Welcome to the 2014/2015 School Year!

The summer was short, but my family and I played hard and rested well, and we're ready for a new school year.  My children are now officially out of elementary school and headed for 6th and 8th grade, and it feels like life just keeps marching forward faster and faster.  One of my goals is to make sure that every moment counts, so we spent our summer cleaning out the house and holding garage sales (which I've decided I'm very bad at doing), participating in summer band and playing the national anthem at a Tigers game, participating in 4-H by training and showing llamas (where both of my boys took first in their division, and my older child to Grand Reserve Champion), swimming, playing soccer, having friends over, and generally living it up.  We've made some great memories and now we're ready to head back to school!

For anyone who was with me last year, you're already familiar with this page.  For those who are new to me within the last couple of years, this blog is a place where I talk about what we've done in the past week and give you insight into what's coming up.  It's also a place where I post pictures and videos of my students (and sometimes my children) so that you can share in what we're doing.  As a parent, I know that sometimes we feel completely disconnected from what our children do all day, so I hope that this will help you to feel a little bit more like you are part of things.

So let's get to it...

For English 9, I only have one hour a day this year, but we will be very busy.  Starting this week we will be getting acclimated to each other.  I have a Parent Letter and Syllabus that will come home on day one to be signed and returned; we will spend some time in the media center registering for necessary technology and getting introduced to how to use it; we will be getting to know each other by conducting interviews, and then they will be assigned their first piece of writing, Collins-style, of course.  We'll start the grammar unit on Prepositions, and if I have time, we'll head into some background information on William Shakespeare, since Romeo and Juliet will be our first big unit.

For English 11 this is a big year:  ACT/MME year!  Therefore, we'll begin reviewing grammar terms and uses right away this week.  The ACT has a very large section on English language structures, so knowing the rules can go a long way in their ability to master this section, plus it helps them to read and write more effectively.  We will also be doing some of what the English 9 course is doing in getting acclimated to one another through interviews and writing, plus getting acclimated to technology by signing on and using new programs.  I've also started the process of flipping my classroom, so by Wednesday, they'll have an assignment to complete by watching a video I created and doing a worksheet to go with it; they will have a week to complete it.  The video gives them background information for our first unit:  Beowulf.

I'm so honored to have the chance to work with all of my students, so if you're a parent, thank you for allowing me to work with your child.  If you're a student, thank you for coming into my classroom with an open mind and allowing me to share in a small part of your day.  It's going to be a great year!


Welcome to the 2014/2015 School Year! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.