TIPS

Student Organization

Students should plan ahead to arrive at their classes with all needed materials, as they will not be going to their lockers during or between classes. With a balanced school day timetable, students bring all their supplies for one block at a time (periods 8-10am, 10:45-12:45pm, and 1:30-2:30pm). Your child has been given two copies of their timetable; I suggest that one copy be attached to their locker door, and one to be kept at home. Please go over your child’s timetable and help them get into the habit of looking ahead for what they will need to do. As well, if assignments are not completed on time or if you child has been given permission to redo an assignment, please help them plan to complete the work in a timely manner.

Students should show up to every class with their pencil case, books, and any other required material. The pencil case should have at least a couple of blue pens, red pens, and pencils, as well as colouring pencils/markers, highlighters, a ruler, a calculator, and an eraser. Other items to consider are reinforcements, scissors, compass, and protractor. Please be sure that your child always has an ample supply of lined paper and grid paper.


Homework

  • For grade 8, you should expect that your child could do an average of 20-60 minutes of homework a night. (Not every night will require this much work, and some nights may require more if students are not using time wisely in class.)

Homework should include:

  • Completion of work not finished in class

  • Work on long term assignments

  • Extra work for skill reinforcement

  • Reading for pleasure and/or being read to by an adult (minimum 15 min/day)

  • Studying for tests

  • Correcting tests and assignments

  • Organizing notebooks, notes, and materials

There may be, from time to time, no assigned homework. This does not mean there is nothing to do for school. Students should spend the time doing one of the following:

  • Reading and/or being read to

  • Reviewing and/or reorganizing notes

  • Practicing math facts for speed and accuracy

  • Organizing materials to maximize learning

Please keep an eye on how much time your child spends on homework and how productive they are during that time. Contact me if you have any concerns.

Working from Home

If you need to work on computer files/documents both at home and school, you can access them by logging into your student account with your assigned personal username and password. From the OCDSB website you can log into your documents from school. (Using the mydocs active directory.) Assignments are regularly posted in google classroom. This can be easily accessed from any computer without additional logins.