EMAIL HEADER 2017
IMPORTANT DATES
  • 11/20 Wheel Day! Use your skateboards, scooters, roller skates in P.E. class! (any items with wheels that are not electric or battery/gas powered and no bikes) Don't forget your helmet.
  • 11/21 All-District Reflections Art Contest exhibit and awards at TOW 5PM-7PM
  • 11/27 -11/29 Thanksgiving Break
TMS Teacher/Staff Hospitality Breakfast #2

Let's honor our wonderful teachers and staff by providing a warm breakfast for their meeting on  Friday, November 22, 2019  (this is the 2nd out of 5 total breakfasts for the school year).

Drop off  hot entrees  at the front office by
7:20 am on  Friday, November, 22.

All other items can be dropped off on Thursday November 21 in the Thurston office.

Please sign up to bring something in the Sign Up link below.
There are currently 11 items still needed.

Thank you for your support!
PTA will also have a   stand up frame   on the breakfast table with the list of names of everyone who donated to the teacher & staff breakfast. PTA will fill in the names, as people signup. =)
Thank Ball Room Volunteers:
Summer Thacker & Katie Hanson

Thank you to the WEB Amazing Race Volunteers:
  • Diane
  • Dina Waters
  • Trisha Dearing
  • Melissa Vermilya
  • Lisa Jensen
  • Tiffany Moran
  • Pamela Henrici
  • Leslie G Heard
Ball Room Sign Up

A parent volunteer is needed at lunch time each day to check out balls.

The job entails showing up at the specified time, going to the Ball Room, pulling out the sign-out sheet for the balls, monitoring that kids sign the balls out.

After 45 minutes and the end of lunch, the kids will return the balls, the parent volunteer puts the sign-out sheet away and the job is completed.

You can sign up for a weekly, monthly, or one time experience. It takes less than one hour of your time. Questions? Contact Ball Room Chair Leslie Heard HERE
SignUp For Super Hike!

Super Hike volunteers make a commitment to be at school during a specific time to accompany the students on their P.E. hike. The hike is always on a block day (Thursday/Friday) and usually takes place once a month. It is a fun and invigorating opportunity to spend time with the kids and we are grateful for your desire to be a part of it.
Meet the Thurston Team

This week we are pleased to highlight:

Bjorn Avila
Teacher - Science 6 and 8
Thurston Middle School


Throughout the 47 laps around the Sun I have made so far, I have been fascinated by the natural world and have been drawn to not only enjoy, but also understand it. Prior to earning my Masters in education, I had the opportunity to live and work in northern Sweden for many years. While there, I spent time with Fish and Game, in forestry, guided in the mountains, and even taught middle school. For the last 13 years now, I have taught middle school science back here in south Orange County. Having the opportunity to help young minds make sense of the world around them through science is ever inspiring and rewarding. This is especially true at Thurston where staff members drive and inspire each other towards constant improvement and growth, students are motivated and rise to the rigors of the curriculum, and the community is engaged and supportive. 

What fictional place would you most like to go?
Although not fictional, I would like to visit southern California shall we say around 1000 AD…. and while we are at it, why not around 1000 BC! … I mean the fishing alone!!!

What skill would you like to master?
I would like to be ambidextrous (right and left handed equally well). Accurate fly casting left handed would come in very handy in tight quarters.

What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?
Drop me off in the mountains of the central Siberian Highlands, or the Alaskan Brooks Range with a backpack filled with my chosen supplies for a couple of months! 

What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home?
The Maldives I suppose. Though I felt quite at home observing the creatures of these close to undisturbed reefs go about their daily business…..

What is something that a ton of people are obsessed with but you just don’t get the point of?
Social media. Sorry, old fashioned I guess. In our busy lives, time is precious. Given that, real communication is an investment that I value and appreciate. 

What would be the scariest monster you could imagine?
A society that has lost sight of all that the natural world provides us.

Thank you Mr. Avila for participating in our Thurston team interview!
Want to get into more colleges? Do less.
Hi there,

"More" has somehow become the mantra for getting into college. More AP classes. More activities. More work, more hours, and more accomplishments. But the sad truth is that you are never going to do "more" of anything than all the other students applying to college will do. So here's a radical concept–do less.

Here are five Collegewise suggestions of ways you can achieve more by doing less.

1. Do less test prep.   
It might seem surprising that we’re leading with this considering that several of our offices offer test prep. But the amount of time many students spend studying for these exams is often totally disproportionate to the tests' importance. I'm not saying you shouldn't prep at all. But if you're spending more time doing test prep than you are doing homework, running with the cross country team, or spending time with your family, stop–it's time to do less. 

2. Focus less on trying to fix your academic weaknesses. 
Sure, if you're getting a C or a D in trigonometry no matter how hard you try, it's reasonable to seek outside help. But a lot of students are tutoring just to get the "A’s" in courses that don't come naturally to them. So they're spending almost all their time focusing on their weaker subjects. It's no wonder a lot of those kids are burned out and don't enjoy school. What would happen if you spent less time trying to fix your academic weaknesses? Yes, you might not get an "A;" but how much better could you be in your stronger classes? How much time would you free up to read a book you've wanted to read, or to take on a project in a class you really enjoy, or to teach yourself computer programming, cooking or how to sew? Maximizing your strengths will help you stand out a lot more than trying to fix your weaknesses will. 
  
3. Spend less time being interrupted by email, texts, social media, etc.
We ask our Collegewise students to turn their cell phones off during our meetings because if we don't, their phones beep every two minutes with an alert of some kind. What would happen if you closed your email, turned off your phone, and logged out of any social media accounts whenever you sat down to do your homework, to study, or to do anything productive? How much more focused would you be? How much more would you get done? You've got to be focused to do good work, and it's impossible to be focused when you're constantly interrupted. So turn them all off until you're done. The emails, texts, and posts will be there when you're done–we promise. 

4. Do fewer activities.
Many of the students who start with us at Collegewise are completely over-scheduled. They're doing so many activities that, rather than enjoying and excelling at them, they're just trying to keep up. That's no way to live your life. So we tell them to do less. If you're doing an activity that isn't making you happy, stop. If you're up until 2 a.m. every night because your activities are draining all your time, cut out everything except the things that you'd be sad to lose. Then spend your time and energy really excelling. Focus on how you can improve, make an impact, and learn from what you're doing. And while you're at it, leave some time for yourself. Having free time shouldn't be a luxury; even the world's most successful people still need time to think, reflect and enjoy themselves. 

5. Worry less about college.
When we see a student who's taking challenging courses, studying hard, participating in activities and generally having a successful high school career, it's hard to wonder how they could possibly worry about college. There are more than 2,000 colleges out there and you're going to go to one of them. Worrying constantly about whether your SAT scores are good enough for Yale, or how many APs it takes to get into Duke, or what Stanford wants you to say in your essays–those worries just make you focus on the wrong things. Have enough confidence in yourself to know that you're going to work hard and be successful wherever you go. Be yourself in your application and your essays. Don't require an admission from any particular college to validate your work or your worth.
Sometimes doing less is actually the best thing you can do.

Cheers,
Collegewise
Upcoming Coffee Talk focuses on Challenge Success

LBUSD continues to partner with Challenge Success to support student engagement and well-being. The District hopes to involve more parents and students in the partnership to educate and inform the whole community about current topics related to student wellness and ways to develop resilient learners. The evening will provide parents with student perspectives on sources of stress and foster space where we can collaboratively work together to create a healthy balance.

PTA Coffee Talk will be hosting a Challenge Success Dialogue Night on December 4th, 2019 in the LBHS Library from 5:30-8pm. All parents and 6th-12th grade students are invited to join us and discuss the issues of stress and pressure in our school community. This is an evening of student skits, honest discussion, and brainstorming ways to de-stress our students' lives.  

This event has LIMITED SEATING. Only guests with an RSVP will have guaranteed seating. Attendees not registered will be accomodated after all RSVPs and PTA members have been seated.

Please RSVP to guarantee your seat. Attendees not registered will be accommodated after all RSVPs and PTA members have been seated.

For questions regarding this event please contact Alex Aronson ( aaronson@lbusd.org ) or Jeanne Brown ( jbrown@lbusd.org ) or PTA Coffee Talk ( ptacoffeetalk@gmail.com ).

More information about Challenge Success: http://www.challengesuccess.org/schools/school-program/

FREE FOOTBALL SKILLS CAMP:

No need to register, just show up on Friday, Nov. 22 at 6PM at LBHS field.


Thank you to our Kindness Challenge Sponsors!
Thurston School : (949) 497-7765
Durham Bus: (949) 376-0376
www.thurstonmiddleschoolpta.org