Good Morning Families,

I wanted to wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with your children this year.  This is a very American holiday and I hope that each of you find a way to make this weekend special with your family.

The 7th graders are having a fun reward day today with their team.  The 8th graders also have rewards planned, but only in the afternoon.  They will all enjoy a break from school when they get home today.

Some class reminders for my support class -

Students who are using iLit should be done with week 9 by today.  Anyone not done is already behind for this grading period.  Any assignments not turned in are marked as missing in Infinite Campus.  Week 10 is due by 12-1-17.

A few students have started assignments on NoRedInk, however, many have yet to start.  Those assignments are due by the end of the trimester, which seems far away now but with all the holiday breaks, will sneak up fast. I did just discover that the spreadsheet I was using for grades does not work the way I thought it did.  Unfortunately I will have to adjust some grades to correct them.  My sincere apologies for the confusion.  It is a learning process for me too!

Next week there will be a vocabulary quiz on 12-1 for lists 9 and 10.  Students can use quizlet as one way to practice.  The last quiz really brought the grades down for a few students who had not prepared well.

As always, please make sure your child has plenty of pencils, erasers and a working set of ear buds with them each day.  Some of my students are showing up to first period with no pencil on a daily basis.

Enjoy your long weekend.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions I can help with.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Afternoon,

Several news items to share -

• 7th grade students will be going to see the fall play at the high school on Thursday morning.  A $5 fee has been added to your school fees for this.  All  7th grade students will attend.  
• Today is the first day of a new grading period.  It is a fresh start in many ways.  Report cards will be issued later this week.  
• Thanksgiving break is next week.  No school on November 22, 23, 24.  
• Today I introduced a new plan to work on some grammar skills in class.  It is a program called NoRedInk.  I have set up pretests in many different grammar skills for students.  If a student scores 80% or above on the pretest, I will record the grade and they are finished with that skill.  If a student scores below 80%, they will have to do some practice skills and take a post test.  Explanations and mini-lessons are provided within the practice skills.  And, of course, I am here as an additional resource.  One problem I see with students is that they just click through things and do not stop to read the explanation.  This is not helping them understand and learn.  Students can choose what order to work on the skills.  For most students, they must complete 7 skills this trimester (and 7 in the last trimester).  Each skill will be recorded as a 20 point grade.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this.  
• We continue to work on iLit to help us with our reading/writing skills.  Some students are several weeks behind on this program.  Unfortunately, even though it is a new grading period, I cannot fast forward students to the current week.  They still have to complete the work for the previous weeks but now they no longer get credit for it because the grading period has ended.  Students were warned about this ahead of time.  
• Please try to have a time and place for your student to work on homework each night.  There is ALWAYS homework.  Even if there is nothing written that must be turned in, notes can be reviewed.  Reading is a skill that should be practiced daily and all students should be doing some reading in their free time each evening.  

Have a wonderful week. 

Good Afternoon,

Just a reminder that the first trimester ends on Friday, November 10.  Any missing work needs to be completed by that date to receive credit.  My grades are current as of noon today.  Also, we have a vocabulary quiz in my class on Friday.  Assignments in iLit should be completed through week 8 by Friday.