Weekly Memo - Fall has begun

As of 4:44PM yesterday afternoon, we are officially in the Fall Season. We are only about 100 days away from Christmas, and only a few weeks away from our first report card and Fall Break. So much to do, so little time.

This week, we continue with Read 180. In my 6th and 7th Grade classes, we'll finish up reading about Irene Rodriguez, and move on to finding out about the US Census and how it keeps track of new immigrants to the United States. While in 8th Grade, we continue to read about self-esteem and peer pressure and how it effects people differently.

For schoolwide news, this is Homecoming Week. If you're visiting the school today, you might see some interesting hats or hairstyles, but that's all in keeping with today's theme of Crazy Hat and Hair Day. Tomorrow is Nerd Day, Wednesday is School Colors Day (Maroon and Gray) plus a Pep Rally, plus the Homecoming Game against Carver, Thursday is Old School Day, and Friday is Homecoming T-Shirt Day, plus the Homecoming Dance that evening.

It is going to be a busy week to be sure.

Hope it's a good one for everyone.

Weekly Memo - Late, Sorry

I know, I know. I'm late.

Sorry. It's been a very busy week.

This week, all of my classes continued with the Read 180 Program. The new students to the program are getting the hang of it, and the veteran students are getting back into the swing of it, so things are moving along very smoothly for all.

I must continue to stress the importance of being well-behaved in class. Several parts of Read 180 are timed, so when I have to stop to deal with discipline matters, it hurts everyone in the class as a result. So please talk to your child in order to insure that they behave appropriately in all their classes.

In my 6th and 7th Grade classes, students read about Freddy Adu, a future soccer phenom who chose to stay in school rather than accept a six figure contract to play professional soccer. Then we found out about Irene Rodriguez, who had difficulties fitting in when she moved from Mexico to Los Angeles. We'll continue with her story as we head in to next week.

In my 8th Grade classes, students read the tragic story of Eric Alverez, who was pressured by his friends to climb on top of a moving subway car, which lead to his death. In our second reading, we start to learn ways to prevent low self-esteem in both themselves and others.

In school news, unfortunately we came up short against Rehobeth in yesterday's football game, although it was a close game, right down to the end.

Next week is Homecoming Week, so if your child asks to wear a crazy hat or dress-up like a nerd, it might just be for Homecoming Week. They were sent a letter home with all the upcoming events next week, which include the Homecoming Game on Wednesday and the Homecoming Dance on Friday.

That's all I have for you this week. I will do my absolute best to get the memo out on time for next week!

Weekly Memo - Read 180 Begins

We have finally begun Read 180 in all the classes. Sixth and Seventh Grade classes will start in Workshop 1 - The New Americans, while my Eighth Grade classes will begin with Workshop 5 - Under Pressure. The first two days will be Whole Group as we preview the sections and get down the Vocabulary, and we will begin Rotations on Wednesday.

Friday, I will not be here, as I have a training that I must attend to, however, Read 180 will not be deterred, as students will continue with their rotations, and continue to work hard on their assignments.

Due to me not being here on Friday, I will be handing out my Progress Reports on Wednesday, and they will be due back on Thursday signed. All other classes will still give theirs out on Thursday. I'm just doing them a day early to make sure I'm here to collect them.

This Thursday is Curriculum Night, from 6PM - 7:30PM. If you want to know what's going on in your child's classroom, this is the perfect opportunity for you to find out. Hope to see you all there.

Friday will be Hat Day for students with Cougar Coupons. Friday morning students will be able to use their Cougar Coupons to buy a sticker in order to wear a hat that day. I'm unsure on how many Cougar Coupons are needed to purchase the sticker, but as soon as I know, I will post it on here.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Week 1: First Week of School

The first week of school has been great so far, and we've already hit the ground running.

We've reviewed the handbook!
We've already received two homework grades!
One participation grade and one classwork grade!
And today we began our first project grade!

The project is to motivate people to read! They could create a poster, write a song/rap, or write a poem dealing with motivating students to read. They watched a music video doing the exact same thing in class, and they saw several posters hanging in the classroom as examples.

If they do not finish them in class, they can bring them home to work on. Tomorrow when they come to class they will present their projects. They are being graded on creativity, presentation, and following directions.

Also tomorrow, students will participate in a school PBIS Kick Off Pep Rally in the afternoon, so make sure you ask them all about what they learned in it!

Welcome Back

Ladies and gentlemen, it is officially the first day of school. Welcome back everyone, and I hope you have a very good first day back.

Open House

Thank you to all the parents who came out and visited everyone at yesterday's Open House. It was a huge success.

Monday is the day. The first day of school, ready or not, here it comes.

See everyone on Monday!

A Couple of Reminders

Just a few things I wanted to remind everyone of:

1) We will be going to the Book Fair on Friday during class, so make sure you bring your money. If you see something you like, but don't have enough money for it, I will be happy to send you back to the library with a pass on Monday or Tuesday of next week so you can purchase it.

2) The last day for grades on this 9-week period is this Friday, so all grades taken this week will go toward the report card. Report cards will be sent home next Thursday.

3) Want to see a comet? A comet called  C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS is visible in the night sky just after sunset. Look to the west, where the sun sets, and find the moon. If you look around it, starting to the left, and gradually going above it as we get further into the month, you will see a white light that looks like it has a little streak coming off of it. That is the comet. See it while you can, because it will get dimmer when we get closer to the end of March.

Get Infinite Campus Access Code & Activate Account

This is the directions for all the parents who want to be able to access their child's gradebook:

1. Go to www.spalding.k12.ga.us
2. Click on Infinite Campus Parent Portal - on the left hand side at the bottom.
3. Under District Notes: If you do not have your activation key, please click the link below. (click on the link below)
4. You will type in the student's social security number and date of birth.
5. It will give you your activation code.
6. Print off your activation code.
7. Click on the link to create your username and password.

Make-up Work Update

As I have been telling students all week, today is the last day to make-up work for the first 4 1/2 weeks of school. For any work made-up at this point, the highest grade they can receive is a 70 (basically 30 points off their grade). Students with several make-up assignments to make-up, have been told they could start their make-up work today after school, and I will extend their make-up period of time into next week, to allow them time to finish up all their assignments.

Very few classwork assignments, quizzes, or tests can be taken home to complete and students will need to make arrangements to stay after school or come early in order to make-up these assignments.

For homework assignments, students missing these assignments can visit the blog and make the assignments up, however, the same rules will apply to the make-up work.

At all times, it is the student's responsibility to request make-up work.

Progress Reports

Just a reminder. Progress Reports for all classes are being sent home today. They will need to be signed and returned tomorrow.

We are the champions!!!

We did it! Last night, the Lady Cougars beat Carver Road Middle to become not only the City Champions, but the Regional Champions. It was a nailbiter of a game, but when it came down to it, we pulled out the victory.Check out the pictures below for all the action!
Photos of the Game

Team Progress Reports

Just letting everyone know that the 7th Grade team sent home team progress reports today in all of our students' homerooms. They will need to be signed and returned tomorrow.

Weekly Memo

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. I think I am finally over whatever sickness I had last week and back at full energy this week. A little weekend trip to Tybee Island for some rest and relaxation, and I am ready to go this week.

For such a short week, we have a lot of stuff going on. Tomorrow (Wednesday), the 8th graders will be taking the 8th Grade Writing Exam, while both the 7th and 6th graders will be participating in practice writing exams. They will be spending the majority of their morning in their first period classes, so I won't see my 2nd or 3rd period classes tomorrow.

On Thursday, we will be taking school pictures in the morning. These are the photos that will be appearing in our yearbook, so dress up nice for your photos.

Finally, on Friday, we will have Club Day, which means we'll have an altered schedule through-out the day. Not only will we be having Club Day, but we'll be taking Club pictures as well, so make sure you keep enough of your smile from Thursday for Friday's pictures as well.

In class, my 1st and 6th Period classes will be reading the story "I am Native North America," while in 2nd and 3rd we will be continuing our Natural Disasters unit with "Hurricanes: The Monster Storms."

To finish things off, I'd like to share two opportunities with everyone:

1) Calling All Students in Grades 4-8!

Now in its 17th year, the Breaking Barriers Essay Contest is a chance for students from all backgrounds to share their personal stories and how they have used Jackie Robinson’s values to face their own barriers.

Entries for this year’s contest are due March 14, 2013.

Click the link for more information.
http://link.scholastic.com/u.d?YYGjHp015vSrFD8fgJVtv=2771&s=1459551&ym_2rid=9001021


2) The United States Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol Squadron, of the Southern Crescent, will host a
Telescope Night on February 9, 2013. The public is invited.

Griffin, GA -- The Griffin Composite Squadron will be hosting a Public Telescope Night, in conjunction with
the Flint River Astronomy Club, to provide the community a glimpse into the vastness, and wonder, of space.

We will have numerous telescopes, from 6 inches to 18 inches, providing views of distant galaxies, nebula,
globular clusters, as well as the planets.

The Telescope Night is free of charge and open to the public of all ages. Our Civil Air Patrol squadron serves young people and adults from Clayton, Henry, Spalding, Pike, Lamar, Fayette and Butts counties. We invite everyone to come out, enjoy the wonders of space, and have a fun, family evening with our squadron.

In addition, there will be detailed information provided about our CAP squadron and the many activities and
lifelong benefits that young people and adults gain from this program. There will be information about the
National Cadet Special Activities, Annual Encampments, Aerospace and Emergency Services. Our squadron also features activities and involvement for Adult CAP Members' children, from 8 - 11 years old.

The Telescope Night will run from 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM on Saturday February 9, 2013. We will be meeting at our “home base” at the Griffin-Spalding Airport at 6:30, and then proceed to the telescope viewing area.
Additional information about this event, including a map to our facility can be found on our web page at:

www.griffincap.org

Well...

Remember on my last news update where I said we would be testing my 1st and 6th Period classes to determine their Reading Lexiles? Well, that has been postponed until later in the month, so we are busily reading "The Noble Experiment" as scheduled.

Odds and Ends News

A couple of things came up today, so rather than editing my Weekly Memo, I'll just post about it in a new post.

Kennedy Road Middle School Yearbooks are now on sale. They are $32. All students were sent home with a pink piece of paper with the information on them. On the paperwork, it says that Yearbooks are $35, but this was an error and students have been directed to change it to $32. Make checks payable to Kennedy Road Middle.

In my 1st and 6th Literature classes, we will still be starting "A Noble Experiment," however, something has been added to the weekly tasks. Starting on Wednesday, students will take the Student Reading Inventory (SRI), which will tell us what each students' reading lexile is. This will not be a graded assignment, however, please encourage your children to do their very best on it.

And finally, there will be two basketball games this week: an away game in Pike County on Wednesday, and a home game against Cowan Road on Friday. Both games will start at 5PM, so come out and support your Cougars!

Weekly Memo #2

Coming back after a long break like Christmas, you never know how things are going to go, but our first two days back went off with very little hitch. I hope our first full week back goes just as smoothly.

Last week there were three grades: a supply check was taken on Friday for a Homework grade, while Sponges were collected on Friday for a Classwork grade, followed by another Classwork grade for their Civil Rights Bookmarks. If a student was absent these two days, they have until Wednesday to turn in their make-up work to get credit for it. Please remember, it is the students' responsibility to ask about make-up work.

This week, we are starting with STEEP testing on Monday and Tuesday. Monday will be the Math portion of the test, and it should be confined to first period, where as Tuesday will be Reading. 

In my 1st and 6th Period Literature classes, students will be starting the short story "The Noble Experiment" by Jackie Robinson as told by Alfred Duckett. It is a first person account of Jackie Robinson's start in major league baseball.

In my 2nd and 3rd Period Read 180 classes, students will once again begin the Read 180 program again, continuing where we left off in the Forces of Nature section with the story "A Mountain on Fire."

This week our online homework begins again with the CRCT Practice questions. It is due Friday by the end of the day.

If you ever have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at robert.chauncey@gscs.org and I will answer you as soon as possible. Also remember to get updates sent straight to your e-mail, plug in your e-mail into the box under Follow by E-mail.

Weekly Memo - Welcome Back

To start things off, I would like to welcome everyone back. I hope everyone enjoyed their break and are ready to start 2013 off right. As you can tell, the blog is currently undergoing some renovations, so expect changes here and there over the next few weeks.

One change is I will start doing weekly memos on here so to better inform everyone about what is going on in class on a weekly basis, so if you want to know when I add content to the blog, make sure you Join This Site. The information for doing so can be found under the Followers tab toward the bottom of the right hand column. You can also subscribe to it through your e-mail by submitting your e-mail address on the right of the page.

A brand new feature of the blog is our Forum. Up at the top tab, if you click Forum, it will take you to a message board. Students will have to register, but it will be a great way to ask questions after school hours or during weekends, or anytime when you can think about it. We will also have discussions on there that students will eventually have to respond to in order to meet some assignment criteria.

The Literature Challenges will change into CRCT Practice Questions starting Monday. Like the Literature Challenges, the CRCT Practice Questions are given every Monday and will be due by the end of the day on Friday. Students without access to the internet may come to the classroom during bus dismissal time, provided they receive permission from their 7th Period teacher to do so. Any student that comes to the class without permission from their teacher will not be allowed to come back during this time.

With this being a short week, both my Literature and Read 180 classes will be doing the same thing. Students read a biography of one of the following civil rights leaders (Medgar Evers, Mary Mcleod Bethune, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Linda Brown, or John Brown) and then answer several questions on their person. Tomorrow, they will take that information and create a bookmark using the information they wrote down. As a part of their assignment, students are required to bring either color pencils or crayons tomorrow to class. These are items that are already part of their supply list for the year, so they should already have it.

That's all for this first installment. I hope everyone has a good week back!

Red Ribbon Week

Next week kicks off Red Ribbon Week. Every day is something special to celebrity being drug free!

Monday, October 29, 2012 - Red Ribbon Kick Off (Wear Red)
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - "Sock it to drugs" (Wear crazy socks)
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - "Be a star and stay away from drugs" (Dress like a celebrity)
Thursday, November 1, 2012 - "Friends don't let friends do drugs" (Twin Day)
Friday, November 2, 2012 - "It's tacky to do drugs" (Dress tacky)   

Homecoming Week

This week is Kennedy Road's Homecoming. To celebrate, we will have several events during the week. Monday - Crazy Hat / Hair Day Tuesday - Senior Citizen Day / Powder Puff Game Wednesday - Homecoming Pep Rally, Homecoming Parade, and Homecoming Football Game Thursday - Old School Day Friday - Pink Out Day, Homecoming Dance

Media Center

Tomorrow, we are going to the media center!