Included in this issue:
- Class of 2021 - Fundraiser
- Fairfax Chorus
- FBLA - Project ASK Foundation for Children with Cancer
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Fairfax PTSA
- The Kids We Lose Documentary Screening
- The Future of College Admissions
- ANG Personalized Sign Order - Ending on 12/11
- Flat Screen TV Donation(?)
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New Athletic Registration for Athletes
- Winter Sports Tryout Dates
- Posse Scholarship Advertising
- Science Olympiad - 4th Place finish out of 51 Teams
- Last Day for Poinsettias Pick-Up
- Tech Updates
- Donate "Mac & Cheese and Masks" to Fairfax Teachers
- FCPS Cares
Acceso de News You Choose en Español: Haga clic aquí.
Dear Family Fairfax,
Another busy week has come and gone. It is hard to believe that in two weeks, we will be heading into our winter break.
During our virtual parent coffee this morning, there were excellent questions about our reasoning for pausing our pilot; FHS’s plan to support struggling students; the tentative dial-in this January; and much more. I thought I would use this week’s NYC to flashback to some information that I previously shared and address some of the questions with our entire community:
Grading and SIS. Please remember that we are giving feedback and assigning grades. Checking your student’s SIS is important to ensure that s/he is participating. Comparing that with your student’s Google Classroom or Blackboard can be a useful way to help him/her stay on track. For your convenience here is the link to the FCPS website for SIS: SIS Gradebook ParentVue
To provide some relief to families, FCPS also has a feature that can be activated for you to receive weekly emails that provide a snapshot of your student’s progress--really useful if you have more than one student, too! Here is the link with information on how you can activate this feature if you are not currently receiving weekly progress reports: Weekly Progress Reports Sign Up
If you have gradebook questions, the teacher is the best person with whom to start. If you still need support, your student’s counselor or administrator can also be of support as well. For your convenience, here is a link to our administrators, your administration, and our counselors, your professional school counselors and staff.
Pausing the pilot. Positivity rates in accordance with the interim key health metrics for FCPS warranted the transition back to virtual for only our Academy, Auto Technology, and pilot students (Group 4); however, two of our other cohorts remained in school (Group 3). To clarify, the Group 4 students are cohorted in such a way that their teachers are, in fact, “blending” with other cohorts, and for many in their transportation to and from school, lunch, etc., they were blending with other cohorts of students. Without clear data as to how our mitigation strategies are impacting any potential transmission, with rising COVID rates, blended cohorts of students were transitioned back to virtual. Our students who remained with Group 3 do not blend cohorts, consistently see the same staff, and are only working with other peers through a virtual platform. This isn’t to say that these students will never transition back to virtual, just that the current threshold is higher. As FCPS continues building out the metrics and data from required mitigation strategies, the interim decision rules for cohorts will likely evolve.
Supporting struggling students. FHS has a system of support for our students who are most in need of academic intervention. Utilizing various staff, we have and will continue to develop a virtual structure that includes attendance, behavioral and academic support. We were able to work one on one with a number of struggling (grades) students during first quarter. In writing this, it is certainly not to diminish the feelings of the students who struggled through first quarter but still earned a high grade--we hear you and your concerns about sustainability and stress as well. We are committed to working with our teachers and other staff to adjust our expectations so that students are given meaningful, rigorous, and quality learning experiences that are manageable. We are committed to doing the very best we can to meet and exceed expectations while remaining keenly aware of the stress.
Dialing in this January. We are processing lessons learned from our pilot and deep into planning for the tentative return of our in person students in January. As details firm up, dates are confirmed, etc., we will be offering town halls to our students and parents. We are all eager to safely return to Fairfax.
We are anticipating the start of our winter sports season with tryouts for many of our athletes starting on Monday--fingers crossed all remains on track, and everyone stays safe!
Your proud principal,
Erin
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21st-Jan. 1st, 2021: Winter Break
January 18: No School - MLK Jr. Day
January 20: No School, Inauguration Day
January 22: Two Hour Early Release - End of 2nd Qtr
January 25: Teacher Workday
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Class of 2021 - Fundraiser
Fairfax Chorus
Support and visit fxchorus.org
FBLA
The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club has partnered with Project ASK. This is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that helps research cancer treatments and gives aid to children diagnosed with cancer financially, socially, and spiritually. For more information, please visit their website HERE.
We are asking parents, teachers, and students to donate independently since it is not as easy to raise funds during these times as it has been in the past. Any donation is greatly appreciated, no amount is too small.
Instructions for financial donations:
- Visit https://secure.qgiv.com/event/fbl202/
- Click the "Donate" tab on the top of the page
- Select the "NOVA" Region and the amount they would like to donate
- Under "Additional Questions" where it says "Are you with a specific FBLA chapter", type in Fairfax High School
- Companies or small businesses may also donate if they would like!
Instructions for Gift Card donations:
- $10 Target or Walmart gift card for teenage patients to buy something special just for them
- $25 Amazon gift card for a parent to purchase a toy for the holidays
- $50 gas station gift card to help get them to-and-from hospital appointments
- $125 grocery store gift card to help put food on the table for the whole family
Gift Cards may be mailed to this business:
5211 W. Broad Street, Suite 102. Richmond, VA 23230. ATTN: FBLA Gift Cards
* Please include that it is on behalf of the Fairfax HS FBLA Chapter- NOVA Region *
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Fairfax PTSA
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The Kids We Lose Documentary Screening
Fairfax County SEPTA and Fairfax County Council PTA are co-sponsoring this documentary. Please share with your school and your entire community. Everyone is welcome to attend and learn more about this important issue. NOVA District PTA is providing the virtual platform to view the event. Questions? Please email: ticn@fccpta.org
Register below for the December 7, 2020 @ 7pm event
Register HERE
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The Future of College Admissions
Langley HS's PTSA is pleased to invite you to participate in our upcoming free live webinar, "The Future of College Admissions" presented by Jeff Selingo, best-selling author, engaging speaker, and college admissions expert, on Tuesday, December 8, at 7pm.
Participants may register by clicking on this LINK. To submit questions for the webinar in advance, click HERE.
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Flat Screen TVs
If you have 32 inches or larger flat screen TV (preferably on a stand) that you plan on getting rid of, FHS could use them as we start to bring students back into the classroom for concurrent learning. Please contact Tim Brown at twbrown@fcps.edu if you have a TV to donate or any questions. |
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New Athletic Registration for Athletes
The new athletic registration site is available HERE
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Winter Sports Tryouts - Girls and Boys Basketball - start on
Monday, December 7th
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Winter Sports Tryouts are right around the corner:
- December 7th Boys and Girls Basketball
- December 14th Gymnastics, Swim & Dive, Track, and Wrestling!!!
Prior to tryouts, ALL student athletes must have a VHSL Physical on file with the Activities Office. Plus, ALL student athletes must complete the new student athlete registration which can be found at
https://fairfax-ar.rschooltoday.com/home.
If you are trying out for a Winter Sport, feel free to reach out to the Head Coach directly if you have any sport specific questions: COACHES EMAILS
Just a reminder, all athletes trying out for a Winter Sport will follow the following guidelines:
All athletes will have their temperature taken, go through COVID screening, wear their face mask as they enter and exit the building/facilities, and must bring a 32oz. water bottle. Review tryout times/drop off locations
Student Athlete Pledge~Fairfax Athletics - Protect the Pride!
Keeping our athletes, coaches and community safe is a shared responsibility! Click on the athlete pledge!
Posse Scholarship Advertising
Full-Tuition Posse Scholarships at the College of William & Mary!
FHS has been invited to nominate seniors for the Posse Scholarships being awarded by the College of William & Mary. These are full-tuition, 4-year scholarships and the chance to be part of an acclaimed national diversity + leadership program. Open to students of all backgrounds.
Interested seniors must complete the Posse Self-Nomination Form (available on Naviance Student) and return to Maureen Kim, FHS College & Career Specialist, MHKim@fcps.edu, by Thursday, Dec. 10.
For questions, contact Ms. Kim at MHKim@fcps.edu
To learn more about the Posse Scholarship, watch this 10-minute video: https://vimeo.com/284643299, or see: https://www.possefoundation.org/about-posse
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Science Olympiad
Congratulations to the Fairfax High School Science Olympiad team for their 4th place finish out of 51 teams at the Boyceville Science Olympiad Invitational Tournament in Wisconsin (virtually) last Saturday! We are so proud of our Fairfax students (and their science teachers)!
We entered 2 teams. The top 6 teams out of 51 earned medals in each of the 28 events.
The following Fairfax students earned medals:
Helena Moore and Dominic Kim – 1st place – code analysis
Amit Panchal and Anushka Shinde – 1st place – robot tour
Melinda Nguyen and Katarina Tran – 2nd place – horticulture
Yurick Tchakountio and Will Koeppen – 3rd place – sounds of music
Janae Robinson and Stephanie Tai – 4th place – ornithology
Disha Kiran and Dominic Kim – 4th place – virology
Saidamir Umarkhodjaev and Sara Silarszka – 5th place – chemistry lab
Dominic Kim and Tyler Stotz – 5th place – disease detectives
Helena Moore and Sara Silarszka – 6th place – horticulture
Sara Silarszka, Stephanie Tai, and Tyler Stotz – 6th place – protein modeling (one of the few 3 person events)
We had an additional 9 pairs of students who scored 7th – 10th place!
Fairfax Science Olympiad competes tomorrow in Palatine, Illinois and on December 12 in Camas, Washington (of course virtually).
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Last Day for Poinsettias pick-up is Saturday, December 5th 10-1pm in the Field House Parking Lot |
Tech Update
We have seen an increase in the number of computer incidents resolved by students restarting their FCPS issued laptop. A technology team member has emailed all students this week with a message to remind them to restart their computer daily by selecting restart from the menu. A reminder that closing the lid of the computer is not a restart. Please help your student remember to restart their laptop daily.
If a student continues to have challenges, please use the Student/Parent hotline (833-921-3277) or enter a ticket in the Parent/Student Tech Support Portal.
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Do you want to celebrate a Fairfax employee who does ordinary things in an extraordinary way, or goes beyond what is expected? If so, then click here to share with everyone. |
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