Gifted Jaguars and Eagles

I had a great time today presenting with the other members of the gifted and talented department as a part of 271Learns. We did a 3 hour workshop with teachers to teach them how to increase their teaching of creative thinking skills. It was fun to work with teachers on creativity and to help them start thinking about their fall!

Dear Future Student, Welcome to DA 9! Congratulations on entering the Dimensions Academy High School Humanities program. I am excited to work with you, both as your social studies teacher and as the high school gifted and talented coordinator. I think we are going to have a lot of fun digging deep into AP Human Geography and AP Comparative Politics together. To prepare for our coursework together next fall I am asking you to read The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya this summer. The book is a memoir written by a woman who survived the Rwandan genocide. This is my first time using this text so I’m really interested in hearing what you think of it. I picked this book because it introduces you to a lot of Human Geography terminology through her story which I think will make these terms more accessible for you as we work with them this fall. Please read the book this summer and come prepared to discuss it on our second day of ...

Dimensions Academy High School Graduation This year we have two cohorts completing our program for the first time! Congratulations to our DA STEM graduates who completed 34 college credits during a global pandemic! These students have been doing online learning since last March and continued to complete their program at Normandale Community College. Kennedy: Ahmed Dualeh Malachi Martichuski Jefferson: Elias Caspari Isabelle Janey Olivia Knight Amelia Lodwick Ben Lodwick Adam Lueth Snezhanna Medvedovski Abigail Pearson Arielle Swanson Tiffany Tian Abigail Valladolid Thy Bao Vu Congratulations to our DA Humanities graduates who completed 3 college writing and literature classes and 4 AP classes during a global pandemic. This was our first cohort to go through our program and we are very proud of what these students were able to accomplish! Jefferson: Olivia Busch Autumn Fuller Isabelle Janey Olivia Knight Abigail Pearson Arielle Swanson Tiffany Tian Abigail Valladolid Thy ...

Dear DA students, I hope your finals week at NCC is going well.  You have successfully completed two years of calculus this year.  Congrats!  If you are taking the AP Calc BC exam I recommend getting some tutoring so that you can be ready for the exam.  While you have learned a lot of content you haven't learned the nuances of the exam and what the College Board is looking for.  Therefore I have recruited Ben Harste to help get you ready for the AP Calc BC exam.   The exam is on Monday, May 24th.   Mr. Harste will tutor you from 7:50 - 9am on Tuesday 5/18 and Thursday 5/20 on Zoom.   On Monday 5/17 I will give some example Free Response Questions for you to work on so that you can practice with the College Board  format and have that experience when you meet with Ben.  On Wednesday 5/19 I will give you a previously released multiple choice exam.  I have reserved the red flex space at Jefferson for us each morning.  You can participate in the tutoring and FRQ practice online or in ...

Digital Exam readiness steps: Log out of your chromebook. Access the chromebook apps in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Click on the digital testing app and log in using your My AP Classroom username and password. Try the practice exam to study for your exam (optional) 1-3 days before your digital exams, complete the exam set up: For each digital AP Exam, students must complete the exam setup step in the digital testing app. This step loads their exam onto the computer they’re going to test with. Completing this step is required 1–3 days before each exam. Without taking this step for each exam, students will not be able to test. Exam setup opens 3 calendar days before the exam date and must be completed no later than the day before the exam. Exam setup must be done on the computer the student will use for testing. Once setup is completed, the computer can’t be shared with another student until the exam is over and responses have been submitted to th...

I love learning! Today I went to a great training at Ridgeview about Visual Thinking Strategies. I think this will be a really engaging technique to use with my AP History class and my Nobel advisory. I really appreciate how my dept shares new ways of teaching with each other!

We learned recently that covid contact tracings have identified several of our students who need to be put on quarantine. Because of this, these students will be missing this Saturday’s PreACT testing. We do have a virtual back up plan. If your child is feeling sick or suspects contact with someone who is positive for Covid, please do not send them for the testing this Saturday. Contact us for an alternative testing plan. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!