Volume I Issue 12 ~ November 18, 2018
1. Academics Spotlight
AP tests are still months away but Mrs. Lyon's AP English Literature classes are preparing and practicing now. More than just writing essays, students were given sample essays and had to use the Collegeboard rubric to score each one. Mrs. Lyon discussed the different scores on the rubrics and things that students had to be on the look out for when grading and when writing their essays as well.
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2. Athletics Spotlight
The road to the ring continued with football traveling to Citrus College to compete against Glendora High School in the Semi-Final round of the CIF tournament. Our Sea Kings came up victorious 26-21 and move on to the CIF Championship game 7pm at Lawndale.

Girls Tennis competed in the CIF Regional State competition and lost 4-3 to Arcadia. Great job girls!

This week also celebrated the start of our winter sport season. Girls Water Polo, Soccer, Basketball, and Surf officially kicked off their season. Surf beat Peninsula 86 to 61 and continues to dominate as Kings of the Hill.

Good luck to all our winter sports athletes and teams!
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3. Chuck Miller Grant Award Winners
PVHS is honored to have four teachers chosen to receive Chuck Miller Grants this year. Winners included

Tecia Barton – “Constitutional Challenge through Student Collaboration”
Jennifer Fleming – “Portable USB-Based Spectroscopy”
Marie Kuhn – “Biotechnology Exploration”
Julie Maemoto – “Take the Boring out of Biology with Science Take-Out”
Cecilia Remeta – “Reading La Vida Loca”
Lorraine Loh-Norris – “Using Circuit Playground and Wearable Electronics to Attract Girls to STEM”
Marta Wood – “Enhanced Earth Science Curriculum”

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Thank you PEF for all of your continued support and we look forward to using all of these programs in our classrooms!
4. AVID Spotlight
Just another day in the Senior AVID classroom. For his 18 th  birthday AVID senior, Evan Friedman coordinated to have his uncle, Greg Shapiro, be the guest speaker for the AVID 12 class. Greg Shapiro is a Palos Verdes HS graduate (’91) and a movie producer. Shapiro was the producer for The Hurt Locker, which won 6 Oscars including Motion Picture of the Year. Shapiro has also produced The Rules of Attraction, the Harold & Kumar movies and Zero Dark Thirty. It was quite the treat for the AVID class to hear and ask questions about Shapiro’s career path, life lessons, and words of wisdom.
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5. Cross Country Spotlight
Huge congratulations to Coach Shapiro and all of our cross country athletes. After competing in the CIF finals this weekend, both our girls and boys team won the division 3 championship race bringing home another CIF title. These wins mark over 20 CIF titles for both teams combined.

The boys and girls teams will move on to compete in Fresno for the state competition this week. Great job everyone and good luck at state!
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6. Run-Hide-Fight
This year PVPUSD has continued to focus on student safety. Part of this focus emphasizes preparedness of our students and staff while on campus. On Thursday every period 2 teacher took the time to review with their students the Run-Hide-Fight protocol that will now be implemented. Teachers led conversations with students about different scenarios and answered many student questions. We value the opportunity to have these discussions with our students and will continue take necessary steps to ensure the safety of our campus as a whole.
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7. Packages for Patriots
BTC sponsored "Packages for Patriots" this week. With the goal of always giving back to the community, this annual event works to get supplies for our service men and women. As a community we are so thankful for all of our military families and love the opportunity to support their loved ones over seas. Thank you to everyone who donated, we raised over 6,000 items!
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8. Japanese Tea Ceremony
The Japanese Culture Club met this week and hosted a tea ceremony for its members. President Alex led the group in the specifics of the ceremony, the traditions, and meanings of each part. Students then enjoyed tea and treats for a cultural experience.
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9. Library Spotlight
The library held its fourth Information Insight, Career Q&A at lunch on Wednesday. Joining us for this installment of the series was USC adjunct professor Cherie Hudson. Ms. Hudson spoke to students and faculty about her career as a site and district-level school social worker in the nation's second-largest school district, her education path, and her work as a professor of three graduate courses at USC. Facilitated by Ms. Brockman and student co-host senior Maria Aguilar Valladares, Ms. Hudson discussed resiliency, the importance of building and maintaining strong professional relationships, continuing education, and the sometimes unplanned journey of finding a career you love.
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Each speaker in this series recommends a book; Cherie Hudson's was:  Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others  by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky. 

To keep up with upcoming speakers and events, follow the library @pvhs_library
10. Next week at a glance
Have a great Thanksgiving break Sea Kings!
See you all on Monday November 26th!
Health and Wellness

PARENTAL STRATEGIES: THE VALUE OF RITUALS

With the Holiday season approaching, it is a good time to reflect on the value of rituals, and the emotional benefits they have on children. Rituals are sets of behaviors that are repeated on a regular basis, and that help provide meaning and develop values. Rituals also serve to increase sense of self, sense of belonging, and continuity across generations within a family. In a prior column, I discussed the importance of modeling, and rituals are vehicles for modeling values around family, caring, consistency, communication, and togetherness. In a word, rituals are traditions that a family develops, and are often carried on. Examples of rituals include things like going to the library on a certain night of the week; watching a particular TV show together every week; visiting a grandparent on a regular schedule; going to church/synagogue/place of prayer on a regular basis; discussing the news every night; eating dinner as a family several nights per week.

Holidays provide a unique opportunity for tradition and rituals, such as celebrating every Thanksgiving at a particular family member’s home; holiday dinners and gift giving; special holiday foods. These are just a few of the infinite possibilities that you and your family can create.

What are the benefits of establishing rituals/traditions? As stated, they are a way of imparting strong values to children. The message that our family is important, and that the time we spend together is important is transmitted. Through such behaviors, we communicate to our children that they are special, that they are a priority, and very strong bonds are built.

Besides feeling good, and establishing bonds and values, research has found benefit to certain rituals. Studies have shown that having dinner together as a family is related to reduced rates of substance abuse. Families who have dinner together 0-2 times per week, show that 47% of 12-17 year olds have tried alcohol, while those families who have 5-7 family dinners lowers that percentage to 30%. For cigarettes, the numbers go from 26% for 0-2 dinners to 10% for 5-7 family dinners. Marijuana rates go from 25% for those with 0-2 dinners to only 8% for 5-7 dinners per week.

It is clear that when close bonds are built, and family members have strong sense of values, purpose, and belonging, the benefits on mental health are significant. It is important to continue those traditions which you already have in your family, and to consider others that all members would find rewarding

Remember, if you have issues you would like to see addressed, please email me at askdrgelbart@gmail.com.

Moe Gelbart, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Thelma McMillen Center
General Info
In January 2016, California adopted a new law covering comprehensive health education in public schools, Education Code Sections 51930‐ 51939 (AB 329) called the CA Healthy Youth Act (CHYA). Students in intermediate and high school must receive comprehensive health education and HIV prevention education from trained instructors. Each pupil shall receive this instruction at least once in middle school and at least once in high school. Here are some facts about the CHYA.

Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) is recommending the following steps to take toward initial, immediate compliance, with future consideration of a complete textbook adoption with the release of the new Health Education Framework in 2021:
1.    Selecting curriculum to cover CA Healthy Youth Act requirements (Board of Education approval process)
2.    Determining who will teach the curriculum and in which grades
3.    Scheduling training, parent education events, and public review of curriculum/opt-out procedures


LACOE strongly encouraged us to use the Adolescent Sexual Health Work Group curricula review as a starting point, as they were charged with grading a subset of comprehensive sexual health education curricula for alignment and compliance with the CHYA.


Five of the districts in the South Bay Consortium have selected the same resource, while the others are just beginning this process. Administrators across the greater South Bay have continued to communicate with each other as we move collectively forward towards legislative compliance. PVPUSD will coordinate with LACOE to present information to the Board of Education and entire parent community about the changes.

If you are interested in participating in this Health Task Force work, please complete the following form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=alG_LzE4eUS6iIMJfbVyeR3BiGtsvk5NgKNhK9rVDgpUOEUxVzBNUUxYVzhLRVA4QUJMWkNYOVAzNi4u
600 Cloyden Road, Palos Verdes Estates, 90274 ~ 310-378-8471 ~ pvhs.pvpusd.net