Welcome to Science with Mrs. Fischer at Bret Harte Middle School!  This class website is only a tiny part of of how I can communicate with students and families.  Canvas, Canvas Inbox (with students), Parent Square messages (with parents), and the Portal (Infinite Campus) are the main way our teachers communicate with students and families.    The students should already know their username and password for access to these two locations (students should check with their language arts or math teacher if he or she does not yet have this, or let me know and I can get it).

Below I have answers to frequently asked questions.  

Answers to Frequent Questions:

re: helpful links to Google Classroom, Portal and beyond

• Canvas Class link - click HERE 

• Parent Portal link - click HERE

• Bret Harte Webpage link - click HERE

• Google translate (text, or documents)

• Translate web pages (uses Google but am not sure who else would see the data)

• Science Department Home Page department page & Mrs. Fischer's webpage tend to get updated in early August.  Early-August through May, much of our communication will be through Canvas and Parent Square, but that takes a little while to build out & set up.  Occasionally teachers and admin use Infinite Campus to communicate with families, which allows staff to sent out emails and post messages to families, however the main method of 2-way communication is through Parent Square.

re: how do I raise my grade in class?

1. Participate for our full class period, do your best to be there when class starts and use the rubrics for checking your work to make sure it is complete & meeting the objectives.  Edit/adjust your work so it is complete prior to turning it in.  Look back at RECENT assignments (things that were due within last 3 weeks) and re-do things that earned lower than 70%.

2. Avoid multi-tasking - Focus on our class when its class time.  Multi-tasking just doesn't help your grade, nor ability to meet our objectives in Science class.  Having devices out when it's a paper/pencil only assignment, having multiple browser tabs, windows, math workbooks, cell phones/other devices, and/or a personal reading book out, create distractions that will prevent you from learning with us.  

3. If you're unable to be at school due to illness/quarntine/other reason, use Canvas to check our current list of work in Modules and start working!  

4. Follow up on our assignments and complete them ontime!  Playing catch up, while we continue to cover new material is more challenging and at a certain point, I'm done looking back at assignments, because I'm moving on.  In class and on Canvas, I announce last checks with assignments, and after that, I'm done looking back at them.

5. Follow up on our extra credit opportunities when they're offered!  Due dates are firm and if you miss this opportunity, you'll be waiting for the next one!  These also take longer for me to grade; I usually try to complete the grading of the extra credit by the end of the grading period inwhich it was assigned.

re: How can I help my student be prepared for class & feel successful?  

1st:  our daily objectives build upon themselves toward helping students demonstrate their understanding of the larger concepts in the Next Generation Science Standards.   Completing the daily tasks whether at school or at home & following up with questions, will help students feel more successful.  When students have learning to be continued at home, some students may need a quiet environment.  Others need to be in a spot where they know the adult/another family member can see over their shoulder at any point, to help keep them on task.

2nd: Each day, Students should be bringing their Chromebook AND the charger, along with the other supplies are going to be needed.  Cell phones are NOT needed during class time, although they can be useful for submitting a photo of an assignment outside of school hours, students are NOT to be using them during the school day ... check in with your student, have a conversation.  Check their browser history and app/internet usage - it's part of looking out for them and being aware of their activities.  There's a lot on the internet that isn't appropriate for our students, and by being aware of where the sites and apps that they're visiting, opens opportunities for family discussions. 

3rd: Students have repeatedly told me that during last six years, that they are having trouble with distractions.  Many struggle with stamina - the ability to maintain focus for the class period is something that is built over time & takes practice.  Reducing the distractions by doing things like using the district provided Chromebook, minimizing extra tabs, NOT using the computer for games, and staying on the assigned websites, leaving other devices out of their sight while doing classwork/in another room, all help with reducing distractions.  

4th: Follow your student's activities, they need to know that you are checking up on them.  Register as their observer in Canvas.  Or have a regular weekly check in with your student where they show you the previous week's Grades within in Canvas for each class.  Recognize their awesomeness!  Help them figure out ways to over come challenges & reflect on their learning ... let them bounce ideas for how they can improve and/or maintain their own work habits.   Learning to balance six classes is a really big skill for middle school students - asking "what is something you accomplished that you were really proud of this week?" or  "What is something you struggled with?"  ... Just asking and then listening to their responses will give you ideas for how to make small changes in the family routine that can make a big difference for your student.  

re: how to find make up work & the info that was provided during in our class time

I try my best to post the work & links on the day that we had 6th period, by dinner time.  Sometimes there are other meetings or things that must be done that prevents me from meeting that goal.

    1st- Open our Canvas Class .... 

2nd- Click "Modules" (some teachers have their students go to the Calendar, or to announcements or to the assignments list.  I use the Modules list because it organizes the information and I do my best to have it set up to act as a check list!)

3rd- Scroll to the day of the missed class, click the title that matches the class date, and listed below it you'll find the links to our assignments.

re: "I turned it in, can you grade it now?" or "I just turned it in, I don't see a grade" or "I turned it in yesterday but it was late, can you grade it?"

Grading takes time; many assignments take up to 8 hours to get through for all of the submissions.  To be consistent in my grading, I try to grade things at the same time; since I usually only get a large chunk of time to do grading once per week.  When we're in the classroom together, I rarely am able to accomplish the grading, nor planning.  If I am able to grade during the shorter chunks of time, I get distracted easily and might start/stop frequently to check in with students, answer a question from a student, or help sort out a tech challenge.  This is why I try to do a lot of auto-graded assignments.  However there are some assignments, that I need to grade by hand.  These are things like text submissions, and Canvas "discussions" and Canvas "assignments" and Canvas quiz "essay questions".  Whether I am grading in Canvas (or bringing grades in from something like Google Forms or other external tool) takes time as well.  If you submit it after I already checked it (even if it's an ontime submission), it will wait for my next scheduled check of the external tool / assignment.  It takes me at least a week to go through larger assignments that are hand graded (compared to some Canvas and EdPuzzle submissions that are automatically graded).  Also, in general, the grading of resubmissions, late work, and extra credit takes a lot longer.  

Late work that is hand graded, will initially keep the 50% missing score, until I am able to get back into the assignent and regrade it.  There is a certain point (usually once we're in a new grading period) that I stop going back to re-grade the old assignments that are very late. This is a reason why it's important to do your best to complete work ontime.   

re: best way to contact teacher:
            -for parents is through Parent Square   
            -for students through the Inbox in Canvas.

Hearing from students is wonderful and it’s great that they are being a self advocate. 

When students or parents are contacting teachers, please be sure to include student's first and last name and class period in the email, along with any other relevant identifying information; could be inline, or as part of the closing/signature.  This makes it easier for communication & following up since many questions tend to be easier to answer in person (have found many times, there is more info needed, compared to what is provided in the initial email; other times an in person reply is just more efficient).

Also, please title the message in a way that relates to the question or concern ... I get a lot of communications during the week and they can easily get buried.  Due to the high volume of messages, some of the questions will need to wait to be addressed during our Homeroom time (after lunch), or during a class period later in the week. 

re: Classroom Wish List:   if you'd like to donate any of these supplies at any point in the year to the classroom, we'd greatly appreciate any of these: 

• PENCILS and blue pens and red pens

• KLEENEX / tissues for nose wiping (they're more gentle than paper towel)

• paper towels on their roll

• pack(s) of baby wipes

• Swiffer dusters

• Chlorox wipes

• Low/No odor dry erase markers (the Expo pens are pretty great with the thicker tips or chisel tips)

• Sheets/packs of blank labels that can run through the laser printer  (I love the Avery Labels!  They're great for a quick grading rubric on packets of work with multiple things to check.  Incomplete and/or complete packages of labels are much appreciated!  I've found them at thrift stores, and on random sales)

• Packs of colored printer paper that can go through laser printers/copy machines

re: Back to School Night ... scroll to top of this web page for the official Back-to-School Night Fischer Bitmoji Google Slides presentation. 

Next Step(s):

Next step(s): 

→ Sign up as a parent observer for your student(s) in Canvas.  Not sure how to do that?  Here is the database of helpful directions from our district; look for the "How to ... Parent Account" - https://sjusd.app.box.com/s/4vj722obza4gh39l7wz1j6g2k1279ljt 

→ Syllabus and electronic agreement form will be distributed next week (by email & within Canvas)

re: Extra credit opportunities: Students may do additional research on approved topics from class each grading period to earn a few extra credit points.  This additional research does NOT make up for work missed in class and it should only be done after students have reviewed class work and completed their regular assignments.  This is due 1 week before the end of the grading period, or it will not be entered in that grading period.  When entered in Portal (the grade book), extra credit is entered as a points earned out of zero points possible.  The extra credit is added to the total score for the class (in other words, I use total points, rather than weighted categories). 

re: the retake assignment that must be completed pror to retaking a Unit Test/ other major assessment, is avialble ONLY if the first attempt is less than 80%.  The maximum score for the retake/retest is 80% & must be completed within 2 weeks of the Unit Test, and will only be offered after the student completes a WIGWAY (What I got Wrong and Why).  It is a chance for students to identify what went wrong in their understanding of the question / the information, 

re: Grades in Canvas  (I'm working on these and still figuring out all of the settings.  Canvas talks to Portal, however it takes time and assignments from external tools don't synch in the same way over to Portal.  As a result, Canvas ALWAYS has the most up-to-date grade & detailed assignment information)

re: Portal (Infinite Campus/IC) and when it was last updated.  

All grades are being entered into Canvas.  Periodically I create a place holder assignment that will synch over to Portal (Infinite Campus/IC) with the student's percent in our course as of the specified date.  Usually, I do this about a week or two before the grading period ends, and also at the end of the grading period (so up to 6 times per semester).  Since Portal lags behind Canvas for the general percent in the course, be sure to use Canvas when looking for the most up-to-date grades for your student(s).

Also when viewing the information on a narrow device's screen, it may have to be rotated 90 degrees for more of the description to show up.  

Students have reported that the Canvas App for mobile devices have some very nice features that are not available on the Canvas website.  The Canvas website also has some features that are not on the Canvas App.

re: About Mrs. Fischer

I started teaching in 2002, and have been teaching Science at Bret Harte since 2007.   Since joining SJUSD in 2003, I have taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Science courses under the older standards as well as with the NGSS standards.  Through University of San Francisco, I completed course work that allowed me to earn my CLEAR CLAD Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential with supplemental authorizations in Science and Math.  Prior to that I earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies for Teachers with a minor in Mathematics through San Jose State University.  I also attended Sonoma State University, and College of San Mateo, and have taken continuing education courses through Stanford University and at San Jose State.  I come from a long line of teachers; I'm the 4th generation in my family teaching in California, with additional (earlier) generations teaching out of state as well.  

I became a middle school science teacher for a few reasons, most of which center around having educators that both encouraged me to establish better study & organization habits while I was in middle school.  Building these skills in my students, along with a personal preference for Science, led me to to SJUSD.  I enjoy working with students as we learn from each other.  I  look forward to a fantastic year!