{E2020} Weekly Update

Some thoughts specifically targeted to the group of students assigned to work 6th hour on their online classes:

1)  Your course progress is calculated with the assumption that you will be working over the holiday break next week.  That means that if you are caught up now, and you do not log in during the vacation, you ~will~ be behind.

2)  From here on out I will be recording your "Actual Grade" in the class every week in Skyward.  For those not familar, here is how it is computed:

First they compare where your student is in the course and where they "should be".  Every assignment that they are behind is assigned a grade of a zero.  If a student is caught up or ahead, then there are no zeroes to record.  The grade is then calculated based on the average of all grades.

So, if they are behind a few assignments their "Overall Grade" may be a B but because of those zeroes it shows as a C.  Likewise if they are ahead, then their Overal and Actual grades will be the same.  If you are unsure you can ask your student to log in for you and you can see their progress in the class for yourself, along with grades.

Also as a reminder, notebooks are required for me to approve them for tests, and there are ~no~ retakes of quizzes unless I have evidence that the system glitched while they were testing.

{E2020} Notebooks are notably not optional

We're in!

As a pleasant and gentle reminder, notebooks physical "I wrote my notes in this" notebooks are ~not~ optional and are required for all students to have.  Before they take an exam they need to show me that they have been taking notes in them.  For now students may print out what they have.

Back in the game... finally... sorta

My humblest apologies to everyone for the late start to my blog and the school year.  I will save you all the gory details and simply state that Sunday night, at roughly 1:34 am, I was struck down with the flu.  I was well enough to return to my post Wednesday.

As such things are off to a bit of a rocky start.

E2020 -

This is my rockiest start as the class is still sorting out technical issues and accessability.  We hope to have everything sorted out by Friday this week.  Monday I will start recording grades for this group and talk to the students about reasonable pacing, expectations, homework checks and journaling.


Essentials of Geometry -

We have two fun projects coming up in addition to our core class practice.

In "Show Me the Figure" students are making a mini poster featuring the properties and picture of a given shape.  Each group has a different figure so the class will have all 4 parallelograms covered.

Then the groups change for the second project "Geometry House Rock (chapter 6)" where the students are to write lyrics set to a popular song of their choice that describe the relationship between the various quadrilaterals.   For more details on both projects check the attached PDF's in Skyward.

Also due:

Friday:  October Sky Reaction Paper.   Students were tasked to compare contrast their High School experience with that of the characters in the movie.  This is intended to be one part self reflection and one part "get to know you" activity.  I am hoping to use these reactions to help me get to know the students a little more and try to tailor what we do in class to what they percieve as their needs and plans.

Monday:  Our weekly Quiz!!!

And finally Geometery:

First I'd like to remind everyone enrolled in 7th Hour that they have made a commitment to a class that runs from 2:30 until 4:15 three days a week.  Early dismissal for practice, concerts, performances and the like ~must~ be parent intitiated through the attendance office. 

In this class we are continuing our explorations of quadrilaterals and parallelograms.  If you want to engage your student ask them brain teasers like "Are all squares rhombuses?  Are all rhombuses squares?"

We are also starting in on Coordinate Geometry which uses the distance formula, the slope formula and the midpoint formula.  We're also tying back to things like Parallel and Perpendicular from previous chapters.  It's a lot of back review that the students need to stay fresh on.

Our next Quiz will be on Monday (2/1), and the BA is scheudled for the following Monday (2/8).  In 7th Hour they will be on Tues (2/2) and Tues (2/9), respectively.

Overall I'm excited to be back and reminded again what great kids I have this year and what an honor it is to work with them.