Parent-Teacher Conferences are around the corner! 

Tuesday, February 24 & Thursday, February 26, 2026

• 3:45 -4:45 pm: Collaboration between teachers & families by phone to learn about your students' progress at Irving. 

• 4:45-6:45 pm: Drop in conferences to to learn about your students progress at Irving

• Elective/ACES & PE/Health teachers: Conferences in the cafeteria

• 6th Grade teachers: Conferences in the library

• 7th grade teachers: Conferences on the 2nd floor 

• 8th grade teachers: Conferences on the 3rd floor

This week, students received important information about 8th-grade enrollment. You can find the presentation linked below for your reference.

Students were also emailed a copy of their 8th-grade course selections and may make changes to their choices through Wednesday, February 18.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at bgothie@lps.org

Click Here for 8th Grade Enrollment Information

Mr. G

We have concluded our unit on Africa and are now shifting our focus on East Asia–most specifically the Tang and Song Dynasties. Our conversations are going to be focused on the idea of society experiencing a “Golden Age” and looking to understand what kinds of conditions play a role in allowing a society to flourish. Students will be introduced to the three P’s: peace, prosperity, and progress and will be challenged to identify evidence of those concepts in primary sources like the Song Scroll and written descriptions of ancient Chinese cities. 

Our 7th graders have officially hit their stride in the Greasers' world, having wrapped up the opening chapters of The Outsiders and launched into detailed character analyses. Students are currently busy identifying the core traits that define their chosen characters in these early stages of the story. Looking ahead to next week, we’ll be diving into the heart of the novel to track how these characters evolve under pressure, hunting for specific evidence of growth and transformation. To help navigate these shifts, we will be introducing the concept of Canon Events—pivotal, unavoidable moments that shape a character's destiny. By identifying these turning points, students will gain a deeper understanding of why the characters choose their paths and how these universal narrative beats help us connect more deeply with everything we read.

Math 7: Students are continuing to work through Chapter 6 by using strategies to compare expressions, solve inequalities and represent them on a number line, and using equation mats to solve equations. Students are also describing single variable equations as having one solution, no solution, infinite solutions, or many solutions. The Chapter 6 Test will take place on February 23rd.

Math 7D: In Course 3, Chapter 6, students will explore translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations. They will use these transformations to better understand the concepts of similarity and congruence. The test will take place on February 25th.

We have started our next unit! Please click on this  LINK for more information! In this unit we will investigate where food molecules come from and where they go next! We will be identifying possible sources for these food molecules and running tests to see if we can confirm or eliminate any of our ideas. We started growing our bean plants to help us learn more about the processes that help plants grow and develop. Take a look at how they are changing!

We have officially wrapped up the unit on M’Kenna. We determined that she has celiac disease and her symptoms were caused by flattening of the villi in the small intestine. The villi were flattened by the immune system response to gluten, which caused the damage. With flattened villi the surface area of lining of the small intestine was reduced leading to a reduction in the amount of nutrition that M’Kenna was able to absorb from her food. The next unit we explore how the plants that we eat get the food molecules that we need to be healthy. We will start by exploring the connection between maple syrup and the sap that is produced by the sugar maple. We will investigate how do plants, like the sugar maple, get their food molecules. Do plants get their molecules from the environment?

Students just finished Unit 2 about the Communication Model and celebrated the end of the unit by learning how to play the card game called Spoons. They read the written instructions and worked as a group to learn and teach each other the game.  You could ask them to teach you how to play at home.  You’ll need a deck of cards and some spoons. 

For Unit 3, the Essential Question is “What does performance poetry allow us to reveal about important issues?”  First, students will be memorizing and performing a 15 line poem with props, costumes, facial expressions, gestures, inflection, and eye contact.  Later, we’ll move to writing slam/performance poetry about issues students personally care about.  

Please reach out if you have questions about anything.   Now is the best time for students to be working on improving their grades if they’re low instead of waiting until the last minute.   This is a quarter long class and it ends Friday, March 6th.   

World Language students are now in their second unit of the quarter.  In the Spanish unit, we focused on the alphabet, animals, calendar, colors and numbers.  In the French unit, we are focusing on fashion, numbers, the calendar and clothing.  Students will be able to write a sentence about a piece of clothing that they are wearing and include the color.

Current Unit: We are currently working on our Radial Symmetry Unit where students looked at art around the world to find examples of radial symmetry. We also looked at contemporary artists Kristen Farr, Gabriel Schama and Shona Wilson who create modern radial designs in their work. Students then focused on shape and line to create their own radial designs which will be painted in acrylic paint this month. 

Looking Ahead:  

Up next, students will start their clay unit focusing on Pop Art! Stay tuned. :)

Students finished their unit on Google Docs earlier this week and are currently working on assignments for the Google Slides unit, where they have been doing a mini research project on a state and putting their information into a google slides presentation. Next week, they will be doing research on famous person and presenting their information to the class in a Google Slides presentation. 

Rewards Plus: We are starting a unit on “Atoms and Molecules”.  While learning about elements, compounds, John Dalton, etc. we will be practicing many reading and writing skills including fluency, comprehension, sentence structure and writing, spelling and paragraph structure.  

Rewards Secondary: We started a new unit where we will be talking and reading about a story of refugee children named Aluel and Gabriel and their escape from a village in Sudan.  This is a true story from the accounts of the “Lost Boys and Girls” with fictitious characters.   Sentence writing, structure, fluency, comprehension, map study and complex questions will be the skill focus for this unit. 

***Please remind your child to read at home, practice fluency and practice spelling words***