Week Without Walls Gallery

By most accounts, it was an amazing week. The WWW presentations assembly on Friday gave us all a little taste of the incredible things that LPS Richmond students were a part of throughout the week.

I am now collecting pictures and videos from the week and will be posting them here as a way to document WWW 2008. Let me know if you have pictures, video, or writings that you would like to add.


Top Chef


I Heart SF


Sounds So Nice


Beachcombers


Culturama


Take a Hike


Annimation

Mr. Madway Is Looking For More Prom Pictures!

If you took pictures at the prom and would like to add them to our collection on the blog, please come and see Mr. Madway. In addition to adding to our site, I am putting together a DVD and would like to include many, many pictures.

Thanks!!!

LPS Richmond Prom 2008

Note: YouTube just started giving viewers the ability to see higher quality versions of some of it's videos. So if you have a high speed connection and want to see a much nicer looking version of this video, click here to see it on YouTube. Just click "watch in high quality" underneath the YouTube screen.

If you were there, you already know what a great night it was. If you missed it, well, I have to say you really missed out. The Leadership students came dressed to impress, looking good, and ready to have a night they will never forget.

If you have pictures to add to the ones I shot below, let me know and I'll add them to the slide show. Also, if you want to write about your evening, I'm looking for some prom reporters.

A big thanks to all of the LPS teachers and staff who came out to help at them prom. It was certainly a night to remember.

6 Hours of Community Service This Summer

Looking for Community Service: Attending summer school???? First come first serve!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can receive Community Service Hours for watering the plants over the summer. The garden needs eight individual in charge of watering of the plants for both sessions of summer school.

Duties: Water Plants Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Interested? Come talk to Mr. Merlino or Sign Up!!!

□ Session I: Monday, June 23 – Friday, July 11, 2008 (No school on July 3rd and 4th) - 6 Hours of Community Service

□ Session II: Monday, July 14 – Friday, July 30, 2008 - 6 Hours of Community Service

In case you were wondering...

The highest recorded temperature in Richmond was 107 °F in September 1971 while the coldest was 24 °F in January 1990

Go to GoodSearch.com and support our school!

What if LPS-Richmond earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter LPS-Richmond as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!

Chris Whitmore Breaks Down His Zoo Experience

Last Wednesday, the sophomore class went to the San Francisco Zoo and to Ocean Beach to celebrate our victory in the tutor ticket challenge. We were at the Zoo for the majority of the trip and we got be in groups of our choice. My group was Omar Estaban, Jose Martinez, Javier Jacinto, William Rivas, and Ms. St. John, A.K.A Lauren (from the Hills).

Some groups were with teachers, others were without. My group was one that got a teacher and honestly it was a lot of fun to have Ms. St. John with us. We saw lions, tiger, bears, penguins , a hippo, gorillas, baboons, monkeys and a lot more; oh yeah we also saw something a little disturbing with two girraffes but you all can ask us about that later.

After the Zoo we went down the street to the beach. The time we spent there was cold, windy, but really relaxing and funny. Some of us ran through the water, played in the sand, and picked up shells and sea dollars.

The field trip wasn't all on point though. The transportation was a nightmare for Ms. Kim, the teachers, and for the students. First of all we didn't have chartered buses so all of us had to get used to the yellow school buses again and the buses were late to pick us up both going there and coming back. But it was all good in the end.

If any students in the other grade levels are wondering why we got the tutor ticket challenge trip its because the 10th grade students are dedicated to keeping steady grades and because our advisory teachers drill us about turning in tickets until they're out of breath. So now I think it's safe to say that worked, so thank you.

Thank you to Ms. Kim for organizing the trip, the teachers for leaving their classes to come with us and the parents who gave up their busy schedules to come with us.

- Chris Whitmore

LPS Richmond 10th Graders Score High Marks on The CAHSEE

In March, all LPS Richmond sophomores took the California State High School Exit Exam - a test that each student must pass by his/her senior year in order to graduate.

Last week, we received the results and we couldn't be happier. This year's 10th graders scored higher on the two sections of the test, English and Math, than any LPS Richmond students have ever scored.

In Math, 71% of the students passed - that's an 8% jump from last year.

In English, 80% of the students passed - up a point from 79% last year.

Although we do not have results from the other Richmond high schools, we are confident that these scores will once again be tops in Richmond.

If you are a 10th grader, you will receive your individual CAHSEE scores in the mail, probably by the end of the week.

WAY TO GO TENTH GRADERS!!!

LPS Richmond Teacher Appreciation Week

This past week was National Teacher Appreciation Week, and at LPS Richmond we made sure that we celebrated our teachers as much as we possibly could. On Monday, teachers were served their favorite Starbucks beverage; on Tuesday, they were treated to a gourmet breakfast; and on Thursday and Friday, they dined on delicious lunches prepared by LPS parents.

To culminate our week of celebrating some of the nation's best teachers, Ms. St. John's advisory planned a special treat - a family meeting dedicated to honoring them with a time-honored American tradition - musical chairs.

The video below speaks for itself. Enjoy the teachers' rhythm and blues a second time!

10th Graders Go To The SF Zoo

On Wednesday, the 10th graders spent the day at the San Francisco Zoo - their reward for winning Ms. Kim's Tutor Ticket Challenge II. By all accounts, everyone had a great time - even the animals. Check out the pictures above and the video below that Mr. Jernigan put together. And 10th graders, if you haven't done so already, thank Ms. Kim for the trip!

Seniors on Ice

On Wednesday, our seniors embarked on a day long journey to Oakland’s Ice Skating Center. With gloves and scarves in hand, we braced ourselves from the slipping, the falling, or the sliding across the hard, cold ice. Once we arrived at the ice center, many of our seniors rushed to get rental skates and immediately jumped on the ice. Some of us were graceful, while others of us clenched onto the railing around the ice rink for dear mercy. Overall, the seniors had a blast on the ice rink and celebrated their last lap as seniors together.

STAR Week and The STAR-becue

To celebrate our incredibly successful STAR testing week, students who were present, on-time, and working hard on each test were rewarded with a ticket to the STAR-becue. Ms. Benjamin and Mr. Hatcher worked hard on the grill, flipping burgers and cooking up hot dogs to perfection.

Sam Medina was the big winner of the day, as his lucky raffle ticket was drawn. He was presented with a brand new iPod Nano as his fellow students looked on with envy.

All in all, it was a great ending to a successful week. Thank you to all the students who worked hard on each and every test. We are quite confident that we will receive some amazing results when we get our scores this summer!

Where'd Those New Picnic Tables Come From?

On Sunday five of us students and Mr. Chretien built five picnic tables from scratch for the enjoyment of the LPS community. We gathered at school at ten o'clock in the morning and to my surprise there was only five of us students that came to help and to be rewarded with community service hours. It was my brother Andrew, Luis Martinez, Jose Martinez, Omar Esteban, and myself (Chris Whitmore).

With the size of the group and the lack of experience when it came to building a picnic table, we knew our work was cut out for us as it took us exactly nine and a half hours before calling it a day with all five tables finished but only two were able to be used. From ten until seven-thirty, I had some of the most fun that I could ever have while doing work. Of course we drilled, sawed, hammered, and gave our arms a workout by sanding each piece of wood by hand about 3 times, but the fun parts were just goofing off and acting crazy. We also made our school look good when the WASC organization dropped by the school for a tour and they were very impressed with the dedication of us LPS students for giving up our time to make our campus look nice.

I would never have guessed that I would have so much fun building and working all day. I'm almost ready to start building some more.

- Chris Whitmore

Advisory Awards for Academic Excellence

Two advisories were honored this past Friday for their stellar work in the classroom. Mr. Chretien's advisory won the Most Improved GPA Award, while Ms. Thomas' advisory won the Highest GPA Award for the second report period in a row.

Congratulations to both advisories for their academic excellence!

PUMAS of The Week 4/25

Here they are, this week's PUMAS! Congratulations to all!!!!!

12th Grade PUMA - Vieneese Kelly
11th Grade PUMA - Jose Ortega
10th Grade PUMA - Javier Jacinto
9th Grade PUMA - Christian Chavez

Feel The Puma Pride!


Note: YouTube just started giving viewers the ability to see higher quality versions of some of it's videos. So if you have a high speed connection and want to see a much nicer looking version of this video, click here to see it on YouTube. Just click "watch in high quality" underneath the YouTube screen.

1st Annual Lady Pumas vs. Staff softball game

I have to say: if you couldn't make it to this edition of a new yearly tradition, you missed out. Everyone involved--players and fans--had a great time. It really means a lot to me to see students and staff having so much fun together, like we're all a part of a big ol' family.

Some highlights for those who couldn't make it:

- Everyone hit the ball! Special kudos to first-time players like Ms. Gitis, Ms. Montes, and Ms. Ram. You all were extra great.

- The two pop flies the girls caught in the top half of the first. We're still working on the idea of "calling it".

- Terrisha catching Mr. Jernigan's wicked line drive.

- Tanika "The Vacuum" Avingon at shortstop and Lizett "Velcro" Lopez at first base. I don't think either one had an error all game.

- Sharnae bowling over Ms. St. John at second; maybe she was attempting to break up the double play? Ms. St. John is tough as nails though.

- Mr. K's antics on the mound in the bottom half of the last inning; he still swears he was really trying.

Next we're thinking about having a boys baseball team vs. staff softball game, maybe on a Friday. Maybe even next Friday. We'll keep you posted.

Go Pumas,
Mr. Hatcher

p.s. When Mayra Rodriguez asked after the game who won, I said, "Everybody." It's true. =)

Voices of LPS Richmond: Sun Screen Advice for Leadership Public Schools Richmond

Yeah...soo..

I guess I haven't written any posts in awhile, which triggers a response from Mr. Madway (haha just kidding). But the reason is because as the end of the year approaches, the homework load increases!!
As you all know, that's not the most fun way to end the school year, (due to the fact that since I'm a Junior I have stress from dreading the arrival of the SAT date, and also the AP history test). But, that's how life is and we just have to realize that that's apart of growing up.
But, my reason for writing this post is because today in Ms. Lac's 11th grade English class, we had a very interesting/brief conversation (or mini debate if you will) about how the American society forces women (in particular) to not only deter from choosing one career path over another, but teaches them to believe that some careers are just not destined to be theirs because they are women.

As this is true, I want to pose some questions:
As America has evolved from being a completely oppressive nation (in the sense that women and people of color didn't have the same rights as white men) will it ever be able to escape all the injustice that was in the past? Will the belief, that has been instilled in the minds of all Americans and subconsciously passed down from generation to generation, that some are inferior to others because of their race or gender ever be outgrown? Can we, as a nation, completely move on and start over again? Or will the repeated teaching of this injustice keep us from achieving the goal of a final end to all oppression?

I believe that schools and the government do repeatedly teach us about this topic with good intentions, but I also wonder if by doing so, is it causing this injustice to live on?
...Just something to ponder.