October 17, 2025 NEWSLETTER

News from Irving Administrators: 

Welcome to the 2nd quarter of the 2025-2026 school year. As we continue to foster a positive school culture, Irving staff remain committed to ensuring students demonstrate safe, responsible & respectful behavior consistently throughout the school day. When students feel connected to school and meet our school wide and classroom expectations, student engagement and academic achievement increases, making Irving a fantastic community to learn and grow. Expectations retaught & reviewed by all Irving staff during the first week of the 2nd quarter include: 

• Middle school cell phone/electronic device expectations (LPS policy & state law) 

• 1st 10/last 10: Students remain in the classroom the first and last 10 minutes of the class period 

• Using digital hall pass to leave the classroom: Students provided 2 passes/day to leave classroom. If students need an additional pass, teachers may create a pass for student

• On time to class all day long: School day 8:00-3:00, students provided 4 minutes to get from class to class. 

• Hallway expectations: Walk, hands & objects to self, keep moving, inside voice level

• Students remaining in seats until the end of class: Students exit classroom calmly and orderly to promote safe hallway behavior 

• Walking with classroom teacher to/from lunch/recess: Students walk with teacher to assigned lunch or recess destination 

• MTSS B classroom processes if/when disruption occurs: 

  • Student provided 1 redirect, then move to in-class movement (seat in classroom)

  • If behavior continues: students earn an out of class movement to neighboring classroom

  • While in neighboring classroom, students acknowledge their behavior and prepare to return learning in their classroom with a plan for success

• Students thrive when there are clear expectations & accountability for actions. Parents/guardians are notified any time a student earns an out of class movement. 

Thank you for all your partnership and support as we continue to have a great school year! 

Linked here is the LPS 2025-2026 Special Events Calendar: Special Events Calendar

Counseling - Fiero

High School Choice Information

Hello, 8th Grade Families!  I will be meeting with students in November to discuss high school choice, 9th Grade courses and upcoming high school registration.  As I share information with students, I will also email families, post on our Counseling Website and share in the newsletter.  

I have put together a check list for High School preparations, so that students and families can see what is coming up:

• Focus Program information - Applications opened on October 1

• High School Choice forms - Opens on NOVEMBER 1. If you have filled out this form prior to the opening date for the 26-27 school year, you will need to re-submit it on or after November 1, 2025.

• Classroom presentations in November.  Ms. Fiero will be visiting with students to learn about High School Choice forms, 9th Grade courses and upcoming registration day.  Students will learn what Core classes they will register for, what electives are available and will practice registering for courses through StudentVue.

• Pre-registration in January.  Students will fill out pre-registration forms in preparation for registration day.  Students will leave their forms at school so that they are ready for registration day.

• Registration Day on January 29.  More information will be shared as we get closer to this date.

For more about Open Houses, Focus Programs and general information about High School - visit this website:  Preparing for High School 2026-2027

German - Rosebaugh  

We will be learning to read and talk about sports and hobbies. Students will be able to describe when and how often they do different activities and state preferences. October 16-18 we are specifically focusing on Bundesliga soccer teams, and students will present a slide deck about their chosen team to the class. 

Social Studies - Bayne 

We have spent a couple of weeks focusing on causes of the American Revolution from 1763 through 1776. Some terms that should be new to them (not from 5th grade) are Salutary Neglect, Proclamation of 1763, monopoly and the Intolerable Acts and much more. We are in the process of doing a new lesson for this year about “Founding Mothers” which I’m super pumped about. The second District Common Assessment (DCA) of the year is on Tuesday, October 21st. It deals with the Boston Massacre, the Stamp Act, Townshend Act and the social studies historical skills of “perspectives.”

English 8/8D - Buell and Schickert 

We are starting the Personal Narrative Essay. Students will write a true story about a time in their life where they went through an experience that taught them a lesson/matured (grew up). We will select topics, test our topics, make a plan, and write a rough and final draft of the essay before the end of October!

Course 3 Math - Davenport & Loshbaugh

We have been working on Chapter 3: Graphs and Equations for the past couple of weeks. This chapter involves using tables, graphs, and rules to write and solve linear equations with variables on both sides.  We are finishing up the chapter in the next couple of weeks and after some review activities, we will take our  Chapter 3 Test on Tuesday, November 4 with the Chapter 2 retention on Wednesday, November 5.

Algebra-Diff - Davenport & Loshbaugh

Quarter 2 continued to dive deeper into Chapter 3, which focuses on simplifying expressions with exponents, exploring methods for rewriting polynomials such as (3x -2) (x + 4), solving equations with absolute values, and solving multi-variable equations for one variable.  We also practiced using algebra tiles to physically and visually represent equations. 

Our Chapter 3 Test will be on Wednesday, October 29 (with Chapter 2 Retention on Thursday, October 30) .  We will be doing some in-class review, and there will be other review materials posted in Google Classroom.

Geometry-Diff - Davenport

We began Quarter 2 with Chapter 3, which focuses on attributes of similar figures. Then, we emphasize properties and proofs of triangle similarity. We used triangle similarity to solve for missing side lengths and angles. The tests for Chapter 3 and Chapter 2 Retention will be Oct 22 and 23.

After that test, Chapter 4 begins discussions of Trigonometric Ratios and Probability.