Welcome letter

August 17 ,2020

Dear Parents and Students

Welcome to Cresthill Middle School!

I am very excited to have your student in my class. This year we are going to have some fun and different engaging activities in my class. However, your student will also need to create a discipline of work in order to be able to achieve his maximum potential and feel proud of his or her learning and feel that he or she can have an extra skill to succeed in a competitive world.

The purpose of this letter is to let you know some of my expectations to provide an initial guidance to you and your student, in order to help you all to have a successful experience at Cresthill Middle School and specific with Spanish 1A.

From Cresthill website, http://www.cresthillms.org/ you can click on CMS STAFF, on top of the page, then look for Specials, click on my name and you are going to be directed to my website.

You and your student can use my website to check information about homework, classwork and when a student has been absent to make up work. My website has other links that allowed the students to access other resources, to help them practice, listen, write and repeat in order to get better at pronunciation. In this way the students can learn and become familiar with Spanish and they can take responsibility for their own achievement. Even though, students tend to work better when parents are involved. Ask your students about their grades and how to access Infinite Campus,and homework. Help your student to study with flashcards or let him or her practice in the websites I recommend, they are fun and helpful.

Please be sure to encourage your student to be consistent in the use of these resources and please use them also as a tool to help your student to keep on track. Please check with regularity the parent portal to monitor your student progress in classes; do not wait until the last minute, when quarter grades are posted.

Learning a language requires students to be present and to use all their senses in my class. I will be happy to give extra help to your student if he or she needs additional explanation, 15 minutes before or 15 minutes after school or during lunch, by appointment, but class attitude, participation, ethical homework and study at least 10 minutes every day,not at the last minute, as well as following instructions and guidance, should be enough to be successful in my class.

I will NOT give extra credits and I expect assignments will be turned on time, in order to give full credit.

Every quarter, your student will get a Content Knowledge grade, that reflects his or her proficiency in writing, speaking, reading and listening and also in culture. These tests are not allowed to be re-taken.

Your student will also get a Work habit grade based on homework, classwork and scaffolding quizzes that will reflect his or her academic success. Your student will have ONLY 3 opportunities during each quarter, to bring a late assignment or retake a quiz. It will be not easy to get a good grade in Content knowledge, if your student does not work on his or her work habits assignments.

Every Friday I am going to check or collected the homework posted for each week, and every Monday or Tuesday depending on the cohort. they are going to have a quiz on what they have learned in the past week, so they need to be organized and take good notes in class.

They are going to be working in projects, in collaborative groups, so they need to be participating in order to get a good grade. (Grades are going to be individual).

Excessive absences cause that the student fall behind quickly with the material and miss valuable practice. If a student is absent he or she will be responsible to catch up with his or her partner assigned in class.

I am always available at Advisement class, to help your student, if they come to my class to clarify their doubts.

Please feel free to contact me when needed at : martha.amezquita@dcsdk12.org

I am planning on keeping in touch with you when needed.

Attached you will find some class rules, please print it, sign it and make you student sign it and they should bring them on Friday: Class Expectations

Please go to my website, look on the left hand side of the page, and please ask your student to click on syllabus, click on the page and print the first and second syllabus at the beginning of the page that appears in red. They need to bring it on Friday too.If you cannot print it , please let me know. We are going to use a 3 ring binder only for Spanish And I would like to see, the syllabus in them.

Thank you so much for your attention, and I hope your student have a great year.

Sincerely,

Martha Amezquita

Spanish Teacher, Seventh Grade