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Welcome to 7th grade Texas History and the 2023-24 School Year!

First things first! Dear students, parents & Guardians, please bookmark this website.

This is the place to go if you need easy access to basic classroom information and what's happening this week in Texas History. This includes our weekly cattle drive newsletter, the syllabus, links to our digital tools, cool stuff about Texas or if you just want to get to know Ms. Oricchio and Mr. Young a little better.

If you would like to download a hard copy of this year's syllabus, click here.

Ms. Oricchio and Mr. Young strongly believe in creating as many hands-on, experiential learning opportunities as possible (that's a educational talk for projects, games, creative performance, and crafts). This requires quite a bit of gear, some of it kind of silly. If you would like to help us supply this effort, we have an Amazon Wishlist that also includes the basic startup classroom supplies (like tissues and cleansers, etc.). If you are not an Amazon fan, no worries. Any brand from any store is just fine!. This is for the entire 7th grade serving about 350 kids from August to May. So yep, the needs are pretty great! Thanks in advance.

The Weekly Cattle Drive (Agenda items, Classroom announcements)

Ms. Oricchio

Yup, that's me! I didn't grow up to be a cowgirl, but I did grow up to be your Texas History teacher - the next best thing! (click for more)

Mr. Young

is painfully shy and hasn't given Ms. Oricchio a picture or a bio yet. #busted

Here's what I know though. Mr. Young got his start as the lead in the big Texas musical they perform nightly out at Palo Duro Canyon. From there he worked for a special governor's task force investigating chupacabra sightings around the state.

All of which became kind of boring and Mr. Young finds it much more exciting teaching Texas history here at Kelly Lane. This bio stands until he sends me a real one.

(click for more) Don't bother, right now there isn't more. But honestly, he's a great guy and an amazing teacher and thrilled to be working with his students this year.