RLC Weekly Newsletter
July 31st, 2026
Titans,
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Homecoming Game on Friday. It was great to see our students, families, and staff come together to support our football team! Special shoutout to our cheerleaders and Ms. Zuniga for their ongoing support of our student athletes. This week, we continue our focus on teaching and learning, and we have some Halloween fun planned for our students.
Thank you to our parents and guardians who joined us for Parent Conferences. We know you have busy schedules, and we appreciate you taking the time to meet with your child's teachers.I also want to thank our teachers for coming prepared to share student progress, answer questions, and help families better understand how their children are doing.
Teaching & Learning: Our PDSA Cycle #2
This is an important week for our instructional work! On Wednesday, October 28, we will hold our Instructional Rounds, where parents, students, staff, and District personnel will visit classrooms to see teaching and learning in action. Parents/Guardians, we would love for you to join us! We know many of you work during the day, so if you cannot attend, please consider sending a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or another family member. We want our families to be part of this work. Please see the flyer in this newsletter for more information.
Our teachers have submitted lessons showing how they are using our Note Catcher strategy to help students think more deeply about what they are learning. Our administrators began providing feedback on Friday and will continue through Monday. We appreciate the planning teachers have done to include more challenging questions, especially Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels 3 and 4.
One area we are continuing to strengthen is student discussion. Planning good questions is important, but we also want students talking to one another, explaining their answers, asking questions, and learning from each other. This will be part of our professional learning on Tuesday.
Since the beginning of the year, we have focused on Talking to the Text, metacognitive markers, and now the Note Catcher. These strategies are meant to work together. We know reading comprehension continues to be an area where our students need support. That is why we expect these practices to be used regularly, especially when students are reading text, graphs, or other information in class. Our goal and expectation is simple: students should be reading, thinking, talking, and explaining their learning at a deeper level. We will continue visiting classrooms, reviewing student work, and giving teachers feedback to help strengthen this work.
Teachers, please remember that you will participate in Instructional Rounds on Wednesday during your conference period. Substitutes will be provided to help cover classes. If you are absent on Wednesday, your classroom visit will take place on Thursday.
Grades, Rubrics & Student Progress
Our 15 week grading window will open soon. Teachers, please continue updating your gradebooks regularly so students and families can see their progress throughout the grading period, not just when grades are due. I also want to remind everyone of the importance of sharing clear grading criteria with students. Whether students are completing a writing assignment, journal, or another task, they should know what is expected and how their work will be graded. Rubrics help students understand what good work looks like and what they need to improve.
Advisory
We will continue visiting Advisory classes to see how students are spending this time. This year, we made changes to give teachers more opportunities to share a special skill, craft, talent, or activity with their students. We want Advisory to be a time when students enjoy learning something different, connect with their teachers, and have fun! During Tuesday's faculty meeting, we will have teachers learn more about the work they are doing during this period.
Thank you to the teachers who are making this time special for our students. We want every student to have that experience.
Halloween and More!
We are looking forward to celebrating Halloween with our students this Friday, October 30! Students and staff are invited to wear their costumes, and join us as we greet our students at the gates. We will also have our Halloween Dance on Friday during lunch. Students who wear a costume can enter the dance for free.
As we close out October, we continue celebrating Filipino American History Month! This is a time to recognize the history, culture, and many contributions of our Filipino brothers and sisters. We are proud to celebrate the many cultures that make up our school community!
Have a great week, everyone!
Blanca Cruz
Principal
A SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO OUR TITAN STAFF!
Shout out to Ms. Beltran
Ms. Beltran consistently demonstrates her commitment to providing students with meaningful opportunities to engage in rigorous, college level AP coursework! She intentionally uses College Board prompts to expose students to the expectations and demands of AP level work. We especially appreciate how she sets high expectations while providing students with time to strengthen their writing skills through timed writing opportunities and purposeful feedback. Her commitment to preparing students for the rigor of college level work is making a difference!
Shout out to Ms. Lee
Ms. Lee intentionally strengthened our CER writing strategy by challenging students to include an additional piece of evidence and reasoning to support their claims. She has adapted the CER strategy to meet her needs as an instructional expert. That initiative is important because she is building on what we are doing and making it work for her students while continuing to hold a high standard for learning. She also incorporates prewriting activities that help students organize their thinking and prepare to respond to a rigorous question. This is helping our students strengthen their ability to develop well supported arguments and communicate their thinking through writing.
Culture of CARE Shout Out to Ms. Lexius
A special shout out to Ms. Lexius for going above and beyond to support our Titans! Thank you for being present during supervision, taking the time to check in on our students, and showing that you genuinely care about their well being. Your dedication and willingness to step in and support our school community make a difference. We appreciate you for helping make Roybal a place where our students feel safe, supported, and cared for!
