HELP STOP CYBERBULLYING!

Please join us for an informational meeting on Tuesday, February 28th from 3:30-4:30 in the MACILOS room of the 910 building (across from attendance and registration). Southgate will provide information from our administration, school attorney, and guidance couselor on how to prevent and eliminate cyberbullying. Please stay tuned for more information on our blog as we plan to post and make available the information that was shared at this event. We hope to see you there!

THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY IS LOVE OF READING MONTH

As we look to wrap up this month Southgate Academy would like to share

29 tips to get and keep your entire family excited about reading. This list was created and shared by Melissa Miller. 

1. Enjoy some quiet time to yourself during the day – start a reading/quiet time for the entire family.

2. Be a good role model - let them see you reading books, magazines, newspapers.

3. Put a book in front of your infant during tummy time.

4. Put a book just out of reach to encourage your baby to start crawling.

5. Teach your toddler to look at the pictures in board books on his own.

6. Your pre-reader can be happy (maybe after some practice) looking through picture books on her own and “reading” familiar books to her dolls, stuffed animals.

7. Squirmy, uninterested kids? Don’t give up! Just start small – a few minutes at a time.

8. Older children can and will read to themselves if you eliminate distractions.

9. If you want more time and kids are getting fidgety, let them do some other quiet activity like coloring or playing with clay while you finish the chapter or article.

10. Looking for meaningful dialogue with your pre-teen or teen? Read the same books he is reading for school or pleasure and discuss them together.

11. Bond with your kids by reading aloud together. Every day! (Hint: About 1,000 hours of lap time – reading, chanting, singing – are needed before a child is ready to learn to read.)

12. Not really interested in reading aloud? Think of it as an investment – in your child’s education and future success, in your future quiet time, in your family’s closeness… And choose books you enjoy too! (Or convince your spouse to share/take charge of this activity with the kids.)

13. Consider reading aloud books that you’d normally read to yourself (if content is age-appropriate).

14. Read aloud to your older kids too – even after they’ve mastered reading on their own.

15. Cook from cookbooks together. (Hint: Reading a recipe counts! Bonus: it teaches math, fractions.)

16. Read aloud what interests your kids. Fiction, non-fiction, recipes, magazine articles, art books, current events, op-eds, rock star obituaries – they all count.

17. Read aloud during breakfast.

18. Read aloud while your kids do the dishes and clean the kitchen.

19. Have a regular family read aloud time after dinner – include the ENTIRE family!

20. Reading books together makes a nice bed-time ritual.

21. Place book baskets around the house (don’t forget the bathroom!) and in the car to encourage spontaneous reading.

22. Allow pre-school and older kids to stay up 15 minutes past bedtime if they’d like to read to themselves. Give them a bedside lamp.

23. Play word games in the car – “I spy”, rhyming words, opposites, reading road signs, etc.

24. Start a book club with your child and her friends.

25. Your kids outgrow books at about the same pace as clothing. The next time you have to buy new clothes or shoes, don’t forget to check out and/or invest in some new titles.

26. Give your children plenty of opportunities to write and sketch.

27. Printed materials in the home are decreasing due to the internet. Reverse this trend in your home. 100 books make a big impact; 500 books in the home is equivalent to having university-educated parents.

28. Kids are advertised to all day long – advertise READING at home! Display books with the covers out (on bookshelves, tables, in baskets, etc.).

29. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Get reading Gators!

-Delia McCraley

SOUTHGATE ACADEMY HONORED BY THE AMERICAN SCHOOL COUNSELING ASSOCIATION

Recently, Southgate Academy was honored as a recipient of the prestigious ASCA Model Program RAMP Award.  An award given out annually across the country to schools for their excelling school counseling programs.   The RAMP award designation is awarded to schools whose counseling programs are committed to delivering a comprehensive, data-driven school program and creating an exemplary educational environment for students.  Since it's inception, more than 400 schools across the country have received the RAMP award, with Southgate Academy now joining this elite group of schools.

In order to be eligible to receive the ASCA Model Program RAMP Award schools must meet a number of different eligibility criteria.  Any school across the country may submit a portfolio of their school's counseling programs and activities in order to be selected for the RAMP award.  Each year the award is based on last school year's data and programs.  Southgate Academy's program was selected based on it's outstanding counselor guidance lessons and classroom lessons with our students (Mrs. Candice Alvarez and Mrs. Angela Robinson), it's superior small group counseling sessions including “Gator Way” and “Attendance”, and it's social committees including: “Parent-Teacher Committee”, “Gator Way Committee”, and “Advisory Committee”.

This year's ASCA Model Program RAMP Award will be awarded to Southgate Academy on June 25th, 2012 at a special ceremony in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Locally, Kay Schreiber, State Career Guidance Counselor Supervisor from The Arizona Department of Education will be recognizing Southgate Academy and our RAMP award at a special ceremony to be held in March.  Facilitator Delia McCraley and Counselor Candice Alvarez will be on hand to receive recognition and acceptance of the award from The Arizona Department of Education.  It is an honor to have Southgate Academy chosen as one of only a handful of charter schools in the country to receive the prestigious RAMP award.

-Jason McKay

SPORTS

One strong program that provides Southgate Academy with it's strong sense of community and charm, is it's thriving sports program.  Now in my forth year at Southgate Academy, each year I am impressed with our students' dedication and will to succeed on the playing fields and courts of flag football, boy's and girl's basketball, boy's and girl's soccer, and girl's volleyball, as well as all our other extra-curricular activities we have at our school.  Watching our students and families come together at our sporting events and cheer on our student-atheletes is encouraging for not only our students, but also the entire Gator Community!  This season it was especially encouraging to see our boy's and girl's basketball teams take their talents to the El Pueblo Center on Irvington, a few miles down the road from our Southgate Academy home, and continue to draw a large gator crowd to cheer them on, despite being "on the road".   As a coach of the high school boy's flag football team myself, I can't tell you how much it means to our student athletes to see faces from our community including families, teachers, and fellow students in the crowd cheering our teams on!  It really means a lot to our teams, to show off our Gator Pride!  With both our boy's and girl's high school teams gearing up for their respective playoff tournaments this coming week, I encourage our Gator Community to come out and cheer on our student athletes!  It's important to always remember our community and sense of who we are!  Gators on 3! 

Jason McKay

Sports Blog, Southgate Academy

SOUTHGATE DRAMA AT SAAF 2012

13 Southgate Academy Drama students participated in the Southern Arizona Acting Festival (SAAF), Saturday Jan. 28^th, at the University of Arizona.  This was Southgate’s first organized competition and the students had a great showing.  They competed in Monologues and Duet Scene Acting. 

Some of the top recognized students are:

Katia-who received an ‘Excellent’  in Monologue

Jose and Alex-who received ‘Excellent’  for Duet Acting

A HUGE score for Gabriel-who got top honors with a ‘Superior’ in Monologue.

I am so proud of all our competitors and expect even more from them next year.

-Doug Dunnavant

Fall In Love With LITERACY

Southgate Academy is please to share an invitation to attend the “Fall in Love with Literacy” event taking place on February 11, 2012 from 2:00-4:00 pm in the Peace Garden. Come to the Peace Garden and see what’s available in the Sunnyside Neighborhood! Get information on free health screenings, tax and financial help, free classes for adults and children. Climb aboard the Book Mobile! Books, snacks, and much more!

Join neighbors and meet with organizations that can help you find answers to your questions on how to enhance your life and be a part of the culture of literacy in the Sunnyside and South Park Literacy Zones.

This event is put on by the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association and the group Literacy Connects. The Peace Garden is located at the Manuel Herrera Jr. Park in the far northwest corner of the park at 5901 S. Fiesta.

For more information or to RSVP please contact Beki at 520-404-5805 or gapitgirl@msn.com or Jeff Jordan at jjordan@literacyconnects.org

Southgate is looking forward to providing more opportunities to connect our school community with the surrounding neighborhood.

-Delila McCraley