Post date: Aug 20, 2015 11:00:57 PM
Wow! What a week! Welcome to my first of many newsletters.
I have had so much fun getting to know your students. We have spent this week getting to know each other, the procedures of Honors, and taking district benchmarks. These district benchmarks are important because they give me valuable information as to the skills your student still needs to work on as well as what they have mastered. I use this data in my lesson planning.
Assignment Calendar- Be sure to check the assignment calendar often for your student's current assignments and project due dates.
ILR- This week, I assigned the Independent Literature Requirement. Students need to be reading 30 minutes a night (5 days a week) and filling out their logs. Also, they need to be finding a new book to read for their book project. The book project information sheet and rubric went home on Tuesday. Over the next week or two, I will be meeting with your students to approve their book choices and get them started reading. As it gets closer to the due date, we will review the details of each classes' book projects.
Technology- Students are encouraged to use technology to review concepts. Students can use Front Row, iXL, Kahn Academy, or XtraMath to practice skills.
Math Olympiads- We will be participating in Math Olympiad contests this year. Periodically, we will be using our knowledge of the 8 Mathematical Practices to solve these challenging problems. The students generally LOVE these challenges as well as the collaboration with their teammates. We will always do one problem a week in class, but also may take a break from the textbook to practice as well. These problems and competitions are never graded.
Next week, we will be jumping into our regularly scheduled classes. This means, that I will be introducing many new concepts such as 4 Level, Latin/Greek Roots, Caesar' English as well as literary elements and the rules of Socratic seminars. We will even have our first Socratic seminar to practice! Lastly, in Math, I will be reviewing the 8 Mathematical Practices for solving problems and jumping into the text.
Looking forward to a fantastic year!