It's hard to believe, but we're about to kick off another school year. If I had your student last year, welcome back; if you are new to me, welcome to my classroom and I can't wait to meet you and your student!
This is something I do each weekend. I blog a little about what we did last week, and then I give fairly detailed information of what's coming up this week. It's not required reading, so it's just there if you want it. I email you all with the link to my webpage which has a calendar on it for the week and a link to this blog. As a parent, I know it's just nice to have the resource.
Just a little bit about myself:
- I'm entering my 26th year of teaching; this is my 21st at AHS.
- I grew up in the Lansing area and followed my husband to SE Michigan for work.
- I have two boys: a 16-year-old junior at Pioneer High School, and an 18-year-old freshman at MSU (it's so surreal that he's now living where I grew up).
- I got my undergrad degree in English and Education at WMU way back in 1994, and my MA in Literacy Education from MSU in 1999.
I'm not sure what else you would want to know, but that leads me to a really important message: please feel free to contact me with messages and questions any time! The fastest way for us to communicate is through email, but if you call the main office, you can feel free to leave a voicemail and I'll get back to you. If you ever contact and I don't respond, it's because I didn't get the message, so please try again. As a parent, I know that when you contact a teacher it's because it's important, so I definitely will respond.
On to the classroom. As a school we are really working on using rigor and high expectations to help your student to raise their grades and their test scores. Every day we will start our hour with bell work focusing on both the PSAT testing format and important content for the class such as standard English usage which is needed for both written and spoken communication in the classroom and on the job (all 9th and 10th graders will take the PSAT in April). Then we will move on to various ELA skills like reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and visually comprehending complex materials and work on those critical thinking skills for the rest of the hour. In the 9th grade we will push them to read difficult materials in class, while focusing on independent choice books on their own. Most of their homework is fulfilling independent reading requirements. In 10th grade, they will be required to do more of the difficult reading started in class, finishing it at home and working on assignments connected to those texts. Each week will include a small set of academic vocabulary which they will be quizzed over on Fridays.
This coming week, both groups will spend time doing activities that will help them get to know both the English content and also my procedures and how I do things. I'm really pushing to raise the level of skill in discussions so that their voices become more visible, enhancing their learning with academic "speak" with each other, so I'm going to begin training them for that. Here's the schedule for both:
English 9
- Tuesday, 9/3 - NO ADVISORY - class syllabus will be handed out for parent signatures (due back by Friday); bell work - prepositions; Words of the Week handed out - quiz Friday; station activity to get to know the class
- Wednesday, 9/4 - bell work - prepositions; investigate the teacher; create the class rules; go over independent reading requirements; create class discussion guidelines.
- Thursday, 9/5 - NO ADVISORY - bell work - prepositions; create class Google Slide presentation - Who Am I; review discussion guidelines and do small group discussions with the Globe Theatre
- Friday, 9/6 - bell work - prepositions; quiz for Words of the Week; table talk; meet the library, get a book, and silent reading time - reading logs handed out.
English 10
- Tuesday, 9/3 - NO ADVISORY - class syllabus will be handed out for parent signatures (due back by Friday); bell work - preposition review; Words of the Week handed out - quiz Friday; station activity to get to know the class
- Wednesday, 9/4 - bell work - preposition review; investigate the teacher; create class rules; start a KWL for George Orwell and Soviet History
- Thursday, 9/5 - NO ADVISORY - bell work - preposition review; create class Google Slide presentation - Who Am I; review discussion guidelines and do the L portion of the KWL; begin discussion over Power
- Friday, 9/6 - bell work - preposition review; quiz for Words of the Week; table talk; work on article for background information for Animal Farm
And that's how this generally works. Note on Advisory and Getting Help From Me: I have been placed on the 11th grade team and will not have any Academic Advisory time to work with your student. If your student is in my 2nd or 3rd Hour Co-taught class with Mr. Lawrence, he is available; otherwise, I will work with your student to find a time when we can get things done. Tuesdays with Teachers is still on after school, and I can usually be available before or after school most days. If your student has the same lunch as I do (B-lunch) I can make myself available then, too.
So, welcome! I look forward to meeting you and hearing from you. I hope you have a great Labor Day, and a fantastic week! Ciao!
