. I Am an Artist
Lynhaven School................. Jayden L.Mandler Sanders........... 4.............. Why Toys
Marshall Lane School........... Faith C. Gonia............................. 3.............. Folktale Genre
Monroe Middle School.......... Andres J. Sanchez...................... 7.............. The Black Blizzard
Rolling Hills Middle School..... Garrett J. Dickson........................ 6.............. Silk Road Diary
Rosemary School......... Brenda M. Andres Ruiz.......... 3.............. All About Komodo Dragons
Sherman Oaks School.......... Nina C. Ruiz Garcia............. 4........... Milly the Monarch Butterfly
Village School...................... Talyn S. Hardy.................. 3.............. Fun Games to Play in the Car

On Friday, Sept. 25th, Blackford third graders launched hand-made hot-air balloons. They've been working on the project for three weeks, learning the engineering design process along with lessons about weather, climate, and graphing.

Teachers Anupana Gupta and Julie Goo developed the idea for the project after participating in the NASA 21st Century Teacher Academy this past summer.  Support from NASA and donated weather devices from BloomSky helped all of Blackford’s third grade teachers incorporate real-world problem-solving strategies into lessons. The students have been graphing the daily temperature to determine the best time of day to launch a hot air balloon, studying effective designs, and working in groups to create and test their own creations.

The activity is part of the school’s focus on STEAM education—integrating Science, Technology Engineering, Arts and Mathematics into the curricula.

The scores are in!  This year’s scores are better thought of as a starting point or baseline for the progress we expect students to make over time. We see these tests as an academic checkup. Similar to class assignments and report cards, they are just one measurement in a set of tools on student progress used to provide you and your child’s teacher(s) with information about your student’s work toward the high goals we have set.

The assessment results indicate our students performed well in some content areas and need more support in other content areas. We expect to see both individual and district student achievement growth in subsequent administrations of the CAASPP assessments.

Once the official results are received, your child’s teacher(s) will use them to help set learning goals for his/her students this year.  A copy of the results will also be sent to you in mid-October.

If you have questions or concerns about the report, please call the school office to arrange a conference with your student’s teacher(s).

On behalf of all of the staff at Blackford Ms. Frese and Mrs. Jasper would like to send a huge thank you out to all of the families who were able to make it to Back-to-School Night. We sincerely appreciate you being there. If you weren't able to make it we completely understand as well. Please don't hesisate to ask your student's teacher or one of us about anything you may have missed or if you have questions.