January 16, 2026 NEWSLETTER

As we begin Semester 2, this is a great time for students to reflect and refocus. We will be revisiting effective habits such as staying organized, managing time wisely, and taking responsibility for learning. By consistently practicing these habits, students can build confidence, strengthen their skills, and set themselves up for continued success throughout the rest of the school year. Let’s work together to encourage positive routines and a strong start to the semester!

Our focus for the start of the third quarter is Africa and the idea that it is more than just one single story. Last week we had a discussion about the Berlin Conference and students were able to learn about the impact that colonization had on the established people and cultures that existed there. From there the students learned about the apartheid system in South Africa and were challenged to consider how their nation chose to move forward once that system finally ended. There was a lot of rich discussion as we asked some pretty big questions to these students. It would be worthwhile to ask your student about it.

Our next step in the unit is learning about Mansa Musa and the kingdom of Mali. Musa is considered possibly the richest person that has ever lived and in our learning we will be incorporating the spread of Islam throughout Northern Africa. The driving question will be, “Did Mansa Musa care more about God, or gold?”

We have an exciting two weeks ahead in English class! We are officially launching our next class novel, S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. This classic story of friendship, rivalry, and identity will serve as the foundation for our next major assessment.

Our Learning Focus: Character Analysis

Next week, students will dive deep into the lives of Ponyboy, Johnny, and the rest of the "Greasers." Our goal is to move beyond just summarizing the plot; instead, we will be conducting a Character Analysis for our upcoming District Common Assessment (DCA).

The "Visible" and "Invisible": Strengthening Our Writing

To prepare for this essay, we have been sharpening our argumentative writing skills. Specifically, we are practicing how to build a strong Claim supported by Evidence and Warrants.

Math 7: In the second half of Chapter 5, students will continue to solidify their understanding of part-whole relationships, delve further into probability and learn about the 5-D problem solving process. They will also write one-and two-step equations involving rational numbers from words, tables and authentic situations. The next test will take place on Wednesday, January 21st.

Math 7D: In this unit, students will learn different ways for representing authentic situations including rules, graphs, tables and tile patterns. Over time, they will learn that they can move directly from one representation to another. They will end this unit by strengthening their ability to solve muti-variable equations for one of the variables. The next test will take place on or around February 2nd.

Algebra-D: Solano

Students just finished their Winter MAP Math Test this week! We began Semester 2 by picking up where we left off before Winter Break - Chapter 5 Sequences. We find patterns, write equations, and compare the graphs/tables of many sequences. The test for this chapter is scheduled for January 23.

We have started our new unit. Please see the attached letter for an overview of the topics we will be covering. 

LINK

I am very excited to welcome Miss. Jillian Mangold to our classroom. She will be our student teacher for Semester 2. Jillian is originally from Connecticut and is currently studying education at the University of Nebraska. She is part of their amazing Aspiring Educators team and is looking forward to working with and learning alongside myself and our students! After spending practicum hours at Dawes and Northstar, she is excited to join the Irving team. 

We are no longer utilizing digital notebooks. We will be printing off lesson packets for the students and these will primarily stay in the classroom. Once graded, students will be able to take them home with the expectation that they review their packets regularly to prepare for assessments. Looking forward to a great semester!

We have started our new unit on metabolic reactions. This LINK will give you a brief overview of what we will be covering. Your student has already been given our new notebook for this unit and we are just finishing off lesson 3. The notebook will serve as our primary repository for the unit. Looking forward to a great semester!

Hello!  I’ve been working with your student for a little over a week now since this is a new quarter class for them, and they are doing great both academically and behaviorally.   The Essential Question for Unit 1 is How does confidence in yourself and your community encourage risk taking? So far, we have created a “Treatment Agreement” to help us build norms for how we will treat each other in class. We discussed WHY greeting people is beneficial and reviewed the steps to emphasize: pausing, looking at the person, and speaking loudly and clearly to be heard.   Students learned how to introduce people and practiced the skill with role play.  

We just started our first big project where students will be interviewing a classmate using open ended questions to gather information so they can write a paragraph to share with the class to introduce them and help us all know each other better.   While we are working on this project, we will practice 1. writing open ended questions and using probing questions while interviewing to get more detailed information.  2.  writing strong paragraphs with topic and closing sentences and many supporting details about just two topics instead of a list. 3.  practicing the introduction speeches multiple times in different ways to ensure confidence.   Finally, when we listen to the introduction speeches, students will practice listening and taking notes skills.  

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.  Ms. Kroenke skroenk@lps.org

Students are at the beginning of the Google Applications unit, starting with a review and introduction of new tools in Google Docs.  Students will then move on to Google Slides and Google Sheets. 

Rewards Plus: We are starting a Unit called “Viruses” that will incorporate many reading and writing skills that we are continuing from last semester.  Some of those skills include vocabulary, many types of sentence writing, parts of speech, and literary device practice.  The story will also include lessons on comprehension and paragraph writing.   

Rewards Secondary: We are starting Unit 5, which will be divided up into four lessons involving the practice of many reading and writing skills that we learned last semester, including prefixes, suffixes, parts of speech, vocabulary, sentence structure, and paragraph writing.

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