Annandale Students, Families, and Community:
At Annandale, we have long held a shared belief that our diversity is our greatest strength. This week, we celebrated Inclusion Revolution Week, which honors the many cultures, perspectives, and experiences of our students. This is one of my favorite weeks of the year as it showcases the very best of Atom Nation.
The week began with our monthly W4 Activities Day. Students had a special opportunity to hear from Dr. Geovanny Ponce, FCPS Chief of Schools. During his speech, he recounted his inspiring journey as an immigrant and educator, detailing the challenges he faced and emphasizing the importance of self-belief, even in the face of skepticism from others.
On Wednesday, we held our annual FanQuest pep rally, where students on the Special Olympics teams from Annandale and Justice took to the court in front of a crowd of cheering fans. This event is a celebration of inclusion and respect in which we come together to honor the unique strengths of each student. It is truly moving to watch our entire student body captivated by the Special Olympics student athletes as they cheer on both teams.
Finally, on Friday, our incredible community came out for our Just World Festival and Heritage Night. After school, the halls were filled with student clubs and local organizations that are striving to make the world a better place, both locally and globally. Students hosted workshops, shared cultural foods and experiences, and built community and understanding all while having fun at the Just World Festival. The evening culminated with our Heritage Night performance. Hosted by our leadership class, students shared their cultural heritage and pride with a fashion show and dance performances as families and peers cheered in the packed auditorium.
I am so proud to be a part of a community that not only values, but actively celebrates every member of Atom Nation. A huge thank you to all the staff, students, families, and community organizations that played a part in orchestrating these remarkable events.
Have a great week, Atom Nation! As always, reach out with any questions.
Shawn DeRose, Principal
|
Mulch Madness Is Here!
Mulch Madness is the PTSA's biggest and most critical fundraiser of the year. Proceeds from the mulch sale go directly to support the PTSA's All Night Graduation Celebration and Senior Scholarships. All Night Graduation Celebration provides a fun, safe, alcohol and drug-free parent-chaperoned celebration for our seniors. Order now through March 27! Mulch will be available for pick-up at AHS on Saturday, April 6 from 8am-12pm or delivered to your location. Each mulch bag covers 3 cubic feet and weighs about 50 lbs. $6.50 per bag delivered (10 bag minimum and within a five mile radius of AHS). $5.50 per bag self pick-up. For more information, email ptsaprograms@gmail.com.
In addition, there are big and small volunteer opportunities but they all make a difference with our biggest and most critical fundraiser of the year. Sign up here to volunteer and help make this event a success!
Important Dates
March 11 - Ramadan Begins
March 11 - Tornado Drill
March 12 - SEL Screener
March 12 - PRIDE TIme 4.0 Begins
March 12 - PTSA Meeting, 7pm
March 13 - ASAP 3.0 Begins
March 13 - PTSA Pantry Distribution
March 13 - Partners for Safe Teen Driving
March 14 - Lockdown Drill
March 18 - Fire Drill
March 20 - Student of the Month Celebration
March 21-22 - Performing Arts Spring Trip
March 22 - End of Quarter 3
March 25-29 - Spring Break
April 1 - Teacher Work Day (No School)
April 2 - School Planning Day (No School)
April 10 - Eid Al Fitr Holiday (No School)
March 11 - Tornado Drill: We will be conducting our required yearly tornado drill on March 11.
March 11-April 9 - Ramadan: This year Ramadan begins at sunset the evening of March 11 and ends at sunset the evening of April 9. During this time, many of our Muslim students may be fasting and it is important for those students to have a quiet, alternative location to go to during lunchtime. Therefore, the library will be open to students who would prefer to go there during lunch rather than the cafeteria. If you have questions, please contact Sarah Eqab.
March 12 - Spring Social and Emotional Learning Screener: Students in grades 9-12 use the SEL Screener twice a year to share their perspectives on how well their school and community help them develop skills they need to succeed. These skills include achieving goals, understanding and managing emotions, establishing and maintaining relationships with adults and peers, and making responsible decisions. Students also share how successful their school and community are at making them feel valued, included, and supported. These factors are critical to positive academic, social, and emotional success. For more information, please visit the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Screener webpage.
March 12 - PRIDE Time 4.0 Begins: PRIDE Time 4.0 is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, March 12. This latest iteration of PRIDE Time will focus on identifying students in need of preparation for the upcoming SOLs. Students who are not identified for intervention will be assigned a Study Hall PRIDE Time and will have the ability to complete assignments or request assistance from another Study Hall PRIDE Time teacher. Beginning March 11, students will be able to view their new PRIDE Time assignment in SIS StudentVue as their period 11 class.
March 12 - PTSA Meeting, 7pm: Our next PTSA meeting will be on Tuesday, March 12 at 7:00pm in the library. Spanish translation will be available. If you can't attend in person, consider joining us virtually on Zoom. The link will be active 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting. Also, if you have not done so already, please consider joining the PTSA by filling out the online Membership Form. For more information about membership visit the Annandale PTSA website.
March 13 - ASAP 3.0 Begins: On Wednesday, March 13 we will begin our third round of our After School Academic Program. ASAP is one way we support students needing intervention in more than one subject area. Students selected to participate in ASAP work with an assigned teacher after school from 3:10-4:10pm. Selected students and parents will receive an email with updated assignments and teachers will provide students with paper invitations during class. Students are expected to attend ASAP before other extracurricular activities, including sports and detention. Late buses are available, and Super Snack is provided in the cafeteria after 4:15pm. If you have questions about your student’s ASAP assignment, please reach out to Matt Carlock.
March 13 - Partners for Safe Teen Driving (PTSD), 6:30pm: Annandale High School will be hosting Partners for Safe Teen Driving on March 13 at 6:30pm. The state of Virginia requires students and their parents to attend one session of Partners for Safe Teen Driving in order to receive their Pink Card (DEC-8). If the parent and student are not in the auditorium at 6:30pm then they will be asked to attend another session. If you have any questions, please email Lizzie McManus.
March 14 - Lockdown Drill: This week we will conduct our second required lockdown drill of the school year. Your student may come home and talk about their experience during the drill. We encourage you to talk with your student about the importance of being prepared for emergencies. Here are some helpful tips for families to use to support their students before and after school lockdown drills.
March 21-22 - Performing Arts Spring Trip: Annandale’s Performing Arts students will be taking a trip to New York City! During the trip, students will be touring Lincoln Center, seeing a Broadway show, attending a workshop, and seeing a performance at Juilliard. The afternoon before leaving for the trip, students will enjoy a clinic with members of The United States Army Band and members of the National Symphony Orchestra on “Setting the Tone.”
March 25-29 - Spring Break: Schools and school offices will be closed. See the complete 2023-24 school year calendar
|
Awesome Atoms
Heritage Night Celebrates AHS Diversity and Belonging! Friday night, Annandale hosted our Annual Heritage Night Performance. Students had an opportunity to showcase their culture through music, dance, fashion, and more. Audience members enjoyed an incredible array of performances by students in which the appreciation of our diversity shined. Special thanks to all of our performers who worked so hard to practice their showpieces, our fantastic MCs Semir Ali, Radiate Yohanes and Kenza Choukairi as well as our leadership teachers, Madison Morella and Selvana Ayoub for their hard work in making the show a success!
|
Annandale Teachers Are Lifelong Learners! A big shout out to our English 10, Geometry, and Chemistry teams who have been participating in professional development around engaging students through high quality instruction using the workshop model. We really appreciate our staff taking the day to work with their admin and coach and learn together about ways to maximize our time in the classroom. Teachers learned tools and strategies to support students in completing tasks independently while teachers work with others in small groups.
Congratulations to Thanh Nguyen, National Merit Scholarship Finalist! Congrats to Thanh Nguyen, who has been recognized from a pool of over 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists from around the country. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition among high school students for recognition and college scholarships that began in 1955. The program is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. United States high school students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which serves as an initial screen of over 1.3 million entrants each year, and by meeting published program entry and participation requirements.
|
FCPS Chief of Schools Addresses Atom Nation: On Monday, March 4, Dr. Ponce, the FCPS Chief of Schools, came to Annandale to share his personal story of immigrating to the United States with many of our own newcomer students. The session also highlighted the importance of diversity in our schools and the opportunities being multilingual can provide. We are so appreciative of Dr. Ponce taking the time to motivate and inspire our students!
Journalism Students Learn From Some of the Best in the News Business: Students in the Journalism Pride Time group welcomed Christi Parsons of the University of Maryland’s Medill College of Journalism, former Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau Chief Al Hunt, Morning Edition’s Michael Martin and four of her colleagues from NPR including Chief Washington Editor Krishnadev Calamur, Morning Edition Editors Adam Bearne and Mohamed ElBardicy, and producer Nina Kravinsky. Students met in small groups with journalists to get individualized suggestions on how to complete the stories they've been working on since January.
|
FanQuest Rocks Atom Nation! On Wednesday, March 6, the Annandale Special Olympics Basketball team hosted the Justice Wolves for our annual FanQuest. FanQuest is an event that promotes inclusion and respect for students with disabilities through sports. Both the Atoms and Wolves played with the support of general education peers involved with the Special Olympics and Best Buddies programs. These are programs in which students have the opportunity to work with their Cat-B peers.
The event, as a part of our annual Inclusion Revolution week, was supported by our leadership class, boys basketball team, band, and cheerleaders. It was an incredible experience to watch our Special Olympics athletes showcase their basketball skills in the gymnasium packed with student fans. All eyes were on our athletes and the crowd went wild when the first basket was made, and the cheering didn’t stop. The support and appreciation our students had for both the Wolves and their fellow Atoms was overwhelming. Special thanks to Special Olympics Coaches Janan Hawthorne, Katie Shaw and Paul Fink for coordinating this incredible event and to the Justice Wolves for an amazing game. A special shoutout to Mr. Lee and our leadership students for MCing the event and getting the gym set up for our athletes. Any student that would like to get involved with Special Olympics or Best buddies can reach out to Coach Hawthorne or Ms. Salgado or stop by room 22!
Watch the Justice and Annandale Special Olympics Team Introductions at FanQuest 2024!
Important Information
Safety Drills in March: Keeping students and staff safe is a priority at Annandale High School. Last week, we conducted our annual tornado drill. This week we will conduct our second required lockdown drill of the school year. Your student may come home and talk about their experience during the drill. We encourage you to talk with your student about the importance of being prepared for emergencies. Here are some helpful tips for families to use to support their students before and after school lockdown drills. Working together, we create a safe, secure environment for students to learn and grow in our schools. Below are the dates of our March safety drills.
- March 11 - Tornado Drill
- March 14 - Lockdown Drill
- March 18 - Fire Drill
Boundary Study Update: The Fairfax County School Board is considering boundary study scope recommendations to address capacity challenges at Glasgow Middle School. However, the two community meetings scheduled for March 6 and March 13 have been postponed to allow for additional scoping and School Board review. Keep informed and engaged by visiting the Glasgow Middle School Capacity Challenges webpage. While there, sign up for the mailing list. Communication about this ongoing work will also be shared by the school and your school board representative, Dr. Ricardy Anderson.
Now Open! Family Engagement Survey: FCPS is partnering with independent research firm K12 Insight to administer a Family Engagement Survey, which will be open now through Friday, March 22. Your feedback is critical in helping FCPS to better recognize, understand, respect, and address family strengths and needs throughout the district. Parents will receive the survey link via email from K12 Insight. A public link will also be posted on FCPS’ website. Paper surveys will be available in our front office. Please stay tuned for more information.
|
Opportunities
Now Open! Summer Camps Pre-Registration: Annandale Summer Camps are now accepting pre-registration. Summer Youth Sports Camps are held at Annandale High School and run 8:30am-3:00pm. The cost is $120. Sign up before March 1 and receive the $100 early bird rate. Multi Sport Camp: June 17,18, 20, 21 (No camp on June 19), Olympics Camp: June 24-27 (No camp Friday). Pre-Register Here!
|
Now through March 15 - Personal Yearbook Ads for Sale: Celebrate your Class of 2024 Senior or underclassman with a Personal Ad in the 2024 Yearbook! Design a Personal Ad and purchase the 2024 Yearbook here.
March 20 - FCPS Virtual Military Night: FCPS School Counseling Services is hosting a Virtual Military Night on Wednesday, March 20, 6-8 p.m. This event is designed for high school students and their families who are interested in learning more about the military pathways and opportunities. Enlistment, service academies, and ROTC pathways will be represented.
March 22 - Applications for Student Representative to the School Board Due: Each year, FCPS students have the opportunity to apply for the position of the student representative to the School Board. The student representative is not a member of the School Board but serves in a nonvoting, advisory capacity, representing the interests of the students of Fairfax County Public Schools. Students who are currently in grades 9, 10, and 11 are eligible to apply, and they do not need to be current members of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (SAC). Find out more and apply here.
|
Academic Support
Sign up for a writing conference with the AWC: The trained peer tutors of the Atoms Writing Center will continue to provide support for students with writing in any class. Use this link to sign up for a writing conference. If you haven’t already, you should also join our Schoology group to get important updates and announcements from the AWC all year by going to “Groups” > ”My Groups” > ”Join Group” then putting in this code: 9MSF-KSDM-B7HCP. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Contact Mrs. Crowley with any questions.
Need Help in Your Class? Stay With Your Teacher After School! Annandale High School offers late bus transportation three (3) days per week: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. All teachers stay after school at least one day a week to provide academic support for students. Please refer to this list to see which day your student’s teacher is available after school.
Annandale Tutoring Center Open Mondays: Students can now get tutoring from AVID and honor society members, every Monday in Room 287 from 3:00-4:00pm. Tutors will be available to help in math, science and social studies. Contact Ms. Michelle Lukacs, AVID and History teacher, with questions.
Work with Live Tutors for Free! Does your student need help getting up to speed in math, science, or English? Tutor.com offers diagnostic quizzes to help students test their knowledge and find areas where they may need help. Quizzes can be taken anytime, and students can connect immediately to a tutor. Find out more here.
|
College Admission & Financial Aid
March 19 - NOVA Virtual Sessions for Seniors and Their Families: Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) is offering virtual information and application sessions. Information sessions will provide an overview of NOVA and the opportunities, services, and resources designed to connect high school seniors to the NOVA Nighthawk Community. An information session will be held Tuesday, March 19, at 4:30pm and a virtual application workshop will be held Tuesday, April 30, at 7:00pm. Sessions are open to all FCPS seniors and their families. For questions, email admissions@nvcc.edu or call 703-323-3000.
FAFSA Updates for Seniors and Families: There have been several technological challenges with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) since its launch on December 31, 2023. The latest news is that colleges will not get FAFSA summaries from the U.S. Department of Education until mid-March at the earliest. As a result, colleges won’t be able to give students financial aid award letters based on their FAFSA information until late April to May, at best. Students who applied to a college that uses the CSS Profile may receive financial aid information sooner.
Different media outlets are reporting a growing list of colleges that will push back deadlines for students to accept offers of admission into May and even June. The American Council on Education has a database of colleges and universities that have extended their deadline to commit to enroll. We recommend that all information obtained by a secondary source be confirmed directly with the college or university. If you need assistance, please contact Mr. Yeagley in our College and Career Center or your student’s counselor.
College & Career Planning Google Site: Check out the College & Career Planning Google site, which provides up-to-date information on the college application process; college representative visits; financial aid and FAFSA/VASA workshops; military options; information on apprenticeships; as well as resources for finding a job. The website also provides contact information for our School Counselors, as well as our College and Career Specialist.
Thursday College Application Workshops: Every Thursday from 3:00-4:00pm in Room 90 (near the Cafeteria), Counselors and AVID students will be assisting students with various topics: Making a College List; Transcript Request Form; Common App; Recommendation Requests. Students are welcome to drop in with questions about any aspect of the process.
|
News from the Activities Office
Check out the latest information from the Activities Office in their weekly newsletter. In addition, learn more about Annandale High School Athletics and Activities by visiting their website, AHS Athletics Twitter or Instagram page. Please email Brandon Sutphin if you have any questions.
Booster Membership Fee Reduced! The cost of Booster Memberships is now 50% less! The new low price will be Adults $30 and Students $15 (including Elementary, Middle, and High School Students). The Booster pass allows Free Admission to all regular season Freshman, JV, and Varsity games. This price drop will include the last 3 games of the basketball season and include ALL Spring season sports: Baseball, Soccer, and Lacrosse. Check Atoms Athletics schedules and buy your Booster Pass here.
This Week:
Tuesday, March 12
Girls Soccer vs Meridian - 5:30/7
Varsity Baseball vs Mt. Vernon - 6:30pm
Varsity Softball vs Mt. Vernon - 6:30pm
JV Baseball @ Mt. Vernon - 6:00pm
JV Boys/Girls Lacrosse @ Justice - 5:45/7:00pm
Chorus Pyramid Concert - Auditorium - 7:00pm
Wednesday, March 13
Boys Soccer vs Colonial Forge - 5:00/6:30pm
Boys Tennis vs Falls Church - 4:00pm
Girls Tennis @ Falls Church @ Jefferson District Park - 4:00pm
Outdoor Track @ TJ - 5:00pm
Thursday, March 14
Girls Soccer vs Washington-Liberty - 5:45/7:15pm
Girls Tennis vs Hayfield - 4:00pm
Varsity Baseball/Softball vs Falls Church - 6:30pm
Boys Soccer @ Washington-Liberty - 5:45/7:15pm
Boys Tennis @ Hayfield - 4:00pm
JV Baseball/Softball @ Falls Church - 6:30pm
Friday, March 15
Girls Lacrosse vs Marshall - 6:00/7:30pm
Varsity Softball vs Osbourn - 6:30pm
Boys Lacrosse @ Marshall - 5:45/7:15pm
JV Softball @ Edison - 6:30pm
Saturday, March 16
Atoms Girls Lacrosse Tournament - 9:00am
|
News from the PTSA
Upcoming Events - Mark your calendars!
April 6 - Annual Mulch Sale
April 14-21 - Silent Auction
May 4 - Flea Market
June 4 - All Night Grad
PTSA Nominating Committee: Each year the PTSA forms a committee to identify people interested in serving as PTSA officers. The Nominating Committee advertises the opportunities available and explains how to
apply, receives nominations and identifies potential candidates, and presents a slate of nominees at the April PTSA general membership meeting. Contact Angela Torres at atoms.ahs.president@gmail.com for more information or to sign up.
Volunteers Wanted - AHS Pantry: The AHS Pantry needs your help! Each month, the Annandale Pantry distributes bags of food to Annandale families in need. Distribution dates are primarily on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month from 3:30-5:00pm. Please consider volunteering to assist in a distribution. Volunteers can sign up here.
AHS Pantry Distribution Every Second Wednesday: We offer bi-monthly family distributions as well as twice weekly student distributions and emergency needs and gift cards for emergency situations that are tracked and distributed with our AHS clinical staff. We have partnerships with Food for Others and Fairfax Diaper as well as other Community businesses, neighborhoods, girl scout troops and churches.
|
 
|
