On November 9, after school, the Art Club hosted sidewalk art. Clubs or students were able to donate money to the Art club and then were able to draw on the school's sidewalk. The Academy donated money and were able to contribute to the majority of the "K." It was a success. It allowed the Academy students to be creative while completing some community service. Below is a picture of the "K" we drew.

Many of our sections included our title. Included  is one of the named sections (this is now the Facebook picture):

A Teaching Moment



They were 10th grade visual plot elements of the story "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury



Meeting November 3rd 2011

This meeting was called to coordinate where the NDP teams should be at this point. Academy teachers wanted to make sure they had a list before the next student team meeting.

UCI and USCLB Trip

Went off without a hitch. I went on the UCI trip and many students seemed to enjoy it. Some even said that they wanted to apply there, now that they have seen it. I think that we should start doing College trips more often. Maybe one in the Spring for Juniors and Sophmores? Just a thought.

Some of the better Green Poster's for MM2

October 13th Meeting

Talked about the upcoming college field trips
Talked about apply for another Green Grant for the Academy. James Stockdale will be working on that paperwork.
Talked about having the NDP project every Friday. Mary posted a guide on google doc's and shared it with all of us. It lists the benchmarks for the project.

Agenda for September 19, 2011
1. Officers attending every Academy meeting?
• The officers will be attending meetings when they are needed
2. Concerns
• The sophomores need to get to know the rest of the academy students
• Suggestions: Seniors will be partnered up with an Academy sophomore to learn the ropes of the Academy and to feel comfortable around Academy students, Academy brunch on a weekend everyone will be able to get to know each other
• During Mrs. Kramers 4th period on September 21,2011 some academy students suggested to have a potluck with the sophomores, make a scrapbook, or have a bake sell afterschool
3. Academy meeting
• The Academy meeting for Seniors will be held this Thursday the 29th in Mrs. Garmons room during B lunch, the meeting is for the Senior trip and fundfraiser ideas
4. Tacos Tuesday, turned into tacos Friday?
• Sell tacos after school
• Get companies that will be willing to sell tacos and the academy will be getting some of the profit
• During movie nights sell tacos
5. Movie Night
• Officers will be in charge for a list of movies students may want to see, it has to be a PG-13, PG, or rated G movie
• Have movie night when there isn’t a football game
• Outside movie night has been too much of a hassle so probably move movie night inside the theater, but students cannot eat in the theater, will eat before entering the theater

(Notes by Nicole Diaz)

Senior Field Trip Eligibility

Sophomores do Revolution, Juniors do resumes etc, we had discussed seniors doing an electronic portfolio but since that has been incorporated into the NDP I was thinking perhaps another avenue might be better. So.... I am thinking that a good senior qualification would be to require that they apply for at least 1 scholarship! Can't get any if you don't apply. What do ya'll think?

Exciting Year

I am excited to be a part of the Knight High School DD&E Academy. I think that this will be a great year because the senior class has gone full-circle--they will be the first graduating class to earn the honors as Academy students. I know this year will be both challenging and rewarding! I cannot wait to watch our kids buckle down and show the rest of the Antelope Valley how it's done here at Knight High School.

Meeting September 12, 2011

Agenda for September 12, 2011
I. The officers were welcomed during the meeting
• President : Gracie Palacios
• Vice President : Michael Nichols
• Secretary : Nicole Diaz
• Treasurer: Carolina Contreras
• The President and Vice President are the voice of the students

II. Homeroom on Fridays
• Students go straight to their assigned homerooms for the NDP project
• Teachers will send out emails to the original homeroom teachers

III. Feedback on the Award Ceremony on back to school night
• Instead of the awards being held on the beginning of the school year , it should be held on the end of the school year
• No sending out prior notifications on who will get an award

IV. Field trip for CSULB and UC Irvine
• October 18
• Students are required to take notes during the trip of the college they want to go to
• Limit amount of chaperones , 2 for CSULB , 2 for UC Irvine
• After the field trip is over everyone will go to the beach to have lunch
• Qualifications : No F’s , GPA 2.0 or higher, and no U’s
• Teachers volunteered to chaperone for CSULB : Mrs. Baxter and Mrs. Sawyer

V. Fundraiser
• Ideas : selling food
• The Officers should talk to the students to see if they have any ideas for fundraising

VI. Nominations for Student of the month
• This year we will have nominations for Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors
• During the meeting teachers were talking about who they would like to nominate
• The officers will be able to give their opinions for the students of the month
VII. Senior Trip
• Need to figure out where to go
• Get ideas from students
(Notes published by Nicole Diaz, Academy secretary)

Meeting Monday August 29th 2011

Student Eelection Results
Award Night letters
T-shirt Logo competition results
More input in the blog
2nd semester Northrop Internships and how it will be rolled out
Talked about the data that the solar panels are generating and how we can use that in our classes.

Meeting Monday August 22nd 2011

At the meeting we covered:
NDP Teams
College information and Salute To Youth booths for the Academy
Visiting the Blog more and sharing in the input
Movie night
When the first field trip would be
Submissions for the T-shirts

It Is Working!

August 15th Meeting

Sarah broke the students into the teams that they will be working in for the NDP (National Defense Project) and presented them to the Academy teacher for review.
Dates were set for the field trips
Academy homeroom teachers were asked to have their self-nominations for Academy Club office in by Friday the 19th.
The Awards night was talked about. The theater will be reserved and the Academy teachers will be selected last years award winners.
We covered how we will incorporate green projects as well.

August 3rd Meeting

Academy teachers meet to talk about the following items:

• First Movie night for the Academy students
• Dates for field trips so paperwork could be submitted
• Dates for the milestones for the "National Defense Project" collaboration between all Academy teacher
• Students that had to be dropped
• The full list of students in the Academy for this year were reviewed
• Budget was discussed

DDE Academy Summer 2011 Retreat

The summer 2011 retreat for the Academy was very successful.

After a long brainstorming session the Academy agreed on the following big collaborative lesson plan for the year. The following break down was agreed would be the best break down of each section:

National Defense Project 2011

Timeline

Step 1	Introduce Project	All Together (Theater)	2nd Week of School
	Receive “ Birth Certificate/ID”
	Constitution

Teams

• Multi-grade levels
• Choosing Teams (Carefully)
• Ten Kids Per Team
• Lottery system
• Every Friday they meet together as a team in a homeroom

Strategic Military Plan

• Create your nation and defend it!

• Competition at end
• Weapons Testing, not War
• Negative Points for hitting cities
• Positive Points for hitting the targets

Projects/Activities by Class

English 10 Pro/Patriotic Propaganda Autobiography Journaling PRESENTATIONS Other Read Anthem	English 11 Pro/Patriotic Propaganda Constitution (Teams) One Month Into School Country Name Stand For Government PRESENTATIONS Other Read Rationalist	English 12 Strategic Military Defense Plan City Layout If this…then that PRESENTATIONS
Digital Electronics Inventors Create Test Bombs and Bomb Bays	US History Pro/Patriotic Propaganda Learn about: Constitution Learn about: Battles/Battlefields Capitols Headquarters	World History Pro/Patriotic Propaganda Learn about: Constitution Learn about: Battles/Battlefields Capitols Headquarters
Econ/Civics Currency Strategies of Defense??	Chemistry Bio Hazards Something Chemical	Physics Projectile Motion When to drop the test bomb based upon initial Velocity
Algebra 2 Projectile Motion When to drop the bomb based upon initial Velocity Probability? Conditional Statements?	Principles of Engineering Centroids Ballistic Device Project Catapults? Tanks (if I have Vex)	Geometry Conditional Statements
Multimedia 1 Create Flag Create Currency	Multimedia 2 Create Weapons Testing Zone	Video Game Create Creatures/People
Aerospace Gliders

There will be many small collaborative projects as well since all Academy teachers are posting to Google calendar which will allow them to see where a cross subject project could happen.

We also decided on the field trips we would pursue and talked about next years budget.

Research Papers

This year the history academy teacher and I (English teacher) paired up on the historical research paper for English 11 students. We picked a topic that worked for both subjects and co-taught it in both classes. I think the co-teaching and having the students get the same assignment in both classes really helped. Overall, the essays were much better this time around then usual. Instead of making them write all the time (like outside the academy teachers propose), I think intensely focusing on one assignment in two classes (or more) is more beneficial.

Collaboration with Mr. Batong’s Web Design Academy students and Mrs. Kramer, our US History teacher.

Meeting May 2nd 2011

The meeting was a chance for us to discuss the upcoming retreat and our goals for that retreat. We also discussed the status of one of the students on probation and candidates for student of the month for May.
Also, talk about how we better prepare our students for green career pathways.

Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain was used for a collaborative lesson plan, Physics lessons, “How the Eye Perceives 3D” lesson, Geometry Scavenger Lesson plan, Trivial Pursuit History Lesson, English Essays. It also was an opportunity for the academy students to bond and provided motivation for them to meet their qualifying status to go.

Science Fair

Our students volunteered at Los Amigos Elementary Super Saturday Science Fair.

Meeting Monday April 4th 2011

This meeting was dedicated to going through all of next years applicants for the Academy. Our Academy teachers discussed each student and whether they felt the Academy would benefit the student. We had 80 applications and only 12 were rejected based on the teachers’ determination of the students’ attitude towards academic achievement, discipline issues, and motivation. We are well over the 50% "At Risk" student requirement of the State that we need in the remaining students. I know we will be able to help these students achieve success. I know we are all looking forward to next year.

AV Press Article- Baxter Bots

Click on the article to enlarge.

ION Mini Urban Challenge

AP Computer Science Lego team (with representatives from Digital Electronics and Aerospace Engineering as well) took second place Saturday, March 5, 2011 at the Ion Mini-Urban Challenge Regional competition, qualifying for one of only 12 spots nationwide at the National competition in Washington D.C.! For winning the competition they win all expenses paid to Nationals for 5 of their team members. We plan to pursue fundraising so that all 6 of the team members can go and none of them are left out. We are so excited and proud of our kids though!


(Writen by James)

We also sent a second younger team of mostly sophomores that did ok and finished in the top end of the competition. They should keep this new legacy alive for years to come.

We would love to see you guys take a hand in celebrating the accomplishments of these amazing students and the fruits of months of hard work they put in learning how to program these Lego NXT robots. Likewise Mary Baxter should receive kudos for heading up this team, with some support I was able to provide, as well as Layne Heiny for taking his Saturday off to bring up a team as well.

If you would like to look a bit into the competition and see what it was all about here is the link:
http://www.ion.org/outreach/muc/index.cfm

Highlights of the event below:

 

 

CPA Conference in Sacramento

Great time was had by all and we got lots' of work done:

 

• Spent time collaborating on projects 
• Spent time talking about students and how we could help them
• Spent time talking about next years teachers for the Academy
• Spent time talking about the team building outing we want to have in the summer
• Spent time sharing the workshops we all went to so all could benefit from them
• James rocked our presentation on "Building an Academy Family- Strategies and Structures that Can't Fail"