Akins AVID Monthly Newsletter

We are so excited to kick off this school year at #thebesthighschoolontheplanet! We will have over 500 students in the AVID program this year. This is the largest our program has every been! We've had AVID at Akins since 2003. We will have 11 sections of AVID 1 (6 ECHS), 3 sections each of AVID 2, 3 and two sections of AVID 4. We look forward to a great year with all of you!

“AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society.” AVID is designed as a student-centered support system, based on the principles of Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading. Students work individually, in small groups and with the class as a whole to improve their academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills.

We have an amazing AVID team with decades of experience!

Aimee Finney (AVID 1 and Debate)

Aleisha Forde (ECHS AVID 1)

Christina Garcia-Mata (AVID 3 and 4; Green Tech Academy Coordinator)

Teresa Grumbles (AVID 1 and 2; Site Coordinator)

Paty Martinez (AVID 1 and AVID 3; Basketball)

Please feel free to reach out to us at anytime to help our students succeed and also to learn more about AVID.

In addition to our AVID elective teachers, these leaders also serve on our site team:

Susan Thames: Assistant Principal (New Tech)

Margarita Moreno: Counselor (Green Tech)

Sarah Nickel: Counselor (AHA)

Melinda Van Horn: Counselor (ABLLE)

Lora Alaniz: CTE teacher (AHA)

Elisha Aldana: Math teacher (ECHS)

Christina Berry: Math teacher and STEM Academy Coordinator (STEM)

Melissa Contreras: Social Studies teacher and ABLLE Academy Coordinator (ABLLE)

Katie Delmore: Social Studies teacher (Green Tech)

Christina Jenschke: Science teacher (ABLLE)

Rebecca Redland-Sturzl: English teacher (Green Tech)

Loraine Tijerina: CTE and SEL teacher (SS)

All of you use AVID strategies on a daily basis in your classroom. The most common one used across campus is Focused Note-Taking (FNT). The purpose of FNT is to get the students to review, reflect and apply their learning. Here is a refresher of the FNT Process.

Process for FNT:

1. Take notes: Teacher determines a purpose, selects a format, creates an essential question and notes for students.

2. Process Notes: Students should go back over notes, revise, highlight, etc.

2. Connect Thinking: Students should ask questions, think beyond notes, connect to prior learning.

4. Summarize/Reflect: Students reflect and think about their notes, make a summary of what they've learned.

5. Apply Learning: Students should use notes to review/study.

For more information, click here for a slideshow.

If you would like to learn more about AVID and join our site team, please let one of us know. We would love to have you! We hold monthly meetings and will post our schedule soon. Our first meeting will be on Wednesday, September 11 at 7:45 am.

Throughout the year, we will be posting AVID strategies on our BLEND page. Make sure that you join so you can stay up to date. We look forward to working with all of you this year to help our Eagles Soar! Click here to join our Blend course.