Note to Parents
Parents,
Rather than writing up a daily summary, as classes have strayed from the Do Now questions, I am instead going to give you a weekly summary and look ahead.
Last week we finished up our study of Earthquakes. We finished by taking a quiz that was mainly on the work that we performed on Monday and Wednesday about triangulating earthquake epicenters. Most of the students passed this quiz and I had a large number of A’s on the quiz. The class average was a 95.2%.
The students expressed frustration with having to do the math to triangulate the earthquake epicenter. This appeared to be more of a complaint about having to do something, than an ability issue as they were all able to locate the earthquake epicenter with their activity on Monday. That said, a few of the students continue to not complete all of the questions necessary in an activity and then express surprise when they get a grade that reflects the small amount of work they have put in to completing their work. If you are concerned for your child’s grade, I ask that before contacting me to see how they can better understand the material, you first look at copies of the work and see if there aren’t large green pleas for an answer to be placed inside of the large empty space where one is to go. To any student who may be reading this: You know who I’m talking about.
On Wednesday we finished up our Earthquake notes and prepared for our quiz and activity on Friday.
On Friday we took an Earthquake quiz, heavy on the material from early in the week (which included math), and then worked on an activity involving the comparison between MMI and the Richter Scale. This activity included an Extension Option which could count as an additional lab grade. This extension is due on Friday, September 29th.
Today we started on Volcanoes. Rather than posting the power point to my website as I have done in the past, I am instead starting to teach them to take notes from the power point. In this case, I wrote up a list of 34 questions that the notes would help them answer and asked them to write the answer to the notes as we went through the class. As can be seen, the questions are posted on my website.
To look ahead this week, there will be additional notes on Wednesday and then a “Cake Batter Lava” lab on Friday. On Monday we will review for our unit test and then on Wednesday, the students will be taking their test.
For those students who submitted their “Pass the Test” assignment, those have not been graded yet. The labs are being graded at six-lab notebooks per day. I have all of the lab notebooks that were turned in on time. If your student tries to turn theirs in late and just “slip it in to the pile” as one student has already discovered, it will not be graded and I will be able to tell that they had turned it in late.
We are really picking up steam with the pace that things are going and I’m aware that students are struggling to keep up. With that in mind, I’ve instituted a science peer-tutoring program that will allow the students who need extra help in Earth Science to meet with their peers who are doing well, during their two hour block of Academic Lab. If students have taken advantage of the peer tutoring and still need some extra assistance, then I’ve asked that their parents (because after all, it is you who will be in charge of their transportation) contact me. I am available after school on a very limited basis due to the other obligations of teaching such as faculty meetings, additional training, etc.
I hope that you all like the new format. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email, or to drop a comment on to the commenting system, if you think that your question is one that everyone could benefit from.
-Ms. L-
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