Thankful Hands for Thanksgiving

My wonderful daughter Ani (10) taught her dad a valuable lesson on the impact of simplicity. She and her sister Maile (7) created a cut out turkey out of construction paper and proceeded to create the feather's of the turkey with cut out hands. Within the hands was written what they were thankful for. My daughters' turkey is proudly displayed in my home.
I decided to take this very simple approach and apply it to my students.
I asked my daughter to re-create the turkey and then have my students trace their hands so as to make the feathers. The students then were asked to write in their hand what they were thankful for. The following are pictures of our version of the Thanksgiving turkey.

I believe it is important to take a moment, daily, to thank my students for everything they do for me in our classes. They are the reason I am a teacher. I find equally important to let the staff, support personnel, and faculty know how grateful I am for what they do for our students on a daily basis. After reading each hand I feel a tremendous sense of community with the campus.
Thank You Lobos for everything you do.
Have a great Thanksgiving!

Mr. Rodriguez

2010-2011 Lobo Basketball Team

It is with great pleasure to present the 2010-2011 edition of the Alta Vista Lobo Basketball team. We begin our quest for excellence at the 2010 Boyd Baker tournament held at St. Gregory's Prep.
The Lobos are:
#3 Angel Martinez
#5 Miguel Maldonado
#10 Tre Lewis
#11 Fausto Fimbres
#12 Martin Simpson
#13 Francisco Romero
#15 Jesus Leyva
#20 Miguel Leon
#21 Frank Leon
#22 Alvaro Contreras
#25 Josue Boldin
#32 Milton Hernandez
#33 Shaheed Clemens
#34 Cesar Fuentes
#44 Levi Marcus

Team Managers
Valeria Romero
Marissa Goode

Game results will be posted after every game.
Our home opening game will be held at the Kino Memorial Center gymnasium December 7th vs. Lourdes Catholic.
Come out, stand up, and cheer the Lobos to Victory!

Fire Up!
Coach Rod

AIMS test October 26,27,28 2010

Greetings Lobos!

The annual AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) test will be administered Tuesday October 26, Wednesday October 27, and Thursday October 28. The subjects tested are Writing, Reading and Mathematics.

Here are some tips to prepare for the testing week:

• Get a good night's rest before the test.


• Eat breakfast before the test.


• Use deep breaths to curb any test anxiety


• Plan an alternate route to school in the event of traffic problems


• Plan an alternate ride in the event of transportation problems

Here are some test taking tips for the day of the test:

• Take as much time as you need. It is not a race.


• Scan the test before attempting to answer any questions. Answer the questions you are confident you know. Come back to the more difficult questions later in the test.


• If it is a writing prompt, use a graphic organizer to gather and organize your thoughts. After you have written your rough draft, re-read your response and edit any needed areas.


• DO NOT use text language (4=for, u= you, k= okay) while writing your response. Use proper grammar and spelling.


• Stay focused throughout the testing session.

Have confidence in your abilities and do your best!

Fire up!

Coach Rod

KVOA's Kristi Tedesco visits AVHS

Greetings Lobos,

Today we hosted our annual Career College Fair. My classroom was fortunate to have KVOA's anchor Kristi Tedesco visit.

The students had many relevant questions are were engage at the comments and advice that Kristi gave.

Thanks to Ed Wagner for setting this up.

We are grateful for the opportunity to have a local television news personality come to our class to inspire us to seek success in our lives!

www.kvoa.com/news/kristi-tedesco

Mr. Rodriguez

Lobo Students Pay Tribute to First Responders

Greetings Lobos,

Saturday marks the 9th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

Our class studied the events and we decided that we would pay tribute to our local Police and Firefighters by writing letters of thanks.

My letter reads:

Dear Officer/Firefighter,

My name is David Rodriguez and I am a teacher at Alta Vista High School in Tucson, Arizona.
We studied the events of September 11th in our American History classes. I wish to take this moment to thank you for your service to our community. I have known of the courage and sacrifice shown by the police and fire departments of New York City, Washington D.C. and Shanksville that fateful day. I also realize that you show that same courage and sacrifice on a daily basis in order to keep me safe.
On behalf of my community, my school, my peers, and my family: THANK YOU!

Respectfully,

David Rodriguez
Teacher

Alta Vista High School

Tucson, Arizona

This weekend, please take a few moments to remember.

Thank you.

Mr. Rodriguez

Lobos are NEVER gymless!

Greetings Lobos!

Thanks to the philosophy I learned at http://www.rosstraining.com/ of 'Never Being Gymless' we are better people.

Here are some photos of our class using a community park's soccer goal as the anchor for our suspension strap workout. AnJeanine, a member of our Volleyball squad is demonstrating a bench press and curl combination along with what is known as an 'Atomic Crunch' which is a push up followed by a crunch while your feet are suspended. A 'killer' excercise!!

Miguel is demonstrating a suspended pull up and a successful dismount!

Isabel is demonstrating an alternating deltoid raise.

There are too many reasons not to be active. We work very hard to find reasons to work out. There is no excuse in our class. We workout everyday and we are better people because of our collective attitudes.

Thanks again to Alta Vista for allowing me to teach this fantastic course. Thank you also to my students for working hard!

Fire up and Go Lobos!

Coach Rod

Stadium Running Lobo Style!

Alta Vista High School is very fortunate to have the use of the Kino Memorial Center and Tucson Electric Park for our Fitness Strategies class. Every 5 weeks we challenge ourselves with running the stadium steps at TEP. Today we ran 22 rows of steps with an average of 20 steps per row for a total of 440 steps.

We accomplished this twice in 20 minutes for a grand total of 880 steps!

Here are a few post-run photos of the 2010 Block One Fitness Strategists!

I want to thank my students for working hard the past 5.5 weeks. Their bodies are changing because they are choosing to work beyond their comfort zone. I am proud of them and look forward to a great second half of the block!

Enjoy and have a great Labor Day weekend!!