Weekly Update 4/28-5/4

IMPORTANT REMINDERS/EVENTS:

Report Cards went home on April 23rd.

Next week is a testing week. Monday is a Charger Day, Tuesday-Friday will be testing schedules in the morning, and then shortened classes the rest of each day. Please encourage your child to get some rest, eat a good breakfast, and bring pencils/books.

8th Grade Eng-of-Year Activities:
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:

We are reading The House on Mango Street in class. The novel is a great backdrop to teaching many “Laying the Foundation” concepts, which students will be tested on in May. We will also begin a short poetry unit to be done in conjunction with The House on Mango Street. We will look at lyrical poetry, which I feel the students will particularly enjoy.

With the testing on campus next week, our schedule will be a compressed one. Please encourage your child to bring their independent reading book with them every day to read after testing. Books should be completed and literature circle questions should be answered by Friday, May 9th (see below). Using any free time after testing will allow extra reading opportunities to catch up or get ahead on their reading schedule. Some students have still not returned a parent approval form for their book. Until I receive it, no full credit will be given for any book-related assignments, so please speak to your child about their status.

Important Dates for Independent Reading Unit 4: FREE CHOICE
Literature Circle #2 (over the second half of the book)-Friday, May 9
Projects Due MAY 12-13

History:
All the students now have packets for review for TAKS. Some have been attending the after-school reviews which also will help them.

The packets are a series of questions for each objective covered on the TAKS. The District Social Studies Department provided this information to us to help the students in the review. Parents can help by going over this material with the students. Our TAKS is on Friday, May 2. The students’ grades on this test will be a part of their final averages for this six weeks grading period.

This test is important for class placement next year in high school. Also, some magnet programs may revoke transfers for students who do not pass all the TAKS. In addition, this course is a major part of the 10th grade TAKS and the exit exam from high school. The students should keep all the review material for use for those tests.

We basically are through with the Civil War and Reconstruction this week. Those who need to complete work on maps and other materials still need to complete them.

The Landforms project is due May 13/14. Please encourage your student to keep working on it.
We wish great success to Darius Altman, Drew McMillian, and Scott Shelton who will be participating in the State History Fair May 3. This is a great honor for our school to have so many entries and we appreciate greatly the work these young men have done.

Science:
All Classes:
Well, this is where the rubber meets the road, push comes to shove, crunch time, and the going gets tough and the tough get going ……
Your child should have finished teaching you all of the nine lessons last week; I am asking you to sign the log verifying that your child taught you the weekly lesson and I will take this for a weekly grades.

DUE DATES FOR WORK
This week your child has final grades relating to;
1. The homework packet all five objectives done.
2. Parent signing log for all nine lessons taught.
3. Study guide (highlighted and summarized).
4. 30 index cards summarizing homework packet.

Have you signed the log stating that you have been taught the lessons? This is a major grade for your kids. I have also given the students a home work packet that is separated by objectives. I am also here every day after school except Friday for tutorials, I have not had a very good response and would hope the kids I have asked to come will be here Monday 28th – Wednesday 30th so if your child is struggling through a lesson please have them stay for help.

Thanks so much for all you support this year, let’s all pull together and make for one last real effort to push our kids to the greatest heights. Jamie Scott

Math:
Please contact Ms. Qureshi for information about Math.


Foreign Language Department BLOG: See link below

http://pomsfl.wordpress.com