Welcome to my home page! You and your child have made it through your first week of middle school. I don't think any students went home broken this week (if they did, it didn't happen in my class). :) Honestly, we had a very smooth start. Your children were very patient while I took attendance and discussed rules. There are a few items that you need to know about the class. My grading breakdown is as follows: 40% Tests 20% Classwork 20% Quizzes 10% Homework 10% Participation If your child is absent, I keep a copy of my lesson plans so that you and your child can see what work was missed. If you would prefer to pick up missed work before your child returns, call or send an email. I will be happy to have it ready for pick-up. Our first unit of study will be scientific inquiry and weather. We will begin our paper airplane study in the next six weeks. Please note that cooperation is an integral part of our classroom. I seek to promote personal responsibility, positive interactions, and sharing in our classroom groups. As parents you can help me accomplish my goals by communicating any frustrations or issues that a child may be experiencing in groups. I will be happy to help in any way that I can. The air conditioning in my room is on overdrive, and I do not have an individual air conditioning control in my classroom. Your student may need to bring a light jacket. There are audio CD's of the textbook and supplemental materials available on CD. I had hoped that there would be enough CD's to send them home with the students, but unfortunately there are not enough. Students may check out these CD's from the media center for a period of up two weeks at a time. If you need a CD for a longer period of time, please contact me. Please check my documents section periodically. I will make games of science content review for your students so that they can prepare for tests and quizzes. Science tutoring begins on Tuesday, September 2, 2008. It will be held every Tuesday from 8:00 - 8:25 a.m. unless I post a cancellation notice on this website (this is rare). Please check here for updates. Tutoring sessions will be held in my classroom. I encourage you to add your email address to my NewsFlash, which is located here on the website. Whenever I send a paper home, I will add a brief note to my Newsflash. If your email address is added to my NewsFlash, an email will be sent to you, alerting you to a new NewsFlash item. This will save you having to check my website constantly for updates! There will be no late homework accepted unless a student is absent from class. Students have the opportunity to write down assignments in class, check the website, or call me until 8:00 p.m. There are multiple opportunities to get the homework assignments down, and they are not very long. I will also drop one homework grade per nine weeks. I expect homework to be turned in on time. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you for sharing your child with me! I am greatly looking forward to working with them this year!