The MDA Chronicles

Issue No. 1 Student Council September Edition

*Cover Photo
Of Student
council*
 Welcome Back Students of
MDA!
By: Aryanna Caluag

Welcome back, students

of MDA! Our new school
year is ahead of us; lets
make the most out of it!
This year, MDA has
received many new
students. Lets all do our
best in order to welcome
them, especially the
Kindergarten. Weve had a
good strong start to the
school year of 2017-2018.
Keep up the hardwork,
Tigers!
Youre off to great
places. Today is your
day. Your mountain is
waiting, so get on your
way!
-Dr. Seuss

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 Welcome To MDA!
Its the new school year! And as you may have noticed,
we have some new members on our MDA Staff!

By: Christian Canete

Kathryn Wilchynski:
Ms. Wilchynski is MDAs new Second Grade teacher. She has
worked as a middle school teacher for three years in her hometown
in Massachusetts before working here. Hopefully, this new work environment has been
enjoyable for her, and she will have a wonderful time teaching here!

Jane Victor:
Ms. Victor is MDAs new Fourth Grade teacher. She has had three years of student
teaching experience and worked as a full-time First Grade Associate Teacher. This is her
first year of teaching MDA, which could mean she could be teaching for us next year!
Hopefully, we're lucky enough for that possibility and wish her a wonderful time at MDA.

Krista Forgey:
Ms. Forgey is MDAs new Fifth Grade teacher. Her past experiences as a teacher were
teaching in Chicago for two years and two years in Oakland. She has also taught English as
a second language to students in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Guatemala. Now, her new home
is in San Francisco and hopefully she has a good experience teaching and living here in SF.

Sam Alfonso: Ms. Sam is a very special MDA teacher because 1. she is a new teacher at
MDA; and, 2. she is teaching a completely new subject to our curriculum! As a teacher, she
believes that every student's learning process is unique, and she is constantly learning new
and different techniques to help every student she teaches. MDA wishes Ms. Sam a
wonderful time here in our school community, and we pray that she'll be here next year to
teach us the ancient language of Latin!

Exciting New Associate Teachers

Nancy Medina:
Ms. Medina is MDAs new Kindergarten Associate Teacher.

Julian Thomas:
Mr. Thomas is the new Second Grade Associate Teacher at MDA.

Breanna Barajas:
Ms. Barajas is MDAs Fifth Grade Associate Teacher!

Anna Center:
Ms. Anna is the new Associate Teacher for Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade! 2
 Back to School
By: Michaela Sabando
The Mission Dolores
Academy community has
been given some time to get
to know new peers and
teachers, along with catching
up with some friends from
previous school years! The
exciting first weeks of school
are coming to an end, and
the ball has started rolling
towards success! About five
weeks have passed since the
first day of school, so our
community is settled down
and now looks towards the
future.
With the topic of future at
hand, the Eighth graders are
starting the high school
application process! This is
where the students apply
and think about where they
will spend their high school
lives.
As our very own Principal
has introduced to the student
body, our years theme is To
Become the Change You
Want to See in the World!
That means to not only think
of solutions to problems, but
to execute them from your
own actions. It does not
mean to point fingers in
accusation, but to try to fix
the problem starting with
you. We hope that our
student body understands
this motto, and put it into
play when they are involved
in certain scenarios.
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 Girls Volleyball
Season Begins!
Just recently, the The girls volleyball 8th Grade Girls
Volleyball Team
teams of MDA have
Eighth and Seventh
begun practicing,
grade teams have
since September 11th,
finished their
to prepare for the
volleyball
2017-2018 volleyball
tournaments. The 7th
season!
Grade girls
volleyball team
All of the players three hours of
started the season
have been diligently practice for
strong with two wins,
managing academics a team! Amazing!
and the Eighth Grade
and volleyball
team has persevered
practices. The Please support the
through the
astonishing practice girls volleyball teams,
challenging
hours range from and wish them good
competitions! Nice
one to two hours. At luck on any future
work, ladies!
times, there are competitions!
Third & Fourth Fifth & Sixth
Seventh Grade Eighth Grade
Grade Grade

1. Sept. 15th -
1. Sept. 16th - 7PM
1. Sept. 16th - 11AM 2. Sept. 16th -
11AM 2. Sept. 17th - 1. rd
Sept. 23 - 1PM
2. Sept. 23rd - 12PM 10AM 3. Sept. 22nd -
12PM 3. Sept. 22nd - 2. Sept. 29 - 7PM
3. Sept. 30 - 6PM 5PM 4. Sept. 24th -
10AM 4. Sept. 30 - 5PM
4PM 5. Sept. 29th -
6PM

Dates and times may change. Go to

athletics.cccyo.org for more details.
Written by Janine Navalta 4
 Classroom
Updates
By: Arsema Asfaw
The classes here at MDA are always learning new and challenging things that
will not only help them academically but they are also able to apply these skills
in everyday life. Good job MDA, and keep up the great work.

First Grade: In First Grade we have started off the year learning about the
different routines and adjusting to being in the main building! We are taking a look
at the different communities to which we belong and finding ways that we can
enhance our classroom and school community. The students love going on the
computers and listening to stories on Reading Ally, and they are excited to spend
more time with books in our classroom library!

Second Grade: Second Grade has been doing work with counting to 100 in Math
and learning about the different values of money. In writing, they are learning to
be master writers and write about small moments that have happened to them.
They also have completed two science experiments using the scientific method,
just like real scientists!

Fourth Grade: The Fourth Grade has been learning how to use Google Docs on
the Chromebooks, which is a very exciting new skill for them! They have also been
working on increasing their independent reading stamina and using different
strategies to pick "good fit" books for their reading enjoyment. In math, they have
been learning about the difference between prime and composite numbers and
have started using Think Through Math as another way to improve their math
skills. Fourth Grade is also the year students will be learning all about California's
history, and they plan on taking advantage of the fact that we all live right down
the street from a famous historical site: Mission Dolores!

Sixth Grade: This year's Sixth Grade dove right into curriculum! In Science, they
had their first two experiments already. With elephant toothpaste, they created an
exothermic reaction and studied variables that could make their reactions more
explosive! In Math, the Sixth Grade have been working on applying their
knowledge of the order of operations to solve multistep problems. In Language
Arts, the students are reading The City of Ember and working to create what they
think an utopian society would look like. In Social Studies, the Sixth Grade have
been studying their human origins, and one of the first great civilizations - the
Sumerians. In writing, their class took the Myers-Briggs personality test to help
them learn more about themselves and each other with which they wrote their
first personal narratives of the year.

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 Classroom
Updates (Continued)
The classes here at MDA are always learning new and challenging things that
will not only help them academically but they are also able to apply these skills
in everyday life. Good job MDA, and keep up the great work.

Seventh Grade: The Seventh Grade has been doing some work with factors in
Math and has been learning about the human body in Science. They have been
working hard on their work and have done some cool posters along the way! Also,
Seventh Grade has just started reading the nice, The Giver and learning about
dystopian societies. They are learning about the fall of ancient Rome and the
impact it had on Europe. Students will be wrapping up their persuasive essays
about zoos. Ask the Middle School students about zoos, are they good or bad?

Eighth Grade: Eighth Grade is beginning the exciting and nerve-wracking

process of high school applications. Our students are researching schools and
beginning the application process. They are reading the finest of literature
books, The Golden Compass" or "The Outsiders. Everyone is reading "Tiger
Lily" which is the prequel to "Peter Pan" and it is told from Tinker Bell's
perspective! In history, they are learning about the various Native American
groups that lived throughout the United States. The Eighth Grade has been
working on exponents in Math and with life science topics in Science! They
also started exploring their FOSS kits to find out about some of the exciting
projects that they will be doing in science this year!

READ Program: The students in this program are the coolest kids in the
school! It teaches kids from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade to become
excellent readers and writers. Everyone's brain is different, and the specialty
of this program is how the tutors teach individual brains so that reading can
click in their minds. Teachers love it when kids who hated reading become
kids who are crazy about books!

Religion Program: In Religious Education, the program is happy to have 99

MDA students preparing to receive the Sacraments of Initiation. Ten students
are preparing for Baptism; 34 students are preparing for First Holy
Communion. Furthermore, 45 Junior High students are preparing for the
Sacrament of Confirmation. Our catechists are Father Charlie, Ms. Escobar,
Mr. McGovern, Brother Antony Augustine, Brother Nathaniel Maria, and
Sister Ann. Please pray for us as we pray for all our MDA Community!

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 School Safety Patrol
By: Luis deJesus

Safety Patrol Badge

The School Safety Patrol team is in its second year at MDA. It is a program
that is supervised by Mr. Ward and Ms. Essalat and sponsored by AAA, a
non-profit organization.

Students and families may recognize safety officers wearing neon-green

uniforms, standing at their assigned posts. Their responsibilities are to keep
students, families, and staffulty members safe and prevent car accidents or
any related injuries.

The School Safety Patrol is a unique opportunity for students to demonstrate

maturity and leadership to their peers and assure safety in the MDA
community. As of this year, the members of the School Safety Patrol
increased, and the teams have grown to six. New team captains are elected,
and the process of having a Safety Officer of the Month has continued.

A friendly reminder to follow the directions of these officers!

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 Save the Date
Starting from this school year,
the Student Council has started to
celebrate birthdays. We
announce the birthdays that are
being celebrated that day or over
October 27th, 2017
the weekend.
Free Dress Sale
Here were our September
birthdays.

Students Birthdays The Student Council will be

Angelo Locsin Sept. 2 hosting a Free Dress Sale
Francesca Mensa Sept. 2
William Soriano Sept. 2 near the end of the month!
Melanie Figueroa Sept. 3
Daniel De La Cruz Sept. 4 Make sure to save the date
Jennifer Gutierrez
Isaiah Sablad
Sept. 4
Sept. 5
on the 27th of October. The
Kitzia Gonzalez
Heaven L. Wyatt
Sept. 6
Sept. 6
sale will last for one week,
Tristan Perez Sept. 8 and passes will be sold
Ary Caluag Sept. 9
Ignazio Mena Sept. 9 during your lunch period. It
Brittany Aguilera Sept. 13
Mikel Gonzalez Sept. 15 will cost $1.00. Thank you!
Kriselda Gernan Sept. 17
Dominic Verango Sept. 17
Angelo Ubas Sept. 17
Evenezer Tecleab Sept. 19
Alexis Coleman Sept. 22
Athena Abarca Sept. 24

If anyone would like to publish an ad or contribute to our newspaper, feel

free to contact us! It would be greatly appreciated!

Contact us:
Email studentcouncil@mdasf.org
Written By Janine Navalta
& Tristan Perez
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 Visitors

Mission Dolores Academy has had some visitor come

through and see how the students are doing and what they
are doing in class. The visitors that have visited the
students are Tisha Ford and Hilary Banks. Tisha and Hilary
are friends of our chaplain Father Charlie Gagan. They
have came here to visit our school and Father Charlie.
Tisha and Hilary came from Santa Barbara.

Written By: Jason Garcia

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