Week 3 addendum

Since many parents are contacting me about their child's grades, I have to assume that Pinnacle is live, at least for some parents.  As you will see when you log in, I've already put 8 grades in (5 that are weighted), and I'm working on getting the Letters graded (a blank score means "I haven't graded yours yet, and I'm working as fast as I can."  I will say, writing takes me longer than say, just running a scantron through a machine, and I want to be able to really concentrate on your child's writing.

Several parents have contacted me about vocabulary books--instructions on how to handle your student missing the deadline are on the Resource page.

Open House is Thursday Night!  6:30-8!  I would love to meet you in person, so much that I'll give your child a reward ticket if they bring you to Open House. 

Several parents have asked about donations for the classroom.  I would love to keep a running supply of pens, pencils, and paper for students to use, and I supply what I can, but everything helps.  More imperitively, donations of facial tissue and hand sanitizer are gratefully welcomed.  Many students are already showing up to school sick and anything we can do to minimize the spread of germs is greeted with much appreciation and thanks. 

I have finished grading the Summer Writing Quizzes and some parents are probably shocked by the drastic change in their child's grades.  This is understandable.  Some students performed brilliantly, some did not.  Some blatently stated they didn't read the book.  Just so you know, yes, it greatly effects their grade now, since there are so few grades in the grade book, and it is in the Summative category, meaning it's weighted heavier than the smaller, along the way, Formative categories.  The students will have many opportunities to bring up their grades.  Please just keep checking back here, check the calendar, check the Resource page, to make sure they are keeping up with all of their responsibilities. 

You may have noticed, I'm not a big fan of a ton of homework, but they are expected to go over, recap, study every night, for at least 5 minutes as a minimum.  A great strategy that improves comprehension and test scores is having your student either teach you what we did in class, or teach a sibling, or teach the family dog if that's what's available.  Going over it aloud, teaching it to someone else, improves longterm retention and increases comprehention.   

Have a great rest of the week and I hope to see you tomorrow night!