Good Afternoon,

A couple brief reminders:

*Make sure you are checking your child's grades on Infinite Campus from time to time.  If you are not sure how to do that, ask your child.
*Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up in October.  Please let me know as soon as possible if you want a conference and if you need an interpreter at your conference. 
*Tonight is the Homecoming football game with extra ceremonies at game for the occasion. If your child has never seen this, it might be fun to attend.

*****8th grade only - Independent Reading Project in English 8 was due today.  If it was not turned in today, it must be turned in on Monday to avoid losing points.   Also, science project is due October 13 and students should be working on this daily.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Good Afternoon,

I hope you have had a good week!  I know many students are looking forward to attending Teen Night at the school tonight.

This week in my class we started working daily on a program called iLit.  We had a few technical difficulties today but it was a good first week.  I will be posting grades from the assessments given as part of this program beginning next week.  I'll tell you more then.

This week in my class we worked on a 5 sentence paragraph.  The paragraph should be 1 topic sentence, 3 detail sentences, and one conclusion sentence.  Some common mistakes were - forgetting to indent the first line of the paragraph, capitalization errors, and not sticking to the prompt.  We will continue to work on writing throughout the year.  The format for this paragraph is the format I will expect students to use.

We also started our weekly vocabulary words.  Students will get 8 new words next week.  A quiz over all 16 words will be next Friday. (matching) Practice is set up for students on Quizlet to use as they wish.

8th grade only - There is a science research project that students should be working on.  It is due October 13.  Students should spend some time each day working on this.

Please make sure you are checking your child's grades on Infinite Campus.  Some students are very behind in their work and need to improve their study efforts.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Monday Parents,

I am going to try something new.  I hope it will work.  I set up this blog because it is linked with Google Translate.  My hope was that I could share the same information with all parents, regardless of language.  I can see from the pages that I view that it is rarely being looked at.  Perhaps it is hard to remember to check it from time to time?

Therefore, I have set up an EL Parent email and used the emails from Infinite Campus.  I will include a link to the blog in the email.  That will hopefully be an easy way to check the blog and you can use the Google Translate feature as needed.

I wanted to make everyone aware that Parent-Teacher conferences are coming up in October.  The dates will be October 16 from 11AM - 7PM (no school for students that day) and October 19 from 4PM to 7PM and October 24 from 4PM to 7PM.  If you are interested in a Parent Teacher Conference, please let me know at your earliest convenience.  I need to know what date and time you prefer.  I also need to know if you would like an interpreter or not.

Have a wonderful week!

Happy Friday!

A couple reminders -
     students need proper supplies in class daily - this includes a pencil!!
     students should have some inexpensive earbuds with them for audio use of their chromebooks
     students should have paper with them to write on when needed

In my support class we will start doing weekly academic vocabulary lessons next week.  Each week students will have 8 new vocabulary words to learn.  I have set the words up on Quizlet for the students to practice.  Every 2 weeks we will have a quiz over the words (16 words on each quiz).

In my support class, most students are currently set up on a program called iLit.  This is to help students with reading and writing.  The plan is to use this for 20 minutes each day in class.

In my support class we do daily writing.  So far it has been a writing prompt on the board and students have just been asked to write for 5 minutes.  I have been using this to see what kinds of writing errors students are making to plan for future lessons.  Next week we will begin working on the proper way to write a 5 sentence paragraph.  After that lesson, all writing prompts will be expected to be answered using that format.

As always, please let me know if you have questions.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Monday!

This is the first full five day week in a while.  I told students this morning to stay focused and up to date on their work.  We are working to get everyone signed in to Infinite Campus so that students can always check their grades and be aware of their progress.

In my support English class (2nd period) we are staring a new program with most students.  This program is called iLit20.  It is a computer based program that we will use for just 20 minutes each day.  It is reading based and is supposed to raise reading levels by two grade levels over the course of the year.  I am anxious to try it and hope that it works as promised.  This is NOT something students should work on at home.  This is for in class use only.

Lots of students are getting colds and suffering from allergies.  On the school supply list I asked for each student to bring a box of tissues.  Only one student did.  When they are gone, there will not be any tissues in my classroom.  If you are able to send in a box of tissues, it would be greatly appreciated.

It is not too early to start thinking about Parent-Teacher conferences next month.  If you would like a conference with the team (Math, Science, Social Studies, English) please let me know as soon as possible.  Also let me know if you will need an interpreter.  I am happy to arrange for one if it will make communication easier.  You can email me at debra_skarsten@plsd.us

Have a wonderful week!