DATA 8th Grade Newsletter

Week 24: Feb 10 - 14

Please check the newsletter homepage for Important Information and Dates!

ELAR

"The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning."

- A.B. Yehoshua

We (finally) begin the official writing process this week! It's a process that will take us weeks to get through, eventually ending up with a polished product ready for "publishing", but there will be plenty of resources and and guidance along the way so every student feels confident about their work.

The week ahead has us previewing the Writing Process Rubric so that students know what is expected product-wise and when. We will also browse available argumentative topics and then brainstorm/prewrite. As the end of the week winds down, we'll look at how to properly cite sources so that students can perform research on their chosen topics.

-Mrs. Burciaga

Tutoring

Tuesdays - after school until 4:30

Thursdays - before school beginning at 7:45*

Lunch tutoring available by appointment*

*Requires a pass - see Mrs. Burciaga

Questions or concerns?

Email me: jburci@neisd.net

MATH

"Logic is the foundation of the certainty of all the knowledge we acquire." ~

- Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)

This week's quote is from my mathematical ancestor 9 generations back. His is a name that every student of mathematics eventually comes to know.

Algebra 1: The highlights in Week 5 of the semester included our Unit 5 test. As the course progresses some students are finding it more of a struggle. If your student had a bad outing on this test, or was absent for it, they will have an opportunity at a make-up test in the near future, after we've addressed the issues they struggled with. After an initial development of the laws of exponents, we ended the week with the main topic, polynomial functions. We'll build this for a couple of weeks, and then--another unit test!

Geometry: Geometry students spent some time exploring the relationships around interior and exterior angles in polygons, and then moved into a hands-on investigation of centers of mass for quadrilaterals. This provided opportunities to make and test conjectures the students made about locating the balance point on a quadrilateral. Next up is concepts of area.

-Dr. Koepp

Tutoring: I have a regularly-scheduled tutorial time from 3:45 to 4:30 on Mondays (NEW!!) and Thursdays. I also work with students by appointment--just email me at wkoepp@neisd.net and we'll find a time that works for your student! (My Monday afternoons are now available since the end of the UIL Academic season.)

SCIENCE

EXPERIMENT. FAIL. LEARN. REPEAT.

We began last week reviewing the difference between rotation and revolution and then proceeded into seasons. Students reviewed the concept of rotation causing day and night and that revolution of the Earth around the Sun along with Earth's tilt contributes to Seasons.

This week students will spend some time modeling seasons and describing the difference in length of day and night during the different seasons. They will differentiate between solstice and equinox and describe the angle of sunlight and length of day during each of these.

We will be working on Seasons posters and then making our way into Tides. We will cover Spring and Neap tides and when/how/why they occur.

Tutoring is offered on Tuesdays; students can attend from 3:45-4:15.

Students are also welcomed to set up an appointment for a different time, if needed.

If you have any questions, you may email me at egonza10@neisd.net.

U.S. History through 1877

We are Living History!

🏭⚙️🏭⚙️🏭⚙️🏭⚙️🏭⚙️

Students will take their Unit 6 Test this Wednesday on Feb 12th. We'll be starting our next unit, our second to last one! Students will be learning about reform movements in the 1800s. I might steal a little bit of the high school portion of this class and teach some of the 1900 impacts of those reform movements too...1877 is an odd stopping point...

🏭⚙️🏭⚙️🏭⚙️🏭⚙️🏭⚙️

Tutoring is available Thursdays, 7:45-8:20 am and 3:45-4:15

You can reach me at lvanho@neisd.net

Have a wonderful week!

-Ms. Van Horn

Mrs. Malin's Classes

Greetings DATA Families!
Have a great week!
PLEASE REVIEW WITH YOUR CHILD THE NEISD AND CAMPUS GUIDELINES REGARDING TECHNOLOGY USE, ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY, AND THEIR SAFETY. YOU CAN ACCESS THIS VIA: https://www.neisd.net/Page/10011

Veni, Creavi, Vici. I came. I created. I conquered.

Hello to Our DATA Families!

Graphic Design & Illustration I: Students are working their first animation assignment of their choice where they will put into practice the skilled aquired in their Adobe Animate tutorials. They will create a short animation piece of their choice.
Video Game Design: They will be exploring programming lessons in Minecraft where they will perform commands, execute variables, in the programming environment.

About Me: My name is Elizabeth Fuentes Malin. I am a technology applications teacher and have been teaching for sixteen years. I am married with one child who is now at DATA with us! I attended OLLU, UIW, Lamar University, and now UNT. I hold degrees in English, Communication Arts, Administration, Educational Technology Leadership, and now am working on my doctorates in Learning Technologies and Machine Learning.

My email is emalin@neisd.net

Tutoring is by appointment only

Mr. Lovett's Classes

Principles of Architecture:

Architecture students have learned how to make gable and hip roofs in SketchUp. Next week they will have a knowledge check to ensure they have it down before they go into their home models and create the roofs for their projects.

Digital Media 2:

FebrUnity is underway. Students are learning how to use unity to bring their projects together. We are also starting our web design unit. We will be coding in HTML and CSS. Students typically find this to be the hardest part of the class. However, students have also left my class and started side hustles.

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send me an email.

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