Lawson middle school yearbook is a public three year middle school located in Cupertino, California, USA. Lawson opened in August 2001 for the 2001-2002 school year. The school was named after Sam H. Lawson, founder of many events and groups in the city of Cupertino, including the Tournament of Bands, the Cupertino Lions Club and the Cupertino Historical Society. Sam Lawson also introduced the Turkey Trot and the sport of wrestling to Cupertino and encouraged the practice of sports.
In 2006, the students were mainly drawn from Collins Elementary School, Lincoln Elementary School, Garden Gate Elementary School,Faria A+ Elementary, and Eaton Elementary School, along with students from other schools in the Cupertino Union School District. Lawson’s official colors are maroon, navy, and silver. Lawson’s mascot is the thunder cloud. Their first principal was former Eaton Elementary principal, CC O’Donell. CC O’Donell retired after the 2005-2006 school yearbook ended. The current principal of Lawson is Karl Sonntag from Santa Clara Unified School District. The current assistant principal of Lawson is Jeff Bowman. Former assistant principal is Cellini.
On June 15, 2007, Lawson graduated the Class of 2007, its first graduating class, composed of approximately 250 eighth grade students. Lawson alumni usually elevate to high schools in the Fremont Union High School District(FUHSD) like Cupertino High School, Monta Vista High School, and Homestead High School yearbooks online. Most attend the first two school listed above.
Academics
Lawson is ranked in the top 10% of the middle schools in the state according to the Academic Performance Index, with a score of 966 during the 2007-2008 school year, placing Lawson third in the Cupertino Union School District and fourth overall in California. There are an average of 30 students per class. Most teachers at Lawson were previously employed at other middle schools in the area around Lawson.
Electives
Lawson Middle School offers various electives for students.
Electives Wheel
Instead of taking a full-year elective course, students may choose to take Electives Wheel.In seventh grade and eight grade, there are two;Thunder Wheel and Lightning Wheel. Thunder wheel are for people who want to learn basic skills and lightning is for people who want to learn more advance skills. The electives wheel is a series of three trimester-long courses, covering Art, Woodshop, and Cooking.
There is a separate Electives Wheel, known as Exploratory Wheel, for sixth graders, covering Art, Technology, Public speaking, and Life Skills, such as learning how to advertise products. These are a few examples for there are more units.
Foreign languages
Lawson Middle School is also the only middle school with a program called CLIP (Cupertino Language Immersion Program) This program is for 6th to 8th graders with advanced Chinese instead of just starting to learn Chinese. CLIP students start school from 7:20 instead of 8:15 for more Chinese academics. Starting in 2010, Spanish I for beginners will be taught at Lawson. Also, CLIP is being discontinued for the 2010-2011 school year, so brothers or sisters of CLIP 6th graders in 2010 will have to go to Miller Middle School to continue their CLIP studies.
CLIP is also sometimes known as CHINESE LANGUAGE IMMERSION PROGRAM. Students who take CLIP will have to take CLIP for two periods a day, therefore forced to have CLIP as their elective.
Social Studies
Lawson has a Social Studies program designed to prepare students for today’s global world. It teaches different cultures, histories, and geographies. The classes are filled with simulations and activities instead of having students read and memorize facts all day. Students enjoy these simulations and learn at the same time .
Mathematics
Lawson has a mathematics course designed to challenge students. For sixth graders, two courses, Math 6 and Pre-Algebra, are offered. The placement is based on the student’s results on a placement test taken in 5th grade. Pre-Algebra is a math class for students that pass the placement test, taken in 5th grade. Math 6 is for the lower level students who fail to pass the placement test for pre-algebra. Over the summer of any year at Lawson, students may take a challenge test to skip a course in mathematics. Seventh graders take either Pre-Algebra A, Pre-Algebra AB, or Algebra I. Eighth graders will be assigned classes based on their seventh grade mathematics class, and their performance in it. Most Pre-Algebra A students advance to Algebra IA, while Pre-Algebra AB students advance mostly to Algebra I. Algebra I students will advance to Geometry in eighth grade. Lawson’s Mathematics constantly involves hands-on learning, involving experiments and creative assignments.
Language Arts
Lawson has an English class that teaches students the English language. Students were engaged in making movies, radio broadcasts, doing projects, and reading books. Technology from the EETT fund also helped to modernize Language Arts. Notebook computers in the classroom allowed students to better understand the material studied in the class through technology.
Science
Lawson’s science classes teach students about the world surrounding them. Students participate in hands-on experiments and activities to gain a deeper understanding of their curriculum. Students in sixth grade learn earth science, while students in seventh grade learn biology. Eighth grade students learn a wide variety of subjects ranging from electricity to astronomy to physics. The curriculum for eighth grade students is designed to prepare them for the high school science courses.
Music program
Lawson has a choir, three bands (beginning, intermediate, and advanced), and three orchestras (beginning, intermediate, and advanced). Students must be in a previous class to be eligible for a more advanced class; however, a student who demonstrates ability can audition for a higher class. All advanced music classes and students that have been in choir for two years or more take an annual trip to Disneyland, to perform in a studio.
Lawson’s music program makes many performances during the year for both the student body and parents. The students participating in the music program practice year-round for these performances.The first performance is the Lawson Boosters Concert. Beginning band and orchestra don’t participate. It is mainly to help the music program earn money. The year’s first official performance is usually the Winter Concert, followed by a Pops Concert. The last performance is the Spring concert.
Journalism & Yearbook
The Current
Lawson’s school newspaper, The Current, won first place in the 2007 Scholastic Corporation Press Association Contest. They were one of the three middle schools in the United States to win this special award. The Current is published by seventh and eighth grade students in the Journalism class. Originally an after-school club with fourteen members and one issue a year, journalism became an elective course in 2006-2007 and published three issues that year. Recently in the 2007-2008 school year however, journalism became an after-school club once again, with one circulation that year.
The Bolt
The Lawson Yearbook, first produced in the 2005-2006 school year by the Yearbook club, is entitled “The Bolt”. Yearbook became an elective class in 2006-2007. The Lawson yearbook is separated into 4 sections that cover the different aspects of the school year: Student Life, People, Sports, and Academics. It is published by Herff Jones.
The Lawson Yearbook staff produced a Video Yearbook for the first time in 2007. It will be in DVD format and a supplement to the regular yearbook, which was in full color that year. Due to technical difficulties, the Video Yearbook was not available for sale as planned, however, the video was broadcast over the school and each member of the yearbook staff received a copy. The 2008-2009 yearbook staff produced another video yearbook, which was available for sale for 5$.
Lawson Yearbook Themes
2006 – First Impressions Inspiration: This was Lawson’s first year of being a school
2007 – The Secret’s Out Inspiration: People knew that Lawson was a good school, and the secret was out
2008 – 3′s a Crowd Inspiration: This was Lawson’s third year in being a school and it was more crowded than thought so
2009- On Inspiration: Lawson Middle School was always on to something, and the student activities and curriculum kept going on.
2010- From Inside Out : Exposing the unique parts of lawson that outsiders do not notice
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