Weekly Update 3/31-4/4

IMPORTANT REMINDERS/EVENTS:

The end of the grading period is April 11; please encourage your children to pay close attention to individual teacher deadlines.

8th Grade End-of-Year activities are approaching in the coming months, most notably our 8th Grade trip to Schlitterbahn-Galveston and our 8th grade Promotion Ceremony. Information packets were sent home this week. Please read over the material and be aware of money/form deadlines to ensure your child can attend/participate in everything we have planned. It is a memorable time for our students.

Friday, May 23—Schlitterbahn and Activity Fest
Wednesday, May 28—Academic Celebration
Thursday, May 29—Promotion Ceremony at Butler Field House

Chaperones for the Schlitterbahn trip and volunteers to help set up/decorate/chaperone other events are needed. If you are an HISD approved volunteer and are interested in chaperoning, please let any of us know and we will pass on your offer to the appropriate people. If you are not an HISD approved volunteer but want to become one, please email Ms. Deitra Kendrick a dkendric@houstonisd.org or call her at 713-295-6500 x 326 for detail.

English:

Students received their TAKS and Stanford testing scores Friday, March 28. Pin Oak set new records this year with 8th Grade Reading, and I am so very proud. School-wide, our 8th grade class had a 98% passing rate and 71% commended. WOW!

We have been presenting Independent Book Projects for Biographies/Memoirs, so we will finish that up this week. Book checks for our next unit (Free Choice) are Monday/Tuesday, March 31-April 1. Students must have their book in class and a parent approval form filled out and signed by you. These forms were sent home Thursday/Friday, March 27-28. We will also be working on “Laying the Foundations” activities. The Laying the Foundations assessment is in May; exact date, TBA. Soon, we will begin reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros in class. No purchase of the book will be necessary.

EXTRA CREDIT—I have an extra credit assignment that has been posted in my room. If your child would like to take advantage of it, please note the deadline of April 4. In addition to this opportunity, I will be giving some extra credit points for any student who decides to participate in our 8th Grade Class Project, “The Kindness Quilt.” A handout was sent home before Spring Break. Money and fabric for this activity were due Friday, March 28, no exceptions. The personal narrative that accompanies this optional activity is mandatory and is worth a grade. The due date for the 1-page (1 page only), typed paper is Monday/Tuesday, April 7-8. That Tuesday is the TAKS Math Test, so students can drop by any time to turn in their paper after testing, even if they do not have my class that day. It will be the final assignment graded for the Cycle 5 grading period.

Important Dates for Independent Reading Unit 4: FREE CHOICE
Book Checks-M/T 3/31-4/1 (Parent Approval forms due)
Literature Circle # 1 (over the first half of the book)-Friday, April 18
Literature Circle #2 (over the second half of the book)-Friday, May 9
Projects Due MAY 12-13

Important Note to Students and Parents:
For this last independent reading unit, I had some students who did not have their projects on time because of an incorrectly published date on the blog (one of the days was a Saturday, which is obviously wrong). While I apologize for the incorrect date on the blog, students were given the correct date in class from day 1—verbally, on a hand out, on the board, and were reminded of the due date several times the week before Spring Break. I always encourage students to not only keep the hand outs I give them that contain due dates, but to also record due dates in their planners. Students should always, always refer to what they are told IN CLASS by me when it comes to assignments and due dates. Because of the error on the blog, I will accept the projects late without penalty by ONE day, but in the future, please advise your children to pay attention in class and write things down.

History:
A number of the students did not submit their Reform Charts from Chapter 14. This is a major grade. Any other past-due work must be in by Monday/Tuesday of next week. All students previously received a grade report with their missing work. I have posted on the board all the assignments for this six weeks grading period.

There will be a test over Chapters 12, 13, 14 on Wednesday/Thursday next week. Also, a map on the Civil War is due on those same days.

It is a critical time for your students; they have a lot of activities with the end of school approaching. Sometimes, however, the students forget that school work needs to come first. Transfers to magnet programs can be revoked if the students do not finish the year with satisfactory grades and conduct and placement in advanced classes can be jeopardized. Please help to keep your student focused.


Science:
All classes:

We will be starting a new unit covering Waves, Sound, and the Electromagnetic spectrum.
This next week we will be focusing on The Nature of Waves. The students will be conducting a large number of very simple labs and demonstrations to firm up conceptual ideas and correct any misconceptions, and then through calculations and a mastery check using reflection cards we will complete the unit.

TLW:
1.recognize that waves carry energy.
2. Compare and contrast transverse and compressional waves
3. Explain the relationships between frequency, wavelength
4. Calculate various data relating to waves including speed, wavelength, and frequency
5. Explain how waves can combine in constructive or destructive interference

Starting In April we will be starting preparations for the end of course exams, including the IPC Final, the Laying the Foundations Pre-AP exam and the TAKS.

Our children have been given study guides that cover every thing they should have learned since 6th grade. This guide is very comprehensive and I have put a great deal of effort to assure that what is in the packet meets all of the state and national standards our kids will be tested over.

I have built into my curriculum opportunities for us to work with these guides during the course of the next month, and my goal is to have our kids process the material in the packet at least 7 times. One opportunity is to simply go over the packet, and then another is to have the students create a lesson plan to teach the class, so on like that.

What I will be asking from you is to let your child teach you two lessons a week; these will be 5 minute explanations of the lesson covered in class.
I will also ask you to sign a log verifying that your child taught you the weekly lesson and I will take this for a weekly grade.

This teaching opportunity is only one of the seven planned interventions but I know from past experience it can be very rewarding for both the student and parent, so for the rest of the year when you ask what did you learn today I hope you wont hear ..nothin
I am also here every Tuesday after school for tutorials so if your child is struggling through a lesson please be sure to have them stay for help. I can also stay other days if given advance notice

Math:
All Classes:We are preparing for TAKS. Students are working in and out of class to get ready for TAKS. Students who failed last year’s math TAKS have received letters detailing problem areas, along with packets to assist in helping them prepare for the TAKS test. All students are working on packets for TAKS. Please ask your student how they are preparing in class. Please email Ms. Qureshi for math information

Foreign Language Department BLOG: See link below

http://pomsfl.wordpress.com/