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!
