Post date: Sep 30, 2018 3:06:18 PM
The following messages were sent to parents/guardians via ParentVUE:
Sat. 9/15
I know I emailed last week saying I'd send out weekly updates at the end of each week, but this week I'm emailing to let everyone know that the update will be delayed and I will be unavailable for a bit due to a death in the family yesterday. I'd planned to start inputting grades and such this weekend and promise to get that started as soon as possible, but all students are currently in good academic standing. I have an amazing team of teachers I work with at EDMS who have already jumped in to make sure my classes are all taken care of this week, but if you need to contact me for anything, please know that I'll get back to you once I am able.
Tues. 9/25
First, I'd like to thank everyone for their patience with updates and thank you as well to those who sent messages of condolence last week. I've returned to work this week and I'm working to catch back up and get back into the routine we'd established before I was out. I've added all the grades for the first unit and will start inputting grades for the second unit the students wrapped up while I was out as well as the new grades for the unit we started this week. As I told the kids, anything currently marked as missing or incomplete in the gradebook can still be turned in through this Friday without penalty.
After this week, late work will only be accepted with a "late fee" applied, the "fee" coming from the Liberty Points you should notice listed in the gradebook as well. The Liberty Points are part of my ongoing consumer math work and though they are listed in the gradebook, they are not calculated as part of the grade. Students receive 100 Liberty Points at the beginning of each term and they will not receive additional points until the start of the next term. I've encouraged the students to monitor their point spending the same way adults would need to monitor their money spending; if they spend all of their points on late work, they might not have points to spend on something like test corrections to improve their grade later in the term. There's a second point system (Lambie Points) that can also be used, but students start with zero of those. Lambie Points can be earned at any point and for a variety of things (ex. good behavior, completing certain extra practice assignments, donating class supplies). There are some additional details on the two point systems and how they can be spent here on my class website.
Again, thank you for your patience with updates. I promise I'm normally much faster with posting grades and you shouldn't have to wait as long in the future. Please let me know if you have any questions.