Pride With Purpose Preparing For The Future

The Pershing family of faculty, staff, and administrators 
show their serious and silly sides.

Proudly Educating San Diego Children For 45 Years

 

From the Desk of Principal  Sarah Sullivan   Seeing the world through the eyes of Pershing's  Digital Literacy students.   Dear Pershing Families, A major goal of educators is to prepare children to enter the world of work ready to thrive.  This means we must prepare students for the unknown world of tomorrow, rather than the world of today. One of our greatest challenges is to provide a solid core of fundamental learning while simultaneously adapting offerings so our students benefit from learning experiences that will lead into a knowledge base fit for the 21st century. Using technology as a tool for communicating and learning is critical for our students. Technology speeds up the rate of learning by decreasing wait time and by increasing ownership of the learning. When I was a child, getting information meant a trip to the library, using the card catalogue, finding the right area in the library, and then selecting books by using the table of contents and the index. Now, Google searches are so natural to our students that “google” is used as a verb. Recently, I was in a seventh grade science class where teams of students were researching diseases and I overheard one student say to her partner, “We better google that again, I don't think this can be true.”  I left the science lab with a feeling of amazement and pride at the high level of critical thinking this teacher and her technological resources created for her students. For educators, the catch here is that our core responsibility is to teach critical thinking in a changing context. No matter the era in which we are/were educated, we need to evaluate and use information in order to add value to our world. When critical thinking is not a major goal of a lesson, our technological tools become nothing more than glitzy ornamentation in our classrooms.   This year, in addition to using a variety of technological tools to enhance learning, Pershing is offering a new elective course called “Digital Literacy”. This course, which is taught by Ms. Buchanan, is aimed directly at enhancing student use of the new literacy - image, connectivity, and words that evoke - in a responsible way for critical thinking. Other goals include web safety, ethics, and modifying messages for a variety of venues. Ms. Buchanan¹s students have already published their first assignment, “Think Different,” online at http://pershing2.sandi.net/studentvoice. I encourage you to visit this website frequently. You will see the world through the eyes of our students as they communicate their views, concerns, and aspirations. These projects say as much about the hearts and minds of our students as it does about their topics. It gives me an even greater hope for this generation of youngsters. Our Digital Literacy course uses many of the latest technologies to keep families connected with their students’ classroom experience. Please note that the following three options are not password protected. Daily Class Status Updates via Twitter at http://twitter.com/DLwithBuchanan Weekly Class Updates via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DLwithBuchanan Publishing Student Voices via DL Website at http://pershing2.sandi.net/studentvoice As Pershing’s principal, it is rewarding to see the many ways our students have taken ownership of these technologies. I look forward to visiting the Digital Literacy sites often. I hope that you will join me! All the best,   Sarah Sullivan Principal Pershing Middle

Winter Music Concert Series When: December 2, 2009 String Orchestra December 3, 2009 Band Concert Time:   6:00 p.m.  Where: Pershing Auditorium Bake sales will follow both performances!

8th Grade East Coast Trip May 30 - June 5, 2010 Meeting Schedule for 2009-10 Meetings start promptly at 2:30 p.m. Do not be late! The first meeting is in the auditorium. All other meetings will be in Room 1003.   November 19, 2009  December 10, 2009  January 14, 2010  February 18, 2010  March 11, 2010 April 15, 2010  May 6, 2010   May 13, 2010  May 27, 2010

Congratulations to the  Pershing  Community!!!! The Academic Performance Index (API) scores for 2008-09 have been released and Pershing is very excited to announce that our score increased from 2007-08 to 2008-09 by 29 points!!!!!! Pershing's new API is 825.  This huge increase is due to the hard work and dedication of our amazing students, faculty, staff, administrators, and families! We thank everyone for their part in making Pershing such a wonderful place to learn, grow, and excel. We look forward to working together in 2009-10 to ensure the continued success of all our students!

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