Welcome Message
Welcome to the 8th Grade Team Page.
General Announcements
Washington, DC: Monday, March 23-Thursday, March 26, 2026
Second Payment Due: October 30th
Embedded Files
Course Information
For the week of October 6th - October 10th
Current Topics
Algebra:
Expressions and Equations
Pre-Algebra:
Dilations, Similarity, Introducing Slope
Mrs. Clarner
Mrs. Clarner
This will be my last week teaching your 8th graders. I have enjoyed the experience and hope that they have enjoyed math these last 6 weeks. Please welcome Mrs. Francoeur back on Tuesday, 10/14!
Algebra will have their Unit 1 summative on Monday, 10/6. Students can watch videos or do extra practice by going to their Google Classroom. If the test does not go as well as they hoped or they failed it, they may re-take it within 10 days following the reassessment policy. On Tuesday we will begin Unit 2 on Expressions and Equations.
Pre-Algebra will have their Unit 1 summative on Tuesday, 10/7 on Rigid Transformations. Students are encouraged to watch the Unit 1 math help videos (linked on the left side of this page) as well as watch videos and do extra practice found in their Google Classroom if they are unsure of any topics. Students who would like to re-take may do so within 10 days of receiving the test back following the reassessment policy.
Please keep checking Aspen for NHI assignments. Those will need to be completed if your student would like to re-assess a summative.
~Mrs. Clarner
Mrs. Monnat
Mrs. Monnat
CONGRATULATIONS! With the end of Unit 1: Historians in Training, your student(s) will now be identified as Historians in my classroom. They have demonstrated at least a beginning competency in Historical Thinking Skills and will be applying these skills all year long.
Unit 1 Summative Grades will be in Aspen shortly.
Students who scored less than 70 will be required to reassess according to the Social Studies Department's Tier 1 or Tier 2 plans. (The syllabus provides all the details.)
Unit 1 Summative Reassessment Deadline: 10/16
The goal of the reassessment plan is to provide students the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for proficiency while also ensuring that they appreciate and acquire the work habits required for success. The spirit of the reassessment plan is not grade enhancement; reassessment is not recommended for students who have shown competency with grades of 80% or greater.
In addition to our next unit, Two Worlds Meet, we are working on state abbreviations. We will add a few new states every day. Feel free to quiz your student(s). They will ultimately be responsible for knowing the location and abbreviations of all 50 states.
If you have any questions, please reach out to me at any time at smonnat@sau66.org
REMINDERS:
All assignments are posted daily on Google Classroom. Unit vocabulary can also be found in the materials section. Students should be studying 5-10 minutes a night EVERY night. Also, assignments with a 💻 emoji at the start are the only ones that are required to be turned in on Google Classroom.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Ms. Smith
Ms. Smith
Welcome to English 8! The classroom expectations and syllabus are posted on Google Classroom. The daily agenda will be updated there as well.
The first week will be setting up binders and explanations of what to expect during the 8th grade year, including a trip to the library to choose the students' first independent reading book.
I look forward to meeting all the parents on September 4!
Mr. Williams
Mr. Williams
This week we began our first unit of the year: Light & Matter — Why do we sometimes see different things when looking at the same object?
We launch with a puzzling real-world clip: a music student sees himself in what looks like a mirror, but the teacher on the other side can see right through. To explore this anchor phenomenon, students study a simple scale model with two “rooms,” a light source, and a special pane between them. Right away they notice strange things about what can and can’t be seen depending on the setup. From there, they create an initial Driving Question Board to track their ideas and questions and establish norms for how we’ll work together to figure things out.
As the unit progresses, students manipulate the light in their model: switching the flashlight from one side to the other, making both sides bright, or both sides dark. Each trial leads to new diagrams and refinements in how they represent the path of light from a source to the eye. They log predictions, compare outcomes, and begin noticing important patterns.
Next, we broaden the investigation by testing materials. Students design fair trials using light meters to measure what happens when light hits a one-way mirror sheet, plain glass, and a regular mirror. They collect multiple readings, organize data, and search for consistent trends without yet knowing why they’re different. To make sense of this, they then study short readings and visuals about how mirrors are made at the microscale, updating their models to show how structural differences might explain what they’ve observed.
With new insights in hand, students return to the anchor phenomenon and push their models further. They trace how light might travel between people on both sides of the pane, identify competing light paths, and flag the questions that still remain unresolved. At this point, the storyline zooms in on how we see. Through readings and demonstrations, students model how light entering the eye is focused and sent as signals to the brain. They experiment with lenses to make the focusing step visible, and they practice showing how multiple light inputs to the eye might compete for attention. Models are revised yet again to include these biological pieces of the system.
Our science curriculum comes from OpenSciEd, a national project developed with universities and education organizations to provide high-quality, research-based materials. Each unit is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), created through a state-led effort with leadership from the National Research Council, NSTA, and AAAS, and input from 26 states and thousands of scientists and teachers. Based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education (2012), NGSS emphasizes that science is about figuring out the natural world, not just memorizing facts. This means students learn core content while also practicing the habits of mind and problem-solving skills used by real scientists and engineers.
Please reach out to me with scheduling needs. I will coordinate parent/teacher meetings and 504 meetings. Please let me know if any your students needs more time to process the information we covered in the 8th grade Success Workbook.
Students in Health will be doing the SOS training in October. All 8th graders will be completing a career match assessment in English class mid October.
Mrs. Gattie
What an amazing first few weeks of band and chorus! In band, we have worked at home and have done two practice logs. Students got online to essential elements to make their first recording. Check out their aspen page for any feedback.
In chorus, students did their first rhythm check in on sight reading factory and are well on their way to their third piece of chorus music. They are strongly singing in three part harmony!
Quick reminder that if you have any questions please email me bgattie@sau66.org
Mme Hill
Bienvenue parents to a fabulous 2025/26 year !
Mark your calendar: trip to Québec is May 14-16th 2026. Informational Meeting is Tuesday September 23 @ 6:00PM
It was so nice to meet the students, get back into learning and feel every students energy.
How is school in France different from the US? After the beginning of the year review, students will learn to talk all about school.
Students will also start writing more consistently in their cahier by doing our "Journal Quotidien" (our daily journal).
Studying vocabulary regularly is a good habit to continue. Students have the links to practice in Google Classroom.
Frau Olson
Frau Olson
Herzlich Willkommen zurück! It was so nice to see the students again after vacation. We started out just reviewing some of the basics before we get back into building our German-language foundation.
This year students can look forward to learning more about holidays, food and drink, restaurant etiquette in Germany, daily routines, fitness and health, and city life.
Please take the time to read through the syllabus with your student so that you all can be familiar with the ins and outs of our language classrooms.
*Assignments are posted to Google Classroom (Join code is: xadg2izs), and grades and assignment feedback are posted to Aspen.
REMINDER: If your student is absent from school, please ask them to reach out to me via E-Mail so that we can get them caught up. It is a great habit to get into before high school so that they are in charge of their own learning. If students are absent, I often ask them to come down during HawkTime.
Students should be reviewing new and old vocabulary 10-15 minutes per day.
¡Hola a todos! I am so excited to work with your students this year in Spanish 8! The first day of school (August 27) coincided with La Tomatina, a festival in Buñol, Spain, in which 20,000 people descend on a small town to participate in a food fight, throwing over 120 tons of tomatoes! We studied traditions around this festival, participated in our own "tomato fight" (!), and compared it to festivals in our own state. We talked about what we like to see, eat, and ride at the Hopkinton State Fair. Then, we "visited" a fair in Reynosa, Mexico, and talked about how it is similar to and different from our own fair. We analyzed Mexican-American artist Carmen Lomas Garza's painting of the fair, and we also analyzed ads for the fair from social media. Students read an article (from a Meixcan magazine) on the best/worst places to go on a first date, and they wrote stories about two characters who had a disastrous first date at the fair. At this point, students are able to narrate an entire story in Spain! They can introduce characters, describe their actions, and give dialogue. Students' first summative assessment (on las ferias de Hopkinton y Reynosa) is on September 18.
Families, thank you in advance for your support! It was so nice to see you at "Meet the Teachers" night and I look forward to working together to support your student.
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