The Overlake School Glossary | |
| # | The way we tag all our email/Teams/Sharepoint groups here at Overlake (e.g. #everyone is the group for everyone, #socialstudies is the group for the Social Studies Department). If you see # in front of a name, it indicates that it is for a group, not an individual. |
| Advisory | Advisory or Homeroom is the time students (homies) meet with their grade level advisors. MS homerooms/advisories change yearly, while US homerooms/advisories span all of high school. |
| Affinity | Spaces/time where students and a faculty/staff leader or two join together to speak about one piece of identity that they all share. We have student affinity groups that meet, and also employee affinity groups that meet. |
| Alumni Room | One of the two meeting rooms in the Campus Center, located at the front of the building. |
| Announcements | Weekly gatherings of an entire division to have student and faculty announcements. US--Mondays at 9:20 in the gym, MS--Mondays at 9:35 in Fulton theater. |
| ASB | The Associated Student Body is our student council/student government group. There is one group each for MS and US. |
| ATL | Advisory Team Leader (similar to a grade dean at other schools) helps organize the advisors for a grade level. In US, they stay with that graduating class over the years. |
| Atlas | A curriculum mapping software/interface that Overlake used extensively pre and immediately post-COVID. |
| Axiom | The backend of Veracross, as opposed to the Portals which present information in a more visually appealing way. Axiom is where the data is input and accessed, and is not used extensively by most people. |
| BTSN | Back to School Night is an evening in September when parents come to campus and visit teachers in their classrooms for 10 minutes per class, including advisory/homeroom. |
| Board Room | One of the two meeting rooms in the Campus Center, located at the back of the building. |
| CAT | Competing Academic Teams that go to competitions in an academic subject (eg: Speech and Debate, Quiz Bowl, DECA). |
| CC | The Campus Center is where we get food, eat, and conduct meetings and gatherings (the Board Room and Alumni Room are housed here). |
| CSIG | Curriculum Standards Integration Group is a group that took overarching transcurricular standards (EE, DEJI, SEL, and TRIM) and has worked to find commonalities and create combined standards. |
| DEJI | Diversity, Equity, Justice and Inclusion refers to the programming and assemblies on this topic, and the office overseeing this work, the curriculum around this, etc. |
| EE | Experiential Education is the department overseeing Project Week, Clubs, Stewardship Day, 8th Grade Field Studies, Outdoor Ed, Service Hours, and Orientation. The office is located inside of the Library building. |
| Executive Functioning Time | Executive Functioning Time (EF or EFT) is the US time from 12:05-12:50 on (mostly) Monday and Friday, which is mainly unprogrammed, giving students an opportunity to select what to prioritize to best suit their needs and wellbeing. |
| Field Studies | A four-day overnight Experiential Education trip for the 8th grade in May. |
| Fieldhouse | The large green building with a gym, climbing wall, lost and found, PE offices, locker rooms, Gola room, etc. This is the first building you come to when you come up the hill from the main parking lot. (Note: this is a different building than the gym, which is located just behind the Fieldhouse.) |
| Fishbowl | The Fishbowl (TLC Conference Room 304) is a glass windowed room across the skybridge from the Library, and is used by Student Support for students to test or study. |
| FJG 5/6 | The 5th/6th building houses the 5th and 6th grade core classes, the head of school, and the assistant to the head of school. FJG are the initials of a previous head of school, Frank Grijalva, who the building is named after. |
| Flex | The name for the US block from 12:05-12:50 or the MS block from 12:50-1:35. This block is when programming, clubs, DEJI, affinity, wellness, study hall, and executive functioning happen. |
| Fulton/FUPAC | FUPAC stands for Fulton Performing Arts Center--also called Fulton. This building houses the theater, blackbox, choir, band, and orchestra rooms, plus a student art gallery in the lobby. |
| Gola | A game/sport invented at Overlake that middle schoolers (and all kids) love. https://www.overlake.org/node/415 |
| Grads Return | A program where recent grads come back and speak to students. |
| Green and Gold | Two “houses” in the middle school decided by a “sorting hat” (a la Harry Potter) at the beginning of the year. The two sides earn points in fun competitions held mostly at lunch. Each week at announcements, the total scores of each team are tallied to much cheering and applause. |
| Gym | Differentiated from the Fieldhouse (which also has a gym in it), the gym is the second building you come to when you walk up the hill from the main campus. It is newer than the Fieldhouse and sometimes still called the "new" gym. It houses a gym, weight room, athletics offices, training room, locker rooms, and a classroom. |
| HUM/Humanities | The Humanities Building was named after Bill "Army" Armstrong, our longest-serving faculty member. Humanities includes English, Social Studies, and more for 7th-12th graders. |
| IDEA Lab | IDEA stands for Innovate, Design, Engineer, Apply. Students and faculty work on the Design Thinking process and develop problem-solving skills in the basement of Whitten. |
| ILT | Information Literacy and Technology is the combined departments of Library and Technology, and is housed in the library. |
| MAC | The Major Assessments Calendar (linked in Canvas) is where teachers put any major assessments for courses, to ensure that students don't have too many assessments in a day/week. |
| MESH | Math, English, Science, and History is usually referenced related to middle school grade-level meetings of the core academic subjects. |
| MOSAIC | Multicultural Overlakers Sharing an Inclusive Community--An affinity space for members of our community who represent racial and ethnic minorities within our school, to provide space to build community of people who may share similar experiences, whether it is language, or other experiences. |
| MS | Middle School encompasses 5th-8th grades. |
| MyOverlake Portal | The portal is the information site for employees, students, and families/parents (your access is by the group you belong to). This site contains calendars, schedules, support ticketing, directories, and links out to other campus resources. |
| Nook | The Middle School Nook is located in the Library. MS students use this space before and after school, during lunch, and breaks to read, study, print, and hangout. |
| Owl’s Nest | The area around the flagpole in the center of the campus is sometimes called the Owl's Nest. Group performances use this space, but it is mostly a spot to hangout and eat. (This was also a previous program where US students were paired with MS students for fun activities once a quarter.) |
| Overlake News | Overlake updates are put out in various ways. The Overlaker is a quarterly physical and digital update on all things Overlake. Overlake News is the weekly update sent out from the Communications department. The Overlake School Athletics Instagram account is found at owlsnews. |
| Paylocity | The HR platform the school uses. Accessed through the Veracross Portal, this is where you can see your paystub or request time off. |
| PGA | Parent Guardian Association is our parent support group (previously Parent Faculty Staff Alliance PFSA). |
| PLC | Professional Learning Cohorts engage in collective inquiry into both best practices in teaching and best practices in learning. |
| POG | Portrait of a Graduate are our aspirations for the traits and competencies of an Overlake graduate. |
| Project Week | A week at the end of March when all students and faculty participate in week-long EE-led projects. Past experiences include community volunteering, trail biking, camping, museums, theater performance, swimming, scrapbooking, transit usage, and so much more, with the addition of international travel to France, Rome, Senegal, China, and more. |
| The Sanctuary | A space for students or faculty to practice spirituality and faith, mindfulness, meditation, prayer, etc. The room is located in the Library. |
| SCC | The Student and Community Center houses Bernier McCaw Hall, a large meeting space, as well as two smaller meeting rooms, the Admissions, Development, HR, and Communications departments. It is the newest building on campus. |
| SEL | The Social Emotional Learning newsletter provided by Student Support. |
| Stewardship Day | Days in the fall and spring when US and MS faculty and students do service on campus (campus beautification like weeding and path maintenance) or with local organizations (volunteering at other schools, shelters, parks, and more). |
| SPACE | The aspects of our wellbeing pillar of the strategic plan: Social, Physical, Academic/Intellectual, Community, and Emotional Wellbeing. |
| SRB | Student Review Board--a panel of upper school students who work to recommend restorative and collaborative consequences for student infractions to the Director of Student Experience. |
| SST | The Student Support Team is a group of faculty and staff who work together to support a student. Usually involving a academic or personal counselor, the advisor, and teachers of the student. |
| Stewardship Day | A day in the fall when classes are cancelled and each division's faculty and students work to improve our campus. |
| Summits | Summits are a time for the adults on campus to work together (formerly Adult Collaboration) from 8:15-9:30 on Wednesdays (late start for students). |
| TLC | Technology and Language Center is the red building behind the Library. Divided into two sections above ground, it extends and connects underground. Despite the name, it contains World Languages, the business office, Student Support, and Personal Counseling, while the Technology department has moved to the Library. |
| TRIM | Technology Research Information and Media literacy is the curriculum associated with ILT. |
| UBD | Understanding by Design--a method of curriculum design and unit planning that we use at Overlake. |
| US | Upper School encompasses 9th-12th grades. |
| VCX | The abbreviation for Veracross. |
| Wellness | The curriculum, assemblies, and programming associated with our strategic pillar of improving our community's sense of wellbeing. |
| WMSC | Referred to as Math/Sci, Whitten or WMSC, this is the building where most of the math and science classes take place. |
| Wise | Overlake's knowledge base of all things ILT, and more. A place to search for help and how-to for most Overlake platforms and some policy |
| Writers' Symposium | A yearly program where an author is brought in to present to a division and then works with students in their English classes on writing. |
Overlake Glossary
Discover a comprehensive glossary of terms related to the Overlake School community, providing insights into its unique culture and traditions.
Administrator
Written By Kelly Vikstrom (Administrator)
Updated at October 20th, 2026