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!

Weekly Memo: Friday Eve!

Sorry for coming to you late this week with my Weekly Memo, as it has been a very busy week for everyone.

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day Weekend. I know I did. A busy one, to be true, but a good one.

On our first day back, students began the I-Steep Testing for Reading Fluency and Comprehension in the morning, and finished them out in their Math Classes on Wednesday. I-Steep is testing their basic skills in both Reading and Math, and can be used to determine if any interventions are necessary for students.

In more school news, the Cougars defeated Pike County in football yesterday, but unfortunately, our Lady Cougars loss to Carver Road in softball on Tuesday. They get another opportunity for victory this afternoon against Cowan Road at KRMS.

Students also received their pictures today from Picture Day. Hope everyone's photo turned out great.

Next Thursday is Progress Report Day, so all students should be coming home with Progress Reports from all of their classes. Please make sure they are signed and returned the next day.

In class this week, students in my 2nd, 5th, and 6th Period classes are working on their Newspaper Comprehension Project, where they have to read several issues of the Griffin Daily News, and create their own newspaper from the articles they read. All articles must be summarized in their own words. They received directions on this project at the end of last week, as well as a rubric for the project. It is an in class project, so they have not needed to bring anything home for it. It is due tomorrow by the end of class. This will count as three grades (2 - Daily Grades, 1 - Test Grade), and the grades will be on their Progress Reports next week.

Students in my 4th & 7th Period Class will be doing Comprehension Lessons of a different sort in class, using "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe. They will see three different versions of the story: print, audio, and video, and compare and contrast the different type of ways it was told, and how things were different in each of the versions.

That's all I have for everyone, so I hope everyone continues to have a good week (even if it is only one day left).

Weekly Memo: Week 3

We have entered the third week of school, and to celebrate, we all get a three day weekend this weekend, as it is Labor Day. For those of you who don't know what Labor Day is, or why we celebrate it, here is a brief article that explains why we celebrate Labor Day.

The History of Labor Day

This week, the students in my 2nd, 5th, and 6th Period classes, will be finishing up their Mini-Book Report Podcasts on Wednesday, while 4th and 7th Period finished this project on Friday. If you check the post right below this one, you will be able to listen to their projects, and they did a good job.

Seeing 4th and 7th Period finished their podcasts last week, this week they will be switching to a visual project, as they will have to take a copy of the Griffin Daily News and turn it into a complete newscast that they will film on Friday. This newscast will be accurate, right down to a commercial, taken from the advertisements found in the paper. The other classes will start this after they finish the Podcasts.

Just a reminder, the Remind 101 contest is still going on. Students and parents have until this Friday to sign-up for Remind 101, and the class that has the highest percentage will win a prize. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here for all the information about Remind 101. Here are the standings so far:

2nd Period - 3%, 3rd Period - 22%, 4th Period - 25%, 5th Period - 0%, 6th Period - 0%, 7th Period - 31%

So if the game ended today, 7th Period would win. But the game doesn't end today. The deadline is Friday. Get those numbers in!

Today, the Lady Cougars play their first game of the season, thanks to a rain out last week. They will play Upson-Lee at home today. And our Cougar Football team will play an away game against Manchester tomorrow, so GO COUGARS!

Everyone have a good week and a good Labor Day!

Weekly Memo: Week 2

It is Week 2 of the school year.

I started posting my Weekly Memo last week, but never fully introduced what it does. The Weekly Memo gives a basic run down on the stuff that will be happening in and out of the class for that week, so if you want to stay up to date on the class, this is the entry to read on a weekly basis.

This week we are doing Benchmark testing to see what the students remember from last year and just to see what they already know for this year. Today and tomorrow, testing will be done in 2nd Period and 5th Period, but will be in extended class sessions, so your students won't see their 3rd or 6th Period teachers during these days. Today, students took Language Arts and Reading Benchmark Tests, while tomorrow they will take Math and Science. On Wednesday, students will complete their testing in 1st Period (Social Studies), and will allow for any make-up testing to be completed in the afternoon, starting in 5th Period.

It is very important for students to do their very best on these, as the data learned through them will be very beneficial for their teachers in planning this upcoming year.

In other news, when we aren't doing Benchmark testing, my classes will be completing their first group project, where they will be doing Mini-Book Report Podcasts. The following is just one example of the type of podcast they can do with the books.



Don't worry. The books they are having to do the Mini-Book Reports on are picture books that many of them read when they were children. This is merely a simple activity that will give them an idea on how to do podcasts for books, as it is something they will have to do later on in class.

More than likely we will be starting the Read 180 Program next week, as we are still waiting for all the bugs to be worked out from the program before we get started.

This Saturday is the football Jamboree! Thanks to rain this past weekend, it got rescheduled to this weekend, so make sure you come out and support the Cougars! The games will be this Saturday at Memorial Stadium. GO COUGARS!!!

Speaking of "Go Cougars," the Lady Cougars Softball Team will be having their first game tomorrow (August 20th), so good luck to them on the start of their season.

That's all I have for you, so have a good week everyone.

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!

Weekly Memo - Brought to you by the number 15

We are just 15 days away from the end of the year. I understand that we are all very excited about the end of the year, but we still have work to do. Please make sure you continue to stress the importance of your children's work to them on a daily basis.

This week, in Literature (1st & 6th Period), we will finish reading "Lose Now, Pay Later" by Carol Farley. This fun little sci-fi story continues our theme of things that are not as they seem to be. When they get home, make sure you ask them to tell you what the story is about. Through-out this week, we will be doing various activities that go with the story.

In my Read 180 classes (2nd & 3rd Period), we will nearly finish up Workshop 4: Stolen Childhood. We will continue both Whole Group and Rotations through-out the rest of this week.

Everyone has their home due this week on Friday, which is Literature Challenge #18. This will be the final homework assignment for the year, so make sure that they complete this before Friday.

This Friday, students who meet certain requirements (passed all 5 subject areas on the CRCT, no Discipline Referrals, no unexcused absences, and no tardies) will get to participate in the CRCT Celebration. With everything that I know about it, it sounds like it will be most enjoyable, and I am very jealous that I won't get to have fun with those deserving students.

Next week is Olympic Week! The three countries are South Korea, Sweden, and the future winning country, Zambia (can you tell which country I am?). My homeroom has been told this, but I'm going to reiterate it on here. Now this only applies to students in my homeroom, but if students have a behavior issue this week, they will be removed from Olympic week events that they signed up for, so if they want to participate, they will have to behave this week. Despite my joke earlier, next week isn't about winning or losing, it's about having fun, and that's what we plan on doing: having fun, so I hope everyone comes with that goal in mind.

Back from Spring Break (Weekly Memo)

So here we are again, once again back in school after a nice little break. CRCT is over, and we are just a few weeks until the end of the school year. Of course that means we're going to have fun and games the rest of the year?

Unfortunately, not. Classes continue. Grades continue. School continues! This is not the time for students to relax, as we still have several weeks until the final grades are finished.

This week we have quite a few things going on. On Wednesday and Thursday, all students will be partaking in ISTEEP testing. This will be the final ISTEEP testing for the year.

Wednesday was supposed to be our final check-out day in the Media Center, however, due to the ISTEEP testing, for the morning classes, we will have to postpone those until Thursday. My 6th Period class will go as normal to the Media Center. This will not result in a late fee, provided they return their books by Thursday. Any other time after that, they will be subject to a late fee. (This also only works if their book is due tomorrow).

On Thursday, students will also receive their Academic Progress Reports. They will need to have these signed and returned the next day for all their teachers. In my class, students will receive a grade for returning it signed. If they do not return it signed, their grade will be a "0".

In my Literature classes (1st and 6th Period), we began reading a short science fiction story called "Lose Now, Pay Later." This will continue into next week.

In my Read 180 classes (2nd and 3rd Period), we continued with our Stolen Childhood Workshop by starting Reading 3. This will continue into next week, as we begin to prepare for the final test for the Workshop.

If you haven't seen the photos from our field trip to Atlanta, you really should check them out. They are a couple of posts down, so make sure you look at them. Both the students and teachers had a blast going, and it really was a fun time for all. If you want to get a good reaction from them, just ask those that went "How did the Beverly taste at the World of Coke?"

Weekly Memo: CRCT Aftermath

This is what happens after the CRCT. Teachers and students alike are exhausted, which is why I'm just posting my weekly memo now.

For the most part, students took the CRCT seriously and tried their best. Now it's just the waiting game to see how they did. Luckily, we shouldn't have to wait too long, as we should get them back around the 2nd week in May (but don't quote me on that). Now, students probably won't get a copy of them until later in the year, but as teachers we should know something around then.

This week students have been working on a poetry project that is due today. This has been an in class individual project where they had to write examples of 5 different types of poems: limericks, haikus, cinquains, acrostic, and freeverse. From the poems I've been approving this week, some students are very gifted budding poets, and I can't wait to see the finished products. This is worth two project grades.

For those parents who are anticipating the progress reports being sent home today, they are being postponed. Due to the field trip and then Spring Break right after that, it will be next to impossible to get signed progress reports back from students, so as a compromise, students will come home with their Progress Reports at the beginning of the week after Spring Break. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Remember, if you need to know what your student's current grade is in any class, you can go online to Infinite Campus 24/7.

Speaking of the Field Trip, we leave tomorrow morning, bright and early! It is supposed to be raining all day though, so that does put a damper on things. The plus side is that it looks like the severe weather that was potentially rolling in, might not be happening after all. (keep your fingers crossed). However, it is supposed to be very wet, so make sure everyone dresses appropriately for the weather. If you have a poncho, it might not be such a bad idea to bring it.

Our schedule is supposed to take us to the CNN Center, the Georgia Dome, The Varsity for lunch, then over to the Georgia Aquarium, and finally ending at the World of Coke! I am very excited to be going with them for the second year in a row. Expect lots and lots of photos afterwards, as I will be taking a ton of photos of our trip.

And finally, who could forget that Spring Break is next week. Actually, several people from the questions from my students over the last few days. Well, it is. Spring Break will be all next week. Catch up on your sleep. Relax. And most importantly, have fun, and be ready to come back Monday, April 29th, ready to finish out the year!

PS Remember, our final book report project of the year will be due Wednesday, May 1st, which is the Wednesday we return from Spring Break. This is a major grade, so make sure everyone gets it done and makes it good!

Bring it on! - Weekly Memo (CRCT)

All the practice. All the classwork. All the homework. All the quizzes, tests, and projects. All of it has lead to this. Starting tomorrow, we will begin our CRCT, and we are starting off with my very subject, Reading!!!

The CRCT Schedule will be as follows:

Tuesday - Reading
Wednesday - Language Arts
Thursday - Math
Friday - Science
Monday - Social Studies

Due to the CRCT, this week's homework, for every night, will be to get a good night's sleep and to get a good breakfast every morning, two vital things in order to get the brain working at it's maximum effort!

I cannot stress enough how important it is for all students to be in attendance and at school on time.

Despite the fact that it is CRCT time, we will still be coming to class every day, although it will be on an altered schedule. In my 1st and 6th Period class on Tuesday, we will finish up "The Revolt of the Evil Fairies" with a culminating activity on the short story. The remainder of the week, and into next, will be spent on an in class poetry project.

In 2nd and 3rd Period, it will be business as usual, as we continue with Workshop 4: Stolen Childhoods in Read 180.

Good luck to everyone this week on their tests!!!

Weekly Memo

We are officially one week away from the CRCT. On Tuesday of next week, students will take the Reading portion of the CRCT. This will be followed up by Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. It is very important for all students to attend these days, so if you have to make appointments for students, try to make them in the afternoon, so they can be here to take their tests.

Today, the entire system, along with the entire state, will conduct the first ever State-wide Lockdown Drill. Over the past week, we have conducted a few practice drills in our school, so I believe the majority of students are prepared for the drill today. Ask your students how they did when they get home.

This week in 1st and 6th Period classes, we will start a new story, "The Revolt of the Evil Fairies" by Ted Poston. This story is not as long as "The Smallest Dragonboy," so we should be finished with it by the end of next week.

In 2nd and 3rd Period, we continue with Workshop 4 - Stolen Childhoods.

On Friday, we will have our final Flashback Friday, where we review problem areas heading into the CRCT. This will be done in all classes.

This week, we will also be giving out Team Progress Reports, so be on the look-out for them.

Remember to have your students work on Study Island. This is a great practice for skills they have struggled on heading into the CRCT, not just for Reading, but for all their subject areas!

Weekly Memo

Sorry I'm coming to you midweek with this, but it has been a very busy week, and it's only half over. This week officially began the final 9 weeks of the year. Last week, students received their report cards. Hopefully it was good news. If not, students have one more 9 weeks to pull grades up before the end of the year.

Today, all classes will be visiting the Media Center for book check-out. This book check-out will be for their final Book Report Project, and the requirement is to read something like they haven't read all year. Something out of their comfort zone, so to speak. After going to the library, they will receive their paperwork that discusses the project. This paper must be signed and returned by Friday. On Monday, all students that have brought back their signed project paper will receive more detailed instructions on their project.

On Thursday, I will not be in class due to a meeting that will take place all day. A member of the Traveling team of subs will be in class instead. Due to this, I will be switching my Thursday and Friday lesson plans, so Thursday will turn into "Throwback" Thursday, where students will be working in their groups out of the Literature Coach Books to help review areas they have struggled with heading into the CRCT, which is in less than two weeks time.

In my Literature classes (1st and 6th Period), we worked on a culminating group project on "The Smallest Dragonboy" by Anne McCaffrey, which we finished reading last week. This project was completed on Monday and Tuesday and will count as two project grades. On Friday, we will have our test over "The Smallest Dragonboy." It will be completed using a Scantron (bubble sheet), so all students will need to remember to bring a pencil to class in order to complete the test.

In my Read 180 classes (2nd and 3rd), we started a new workshop, Workshop 4: Stolen Childhoods, which goes into depth about childhood labor in different parts of the world. It is a very serious subject, and so far, the students have been doing really well with it, giving great answers and coming up with good questions concerning the unit.

Yesterday, we conducted a practice Lockdown drill, and for all intense purposes, students did really well. Like Fire and Tornado Drills, this is something that schools will start to practice, because if anything were to happen, we want the students to be as prepared as possible to remain safe. Please talk to your children about this and tell them that they must follow the directions precisely and remain silent during the drills.

I hope everyone continues to have a good week, and I'm going to end with a shout-out to two students who are currently sick and will be out for the remainder of the week. Eric and Megan - get well soon!

Weekly Memo

Running a bit late this week with my Weekly Memo, but better late than never.

Did anyone get a chance to see the comet last week? I didn't. I followed all the instructions of how to spot it, and I still didn't see it. I guess where I live, the trees block most of the view to the west, so we weren't high enough or flat enough to see over them. Oh well, there's another one coming toward the end of the year that, while not as bright, is supposed to be more visible.

Now, on to class related stuff. This week students will receive their Report Cards on Thursday. If they have a fine of some kind, they will not receive one. For me, Report Cards do not have to be signed and returned, but some teachers do require this, so make sure you ask your child if their teacher is requiring it to be brought back signed.

Due to the schedule, we will not be going to the Media Center this week. Our regularly scheduled Media Center time is next week, so we will just continue the schedule then. This will also be when they receive information for their new book report project, the final one of the year.

In my 1st and 6th Period classes, we will continue reading "The Smallest Dragonboy" by Anne McCaffrey. We will have several activities along with it, so there is many opportunities to receive good grades this week.

In my 2nd and 3rd Period classes, we will finish up Workshop 3 of our unit. This will lead to a test on Thursday over both the vocabulary and comprehension of the unit.

In all of my classes, homework is to complete the CRCT Practice #8, found on this blog, by Friday, and to continue to work in Study Island. I am assigning Practice Tests for areas that students have shown a weakness in. If a student does not score an 80 or higher on the practice test, they will be assigned additional support in that area. Students will need to log in to Study Island on a regular basis (2-3 times a week) to keep checking for more material.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Weekly Memo - Back to Normal

Good morning!

We have finished up the last of our benchmark tests and are back to a normal schedule this week. Due to the fact that last week's schedule was so crazy, I've extended last week's CRCT Practice #6's deadline until tomorrow, so if you didn't get it done last week, you have two more days to do so.

This week we are picking up where we left off last week.

In 1st and 6th Period, we continue reading Ann McCaffrey's "The Smallest Dragonboy," and in 2nd and 3rd Period, we finish up "Lousia, Please Come Home" by Shirley Jackson and read a couple of poems that deal with the theme of identity.

CRCT Practice #7 is already online and the due date for that will be this Friday. Also, students need to log on to Study Island (instructions are posted in the last two memos) for additional assignments. Any practice tests that are assigned to the class are in areas of weakness heading into the CRCT. The first practice test is due by this Saturday and it covers Conflict. Both of these assignments are for all of my classes.

Starting Wednesday, the Media Center will hold their second Book Fair, so make sure you check that out. This also means that we will not have our regularly scheduled library day. With books being due on Wednesday, make sure you drop them off on the way to connections. If you are interested in renewing your books, let me know, so I can make arrangements to send you to the library to get it renewed before Wednesday.

Alright, that's it from me. Everyone have a good week.

Weekly Memo - Benchmark Time Again

It's that time once again for Benchmarks. These will be the final Benchmarks of the year and the last ones before the CRCT. Benchmarks are very important to teachers, because they allow us to see what students already know and what we still need to work on with them prior to the CRCT. Make sure you are sending them to school with the knowledge that these tests are very important for both themselves and their teachers. The schedule for Benchmarks will be the following:

Monday - Reading
Tuesday - Language Arts
Wednesday - Math
Thursday - Science
Friday - Social Studies

Due to the Benchmark testing, we will be on an altered schedule this week, although students will see all their classes each day, they might be shorter in length and in a different order than normal.

The Benchmark will count as a test grade for all of my classes.

Outside of the Benchmark testing, we will continue class as normal (just in smaller increments). In Literature, we will begin reading "The Smallest Dragonboy" by Anne McCaffrey, which will be our first reading in our  thematic unit "Not As It Seems." In Read 180, we will continue with our short story "Louisa, Please Come Home" by Shirley Jackson.

For homework, we will once again begin our CRCT Practice homework. The homework assignment will be up on Monday, before the end of the day. It will be due before the end of the week. Also, we have a new part of the homework, and that's using Study Island to help provide students with extra practice on skills that they could use work on leading into the CRCT. For students that have never used Study Island, the info is as follows:

Link: http://www.studyisland.com
Username: Your Student Number (same as your password to log in for most students)
Password: password

If this doesn't work, make sure you see me. While students can work on just about any Reading skills (or for that matter, any skills in any subject areas), I have a practice test for them that works on a few skills I wanted them to try-out.

Now let me talk about last week some. Last week is when students' major book report project was due, and I was very happy that the majority of students turned their projects in. I have been busily trying to grade all of them, so students should look at either Tuesday or Wednesday to get their grades back for their projects. While there were a lot of good grades for these projects, and truth be told, there were some of the best projects I've seen all year, there were also those that were not so good. The main reason why some students lost points was simply because they didn't read the directions on the project, and because of that, some students didn't turn in whole sections of their project. Please make sure you read all the directions when doing anything, to make sure you are doing everything that is necessary to complete your assignments.

This week students will receive Team Progress Reports, so be on the look-out for them on Wednesday. They will need to be signed and returned the next day.

As of Monday, we will be 26 days until the CRCT.

Bring it on!

Back to Work - Weekly Memo

I hope everyone had a good week off. I know I did, as I went on a cruise during our time away. However, that just means everyone should be well rested and relaxed, as we enter the final countdown until the CRCT. We are a little over 30 school days away from the CRCT, so it is crunch time for us here at Kennedy Road Middle School.

To symbolize the crunch, the room has been completely rearranged, so students were in for a surprise when they walked through the doors of Room 703 (sorry Read 180 students, that room looks pretty much the same). Although, all students will be rearranged into new seating assignments and groups, based on various criteria depending on the class.

Also a huge reminder: BOOK REPORT PROJECTS ARE DUE ON WEDNESDAY!!!!

The few students that needed to stay to record need to make arrangements with me, and with only two days to do it, they need to stay either today or tomorrow. This is stuff we have went over prior to the break. They will need to come after school ready to record, as I will now allow practice time to get ready, so they should be well practiced prior to staying after school.

Also, due to the project taking priority, students will not have a CRCT Practice homework assignment due this week. We will begin again with it next week.

In both classes this week, we will start by finishing the Common Assessment we started on the Friday before the break. Any student who didn't have the opportunity to finish, was allowed to finish today, and those that did finish, were allowed to go back over their answers. This Common Assessment will also count as a test grade.

Moving on to the rest of the week, in Literature class (1st & 6th Period), we will begin a Unit called "Not As It Seems," which will coincide with the novel students will be reading in their ELA class with Mrs. Worley. It will involved a group project and presentation that will be completed in class and presented at the end of the week. This will be worth 2 classwork grades and 1 project grade.

In Read 180 (2nd & 3rd Period), we will continue from where we left off with "Louisa, Please Come Home" by Shirley Jackson. Going over different aspects of the story, new vocabulary, and completing new activities with it.

In school news, the CRCT Prep After School Program begins this week on Tuesday and Wednesday, so students who are signed up need to start planning on staying those days.

Into the Break - Weekly Memo

This week is the last week before heading out on a week long break for the students. Despite the fact that we have a break coming up, there is still plenty of things to get done in class, so students will need to continue to come in ready to work hard, as we continue to prepare for the CRCT and beyond.

In 1st and 6th Period, we will finish reading "Immigrant Kids" by Russell Freedman on Tuesday, which will lead to a test over both the vocabulary and comprehension on Friday. This will be the students' first test of this semester, so it is very important that they study for this test to make sure they get the best grade possible.

In 2nd and 3rd Period, we continue with Workshop 3 - Identity Crisis, doing reading skill activities with Shirley Jackson's "Louisa, Please Come Home."

On Wednesday, all of my classes will take a trip to the Media Center in order to check out books. If students no longer need their Book Report Project books, I do not have a problem with them turning this in and checking out a new book, however, if they still need the book to work on their projects, they will need to renew it.

We also are just over two weeks away from when the project is due, so students should be working diligently on them. I have no problem with students turning projects in early, so if they get finished with it before the due date, they can go ahead and bring them in.

Speaking of working on projects, I will not assign a CRCT Practice homework assignment this week or the week we return from break, to allow students to devote their full attention to their projects, so if your child tells you that he / she doesn't have to do it this week, they are telling the truth.

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Weekly Memo: Superbowl Aftermath

Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens for winning the Superbowl yesterday. It was a great game and a lot of fun to watch, even with the 30 minute delay due to a power outage. My team didn't win, but that's mainly because the Falcons didn't make it to the Superbowl, but  at this point, I was interested in a good game, and that's exactly what I got.

Tomorrow, the Lady Cougars basketball team have their own championship to worry about as they face Carver for the championship at 5PM. Make sure you're there to support our Lady Cougars as they bring home the championship.

On Wednesday, we will participate in the state-wide tornado drill.

On Thursday, the school will issue progress reports for all classes, so be on the look-out for those. They all will need to be signed and returned the next day.

Both classes have their Book Report Project quickly approaching, and at this point, most students should be finishing their books and moving into working on their projects. It is due on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, the week we come back from Mid-Winter Break.

In 1st and 6th Period Literature, today we finished up our Student Reading Inventories to see where all the students' reading levels are. Tomorrow, we will begin work on our new short story, from Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman.

In 2nd and 3rd Period Read 180, today we began a brand new workshop, Workshop 3 - Identity Crisis. We watched the preview video of this workshop that helps answer the question "Who are you?" We will continue the prereading for the workshop before starting up our first story from the unit, "Louisa, Please Come Home" by Shirley Jackson.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Weekly Memo - Back to Normal

So after all the outside of class stuff from last week that was scheduled, this week, it looks like we are getting back to normal.

This week in my 1st and 6th Period Literature classes, we will finish out the story "I am a Native of North America" by Chief Dan George. It will culminate with the students having to compare and contrast Chief Dan George with Baseball Hall of Famer, Jackie Robinson, who our previous story was about. At the end of the week, we will begin our next story, a selection from Immigrant Kids.

In my 2nd and 3rd Period Read 180 classes, we will finish our section on When Nature Attacks, which will culminate with a test over the section. The test will be based on comprehension from the stories we've read and on the vocabulary we have been studying.

Both classes will be visiting the Media Center on Wednesday, where they will renew their project books, as well as either renew their second books or check out new ones.

Speaking of the project, there's a saying on a poster on my wall about how Due Dates Are Closer Than They Appear. Even though we are still a few weeks away from when the Book Report Project is due, it is never too early to start working on it. There is no penalty for turning it in early either, so if you get finished with it, go ahead and turn it in. Make sure you follow all the directions on the Project Direction Sheet you have been given. If you don't understand something, just ask.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great week!