September/October 2020
Welcome to a new school year! I look forward to seeing students in person and I am also ready to go remote, should we need to. Resources and assignments will also be available to students when they are absent via Google Classroom.
5/6 Homeroom
When students arrive to school, they pass in homework and unpack for the day. They then either go to breakfast or stay in the classroom for a brainteaser puzzle. After breakfast, we do the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom. Following that, we do morning meeting. This is a chance to check in with one another, share stories, connect, and we frequently enjoy a fun game together. Cam Miller, an educator in residence from Camp Kieve, will be joining us again this year and will help with some of our morning meetings.
On Fridays and during other small windows of time, we do read aloud in the 5/6 classroom. Our 1st read aloud of the year is The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick. It takes place in a fictitious Maine coast village. The story follows a 10 year old boy on his determined quest to earn money to fix his dad's fishing boat. He uses life lessons taught to him by his mom to navigate life after she passes away. The story is funny, sad, and inspirational.
On Fridays and during other small windows of time, we do read aloud in the 5/6 classroom. Our 1st read aloud of the year is The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick. It takes place in a fictitious Maine coast village. The story follows a 10 year old boy on his determined quest to earn money to fix his dad's fishing boat. He uses life lessons taught to him by his mom to navigate life after she passes away. The story is funny, sad, and inspirational.
5/6 Morning Meeting
We continue to start each day with fifteen minutes of morning meeting from 8:15-8:30. During this time, the students and I check in with one another, share about ourselves, connect, center ourselves, play community building games and get ready for our day ahead. Many of our activities come from mindfulness trainings and from a book called Conscious Discipline by Becky Bailey. Cam Miller has also been leading morning meeting activities.
7th grade Fridays
To be determined
We will meet for 30 minutes before lunch and again the afternoon each Friday that the 8th graders are at the boat shop in Bath.
We will meet for 30 minutes before lunch and again the afternoon each Friday that the 8th graders are at the boat shop in Bath.
5/6 Math |
7/8 Math |
The 5th grade math group will be using aleks.com and MyMath 5th grade workbooks this year. They will meet in the classroom with myself or Mrs. Mitchell (we rotate) four days per week for 55 minutes. We aim to finish most of a lesson during class each day and homework is to finish up what didn't get done in class and 0-4 corrections for problems wrong on the previous lesson. We will start our year solidifying our proficiency with place value. Then we'll move on to multiplication and division of large whole numbers.
The 6th grade math group will be using aleks.com and Glencoe Course 1 workbooks this year. They will meet in Mrs. Wright's former (and future) classroom with myself or Mrs. Mitchell (we rotate) four days per week for 55 minutes. We aim to finish most of a lesson during class each day and homework is to finish up what didn't get done in class and 0-4 corrections for problems wrong on the previous lesson. We will start the year learning about ratios and rates. After that we will work with fractions, decimals, and percents. The 7th grade math group will be using aleks.com and Glencoe Course 2 workbooks this year. They will meet in the 5/6 classroom with myself or Mrs. Mitchell (we rotate) four days per week for 55 minutes. We aim to finish most of a lesson during class each day and homework is to finish up what didn't get done in class and 0-4 corrections for problems wrong on the previous lesson. We will start the year learning about ratios and proportions, then move on the percents. All three math groups do math games once every two to three weeks even, if we go remote. Students have 45 minutes of aleks.com to do each week. This 45 minutes needs to be completed between Monday at 8AM one week to 8AM on Monday morning the next week. The students get to choose which topics to try to master each week, which helps them review concepts and allows them to try math topics we'll cover in the future. I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in math and to keep track of assessment scores. My goal for each student is to score a 3 or better on each mathematics standard. This score indicates mastery of the standard. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work (engaged learner, responsible learner, and respectful learner). You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site. |
The 7th grade math group will be using aleks.com and Glencoe Course 2 workbooks this year. They will meet in the gym with myself or Mrs. Mitchell (we rotate) four days per week for 55 minutes. We aim to finish most of a lesson during class each day and homework is to finish up what didn't get done in class and 0-4 corrections for problems wrong on the previous lesson. We will start the year learning about ratios and proportions, then move on the percents.
The 8th grade math group will be using aleks.com and Glencoe Course 2 workbooks this year. They will meet in the gym with myself or Mrs. Mitchell (we rotate) four days per week for 55 minutes. We aim to finish most of a lesson during class each day and homework is to finish up what didn't get done in class and 0-4 corrections for problems wrong on the previous lesson. We'll start the year working with real numbers (integers, fractions, and decimals). Then we'll be writing and solving equations with one variable. Each week, the 7/8 students have work to complete on aleks.com. Those who have mastered fewer than 50% of the topics are required to master a minimum of 8 topics/week. Because the material gets harder as you increase the percent of topics mastered, those students who have mastered 50% or more of the topics are required to master 5 topics per week. The students get to choose which topics to try to master each week, which helps them review concepts and allows them to try math topics we'll cover in the future. Both math groups do math games once every two to three weeks even ,if we go remote. I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in math and to keep track of assessment scores. My goal for each student is to score a 3 or better on each mathematics standard. This score indicates mastery of the standard. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work (engaged learner, responsible learner, and respectful learner). You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and to navigate around the site. |
5/6 Science |
7/8 Science |
We will start the school year learning about space. We will keep a moon journal for a month, tracking the progress of the moon and making observations. Each student will be researching a planet in our solar system and writing a research paper and making a poster about it. We'll also be learning about seasons, gravity, stars, and constellations. We will do some sort of presentation of our constellations to parents. This is usually in person up at the golf course, but will likely have to be modified this year.
I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work and attendance is taken for each Zoom class. You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site. |
The 7/8 students will begin the year learning about the scientific method, what makes a good experiment, and what good science looks like. The unit will culminate in students doing their own experiments of their choice and writing a lab report of their findings. The next unit will be all about space- planets, seasons, tides, the moon, stars, galaxies, and scale in the universe.
I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work and attendance is taken for each Zoom class. You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site. |