HELLO PARENTS !!!
Please contact me anytime at 355-4517, ggardner@greenville.k12.sc.us or ggardner@greenvilleschools.us Our school website is www.greenville.k12.sc.us/twood. You may access all faculty and staff from there. You may also go directly to this website at https://sites/greenvilleschools.us/ggardner to access important course information.
Thank you for entrusting me with your child. Every adult in the building works very hard each day to earn your confidence and support. As a parent myself, I understand the feelings of wanting to know that the adults caring for my child are engaged, monitoring student activity, and making logical decisions in the event of any conflict.
I look forward to introducing your student to a number of very cool activities that involve Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math. My hope is that it will be one that engages all students, and gets them thinking about how even the simplest of items we use everyday took a huge amount of work to develop and produce.
Thank you for what you have done, are doing, and will do in the future to help our students prepare for success in high school and beyond.
From me to you...
1. You, the parent, are your child's first, and #1 teacher. You, the parent, are our #1 client. We are here to provide all of our children with a quality education. However, no one knows your child better than you, so we need you to stay engaged in their education and development.
We "professionals" only have them for 7-8 hours per day. Your child's best chance for a successful future in our highly competitive world will rely heavily on all of us working together. It is a time-management issue. Our children are not only competing with other children in the USA, they are competing with children from around the world who come here for higher education and jobs.
The reality is that many of our young people waste 100s of hours sitting in front of a TV and playing video games, while their competitors are working hard to strengthen their "marketable" skills. Hard work does not guarantee winning, but little or no work almost guarantees failure. Keep your kids reading and working!
2. Safety: The safety of everyone is my #1 focus. Behavior that threatens the safe work environment will lead to lab suspension. As a pre-engineering lab that utilizes tools, machines, and equipment, minor personal injury can be a rather common occurrence. Most tools and machines are designed to "process" material. More serious injuries can occur when common safety practices are not followed. It is these more serious injuries that are my constant focus and require students to be extra attentive...in any working lab. What you don't know CAN hurt you!
SAFETY WARNINGS: Warnings without consequences are effective for some, but for others, it is just a temporary pause. If I need to address a LEVEL 1 safety issue, it will include some loss of lab/activity time.
LEVEL 1 SAFETY includes:
Horseplay
Running & chasing
Throwing objects
Unnecessary distractions
Not wearing EYE PROTECTION when required
Depending on the infraction and the student's history, lab privileges can be revoked indefinitely. I, or an administrator, will communicate with you if there are concerns about your child's behavior. Please stress to your student my expectations for behavior and following safety rules. If your student is having difficulties in either of these two areas, I will be in contact with you. My decisions will always be to error on the side of safety.
Liability
When it comes to liability, I always look out for myself, for the school district, and for YOU. Why you? Because, parents are usually held liable for things their minor children do.
Again, my NUMBER ONE focus is everyone's safety.
3. Recent restrictions on federal dollars to Career Technology have greatly reduced funding for consumables (things we use up). These funds are used to purchase all the supplies we consume during the year to construct the engineering projects such as: lumber, balsawood sticks, sandpaper, foamboard, plexiglass, toy motors, wire, magnets, glue, paint, tape, drill bits, saw blades, screws, etc.
All of these materials require about $200.00 for each of the 12 classes I teach per year. Please contact me if you, your business, or someone you know, are ever in a position to help us with a material or monetary donation. I will use donated funds for the class of the donor's child, first.
4. STUDENT SUPPLY LIST: (Also found on the student page.) Students are encouraged to set up, and maintain, a GTT Engineer's Notebook. This notebook is for students to keep all class Bellwork, Chapter assignments, technical sketches and designs, journal entries, and handouts. Organizational skills are not only important for success in the classroom, but at home and in business, too. The following items will provide your child with the the best tools for keeping and organizing their GTT work. The Engineering Notebooks will be checked and assessed during the grading period
1) “Presentation” binder - 1 inch, 3-ring w/inside pockets, if possible
2) loose-leaf (college rule notebook paper is best now)
3) loose-leaf 1/4 inch (quad) graph paper (I will provide 3D graph paper)
4) section dividers
5) wood pencils
5. STUDENT ASSESSMENT: Students are given many different opportunities to earn their grade each quarter. I do grade heavily on effort, perseverance, and quality of work.
Major (M) Assessments = 50% (4-6 Tests, Projects, Research Presentations)
Minor (m) Assessments = 50% (12-18 Labwork, Quizzes, Notebook)