WICOR

1. WICOR Claudia Adame Reigna Rondares

2. AVID A -Advancement V -Via I - Individual D -Determination A program to prepare students in the academic middle for a four-year college eligibility. Simply saying this is help for students until we get to a University or a College. In a way shorter version, AVID is the College Dream Team.

3. Writing Letter To Governor Brown -Reigna ReignaRondares, Student Charles F. Blackstock Jr. High School 701 E. Bard Rd. Oxnard, CA 93033 Governor Jerry Brown C/O State Capitol, Suite 1173 Sacramento, CA 95814 Dear Governor Brown, My name is Reigna an eight grade AVID student from Charles F. Blackstock Jr. High School. AVID has been my life since sixth grade and it has helped me big time. Having this program got me where I am today, the girl who has straight A’s. This is our College Dream Team, the way to get a successful life and you’re taking it away from us. This is our support to get to College, not just some program that was made to get us to nowhere. We’re students who WANT to go to College. You can’t take AVID away from me, my classmates and the next generation because its like taking away the BEST future we can get. It’s so unfair that you have to take it because of the budget cuts on schools. If you really did care about our education and our future, you wouldn’t continue this. We’re not like the other people who can afford the tuitions and fees, which is also a reason why we need AVID. They offer us scholarships or any other help we need about school. In short, please don’t take away AVID from us because of the money and its way unfair that California is the only one getting it taken away. When you take it away, how many successful students do you think can survive without AVID? I have Honors classes too but I still need the support of AVID. Try asking yourself this question, “What if I had AVID back then, how much more successful would I be today?” You don’t know how much we need this program. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO RUIN OUR WAY TO SUCCESS!!! I’m sorry if you think this seem disrespectful but to some of us, AVID is our guidance to be the best of the best. Then again when you take it away how much less would the popularity on successful students decrease to. AVID has been helping students achieve academic success for over 32 years, in 48 states, in 16 countries, in more than 4,800 schools and for approximately 450,000 students. In California there are 1,500 AVID schools and approximately 175,000 students, when you take it away, probably about 50% of those will succeed and the other will not without the help. Sir me and my peers would like for you to reconsider your decision on taking away the AVID program in California. Think about this generation and the ones after, we need the support to get to success. Sincerely, ReignaRondares Letter To Governor Brown -Claudia Claudia Adame, Student Charles F. Blackstock Jr. High School 701 E. Bard Rd. Oxnard, CA 93033 May 7, 2012 Julia Brownley C/O state Capitol, Room 2163 Sacramento 94249 Oxnard, Hueneme, District 41 Dear Julia Brownley, My name is Claudia an eight grade AVID student at Charles F. Blackstock Jr. High School. Its very disappointing that you want to make a decision of eliminating AVID because of your budget cuts. Why would you do that, if education means a lot to many people and the only way to get into a university is by AVID. Since the tuition prices are rising each year, we need something that will support our education. Our parents are not going to be throughout our life. Your taking everybody’s chances away of having an opportunity of going to the university of their dreams. I’m thinking that since you already have a successful job and you have everything, you think that if you take away AVID would be good. If you were in our shoes you would feel the same way were feeling. Honestly, AVID has been part of my life. When I was in elementary school, I didn’t care about getting good grades, I didn’t even know how to divide in the fifth grade but once I heard about AVID I started thinking and it was an eye opener for me. I was such a failure and I was tired of disappointing my parents. I wrote an essay and I got in for the following year of sixth grade. I was overjoyed when I got the news that I got in. I knew it would be very difficult but I never gave up, I put all my effort that school year. I would go to afterschool to get help and get work done. I got the support I needed, learned how to take Cornell Notes, be organized and keep up with my homework. AVID changed my life. This program has been a big part of my life. If I wasn’t in this program I would have very low grades and not even think about my future. Right at the end of the school year they recommended me honors and so I applied and I got in. This was a really big step for me because it’s a more challenging class. Here I am in Honors and AVID zero period classes with a 4.0. I never thought I would go this far and always thought I was never good enough. I learned that the world is made of flaws and that you’ll have a second chance. Taking AVID away from me and my classmates is like taking a part of me because this is what brought me up. Sincerely, Claudia Adame

4. Writing College Quick Write -Reigna Of course I would like to go to College, actually no, I would love to go. College would be your way to get a job and your life depends on it. If I don’t go to College, what kind of life would I have. Maybe I can still get a job but not the one I wanted. Without college how can I be successful. With my education I would want to travel around the world, making a big difference. I can help other students with school and keep track of how well they’re doing. As long as you have an education pass it on to someone even if its just a little bit, this can make a difference in a person. Without my education, I wouldn’t know what is happening in my surroundings. I have education and with it, I would want to share. I don’t think I would be able to afford my college tuition but my parents can. My dad would work hard just to get me there, he said so himself. If we don’t have enough then I will apply for scholarship or at least earn it. I would work hard for it too if my parents would let me. Besides if I help raise my tuition, if I have extra I will keep it safe for my sister to use, once she’s in the point of being in College. To make college more affordable for all students, you should let them pay in the range they could. For example, if a student doesn’t have the whole money yet, at least let them pay little by little until they paid for everything. In this generation, money is a problem, so at least let them have the education they need and let them pay, when they have the money. I mean its really not all about the money. If a student doesn’t get their education because of money, its like saying, “You’re not getting far.” Without education how can they earn money by doing something they love. Having an education is important because its half of my life. There is my school life then there is my life out of school. You see if I don’t have education its like I’m a clueless person who doesn’t know what’s going around her. Without education I wouldn’t have achieved my awards and recognition. I love having education because it helps me get through my day without having problems. College Quick Write -Claudia My dream is to go to a four year university. I would like to have a better future and become very successful. It would be an honor to do something that would help out the world. I would also like my parents to be proud of me and prove to them that I’m not a mistake. In the future. I would like to become a lawyer of child support. This career has always been my dream and it kind of relates to me. I know so much about it because I would read my moms letters from her lawyer since she doesn’t know how to read or write. Every time I would read them it would get me interested and I would always learn something new. Everybody knows that going to a university and getting an education is not for free. My parents wouldn’t be able to pay college tuition. I use to be able to decide what university I wanted to go to because my dad had two jobs that would pay him a lot. He also had other businesses but it broke my heart when I found out he took all the money and wasted it all on something else when he once told me not to worry about going to a university. I think the best way to make a college affordable is paying every month until they finished paying everything. Then again there are scholarships. Sometimes scholarships pay for everything and some give you money for certain things you’ve done. if you really want to go to a university, you would do anything just to go and have an education. Many people want everything easy and affordable but life is not like that, its about working hard and at the end get rewarded for it. Having an education is very important for me. Looking at people struggle with paying there bills, the job that doesn’t pay much and having a roof over their heads really opened my eyes. I have seen people struggle so much and I don’t want to end up like that. I want to do so many things, Like travel and become very successful. I want to have a better life and have freedom.

5. Writing Mandala -Reigna On for the Mandala project, we must write about some parts of our life. For example a significant day, your favorite place(s), your family, important item(s), the most difficult time, your life as a journey and an important quote that made an impact in your life. Mandala -Claudia On our Mandala we included parts of our life. Then we had to write about it became a big impact in our lives. `

6. Inquiry Tutorial -Reigna Tutorials help me on assignments that I really need help on or if I need another example. Tutorial -Claudia Tutorials help me answer my point of confusion from a class or an assignment.

7. Inquiry Costa’s Learning -Reigna We use Costa’s Level of Thinking on our Tutorial Request forms. This is to be used on making questions from Level 1 to Level 3 questions. In order to make something easy get harder use one of the Costa’s questions. It’s like even though you know something but when it gets harder, you’re like I never even learned this. Costa’s Learning -Claudia To get help, we fill out this form that asks us on our point of confusion. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays tutors come and help us. It helps us a lot because we get more practice to get us ready for testing.

8. Inquiry Socratic Seminars -Reigna One of our Socratic Seminars was about Cyber bullying. This activity is to show how good we are about debating. It’s like Philosophical Chairs but we have our own beliefs without the agree side, disagree side and the convince-me-to-get-to-your-side side. Socratic Seminars -Claudia Animal abusing was one of our Socratic seminars. We discussed about how people abuse them, how they poison them and also torture them to do things they don’t want to do.

9. Collaboration Philosophical Chairs -Reigna One of the Philosophical chairs we debated on is about if unclaimed animals should be used for experiments. We had a disagree side, an agree side and a convince-me-to-get-to-your-side side. Philosophical Chairs -Claudia One of my favorite Philosophical Chairs is when we debated if having an education would be a big impact in our lives. I think it is because you wont struggle, knowing that you have a job that pays enough to have a roof over your head and basically pay the bills.

10. Collaboration Learning Projects -Reigna One of my learning project is the career project. I learned what the requirements for a person to be a pilot. They get paid for about $99,000 monthly. Learning Projects -Claudia We did a learning project based on bullying. I learned that when your being bullied always ask for help and choose the right decision.

11. Collaboration Philosophical Chairs -Reigna This activity was based on if unclaimed animals should be used on experiments. I disagreed with that statement because the animals should have a life to live even though they don’t have a family. It seems unfair if they were used for medical or experimental purposes. Philosophical Chairs -Claudia This activity was based on education money towards College. Some students aren’t able to go because of the high prices being given.

12. Organizational Binder Check -Reigna This part of being organized is when we are actually organized. We should have dividers for each subject, at least 2 pairs of pens and pencils, an eraser, a highlighter, a ruler and any school material. Binder Check -Claudia This assignment is when tutors or teachers check if our binders are organized. That each subject should have a divider.

13. Organizational Portfolio -Reigna On this project, we had to pick out our best of the best work and this was counted as a competition here and other AVID related schools Portfolio -Claudia On this project, we had to get all of our work and put it in a folder. In the folder we had to have Cornell notes, projects, writing assignments and Socratic Seminars.

14. Organizational Smart Goals -Reigna Let us set a goal so we know what to look forward for on the future. In short making steps for a better future. Smart Goals -Claudia Make plans for the future and helps us know how to get to the point of our success.

15. Reading Critical Reading -Reigna Our critical reading is from the AVID weekly’s. We use it as a technique in reading. We number the paragraphs, take Cornell notes on each paragraph and summarize. Critical Reading -Claudia What we do in Critical Reading is that we read this article and number each paragraph. Each article tells us about things that are happening now and how to make it better.

16. Reading Note-taking -Reigna Note-taking is like a practice for us on the road ahead. We can use it for studying, and write down important things on a certain topic. For example we usually have guest speakers to come for zero period and we would take note about their life, or testing or even just for fun. Note-taking -Claudia Every time we had a guest speaker we would take notes that would inspire us or something that was very interesting.

17. Reading Summarizing -Reigna We can summarize on everything else. For example Cornell Notes or even reading an AVID Weekly. Summarizing is a way of writing a certain topic on your point of view on what you have learned. Summarizing -Claudia After we do Cornell Notes or something that relates on not taking, we write a summary about what we learned on the bottom of the worksheet.

18. Favorite/Best/How Avid Helped Me To me AVID is like the one that helped me get to my success today. If I didn’t have this class, I must’ve fallen little by little but because of Ms. Leal and this program it never happened. My favorite part of zero period is probably getting to school early because I don’t have anything better to do at home (some may say they would rather sleep but not me). The best part of it is getting to go to University games, like the UCLA football game. AVID has helped me get to where I am today, being on the successful pathway. -Reigna AVID has helped me raise my grades, keep me organized. This class has pushed me so much to do better and challenging things. Without this class, it would be a really big struggle for me. My favorite part is that I'm not alone. By that I mean, everybody is working hard and doing the best they can to go on there way to success. -Claudia

19. Claudia Adame Reigna Rondares